Roosevelt Op-Ed workshop tips

In addition to PPMU, the Roosevelt Institute is the other student-run public policy organization at UNC. On November 6, I went to an Op-Ed workshop that they held. The workshop was led by Paul O'Connor--a writer for The News and Observer and a professor at UNC.

He gave us some good tips that might be of use to any policy students that want to get their opinions published.

First, he recommended either writing a letter or submitting an op-ed piece. The other parts of the Op-ed page, the cartoon and views of the editorial board, aren't paths that are open to student input.

Second, students are best off submitting their work to a local paper (ex. DTH, the local papers in Chapel Hill, the local papers in their hometown). Papers are more likely to publish pieces from people in their jurisdiction.

Third, try to write about local issues. Or, if you want to write about a national issue such as the No Child Left Behind legislation, find a way to connect it to something local by writing about how NCLB affects the local elementary schools in Orange County.

If you're writing a letter:

1. Make only one point. Be specific. Have a narrow focus. Don't tackle too much at once.
   
2. Make sure whatever you're writing about is very current, and is related to something that was recently in the news. Ex. Writing about Global Warming isn't current unless you submit your letter after an event like Al Gore winning the Nobel prize.
   
3. Most papers have a word limit of 200-250 words.
4. Use public words, this is not the place to show off your SAT vocabulary.
5. The theme of your letter should be blatantly obvious by the first paragraph.
   

If you're writing an op-ed piece:

1. Relate it to something that was recently in the news.
2. Having a hook is very important. The timing of your submission is also very important.
   
3. Make sure that you're providing a perspective that neither the staff nor a syndicated columnist can provide.
   

Finally, he went through a list of 8 values that you can use to determine whether or not your issue is "newsworthy"

1. Timeliness
2. Proximity
3. Impact
4. Emotional impact
5. Magnitude
6. Conflict
7. Celebrity
8. Oddity