by Laura Crossett, 1998-2008
Most newspapers worth their salt have an editorial page (sometimes called an opinion page). The newspaper's editorial board meets regularly to decide what issues of the day are worthy of their comment, and, having discussed them and come up with an opinion, an editorial writer is assigned to pen a short piece. Editorials often comment on recent national or local events--such as legislation under consideration by Congress or a city council. Sometimes they endorse candidates for political office, and occasionally they comment on current societal or cultural trends.
The editorial page also contains columns from that newspaper's regular contributors, and often political cartoons. (Smaller papers often don't have their own columnists and buy nationally syndicated columns to run. Very few papers have their own political cartoonists--there are only about 175 in the country that do).
Traditionally, the page opposite the editorial page (hence the term "op-ed") contains opinion pieces that are not written by the newspaper's staff. Letters to the editor go here, as do guest opinions, which are basically like editorials or columns, except they're written by outsiders.
Your group will be responsible for producing at least one guest opinion for a newspaper. A guest opinion should be opinionated, but it should also be informed. Guest opinions are sometimes written by professionals--doctors or lawyers or professors--who have some expertise on the issue at hand. You don't have those credentials, so your credibility will come from how well you can present your group as an informed and reliable source on this subject. The New York Times' David Shipley has a good piece on op-eds, which you may also wish to read.
For inspiration, I recommend that you look through the editorial and op-ed pages of various newspapers. Your guest opinion should be informative and make a specific point, and it should not exceed 800 words.
The guest opinion you write may turn out to be a work of group authorship, but if it does have one or two primary authors, please note this on the copy you turn in to me.
by Laura Crossett, 1998-2008