Summary: Write an Op-Ed on an environmental, genetic or biological factor that affects a population’s health explaining why your factor is important to a population’s health.
Objectives: Upon completion of this assignment, students will be able to:
Explain an environmental, biological or genetic factor that affects a population’s health; Develop real-world writing skills.
Instructions:
Review the following resources to learn about writing an Op-Ed:
10 Steps to Writing an Op-Ed: http://ccmc.org/tips/ten-steps-to-writing-an-op-ed/ (Links to an external site.)
New York Times Instructions of Op-Eds: https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014809107-How-to-submit-an-Op-Ed-article (Links to an external site.)
What is an Op-Ed?
OpEd, short for Opposite the Editorial, is a newspaper opinion piece from contributors not affiliated with the editorial board. Limited in most newspapers to 700 to 1200 words, but yours will be shorter for the purposes of the course.
Write an Op-Ed of approximately 500 words (or two pages) that allows you to analyze an environmental, biological or genetic factor that affects a population’s health. Choose a factor that you care about—one that you actually want to see in print. Please include: 1) a title and an acknowledgement of your target audience (potential publication outlet); 2) an inspirational Op-Ed piece (back up your argument by citing at least one published study); and 3) conclude your paper with a one-sentence byline identifying yourself and your expertise (don’t include title and byline in word count).
Some Op-Ed Writing Tips:
Op-eds are not literature reviews.
Consider the intended audience of the publication and the way in which your op-ed reaches that demographic. If possible, look up the submission guidelines for the journal or newspaper or editorial service where you could submit your writing.
Hook your piece to something that has happened in the world recently
Some questions that may be useful to ask yourself when getting started include:
What specific issue or controversy are you responding to?
Why is it important to consider this issue now?
What evidence/insight have other authors offered in support of their position(s)?
What additional evidence or insight do you have that could shed new light onto the matter at hand?
Your Op-Ed should be APPROXIMATELY 500 WORDS (OR TWO PAGES) AND DOUBLE-SPACED. Use no smaller than font size 11pt and one inch margins (top, bottom, left and right).
