Op-Eds aren’t for everyone.

Writing an op-ed was ultimately more challenging than I expected. I think this comes from my academic and professional writing backgrounds—where my opinion was seldom seen and even absent. In undergrad I studied Psychology and French, and the majority of my assignments were research papers. Psychology papers, in particular, take a form that should be free of bias. Past undergrad and into my professional experience in communications for a nonprofit, it was my role to write for the voice of the organization. 

Thus, writing an op-ed in a graduate school class posed a whole new challenge. Finding a topic came naturally, but weaving personal feelings into the writing took time. There was a bit of trial and error. I felt like I had to navigate what opinion writing looked like in practice. Reading examples surely helped, and I came to realize there are several different ways to effectively pose an opinion through writing. It doesn’t always have to be “this is my opinion” per se, but the opinion can shine strongly through your piece through a strong presentation of arguments and quotes. 

I think I also may have struggled initially because I had strong personal feelings about my topic. One may think this means writing an opinion piece would be easier—but I was worried that if I came on too strong in my writing the reader would take the argument as biased rather than calculated. I am not sure that opinion writing is something I would return to, but I feel confident in writing this style again.