Writing and Presentation Tips

John Cochrane from the University of Chicago wrote an interesting paper called Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students.

Much of it is excellent. Some of it doesn't feel right to me. My favorite part is at the end about giving seminars. Here are some excerpts.


You will not believe how fast the time will go by.
Since time is limited, it’s especially important to get to the point. We can’t skim to the
important stuff in a seminar!
You don’t need any literature review or motivation in a seminar. Just get to the point.
Gene Fama usually starts his seminars with “Look at table 1.” That’s a good model to
emulate.
Don’t “preview” results. It wastes time; why say it twice rather than say it once, right?