One advocacy strategy is to submit an opinion piece to a newspaper. “Op-eds” provide individuals who are not part of the newspaper staff with an opportunity to express their opinion on any topic that is important to the community. Op-eds can provide a good opportunity to educate, as well as to persuade. Our local newspaper,The Charlotte Observer, accepts open submissions of op-eds that are no more than 600 words in length.
For Activity 10, you should write an op-ed about how to make healthcare affordable for the uninsured in charlotte. Before writing your piece, you should do some brief research and read other op-eds that have been published on your topic and/or that have been published inThe Charlotte Observer, as examples. Below, you will also see tips for writing an effective op-ed, which were developed by the University Communications Office at Duke University .
Consistent withThe Charlotte Observerguidelines, your op-ed must beno more than 600 words long. Please double space your paper and use no smaller than 12-point font.
Tips for Writing Effective Op-eds
Excerpt from the Duke University Communicator Toolkit:
https://commskit.duke.edu/writing-media/writing-effective-op-eds/
Make a single point, and do it well.You cannot solve all of the world’s problems in 750 words.[NOTE: For this assignment you have even fewer - 600 words!]Be satisfied with making a single point clearly and persuasively. If you cannot explain your message in a sentence or two, you’re trying to cover too much.
Put your main point on top.
You have no more than 10 seconds to hook a busy reader, which means you shouldn’t “clear your throat” with a witticism or historical aside. Get to the point and convince the reader that it’s worth his or her valuable time to continue.
Tell readers why they should care.Put yourself in the place of the busy person looking at your article. At the end of every few paragraphs, ask out loud: “So what? Who cares?” Will your suggestions help reduce readers’ taxes? Protect them from disease? Make their children happier? Explain why.