The Economists' Voice

This guide is divided into requirements for letters and columns as well as Writing Instructions and Formatting Instructions which apply to both letters and columns. Please print and review the samples suggested below before submitting.

Letters

• Letters must be under 300 words.
• Please submit a Microsoft Word or RTF file.
• Please see the letter by Scott Sumner.
• The title should be of the form “Comment on [Full Name of Author of Original Article]: Title.” For example: “Comment on Robert Barro: Multipliers May Be Larger than You Think”
• The first line of the letter should be “Dear Editors,”
• On the following line, begin your letter with a sentence referring to the letter or column upon which you are commenting.
• End your letter with your full name, title and institution if applicable, city and state if applicable, and country. For example: Aaron Edlin, Professor of Economics and Law, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
• After the text include a “References and further reading” section including the column or letter on which you are commenting and other material that you think relevant.
• Acknowledgments may be added as a separate section thereafter if appropriate.
• Avoid footnotes.

Columns

• Columns must be 600-2000 words.
• Please see “Show me the Money” by Aaron S. Edlin and Dwight Jaffee for an example of The Economists' Voice Style.
• Please submit a Microsoft Word or RTF file.
• Begin with a title in title capitalization.
• Put the names and affiliations of the authors on the next line.
• On the following line provide a short bio of the author(s) in the form “Short Bio: John Doe is a professor of economics at Harvard. He is also…”. Limit yourself to one or two sentences. See published examples.
• Next comes the text of the column.
• Divide the text at appropriate points with headers in bold type with only the first word capitalized. Example: “Fixing social security”
• After the text, include a “References and further reading” section for those who wish to read more on the subject.
• An “Acknowledgments” section is optional.
• Avoid explanatory footnotes or qualifying footnotes.
• All factual assertions should have footnotes to credible sources.

Formatting Instructions

• If using Microsoft word, all paragraphs should be in “normal” style. If you don’t know what that means, just type with no formatting.
• When citing an article in the text, instead of the academic style “according to Tirole (2003),” use an op-ed style and write “according to a recent article by Jean Tirole in the Journal of Political Economy” and put the full citation in the references section. No footnote is necessary unless you are citing two articles by Jean Tirole in the Journal of Political Economy.
• In the References and further reading section, journal references must be formatted in the following way: Last Name, First Name (Year) “Title,” Journal Title, Date or Month, Page Number-Page Number. See published examples. Other citations should correspond. No italics, bold or other formatting in this section.
• If citing a URL, please check that it is current and correctly typed.
• Do not use a space between paragraphs.
• Do not include page numbers, headers or footers (we add these).
• Write “percent” in place of “%”.
• Write out integers between one and ten: hence, “eight” not “8”.
• Use em dashes instead of two hyphens. See ‘Symbol’ under the ‘Insert’ menu in Microsoft Word. Next select the ‘Special Characters’ tab and choose ‘Em Dash’. To help distinguish em dashes please put one space before and one space after each em dash.

Writing Instructions

• Use simple language; avoid jargon.
• Make the piece understandable to those without an economics degree. Aim for the accessibility of a sophisticated Op-Ed article, without compromising the soundness of your argument.
• Write something of interest to a professional economist, a non-economist, and a policy junkie — yes, all at once.
• Write with short, pointed paragraphs of 2-4 sentences per paragraph.
• Write punchy prose. Use the active voice, not the passive voice. Cut “roadmap” sentences or phrases, like “I will argue”. The piece is short. Go ahead and just argue it.
• Avoid adjectives or adverbs when possible.
• State a thesis early.
• Include supporting facts and statistics. Organizing an argument around one or two surprising facts is often a good approach.
• Intersperse a short sentence between one or more long ones.
• Allow yourself time to edit your piece before sending it to us. Give it to a graduate student who writes well to edit, if possible.
• Avoid contractions. Use “is not” in place of “isn't.”
• Avoid footnotes.
• Please add brief parenthetical information at the end of certain references:
  
• Since we avoid footnotes except for specific factual support, in the reference section, we encourage you to add a parenthetical explaining what a reader will find in certain articles, where helpful. For example: Kotlikoff, Laurence J. (2006) “Averting America’s Bankruptcy with a New New Deal,” The Economists' Voice: Vol.3: Iss.2, Article 5. Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ev/vol3/iss2/art5. (Asserting on page 1 that the fiscal gap between the present discounted value of U.S. expenditures and receipts is $63.3 trillion.)