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Writing Op-EdsWriting op-ed submissions, opinion articles and traditional newspaper columns – Dec. 3, 2019
Who I am …
David J. Climenhaga
Communications Advisor, United Nurses of Alberta
780-717-2943
Definitions
Op-ed Page: A newspaper’s opinion page, traditionally placed opposite the editorial page, hence the name
Opinion articles: Articles giving an opinion or perspective
Op-ed submissions: Articles submitted for publication by non-staff members
Columns: Regularly appearing articles, typically written by staff, giving an opinion or perspective
Opinion pieces: A generic term to describe all three
3 versions of the same thing
Columns: Written regularly, often on the same general topic, usually by the same person, usually a professional, usually paid, and usually worth reading
Opinion articles: Written irregularly, often on a variety of topics, usually written by professionals, sometimes worth reading
Op-ed submissions: Written occasionally, often by PR pros or passionate advocates, submitted voluntarily, usually unpaid, sometimes really good, often pretty bad, sometimes terrible!
Why we’re here
This is the age of cheap: Mainstream newspapers and online news sites rely on op-ed submissions from non-employees to pad their columns
Therefore, this is an era of opportunity: Staff-poor newspapers and websites are desperate for free copy
Ergo: Unions can take advantage of this sorry situation to effectively advance their arguments
So, why write op-eds?
Free publicity
Opportunity to respond to unfair attacks, bad policies
Big audience
More credibility than union publications
Great play
Opportunities for re-use
Online and print
What you need to know
There’s a formula … Go outside the box at the risk of notgetting published
Other considerations for you? Whom are you speaking for? Who gets a say in what you say?
You may have to “sell” it: To the publisher … but to your side too
There are risks: everything you write will offend someone!
Opinion articles are NOT…
Hard news: Timely reports of breaking news events
Soft news: News stories that use a delayed-lead structure and may be longer, but are otherwise similar in structure
Editorials: Expressions of the official viewpoint of a publication
A way to make money!
Despite the formula…
Writing opinion pieces is more art than science
Some of us are bound to be better at it
But it’s not rocket science – practice will make you better
Columns, opinion articles and op-ed pieces all have essentially the same qualities in common
So read lots of them to get better
Questions
Which would you rather read – an op-ed, an opinion article or a column?
Do any of you like to read columns by particular writers? Who?
What, in your view, distinguishes the columns you like from other opinion articles you don’t?
An axiom
Columns tend to be more entertaining because they’re more likely to be written with passion by good writers
The structure of columns, opinion articles and op-eds is essentially the same
The preferred length of all three is nowadays about the same
So why not use columns as the model for your op-eds?
Features of successful columns
Clearly written and argued
Timely – they’re tied to current events and issues
They combine passion and reason
They have a beginning, middle & end
They always reach a conclusion, usually a strong one
6 nitty-gritty steps to success
1) Open with an attention grabbing lead (easier said than done, but it needn’t be a news lead)
2) State your argument high in the op-ed, back it up later
3) Stick to a single point – don’t write about everything
4) Briefly acknowledge alternative views – then demolish them
5) End cleanly – propose a solution, make a prediction or state a conclusion, don’t just peter out
6) Keep it tight – 600 words, no more than 800
3 easy pieces
Beginning: That engaging lead, make it an “executive summary” of your argument
Middle: Outlines the argument, presents facts and figures, appeals to emotion, attacks opposing views and makes use of traditional journalistic techniques such as interviews, storytelling
End: Restates the argument, offers the solution, prediction or conclusion
1. The Lead
Boredom is death: If the lead fails to engage, readers will run away
No rules: Leads can be hard or soft, short or long, conventional or weird
My advice, though: If you’re new to this, go for relatively hard and keep it relatively short
Sum up the argument to come: Just why are we writing about this?
Move from specific to general: Describe a specific situation as a dramatic and illustrative way to make a general point
Questions are allowed! (As in, you may start with one.)
Recommended hard approach
If U.S. President Donald Trump deep-sixes the North American Free Trade Agreement, there are essentially three things that Canada can do.
It can try to salvage a bilateral deal with the U.S.
It can, in concert with Mexico, keep what remains of NAFTA on life support in the hope that Trump will eventually be replaced by a president more amenable to free trade.
Or it can accept that the idea of continental economic integration is dead and strike out on a new path.
— Tom Walkom, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct. 12, 2017
Tom Walkom
Carol Goar, opening summary
A casual lawlessness has crept into the high offices of the land.
It is not outright criminality, punishable by fines and jail time (at least not yet). It is an attitude among those entrusted with power that they don’t have to play by the rules; that wrongdoing carries no consequences; and that a half-hearted apology will set everything right.
Any Canadian could come up with half a dozen examples.
— Carol Goar, columnist, Toronto Star, May 1, 2014
Carol Goar
Paul Krugman, summary
Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on next week, is stunningly cruel. It’s also incompetently drafted: The bill’s sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together. Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies.
— Paul Krugman, economics columnist, New York Times, Sept. 22, 2017
Paul Krugman, summary 2
This just in: Saving the planet would be cheap; it might even be free. But will anyone believe the good news?
— Paul Krugman, economics columnist, New York Times, Sept. 18, 2014
Paul Krugman
Metaphorical approachThere is nothing quite like the sight of opposition politicians circling when they smell political
blood in the water.
Particularly when the fish is as big as the federal finance minister.
Tuesday, Bill Morneau swam away. It did nothing to slow the Commons feeding frenzy.
This is not the way the Liberals envisioned celebrating Small Business Week, also known as Liberal Climb Down Week, and we’re just getting to hump day.
But rarely, if ever, has a federal minister blindly — or in this case non-blindly — walked himself into such a morass because Morneau, operating in a majority government, has somehow taken a campaign pledge promising tax fairness and turned it into a career-threatening crisis.
— Tim Harper, columnist, Toronto Star, Oct. 17, 2017
Tim Harper
Classic situational approach
We slept last night in the enemy’s camp.
— Robert Ette, Memphis Daily Appeal, after the Battle of Shiloh, April 8, 1862
Column: Heather Mallick, juxtaposition
Catherine McKenna, minister for environment and climate change and MP for Ottawa Centre, is a bilingual, internationalist human rights lawyer with degrees from the University of Toronto, McGill and the London School of Economics.
Gerry Ritz, Conservative MP for Battlefords-Lloydminster, isn’t.
I suspect this may be why he referred to her this week as “climate Barbie” and why his leader Andrew Scheer refused to denounce him in the House of Commons.
But there are more reasons than envy. Here’s the context. Female politicians are put through a gauntlet of misery and mockery, a level of scrutiny that men don’t endure partly because, let’s face it, men aren’t that interesting. They don’t have to be. They’re guys.
— Heather Mallick, Toronto Star columnist, Sept. 22, 2017
Heather Mallick
Op-Ed: Boredom kills? Zzzzzzz…
Our democracy is a cherished possession. Wars have been fought for it; people have died for it; reputations have been made and destroyed by it; families have divided over it; taxes have gone up by it; great leaders have been elected as a result of it; and those with lesser skills, intellect and ability have requested the public’s endorsement by it.
— George Cuff, Management Consultant, Edmonton Journal, Oct. 12, 2017
And your point is?
George Cuff
Op-Ed: Boredom kills, again! Zzzzz…
It will come as no surprise when I say Alberta politics is sharply divided. Nowhere does this seem to be more evident than the minimum-wage debate. Depending on which side you take, you’re either with small business or you care about people just struggling to get by. What if you care about both?
— Greg Clark, Alberta Party Leader,* Edmonton Journal, Sept. 28, 2017
The either-or approach. This has the quality of being boring, unclear, and disingenuous!
Greg Clark
Op-Ed: Boredom Kills, Part III
“In July 2018, the federal government will legalize the production and distribution of cannabis. Between now and then, the provinces and territories will have to decide how to adapt to this legislation…”
So writes Andrew Klukas, “president of the Western Convenience Stores Association, in an Edmonton Journal Op-Ed designed to persuade readers that “legalization can’t be successful if the provinces go only half-way. When consumption is legalized, the channels of distribution must allow sufficient access to the corresponding legal products.” That is, through privately owned convenience stores, the real agenda here
But he writes 274 boring words before he makes his key point.
Will anyone read that far?
Andrew Klukas
Column: Rick Salutin opening summary
There used to be another word for temporary foreign workers. They were called immigrants. They did jobs that, we’re told, Canadians now don’t want to do. That included mining, assembly line manufacturing, construction and cleaning. They did them with relative verve because they were en route to being Canadians and so were their kids — especially the kids.
— Rick Salutin, Toronto Star columnist, May 1, 2014
Rick Salutin
2. The Argument
Make your argument clear to readers high in the story
Make it no deeper than the second or third paragraph … and paragraphs should be short!
Summarize the argument in no more than one or two sentences
State the argument with passion
Sometimes it’s OK to be funny
Heather Mallick again, from a 2014 column …
“Perhaps it was Harper’s dead sociopathic eyes or the way he campaigned with pre-selected audiences from behind a metal fence. No. It was when people started to think of his hair as a separate organ, like Dick Cheney’s heart which he basically kept in a pocket, a living pulsing thing that would halve, leap on you and clap both sides of your head if you poked it.”
WARNING: Humour is dangerous!
Bob Herbert column, a model
The markets are battered and job losses are skyrocketing, but even in the midst of a national economic crisis, we should not lose sight of the profound significance of this week and what it tells us about the continuing promise of America.
Voters said no to incompetence and divisiveness and elbowed their way past the blight of racism that has been such a barrier to progress for so long. Barack Obama won the State of North Carolina, for crying out loud. The nation deserves to take a bow. This is not the same place it used to be.
— Bob Herbert, former columnist, New York Times, Nov. 8, 2008
Bob Herbert
Bob Herbert breakdownLanguage: Passionate and colourful
Length: 800 words (the number given to most newspaper columnists)
First sentence: engaging and to the point – made me want to read on
Argument: Stated clearly in the second paragraph, which also happens to start with the second sentence
Already obvious: a great blend of passion and reason
Bob Herbert today: Not a columnist, alas, just another think-tank fellow
Barack Obama today: Well, things have changed again …
3. Stick to the point
Any good opinion piece is about one topic, even if it’s a broad one
Resist the temptation to digress
Eschew the urge to pile it on…
Maintain your focus
Remember … 600 words … well, 800
Do as I say, not as I do!
Getting back to the argument
Summarizing the argument is not enough
Provide examples to support your claims
This is the place for backing up with facts and figures, but don’t overdo it
But be sure your facts are facts! Research!
Reporting has a place in opinion
Good interviews can improve an opinion piece
Bob Herbert, 2008, continued
Election night brought a cascade of memories to Taylor Rogers, who is 82 and still lives in Memphis, where he grew up. He remembered a big crowd that jammed the Mason Temple in Memphis on an April night 40 years ago.
“It was filled with people from wall to wall,” he said. “And it was storming and raining outside.”
The men and women, nearly all of them black, were crushed against one another as they listened, almost as one, to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King give his final speech
Acknowledge alternative views
This is a rhetorical device … and it covers your ass
Be brief about it
Don’t give opponents a chance to say you don’t know what you’re talking about
Anticipate objections, and deal with them
State their views your way – and knock ’em down
Turn them to make your point
Try not to be too obvious
4. Anticipate responses… it was under Flaherty’s watch as finance minister that the latest cutbacks in
federal government funding to CBC occurred.
To point this out is not to deny Flaherty’s virtues as a human being. Those who knew him say he was hard-working, loyal to his family and possessed of an engaging personality. There is no evidence that I know of to suggest that his motives were anything but public-spirited.
But he was also an integral part of a government determined to smash or cripple much of what makes Canada a livable country.
His death is a reminder that good people can do bad things for the best of motives. …
— Thomas Walkom, political columnist, Toronto Star, April 11, 2014
5. The Conclusion
End it cleanly with conviction
Propose a solution, or …
Make a prediction, or …
State your conclusions!
If it’s meant to be humourous, end it with a joke
Bob Herbert, conclusion
… We still have two wars to deal with and an economic crisis as severe as any in decades. But we should take a moment to recognize the stunning significance of this moment in history. It’s worth a smile, a toast, a sigh, a tear.
America should be proud.
- 30 -
Can an op-ed ever be as good as a column?
I’m A Believer by the Monkees hit the top of the Canadian charts in late December 1966. It’s a fitting song to have ushered in one of the things Canadians believe in most: universal public health care.
On December 19, 1966, the Canadian Medical Care Act was proclaimed the law of the land.
Personally, I’m a believer in the idea that all Canadians should have access to quality, publicly delivered health care. I’m a believer in the idea that the system should be inclusive and fair. And like the majority of Canadians, I’m a believer in the idea that financial circumstance should not limit a person’s ability to get well.
— Olav Rokne, writing in the Edmonton Journal, Dec. 21, 2016
Olav Rokne
Keep it tight
Bob Herbert’s column is fewer than 800 words
Op-ed submissions are nowadays often restricted to 600 words on major papers
So keep it to 600!
Why invite editing?
Better you make the cuts than they do – especially nowadays
You know what’s really important
No footnotes!
Newspaper columns were invented before hyperlinks …
Always attribute the source of information in the text
Don’t provide footnotes
Unless you’re specifically writing for the Internet, don’t provide links
Explanatory notes below the copy will get your article spiked
General advice on writing
Cast your arguments from the reader’s perspective – why youshould adopt this plan of mine
Don’t be afraid to criticize people and institutions you disagree with
But keep it respectful – and be aware of defamation law
Use metaphor and analogy – but not too much!
Put people first – make arguments about people, not numbers
Don’t be afraid of emotion
From the horse’s mouth
Lucinda Chodan, Editor-in-Chief, Montreal Gazette:
600 words
Be timely
Strategic lead time – two to three weeks before desired publication date
Don’t take rejection personally – try again
Don’t be needy
Find a champion
On champions & expertise
“You’d better have some expertise if you want to write about some topics. Provincial politics are hard to write about, because most media have in-house experts.”
“You’d better have some expertise. If you want to write about Crimea, have a PhD in the subject.”
“Find hidden weaknesses to exploit. If you want to write about Bluegrass music in Canada, copy the editor-in-chief!”
Questions to ask
Are you authorized to do this?
Do you really want to say this?
What is the potential downside?
Do you have to get it approved? If so, by whom?
Whose name will it appear under? This may affect voice and tone
Do you understand you will lose some control when you hand it over?
Who is bound to be offended?
More thoughts
This isn’t news – there’s no need to sound exactly like everyone else
Why not sound like yourself? Say it your way
Tell them something about yourself – why they should listen to you…
Keep your head if you disagree with the way your story is edited
Getting it published
Do your homework
Be professional about requirements – find the protocol for submissions and follow it
Find out the right person to send it to
Follow up – but not too much (don’t be needy!)
Provide contact information
Reuse and recycle
If at first you don’t succeed, try again somewhere else
Do local versions
Do a letter-to-the-editor version summarizing key points only
Do a longer version for your in-house publication
Try different editors
Links
Tom Walkom, Slide 15: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/10/12/what-canada-can-do-if-donald-trump-kills-nafta-walkom.html
Carol Goar, Slide 17: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/05/01/canadian_politics_saturated_with_shamelessness_goar.html
Paul Krugman, Slide 19: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/05/01/canadian_politics_saturated_with_shamelessness_goar.html
Links, continued
Paul Krugman, Slide 20: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/paul-krugman-could-fighting-global-warming-be-cheap-and-free.html
Tim Harper, Slide 22: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/17/morneau-walks-himself-into-a-political-crisis-tim-harper.html
Heather Mallick, Slide 25: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/21/the-gerry-ritzing-of-catherine-mckenna-mallick.html
Links, continued
George Cuff, Slide 27: http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-our-municipal-councils-need-leaders-not-expert
Greg Clark, Slide 29: http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-raising-minimum-wage-wont-reduce-poverty
Andrew Klukas, Slide 32: http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-convenience-stores-a-better-option-for-pot-retailing
Links, continued
Rick Salutin, Slide 33: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/09/26/trumps-nightmare-isnt-freeing-the-slaves-its-jackie-robinson-salutin.html
Bob Herbert, Slide 37: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/opinion/08herbert.html
Olav Rokne, Slide 47: http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-universal-pharmacare-something-to-believe-in
Any questions?
Thanks for listening…
