Economical Writing, Second Edition,   ISBN:9781577660637

Customer Rating: 

I am a large consumer of research papers in a variety of fields. This short book is beautifully and wittily written and applicable to scholars and young students alike, and is quickly read and internalized.

As I read the book, and chuckled from time to time, I wished McCloskey would also write a book suggesting simplifications to the byzantine delivery system that has evolved for scholarly work. Only a monopolized education system could remain mired in the paper based, technology averse, high cost, inaccessible channels that endure today.

McCloskey challenges scholarly writers to stop writing like reclusive monks. They should stop storing their work like them too.

Customer Rating: 

The author follows her own advice in writing an economical (short) book. It is, as she says, speed directed at the point, and the point is to give writers of economics tips to improve their writing. Her ideas, such as answering 'so what' in every sentence of your research paper, or avoiding 'elegant variation', will help those who are so used to writing in high styles that they (we) obscure the message. The audience for the book appears to be reasonably experienced writers who deal in complexity, and who need a refresher on how to make their writing more understandable and interesting. This is well worth the few dollars, and if any writer puts her rules into practice, their writing will be more interesting and, therfore, more widely read.

Customer Rating: 

This is one of the most useful, short books that any economist - budding or established - can read. I give it to each of my graduate student advisees to read. While one can quibble about some of the suggestions, and there can be different styles for different purposes, if every economist read and followed even three quarters of the suggestions then economic writing would be so much more interesting and informative.

Customer Rating: 

Academic writing is bad and getting worse. Well-written research is so rare that it stands out. If you want people to read your work, improve your writing. McCloskey explains how. The book has the highest useful information-to-page ratio I've seen.

Customer Rating: 

This book is not that useful. The English tips and hints are not clear or specific. Rather, the author makes general comments; too general to be useful in practice. Moreover, there is nothing to do with Economics. The Economics the author (rarely) mentions is the Economics people used to study decades ago. There are quite a few better books around. Don't buy this one.