Popular writing (e.g. op eds)

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file. Have you done this type of writing? If so, drop some tips for pitching or writing op-eds or other popular writing.

[Hibush]

Don't bury the lede.

That is the advice given to me by our PR manager, a former newspaper editor. Put the conclusion clearly and succinctly in the first sentence.

You'd be surprised how much that one technique changes your writing.

Another practical limitations that has unexpected consequences for your writing is that the editor will put your article in a given space. (This has changed a bit with digital publication, but still applies.) If you provide 1000 words, and they decide to fill a 300-word space with it, they will simply cut it at the end of the nearest paragraph. Thus your argument needs to make sense no matter how many paragraphs are eliminated from the end.

Even though these are both pretty mechanical constraints, they have enormous consequences for thinking about what and how you want to convey your message.

[nonsensical]

Connect your piece to something that is currently happening in the news. Make that connection clear in your first paragraph.

[polly_mer]

Think audience.  You must answer, in the first paragraph, "Oh, yeah?" and  "So what?" for the readers of the outlet.

Identify the one take-home message on what readers need to know and then refrain from telling those readers everything you know.

Unlike academic writing, one reference every so often as additional reading material is much more palatable than a reference for nearly every sentence as background material.

Get to know the editors and listen to them on what will resonate with their readers.  The audience for Scientific American is different than the audience for The Atlantic and both are different from The Local Chronicle of Goings On.

[bluefooted]

This is a great resources for oped writing:  https://www.theopedproject.org/

[mamselle]

I've written this before, or some version of it, but here goes (I wrote critical reviews for a decent weekly for 3 years, and online for 2 more):

No sentence > 10 words.

No paragraph > 3 (rarely 5) sentences

No more than one adjective per noun, and it should be definitive and imaginative, not tritte.

No more than one adverb per verb, and it should be active, not descriptive.

Get rid of descriptive -ly adverbs wherever possible by dropping the -ly and turning them into adjectives

As others have noted, many people write themselves into their concludion-not only for the whole piece, but in each paragraph. If you're one, fine, do that in your first draft, but then pull up your inductive conclusions by their bootstraps and make them the opening sentence of a deductive paragraph.

Avoid passive and linking verbs (the 23 we learned in 7th grade); use active verbs wherever possible..

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. Revise often and proofread again.

Bring it in on time and under the word count, every time.

Be edgy but avoid libel charges unless the legal department clears it as defensible.

Stay focused. No wandering. Do your homework but don't inflict everyone else with it. Use your findings to be more pithy, more succinct--not less.

Don't even think about being a diva. If it's late, the editor will write something instead and you'll lose your by-line.

M.

[spork]

While in a previous position, I wrote op-eds for a local newspaper. I did not get paid, nor did it generate recognition beyond some colleagues and campus administrators (who viewed it as helpful marketing and community service).

More recently, I wrote a few columns for trade publications, for which I was paid, but which led to heavy criticism from administrators who took personal affront to the subject matter. Since I was tenured, the consequences ended there. But anyone writing for a venue that is more public than The Southwest American Journal of Late Medieval Carpathian Basketweaving Studies needs to keep the possibility of blowback in mind.

[downer]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

[mamselle]

Quite true.

If you're a rock star, you can weather the issues, they'll just be part of the broader envy tied to you being a rock star, which is its own protection (sometimes).

If not, people will grouse about you stealing the limelight (but then, how else to become a rock star?)

Also, tied to that, if you're such a rock star that you're behind in getting things out, delegate to some of your lesser satellites who need the glory more.

They'll appreciate you the more for it.

M.

[Hibush]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

Usually "impact" means that somebody is doing something differently, perhaps better by some measure, as a consequence of your work. Not surprisingly, an op ed is insufficient to bring about that result. No matter how persuasively written. But if it is coupled to action by advocates within an organization that is empowered to make those changes, then it can really matter.

Is there a specific change that the op ed would be intended to bring about?

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

My work has had a decent amount of impact in my field, in terms of citations, landing on syllabi, etc., but it would be nice to show impact going beyond the academy. My research is policy relevant, and the purpose of op eds would be to reach the policy community and the public more generally. I'm not saying this will be an important dimension of my tenure file, but something nice at the margins. I should also note that my department values this sort of thing, and that I'd only bother with op eds if I could land them in top outlets (e.g. major newspapers or magazines).

[bluefooted]

As others have noted, many people write themselves into their concludion-not only for the whole piece, but in each paragraph. If you're one, fine, do that in your first draft, but then pull up your inductive conclusions by their bootstraps and make them the opening sentence of a deductive paragraph.

M.

So much this!  I'm trying to teach this to all my students, too, for their academic writing.

[Hibush]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

My work has had a decent amount of impact in my field, in terms of citations, landing on syllabi, etc., but it would be nice to show impact going beyond the academy. My research is policy relevant, and the purpose of op eds would be to reach the policy community and the public more generally. I'm not saying this will be an important dimension of my tenure file, but something nice at the margins. I should also note that my department values this sort of thing, and that I'd only bother with op eds if I could land them in top outlets (e.g. major newspapers or magazines).

This plan sounds good in that you will have a high-quality complement to your central focus.

Will the op ed also complement other things happening in society?

An approach that I consider of little value is the op ed we see regularly in IHE, where the writer wishes for some condition that is contrary to all the current social and financial forces. Those op eds are not worth the electrons they are printed with because they cause nobody to act differently.

If you can say that your op ed supported a broader effort to get a policy change, then mention a prominent ally in that effort. If it was successful, then acknowledge that you helped.

[polly_mer]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

My work has had a decent amount of impact in my field, in terms of citations, landing on syllabi, etc., but it would be nice to show impact going beyond the academy. My research is policy relevant, and the purpose of op eds would be to reach the policy community and the public more generally. I'm not saying this will be an important dimension of my tenure file, but something nice at the margins. I should also note that my department values this sort of thing, and that I'd only bother with op eds if I could land them in top outlets (e.g. major newspapers or magazines).

This plan sounds good in that you will have a high-quality complement to your central focus.

Will the op ed also complement other things happening in society?

An approach that I consider of little value is the op ed we see regularly in IHE, where the writer wishes for some condition that is contrary to all the current social and financial forces. Those op eds are not worth the electrons they are printed with because they cause nobody to act differently.

If you can say that your op ed supported a broader effort to get a policy change, then mention a prominent ally in that effort. If it was successful, then acknowledge that you helped.

I agree with Hibush: if there's a specific action that can be taken that is backed up with solid research, then write that op ed to get the word out to the public and then send a copy directly to the decision makers asking for a meeting.

However, an op ed alone is worthless; if you're to have impact on policy, then you must regularly be speaking with the decision makers as one of the experts they consult and work to craft the policies.  Being a talking head is not nearly as influential on policies as being the relative publicly unknown who sits at the big table and works directly on the policy.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'd like to do some writing along these lines, both because it would be fun to link my research to current events and because it could help me demonstrate impact for my tenure file.

Spork's post made me think about your aim in doing this.

What do you mean by impact and how will linking your work to current events do that? Has your work had an impact on current events? Or do you mean you want the general public to learn of your work? How will that help you get tenure?

My work has had a decent amount of impact in my field, in terms of citations, landing on syllabi, etc., but it would be nice to show impact going beyond the academy. My research is policy relevant, and the purpose of op eds would be to reach the policy community and the public more generally. I'm not saying this will be an important dimension of my tenure file, but something nice at the margins. I should also note that my department values this sort of thing, and that I'd only bother with op eds if I could land them in top outlets (e.g. major newspapers or magazines).

This plan sounds good in that you will have a high-quality complement to your central focus.

Will the op ed also complement other things happening in society?

An approach that I consider of little value is the op ed we see regularly in IHE, where the writer wishes for some condition that is contrary to all the current social and financial forces. Those op eds are not worth the electrons they are printed with because they cause nobody to act differently.

If you can say that your op ed supported a broader effort to get a policy change, then mention a prominent ally in that effort. If it was successful, then acknowledge that you helped.

I agree with Hibush: if there's a specific action that can be taken that is backed up with solid research, then write that op ed to get the word out to the public and then send a copy directly to the decision makers asking for a meeting.

However, an op ed alone is worthless; if you're to have impact on policy, then you must regularly be speaking with the decision makers as one of the experts they consult and work to craft the policies.  Being a talking head is not nearly as influential on policies as being the relative publicly unknown who sits at the big table and works directly on the policy.

Thanks for the comments. This would be directly related to my research: My recent article finds x, and therefore the government should do xyz. Of course, it has to be presented differently for a magazine or newspaper, but the point is to offer a research based policy solution to a problem.

As for policy influence not stemming from op eds, I half agree. Policymakers and their aides do read the major newspapers, but a single article may not reach them and is not likely to change their approach. The idea I would put forward already has some support in the policy community - partly informed my journal articles - and so there is already a degree of familiarity and interest.

Anyway, I don't want to become a talking head or a fixture on tv/newspapers, and I don't think that is feasible anyway, but I'd be happy to interject into the conversation on the handful of policy issues that I care about and have expertise on.