Strengthening the writing component in upper level economics electives

Writing-intensive economics courses are courses that use writing as a central feature of instruction and evaluation of students’ work. This study presents and evaluates teaching improvements on these basic structures. Using teaching evaluations data from eight public finance sections taught between Fall of 2012 and Spring of 2019, an ordered probit model estimates the value, as rated by students, of the following improvements to enhance the writing quality of student papers: (1) explicit grading rubrics; (2) funding a dedicated course specialist consultant (CSC) from the writing center; (3) engaging librarians in creating a literature review guide; (4) instructor blogging. The empirical model estimates the contribution of the improvements to the overall instructor and course evaluation ratings as well as to the writing component student ratings. Empirical results show that grading rubrics had a statistically significant positive effect on student assessments of writing component design and writing skills development. Engaging a dedicated CSC improves writing skills ratings. Instructor blogging had a statistically significant positive effect on instructor ratings while literature review guide improved course ratings. Only an expected grade had a significant positive effect on all student rated course outcomes. The goal of this paper is to provide ideas for enhancing economics content through writing.