Stop Answering “Who Cares?”

As an editor to business school professors exclusively, I see so many academics who have been told to write their papers around a particularly useless question: “Who cares?”

In my experience, writing to answer this question (often paired with its equally useless counterpart, “So what?”) is actually one of the worst ways to highlight the value of your work. 

The result is often a paper that reads as defensive, confused (and confusing), and boringly formulaic, all at the same time. 

In this post, I’m going to break down why “Who cares?” doesn’t work—and the crucial question that business academics should be answering instead. It’s one that’s dramatically shifted the process (and results!) of writing for almost every editing client I’ve ever worked with, and I hope it can transform your writing too.

Why “Who Cares?” Is the Wrong Question

I make it a point to ask most of my clients where they learned to write. Over the years, a number of people gave me different versions of the same answer: “I didn’t really learn to write anywhere”; “I learned by doing it, I guess”; “Just by reading, mostly”; and so on. In other words, very few of my clients indicated that they’d had any instruction at all in the single most important activity for their success as an academic. (Let’s just pause for a moment to let the insanity of that fact sink in.) 

But here’s the part that really perplexed me: the few professors who told me they were lucky enough to get some advice on writing were not writing better papers than their totally untrained colleagues. In fact, their papers were often worse in key ways. They read as defensive rather than confident or robust, throwing up myriad proofs and supports in piles of information rather than one cohesive argument. They read as unfocused, with several middling contributions instead of one powerful reason the work should be published. And sometimes, they even read as exclusive and formulaic to the point of irrelevant, coded to be understood and valued by a tiny coterie of fellow experts.

How could this be? I asked one client point-blank about the writing advice he was following, since he’d mentioned several specific resources that his supervisor had urged him to follow. His answer made everything clear: “I was always pushed to answer the question of who cares.”

Once this client named the problem, I suddenly saw it everywhere. Countless academic writers seeking insight into how to better structure their papers had been led down the counterproductive path of “Who cares?” Answering this specific question was generating the same weaknesses across many of the papers I saw:

• Papers that read as suspiciously defensive. “Who cares?” is unnecessarily confrontational (same goes for “So what?” in my view). Instead of inviting a well-considered answer about the unique value of the research, it practically demands defensiveness about why it exists at all. Much of the paper is therefore spent justifying instead of revealing, connecting, or explaining; as a result, papers guided by “Who cares?” are also usually way longer than they need to be. 

• Papers that read as confusing. “Who cares?” is a confusing question because it can usually be answered several different ways from several different perspectives. Indeed, it seems to ask the writer to describe not the greatest value of the work, but the greatest number of people who might find any value in it. So making it the primary test for a paper’s problematization and relevance can lead to a murky narrative with too many “meh” contributions thrown in, instead of one critical one guiding the research story.

• Papers that read as formulaic and irrelevant. “Who cares?” is rather a pointless question—because it has the same answer in 99% of cases: “Some other academics who study this.” Okay. And… ? Even if you’ve answered the question as posed, that answer feels formulaic and the full value of your research can remain hidden. 

A Better Question to Guide Your Paper

Next time you’re starting a draft, try answering this question instead of “Who cares?”: 

⚠️ What’s the real and present danger if no one ever reads this paper? ⚠️

The answer to this question is, in my experience, a game-changer:

• It captures, in clear and accessible language, the main value that your work offers the readers who need it most, incentivizing them to actually read the paper.

• It allows you to highlight that main value as such throughout your paper for maximum clarity and readability, even if other related contributions deserve mention too.

• It can tell you exactly which outlet to aim for and increase your chances of acceptance there, since different journals consider different “dangers” important.

• It usually draws out your research’s practical implications too (non-negotiable for business research), as naming the real and present danger driving your research will typically require a much stronger answer than “a theoretical gap that bothers a couple scholars will remain unfilled.”

Final Thoughts

Answering “Who cares?” or “So what?” often results in a paper that reads as defensive, confusing, and formulaic. This is a problem because:

• A paper that reads as defensive doesn’t feel trustworthy. It gives readers doubts about the rigor of your method and findings.

• A paper that reads as confusing doesn’t feel clear. It gives readers significant interpretive work with no obvious payoff.

• A paper that reads as formulaic doesn’t feel genuinely engaging. It tells readers that even you don’t feel very confident or passionate about the value of your research. 

As outlined in another recent post, those three reader experiences—trust, clarity, and engagement—are the foundation of positive intuition, the driving force that makes reviewers say “yes” to a submission. Don’t sabotage them by writing to answer “Who cares?” 

Instead, try my alternative prompt in writing your next manuscript and let me know what you think. Does naming the “real and present danger” help clarify its value for readers?

And if you’re ever stuck identifying the real and present danger driving your research, reach out for a consultation. In just 1 hour, you’ll have a clear strategy for how to position your findings for maximum likelihood of success at a top journal in your field.