About the course.

This course is intended primarily for students in the university-wide Honors Program or in the Department’s Economics Scholars Program (for both of whom it is a requirement), although other students may enroll with consent of the instructor. 

This course will not try to teach any particular body of substantive economics.  Rather, it aims at preparing students to write a senior thesis in economics.  It does this by providing practice in the writing of economics and by surveying the field through the eyes of various UConn economics faculty members.  A representative number of faculty members will meet with us to discuss some aspect of their own research, allowing students a glimpse of what professional economists do and also helping students to choose a topic and an advisor for the thesis.

The overall objectives of the course, then, are three: (1) to give you a taste of what professional economists do and how they do it; (2) to make you a better writer; and -- perhaps most importantly -- (3) to challenge you with new ideas and to provoke you to think in new ways.

Course requirements.

Course requirements are a series of short papers focused on a class presentation by the instructor or a guest speaker.  Students will be assigned an article or two to read on the subject of the presentation.  Students will write a short (2 to 5 page) essay on some aspect of the topic.  The faculty member will speak informally for 30 to 45 minutes, and then we will turn to questions and discussion.  The reading and writing assignment is intended to prepare you to ask intelligent questions during the discussion.

Toward the end of the semester, I expect to schedule presentations by senior undergraduates who are completing their thesis projects.  These talks should help you get an idea of what is expected in a thesis and the range of topics that is possible.  There will also be one-on-one discussion of possible topics as appropriate.

Style and resources.

To help you with your writing, I’ve asked the bookstore to order as recommended Deirdre McCloskey’s Economical Writing. Waveland Press, 2nd edition, 1999.  You might also find my notes on writing useful. A former garduate student, Nick Shunda, has posted online the handouts from a seminar series on writing in economics that he presented a couple of years ago. And, of course, you may also benefit by consulting the UConn Writing Center.

You must cite all ideas that are not your own.  (See below.)  You should cite references using the “scientific” or name-date style, which is dominant in economics.  That means that, rather than placing a reference in a footnote, you should follow the idea you are citing with the name of the author and the date of publication of the work cited.  Example: 

Far from being the inventor of the idea of perfect competition, Adam Smith was in fact among the last representative of economists who saw competition as a dynamic process of rivalry (McNulty 1967). 

This means you are citing a 1967 article by someone called McNulty as the source of the idea in the sentence.  You would then list that article in a list of references at the end of your paper:

McNulty, Paul J. 1967. “A Note on the History of Perfect Competition,” Journal of Political Economy 75(4): 395-399 (August)

There are many ways to run the details of a name-date style.  I care only that you pick one style and use it consistently.  Here is the style guide for the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  Some of your references will no doubt be available online, and there are a number standards for citing online resources.  Here is the MLA version.

Plagiarism.

The UConn student conduct code defines plagiarism as “presenting as one's own the ideas or words of another for academic evaluation.”  Here are some resources from the UConn Libraries and the Instructional Resource Center.   Please examine these carefully.

I take plagiarism seriously.  If you have questions or concerns, please ask me.