Member Spotlights Member Spotlight: Marc F. Bellemare May 10, 2022 Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab) on Facebook (opens in a new tab) on Linkedin (opens in a new tab) via email Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing is important to me because it is the primary means by which I communicate research findings to my peers, and it is the primary means by which I communicate the insights of my discipline to a broader public. Writing is an important medium for the world because unlike speaking, writing forces one to reflect about what one wants to say. I believe that we would see considerably less conflict disagreement if more communication took place in writing. What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Doing more research about what I want to say, even if that only means having a conversation about what I want to say over coffee with a colleague. What is your favorite time to write? In the morning, after my daughter is off to school. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? I believe it was in Fifth Business that Robertson Davies praised the beauty of plain writing through one of his characters. I read that book in college, and that advice has stuck with me. Writing in plain style is also prized in my chosen profession; economists prize clarity and conciseness above all. What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? It allows me to think. Marc F. Bellemare’s Doing Economics: What You Should Have Learned in Grad School—But Didn’t is out today with MIT Press.
