Academic Paper Writer Purpose This skill helps economists draft, structure, and polish academic papers with proper conventions for economics journals. It provides templates for different paper types and guidance on academic writing style. When to Use Starting a new research paper from scratch Restructuring an existing draft Writing specific sections (introduction, literature review, conclusion) Preparing papers for journal submission Instructions Step 1: Identify Paper Type Ask the user: 1. Is this empirical or theoretical? 2. What is the target journal/audience? 3. What stage is the paper at? (outline, first draft, revision) 4. What sections need help? Step 2: Follow the IMRAD Structure For empirical papers, use: 1. Introduction Motivation, research question, contribution 2. Literature Review Related work and positioning 3. Data & Methods Sources, sample, empirical strategy 4. Results Main findings with tables/figures 5. Discussion Interpretation, mechanisms, limitations 6. Conclusion Summary and implications Step 3: Apply Economics Writing Conventions First paragraph should state the research question and main finding Use present tense for established facts, past tense for your findings Be precise with causal language (effect vs. association) Cite heavily in the literature review Lead with results in the results section Example Output: Introduction Template Example Output: Results Section Template Example Output: Conclusion Template Writing Tips For Introductions First sentence should grab attention not "This paper examines..." State your contribution clearly what's new about this paper? Be specific about magnitudes don't just say "large effect" Acknowledge limitations preemptively in the last paragraph For Results Lead with numbers put the coefficient in the first sentence Interpret economically what does a 0.05 coefficient mean? Guide the reader through tables column by column Don't oversell distinguish statistical from economic significance For Conclusions Don't introduce new results synthesize what you've shown Be honest about limitations reviewers will find them anyway End on the contribution remind readers why this matters Common Pitfalls ❌ Burying the main result in the middle of the paper ❌ Using "significant" without specifying statistical or economic ❌ Over claiming causality without proper identification ❌ Literature review that's just a list of papers ❌ Conclusion that's just a summary References [Cochrane (2005) Writing Tips for PhD Students](https://www.johnhcochrane.com/research all/writing tips for phd studentsnbsp) [Shapiro (2019) How to Give an Applied Micro Talk](https://www.brown.edu/Research/Shapiro/pdfs/applied micro slides.pdf) [Thomson (2011) A Guide for the Young Economist](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/guide young economist) Changelog v1.0.0 Initial release with introduction, results, and conclusion templates

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