The importance of quality academic writing is emphasized across scientific disciplines, including economics. Clear and effective communication of ideas not only facilitates understanding but also shows respect for readers. The field of economics has also been pushing for better writing since the 1980s, led by scholars like Deirdre McCloskey. Her book, “Economical Writing,” is now a standard part of economics PhD programs.
Despite the emphasis on writing quality, there is a lack of evidence on whether better writing yields professional rewards, such as positive evaluations from peers, journal editors, and conference committees. In this study published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Jan Feld and colleagues compared quality judgments of original and edited versions of academic papers, finding that writing indeed matters.
This research was conducted in two stages. In the first, 30 economics papers were collected from 22 PhD students at New Zealand universities. By the time of submission, students had been working on their papers for approximately eight months. Each paper was edited by two professional language editors, with one editor focusing on improving the structure of the paper and the other polishing the writing at the sentence and word level.
On average, the editors spent six hours per paper. In the second stage, 18 writing experts and 30 academic economists, recruited via social media posts and maillists, evaluated either the original or edited version of each paper, responding to questions pertaining to the writing quality and potential of the paper (e.g., academic publication, conference presentation).
Writing experts rated the edited papers higher in terms of overall writing quality, ease of finding key messages, fewer mistakes, readability, and conciseness. Economists also rated the edited papers more favorably, reporting a greater likelihood of accepting these papers for conferences and believing in their potential for publication in reputable journals.
The results further revealed that the positive effect of editing was more pronounced for papers that were initially poorly written, suggesting that editing can be especially beneficial for enhancing the quality of poorly written papers. Economists found edited versions of poorly written papers to be substantially better in overall quality, conference acceptance likelihood, and writing quality.
These findings have important implications for academic publishing, suggesting that investing time and resources in improving writing can significantly enhance the perception and reception of academic papers. The researchers concluded that effective writing is an essential skill for successful academic communication and dissemination of ideas.
The study, “Writing matters”, was authored by Jan Feld, Corinna Lines, and Libby Ross.