At the end of my wonderful lecture (I may have overheard a student mention "inspiring") I passed out journals and asked students to find one violation of McCloskey's writing rules (this is a 10 minute exercise; i.e., not difficult at all). Here is one response I received:
Review of Agricultural Economics page 24, second and third paragraphs:
The author makes these paragraphs difficult to read by including to many variables within two few of sentences. The use of semicolons and shorter sentences would improve this.
My reply:
Ahem, you used the word “to” and “two” incorrectly!
P.S. Is it OK if I poke some gentle fun with this on my blog? Name withheld, of course.
His reply:
Sure. I bet you can't wait for my paper...
That's how we roll.
