This book is an invaluable guide for young economists working on their dissertations, preparing their first articles for submission to professional journals, getting ready for their first presentations at conferences and job seminars, or facing their first refereeing assignments. In clear, concise language--a model for what he advocates--William Thomson shows how to make written and oral presentations both inviting and efficient. Thomson covers the basics of clear exposition, including such nuts-and-bolts topics as titling papers, writing abstracts, presenting research results, and holding an audience's attention.
I read this book at the very beginning of my Master course in econ. The timing couldn't have been better. It gave me a lot of heads-ups like getting acquainted to Latex, professors, future job opportunities, etc. Things that I had not paid attention to before, but now I do, thanks to this short and concise book. Totally recommended, even for undergraduate level.
Well written and still useful but many of the notes have become outdated. The passages on transparencies and writing on a blackboard for example are no longer relevant. I still found many of the comments especially on notation and structure of a paper or talk useful.
This is the required book for my research workshop. I read the whole book in one day, instead of reading one chapter or so before each class. As the result, I had a very boring day.
Some experiences are useless for me, because I already passed that period. Some experiences seem very far to my life, since I have at least two years before I graduate. For the rest, it can be a guide for your research if you are just beginning, or it can be a reference when you have a referee report assignment. Whichever part you are looking at, it would be in extreme detail. I almost wanted to knock my head on the desk if I were not in the library and I did not want to bother others when I read that the author warned us the marker would dry out if you do not put the cap back on...
In one word, a very detailed guide for every part of your economics PhD life. I strongly recommend reading the relevant part of it whenever you need.