Making Your Voice Heard Via Opinion Writing

At the core of opinion writing is having a passion for what you write and demonstrating your perspective. For most pieces that I have written, I wrote to shed a light on something people may not know about. Despite the term “opinion,” most of what you write is based on facts; you simply give your analysis. You can find some general details on how to write an opinion piece here.

An op-ed is the most common form of such writing. It stands for opposite-editorial since it is opposite the page with editorials. They share the opinion pieces stating the perspective of the newspaper. This op-ed section may include short guest columns, longer analyses, or letters to the editor. In my experience, most media organizations focus on having staff columnists mixed with guests. This allows certain consistent perspectives with occasional, new voices on controversial topics.

One thing that often may catch engineers and scientists off-guard is how relatively short an opinion piece will be. Although it varies by the space available for print, most columns I have written are usually no longer than 800 words – vastly shorter than most works published in journals. That is because your goal is to make a point clearly, factually, and directly. Unless you are writing for a scientific journal’s opinions section, you are normally writing for a general audience. Jargon, thusly, is typically supposed to be at a minimum.

Another thing you need to know is that your editor is your friend – or your enemy, if you are not careful. You need to have a professional and working relationship with them. They decide what gets cut, how things get rearranged, or when you get published. If your writing is sloppy, jargon-ridden, or your point is unclear, it delays publishing. It is useful to review the AP Stylebook and how other opinion pieces are written for the paper. Their format may vary across organizations.

If you do not have a clear slant, your readers may not glean your point. Your readers should leave your piece learning something and understanding what you argued for. I encourage you to make your argument in your lead – the first paragraph – and focus on the facts for the remainder of piece. Be sure to occasionally tie back to your main argument, however. Finding a voice is also important. Are you taking a humorous tone or a contemplative one? Think about how you convey who you are through your argument.

Be sure to cite sources. When writing to advocate for a policy, be sure to cite both trustworthy journals and more mass-market, reliable news sources. If you only cite academic papers, your layman reader may not understand how to digest them. If the story you are writing is for print only (which is becoming rarer), then focus on in-text citations. Ask your editor for tips on how to do so.

Anatomy of a News Article

Just as important as knowing how to write is understanding what your editor is saying. Here are several parts of the anatomy of a news article:

• Headline: The explanatory title of an article; often crafted by editors to catch reader’s attention
• Drophead: A subtitle below the headline that give a major detail or summary
• Byline: The attribution of authors; it may be above the article and have a more detailed biography at the end
• Cutline: Information below a picture, often descriptive of it
• Dateline: Line at the beginning giving place and date of a story
• Lead/Lede: Opening paragraph, often the one with a dateline
• Jumpline: Indicates what page or section a piece is continued

Newsroom Slang Definitions

Additionally, here is slang you might hear:

• Graf: Paragraph of an article
• Copy: Actual material you write to be printed
• Slant/Angle: The particular bias and target audience
• Beat: Your regular area of coverage
• Classifieds: Small advertisements that may be included across the paper
• Budget: The line-up of stories and amount of physical space to put information in the paper