It's that time of year again! That special time when job market candidates should be perfecting (ie, writing and rewriting and rewriting) the introductions of their job market papers. Writing is hard. Even harder is thinking carefully about what exactly people learn from your analysis and why it's important. Good papers are important for many reasons, and it's tricky to guess which to emphasize. Sometimes you have to write multiple versions of introductions before you can determine what works best.
But what about that very first draft? How do you even start? I just discovered a nifty little formula for writing introductions. Does it work all the time for every paper? Who knows...but it does work often. Definitely a great place to start. And here's a brand new formula for writing conclusions! Use these formulas, but also come up with your own. Pay attention to the format of introductions and conclusions when reading your favorite papers. Then use what works best for your particular papers.
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