Though there are still two more editions of The Herald to go this semester, they are our Special Edition and our online edition. This will be my last print edition as Opinion Editor where you hear my voice directly, so naturally I feel the need to get more personal.
Being the opinion editor gives me a distinction from the rest of the editors in the paper. I am the only one whose voice you hear directly. I am speaking to you, directly, in my own words, with my own thoughts.
This is a vulnerable experience, to put my face and my opinions together. I am incredibly fortunate that no one has ever confronted me in person about an opinion article they didn’t like. It is even more vulnerable when I write about topics that concern me as a person, or when I speak about the experiences I’ve had and how they shape me as a person.
I have done the majority of the Opinion pieces in my stint as Editor, sometimes going months without another person’s voice on the page. Writing these articles is clearly something I’m good at. So in my last appearance in the campus newspaper boxes, I want to talk about how to write a good opinion piece, and how to form a good opinion in general.
The first thing to remember is to be open-minded. As much as you hear “trust your gut” and “stick to your guns,” sometimes it is better to examine the facts and allow yourself to come to a new conclusion. No matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on, it hurts no one to understand why the other side is saying what they’re saying. In other words, you’ll get farther by understanding other people’s opinions than by assuming everyone who believes the opposite of what you believe is a villain.
I do a lot of research for my opinions, especially on topics I don’t know much about right off the bat. Sometimes my opinion changes after doing more research on the topic – for example, my piece about Hanukkah music was originally going to be “why are there no good hanukkah songs” before I discovered the long list of good Hanukkah music out there. I also hyperlink my sources on the web versions of my articles, so anyone reading them there can get more information to form their own opinions with.
Talking to people is also a good way to research an opinion. Talk to your friends, talk to your coworkers, talk to your teachers, talk to your classmates. When something happens, talk to the people around you about it. You’ll learn more information on topics, you’ll get more insight and experiences. You might form an opinion about a topic, then talk to someone with more experience about the issue and wind up changing your mind. There’s a reason ancient scholars lived in groups. If there’s an event in the news about something I don’t know a lot about, I’ll ask my coworkers if they know anything.
Once you’ve formed an opinion on something, you have to be able to explain it and argue your point. All opinions! Even if they’re small things like “I think dipping fries in mayo tastes good.” If you had a reaction to that sentence, justify it! And if you can’t justify it, figure out why – you may wind up changing your opinion altogether. Many people tend to pick a stance on an issue without understanding why, and those sorts of opinions always fall apart on further inspection.
If you do wind up changing your mind on an opinion, that’s totally fine. That’s growth. It’s natural and encouraged to change your mind on things as you get older and the world changes around you.
Similarly, you have to learn how to let things go. Being a journalist means I am exposed to a great deal of bad news on a daily basis. You have to learn how to put issues down and move on. You cannot possibly spend your life worrying about crises you cannot solve. This also applies to your own mistakes. Sometimes you misspell your own name. Sometimes you fact-check someone’s article and they hate you forever. You cannot dwell on things forever without hurting yourself.
I don’t think my job is particularly hard. I’m great at complaining about things, and the frequency with which I use social media means I hear about a lot of current topics that make it onto my page. It’s always good to be informed and think for yourself, even if you’re not getting paid to write about it. Critical thinking is a good practice, and I’d love to see more people master it.
Categories: Opinion
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