Professor Amanda Starc, Assistant Professor of Healthcare Management
About the Professor
Professor Amanda Starc is an assistant professor at the Wharton School's Healthcare Management Department. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. Professor Starc has published various articles in health economics journals, including the American Economic Review. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University with honors, and pursued her graduate degree at Harvard University. Professor Starc's specific research field and teaching interests include Industrial Organization and Health Economics. She is currently teaching a course called, "The Economics and Financing of Health Care Deliveries."
Personal Writing Style
Most of the work that Professor Starc writes includes scholarly articles on health economics involving narrowly defined research, as well as primary data analysis discussed in studies and published in economics journals. She finds drafting to be key to the writing process, with each draft being reviewed by a group of peers who are looking to find weaknesses in analysis and interpretation of the data. For Professor Starc, invention and originality are key components in a written work, so it is important for her that her personal writing shows a new interpretation of the primary data and analyzes other key sources in a new light.
Important Criteria for Student Writing
Most importantly, Professor Starc suggests to students who are writing about healthcare management that they should "try and avoid making sweeping conclusions when given a set of evidence. Being able to organize and master others' ideas is so important, and showing the logical explanation behind an argument is central to any writing in this field." Things to remember: have original ideas; demonstrate the ability to master other's ideas; synthesize everything you read; use ample reasoning and evidence.
Personal Thoughts on Writing
"In terms of doing the analysis and the mechanics of the writing, by utilizing different skill sets of different people, you can get the most out of a piece of writing. While it depends on what a writer is trying to accomplish, there are huge advantages in talking to someone else about your argument. In healthcare management, collaboration can be so influential in writing, and so beneficial in developing a really strong argument that sticks with both healthcare peers and regular readers."
Additional Resources
Helpful Links
Wharton Healthcare Management DepartmentSage Journal of Health Management
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