Your Research and Timing

“How is your research relevant to things that are happening today? What can the public learn from the past that may provide clarity for a current issue or societal problem? In writing through these questions, be more analytical than opinionated. Academics have knowledge that most op-ed writers don’t possess. It’s an advantage.”

-Scott White, CEO and Editor-in-Chief at The Conversation Canada

“I remind students writing op-eds that, if their piece does not get published now, they may want to consider re-submitting at a more appropriate time. For instance, I had a student write a piece about screen use for adolescents and its implications. I suggested to this student that, if their piece is not published now, perhaps trying again closer to the summer or at the start of the school year when parents are most concerned about the issue of screen time.”

-Surita Jhiangani, Faculty of Education, UBC

Your Audience

“Think of your reader as a very intelligent eighteen-year-old.”

-Joel Bakan, Allard School of Law, UBC

“What narrative do you want to expand and who is your audience? Who do you imagine you want to have a conversation with about your scholarship? Think about how to hook them in so that they’ll read beyond the first paragraph.”

-Michelle Stack, Educational Studies, UBC

Publication Beat, Tone, and Voice

“Before submitting, people who have never written for a non-academic publication should spend some time reading the content that’s already been published by the outlet they’re writing for. How long is the piece? What’s the style?”

-Scott White, CEO and Editor-in-Chief at The Conversation Canada

Storytelling and Writing

As humanities scholars, we understand and work with narrative. We know that narrative shapes all forms of journalism, whether it’s the op-ed, investigative reporting, or data storytelling. Op-eds provide an opportunity to engage with the narrative of current issues in the newsreel by combining our expertise with our understanding of how persuasive storytelling works.

“In academic writing, we tend to put the analysis first and then the story later. But in non-academic writing, it’s all about the story.”

-Joel Bakan, Allard School of Law, UBC

“I still too often hear this ‘dumbing down’ language, but actually I think it’s quite the opposite. To be able to write a piece on your work for a general audience requires you to know your stuff. So think story. Yes, you're going to back your story with your research, with data, but it can't just be a page of data, right? Or a page of stats. It has to connect to an audience, and this is where thinking of your imagined audience is really vital.”

-Michelle Stack, Educational Studies, UBC

Accountability, Equity, and Allyship

Op-eds are often published in mainstream media outlets. Journalism, in Canada and beyond, is still dominated by cisgender white men. This means that too often issues on gender, sexuality, ability, and race are written about by people who do not necessarily experience the intersections of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, or other forms of marginalization. As Jelani Cobb writes in The Guardian, the lack of diverse reporters leads to actual misrepresentation of the facts: “The people who are most likely to appear in these kinds of stories are the least likely to have a say in how those stories are told.”

When invited to write an op-ed, we must check our positionality and privilege. Consider asking the following questions: Am I the best person to write this op-ed? Do I have faculty and graduate student colleagues who might benefit from this opportunity, but who might not be approached because of systemic social marginalization?

Writing about issues of race and gender often involves unpaid emotional labour from racialized and gendered academics who have also had to navigate through systemic racism and sexism in their careers. At the same time that we should consider offering racialized and gendered academics opportunities to write op-eds, we also need to be mindful of passing on inappropriate opportunities to colleagues, opportunities that may add to an already disproportionate load. Further questions to consider while being mindful of committing microaggressions: is inviting somebody to write an op-ed asking them to recount their personal trauma rather than address their own research expertise? Will publishing in this outlet put somebody at risk? Am I asking somebody to do work on a social issue that their research is not directly related to?

Op-eds can also be an opportunity for co-authorship among colleagues and community partners, mentorship, and collaborations between graduate students and faculty. You may find samples of such collaborations in the op-ed examples pages.

“One of the things I think is how, as academics, we could look at expanding public conversations more as a collective. We’re so individualized. How might we expand this conversation where it’s not just all on one person?”

-Michelle Stack, Educational Studies, UBC

University Guides

• UBC News Guide for “Writing an Effective Opinion-Editorial Piece”

• “Writing for the Public” by Jerry Plotnick, University of Toronto.

• “A cheat sheet for having your letter to the editor published” by Paul Russell for the National Post. December 29, 2012.

• “Writing Effective Op-eds” from Duke University.

• Harvard Kennedy School’s “How to Write an Op-ed or Column” Guide.

Articles

• “Tips for scholars writing an op-ed” from SAGE Publishing. December 10, 2014.

• “Op-ed Writing Tips to Consider During the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Kristine Maloney for Inside Higher Ed. March 31, 2020.

• “How to write an op-ed or column” from Journalist’s Resource. January 28, 2013.

• “The value of writing an op-ed as a writing assignment” by James Southworth. February 13, 2018.

Online Resources

• The Op-ed Project is an organization focused on op-ed writing as a response to social issues. Provides various online resources for writing, editing, and submitting.

• Informed Opinions is an organization whose work focuses on closing the gender gap in sources used in Canadian media. They provide media engagement training to women scholars, and maintain the ExpertWomen database to connect women experts with journalists and conference planners.

• The National Organization of Women (NOW) is an intersectional grassroots activist organization dedicated to the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life. They offer a variety of resources including “How to Write an Op-Ed.”

Books

• How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams, 2014. Includes a chapter on writing Op-eds and exhibitions reviews.

• Public Influence: A Guide to Op-Ed Writing and Social Media Engagement by Mira Sucharov, 2019.

  • Book review: “Influence U: going beyond the op-ed” by Letitia Henville for Literary Review of Canada. September 2019.