Addressing the Needs of Today’s Students

Micro/Maco Economics for Life is accessible to all potential principles of economics students, including those with weaker language and numeracy skills.

Enhancing Readability

The language and writing design follows the advice of The Economist Style Guide — Never use a long word when a small one will do; Never use a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent; Never use the passive where you can use the active.

I make repeated use of characters in real-life business scenarios to personalize the narratives and resonate with student experiences. Examples include individuals realizing gains from trade; small business owners choosing quantities and prices for maximum profits, estimating economic profits, and making labor hiring decisions. I model real-life consumer and business decisions students relate to.

Readability Features

Supporting Numeracy

Experienced principles instructors often see students who are less intimidated by a table of numbers than by a graph. All key graphs are developed from a simple table of numbers, so students can see the correspondence. There are faint background grids on graphs to make it easier for students to plot points and see connections between the numbers and graphs, without distracting from key curves.

All numerical problems use simple integers for calculations and do not require a calculator.

Good Writing is for All Audiences

Clear, direct writing does not condescend to any readers — first-year students, last-year majors, adult learners, or graduates. The Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA)  of Canada, has long used Micro/Macro Economics for Life in it’s Prep Courses for students who already have an undergraduate degree, are applying for the CPA Professional Education Program, but who lack undergraduate Economics courses. The textbooks follow The Economist advice to “be readily understandable. Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible.” The aim is to be interesting and understandable to all readers.