Professor Judd Kessler on Writing in BEPP
About the Professor
Professor Kessler uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments to investigate the economic and psychological forces that motivate individuals to contribute to public goods. He is particularly interested in how social forces and social norms influence public good provision across a variety of settings. His current research includes applications to organ donation and charitable giving (from http://bpub.wharton.upenn.edu/people/faculty.cfm?id=1671).Important Critiria for Student Writing
Professor Kessler uses his Chicago style manual and Strunk & White style guide for reference, and recommends the latter to students seeking a helpful handbook containing basic rules of writing. According to Professor Kessler, "People aren’t as strict about style in Economics writing - it’s mostly preference - but I do get upset when people make basic grammatical mistakes."
Rankings
The following lists the substantive elements every student should account for when writing a BEPP paper, with 1 being the most important and 5 being the least important:
1. grammar & mechanics
2. style
3. following the discipline's citation practices
4. following the assignment instructions
5. proper formatting
The following lists the evaluative elements every student should account for when writing a BEPP paper, with 1 being the most important and 4 being the least important.
1. having original ideas
2. demonstrating mastery of other's ideas
3. reasoning and evidence
4. organization
*According to Professor Kessler, his top three criteria (in order of importance) are having original ideas, demonstrating mastery of other’s ideas, and reasoning and evidence.
Personal Writing Process
Professor Kessler will usually create a first draft, and then spend a significant amount of time improving and revising it. In particular, he focuses on diction issues and the structure of the paper. Professor Kessler says that he's "gotten more efficient over time using early stage outlining, so I know in advance what I will be saying, but even these outlines go through editing."
Favorite Author(s)
Hal Varian - "He has these clever, conversational pieces that help young economists do economics. He has this ability to present results in a fun way. It is very unique to the topics he is choosing," says Professor Kessler.
Genres of Writing
As a BEPP professor, Professor Kessler is mainly involved in academic writing (i.e. 30-40 page journal articles). According to Professor Kessler, "A lot of writing is in shorter form, from one page or two page proposals to working with organizations and experimenting with them, analyzing their data. I also write grant and funding applications that ask you why you need funding to do something."
Examples of Professional Writing
http://bpub.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/KesslerLeider_NormsContracting.pdf http://bpub.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/KesslerRoth_OrganAllocationAndDonation.pdf© 2013 The University of Pennsylvania
