A good op-ed can change your world. A bad op-ed can send you to sleep in two paragraphs. Whatever the subject matter: it is not what you tell, but how you tell it.
For people in policy who write long reports, making an argument in 700 words is challenging. I try to share good examples of op-eds to help them structure their thoughts.
Here are my top 4 op-eds:
Barack Obama - Why We Need Health Care Reform
Viviane Reding - Women in the Boardroom
Barry Malone - Why Al Jazeera will not say Mediterranean 'migrants'
Philippe LeGrain - Euro-Zone Fiscal Colonialism
Definitely room from improvement here. What are the best opeds you have ever read?
Several newspapers offer advice for opinion submissions (The New York Times and Financial Times, for example) but there are plenty of experts who can write a stylish tweet but still need help structuring their op-eds.
With blog posts, I advise people to take a “show & tell” approach like an American school: show your reader something that grabs their attention then tell them why it matters (see full presentation below). Good op-eds follow a similar but more sophisticated model, but most guidelines on offer are too simplistic to be helpful.
Here are some succesful recent op-eds I have been involved in.
REFUGEE CRISIS: BORDER CONTROLS ARE EUROPE'S NEW IRON CURTAIN - starts with a historical reference, then explains it.
Refugee crisis: 'You see walking skeletons' - starts with a compelling story and a wider problem, but is a little vague on blame and solutions.
Why FIFA’s New President Must Act Now to Prevent a World Cup Built on Abuse - another compelling story at the top,
Ireland’s law on abortion violates human rights - built around a “triptyque” quote from the Irish PM.
I am very happy with these, but I find none of them perfect. (For me the perfect op-ed grabs the reader’s attention with a powerful story, links it to a wider problem with a compelling statistic, then points out who is responsible for the situation and what needs to change.)
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