Guidelines for Opinion/Editorial Writing

by Amanda Levensohn ‘10

What does it mean to write an Op/Ed?

1. When you are assigned to write an Op/Ed article: you will be writing a piece that expresses your own, personal, opinion on a general issue or topic.
2. You can refer to yourself as “I” in an Op/Ed article, and may express your own opinions and experiences. (In Op/Ed articles, you share your own bias with the reader.)
3. An Opinion Article only expresses the opinion of one writer
4. An Editorial Article has a call to action and never has a by line!
5. You can talk about more than one opinion in an editorial. E.g. Point/Counterpoint

REMEMBER: What makes Op/ Ed writing different from news and features is that editorializing is okay! You can make a statement such as, “Chocolate is the best desert in the world,” or “No one should drink Guayaki because they are dangerous,” (which you could NEVER say in a feature or news article) because it is your personal opinion.

What do you write about in an Op/Ed?

1. If you are writing an Op/Ed, you are basically arguing your point of view on given a topic.
1. For example, you could write an article on why people need to be careful when using social networking sites. In this case, you do not need to use the word “I” to express your opinion. The fact that you are saying that social networking sites are unsafe is editorializing already.
2. In contrast, you could write an article about why Bush should never have been President. In this case, you could say, “I strongly dislike G.W. Bush and this is why…”
2. A good Op/Ed should make the reader “think, question, and create,” his or her own opinions on the topic you are writing about.
3. You should be able to express your opinion with out using the word “I” in the article.