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How to Find Editorials

Find editorials: infographic, how to find pro/con arguments, pro/con arguments (video), pro/con arguments: infograph.

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An editorial is a written piece most often found in newspapers and magazines that typically addresses the opinion or viewpoint of senior editorial staff on a current or controversial issue.

  • Find Editorials What do others think about specific issues? Follow the tips on this page to limit your searches in common databases to editorials.

Find Editorials (Accessible View)

Why use editorials.

Editorials can provide you with specific opinions or viewpoints on a given issue. As a rule, editorials focus on current, controversial topics.

Find editorials in databases:

Newspaper Databases often allow you to limit your results by "Editorials" as the document type.

Academic Search Ultimate allows you to limit results. In the left-hand side of the results list, select “Editorials” as the document type. To view individual editorials, click the HTML or PDF Full Text, or Discover links.

Nexis Uni offers a "News" section on the left-hand side of the page. 

Undergraduate Library has a great selection of general magazines where you can find editorials. Titles are shelved alphabetically in the periodicals section.

General Search Tips

Keep in mind the dates when your topic was of particular interest.

You are most likely to get the best results in your search for topics of national , rather than local or regional, interest.

Avoid using terms "pro" and "con" in your search, unless the issue frequently uses pro- or con- to identify supporters of the position (i.e. pro-life, pro-choice).

Read the abstracts of the editorials, when available, as these will provide you with a brief summary of the writer's viewpoint.

Analyzing pro and con arguments forces readers to confront points of view. This enables readers to consider more facets of an issue and to develop a better understanding of the issue.

  • Find Pro/Con Arguments When seeking information about a particular point of view or side of an issue researching the pro/con arguments can be helfpul. Follow the strategies in this guide to do so more efficiently.

Pro / Con Arguments (Accessible View) 

Why use pro/con arguments?

Readers are forced to confront multiple points of view when analyzing pro and con arguments. This enables readers to consider more facets of an issue and to develop a better understanding of the topic. 

Where to find pro/con arguments:

  • Although you have to make sure that your sources are credible, the internet has great pro/con resources, such as the US State Department's Press and Policy Issues pages. 
  • Online databases such as CQ Researcher and Academic Search Ultimate have great starting point for contemporary topics. 
  • Check out the online catalog and use search terms such as: "contemporary world issues", "current controversies", and "opposing viewpoints."

Searching on your own

When to use pro/con arguments:

Pro/Con arguments often deal with current , controversial topics .

You are most likely to get the best results in your search for topics of a national , rather than local or regional, interest.

Avoid using terms "pro" and "con" in your search. Instead, read the subject terms and abstracts of the articles that discuss your topic. You'll often see both sides of the argument presented in one article or in a group of articles. 

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  • Last Updated: Feb 26, 2024 2:17 PM
  • URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/rhetoric

editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

Opinion Pieces and Editorials: A Comprehensive Writing Guide

  • Published: November 16, 2023
  • By: Yellowbrick

Opinion Pieces and Editorials: A Writing Guide

Opinion pieces and editorials play a crucial role in journalism, offering writers a platform to express their perspectives and influence public opinion. These forms of writing allow individuals to delve into a range of topics, from politics and social issues to entertainment and culture. Whether you aspire to become a journalist, a columnist, or simply want to enhance your writing skills, this comprehensive guide will provide you with the necessary tools to craft compelling opinion pieces and editorials.

Choose a Relevant and Engaging Topic

The first step in writing an impactful opinion piece or editorial is selecting a topic that is both relevant and interesting. Consider current events, trending topics, or issues that you are passionate about. It’s essential to choose a subject that will captivate your readers and spark their curiosity.

Conduct Thorough Research

Before you start writing, it’s crucial to gather as much information as possible about your chosen topic. Conduct thorough research from reliable sources, such as reputable news outlets, academic journals, and expert opinions. This will help you build a strong foundation for your argument and ensure your piece is well-informed.

Understand Different Perspectives

While writing an opinion piece, it’s important to acknowledge and understand various perspectives on the topic. This will help you present a balanced argument and avoid appearing biased. Analyze different viewpoints, gather supporting evidence, and consider counterarguments to strengthen your piece.

Develop a Clear and Persuasive Thesis

A strong thesis statement is the backbone of any opinion piece or editorial. It should clearly state your main argument and provide a roadmap for the rest of your article. Craft a thesis that is concise, persuasive, and captures the essence of your viewpoint.

Structure Your Piece Effectively

To ensure your opinion piece or editorial flows smoothly, follow a logical structure. Start with an attention-grabbing introduction that hooks the reader and provides context for your argument. Then, develop your points in the body paragraphs, providing evidence and examples to support your claims. Finally, conclude your piece with a compelling ending that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Use Clear and Concise Language

Opinion pieces and editorials should be written in a clear and concise manner. Avoid using jargon or overly complex language that may alienate your readers. Instead, opt for simple and impactful language that effectively communicates your ideas.

Incorporate Compelling Evidence

To strengthen your argument, it’s essential to back up your claims with compelling evidence. Use statistics, research findings, and expert opinions to support your viewpoints. This will add credibility to your piece and make it more persuasive.

Engage with Your Audience

Opinion pieces and editorials are meant to engage and provoke thought in readers. Consider your target audience and tailor your writing style accordingly. Use rhetorical questions, anecdotes, or personal experiences to captivate your readers and invite them to think critically about the topic.

Edit and Revise

After completing your initial draft, take the time to edit and revise your opinion piece or editorial. Check for grammatical errors, clarity of ideas, and overall coherence. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to gain valuable insights and improve your writing.

Submit to Appropriate Platforms

Once you are satisfied with your final draft, it’s time to submit your opinion piece or editorial to relevant platforms. Consider pitching your article to newspapers, magazines, or online publications that align with your chosen topic. Additionally, consider publishing your work on personal blogs or social media platforms to reach a wider audience.

Opinion pieces and editorials are powerful tools for shaping public discourse and influencing opinions. By following this writing guide, you will be well-equipped to craft compelling and impactful pieces that resonate with readers. Remember, the key to success lies in thorough research, clear argumentation, and engaging storytelling. Happy writing!

Key Takeaways

Writing opinion pieces and editorials can be a powerful way to express your perspectives and influence public opinion. Here are the key takeaways from this writing guide:

  • Choose a relevant and engaging topic that captivates your readers and sparks their curiosity.
  • Conduct thorough research to gather information from reliable sources, building a strong foundation for your argument.
  • Understand different perspectives on the topic to present a balanced argument and avoid appearing biased.
  • Develop a clear and persuasive thesis statement that captures the essence of your viewpoint.
  • Structure your piece effectively with an attention-grabbing introduction, well-developed body paragraphs, and a compelling ending.
  • Use clear and concise language, avoiding jargon and complex terms that may alienate your readers.
  • Incorporate compelling evidence, such as statistics and expert opinions, to strengthen your argument.
  • Engage with your audience by tailoring your writing style to resonate with them and using rhetorical questions or personal anecdotes.
  • Edit and revise your work to ensure clarity of ideas, coherence, and grammatical accuracy.
  • Submit your opinion piece or editorial to appropriate platforms, such as newspapers, magazines, or personal blogs, to reach a wider audience.

To further enhance your writing skills and gain valuable insights into the world of modern journalism, consider enrolling in the NYU | Modern Journalism online course and certificate program offered by Yellowbrick. This program provides a comprehensive curriculum designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in the field of journalism.

Remember, writing opinion pieces and editorials is not only about expressing your own views but also about engaging with your readers and influencing public discourse. With practice and dedication, you can become a persuasive and impactful writer in the world of journalism.

Enter your email to learn more and get a full course catalog!

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Writing Beginner

How To Write An Editorial (7 Easy Steps, Examples, & Guide)

Writing an editorial is one of those things that sounds like it should be pretty straightforward. Easy, even.

But then you sit down to start typing. Your fingers freeze over the keyboard. You gaze into the perfectly blank white space of your computer screen.

Wait , you think. How do I write an editorial ?

Here’s how to write an editorial:

  • Choose a newsworthy topic (Something with broad interest)
  • Choose a clear purpose (This will guide your entire process)
  • Select an editorial type (Opinion, solution, criticism, persuasive, etc)
  • Gather research (Facts, quotes, statistics, etc)
  • Write the editorial (Using an Editorial Template that includes an introduction, argument, rebuttal, and conclusion)
  • Write the headline (Title)
  • Edit your editorial (Grammar, facts, spelling, structure, etc)

In this article, we’ll go through each of these steps in detail so that you know exactly how to write an editorial.

What Is an Editorial? (Quick Definition)

Stack of newspapers - How To Write an Editorial

Before we jump into the mechanics of how to write an editorial, it’s helpful to get a good grasp on the definition of editorials.

Here is a simple definition to get us started:

An editorial is a brief essay-style piece of writing from a newspaper, magazine, or other publication. An editorial is generally written by the editorial staff, editors, or writers of a publication.

Of course, there’s a lot more to it than simply dashing out an essay.

There is the purpose, different types of editorials, elements of a good editorial, structure, steps to writing an editorial, and the actual mechanics of writing your editorial.

“In essence, an editorial is an opinionated news story.” – Alan Weintraut

What Is the Purpose of an Editorial?

The purpose of an editorial is to share a perspective, persuade others of your point of view, and possibly propose a solution to a problem.

The most important part is to pick one purpose and stick to it.

Rambling, incoherent editorials won’t do. They won’t get you the results or the response you might want.

When it comes to purpose, you want:

  • Singular focus
  • Personal connection

The first two probably make sense with no explanation. That last one (personal connection) deserves more attention.

The best editorials arise from personal passions, values, and concerns. You will naturally write with vigor and voice. Your emotion will find its way into your words.

Every bit of this will make your editorials instantly more compelling.

What Are the Different Types of Editorials?

There are two main types of editorials and a number of different subtypes.

One of the first steps in how to write an editorial is choosing the right type for your intended purpose or desired outcome.

The two main types of editorials:

Opinion Editorial

In an opinion editorial, the author shares a personal opinion about a local or national issue.

The issue can be anything from local regulations to national human trafficking.

Typically, the topic of an editorial is related to the topics covered in the publication. Some publications, like newspapers, cover many topics.

Solution Editorial

In a solution editorial, the author offers a solution to a local or national problem.

It’s often recommended for the author of solution editorials to cite credible sources as evidence for the validity of the proposed solution (BTW, research is also important for opinion editorials).

There are also several editorial subtypes based on purpose:

  • Explain (you can explain a person, place, or thing)
  • Criticism (you can critically examine a person, place, or thing)
  • Praise (celebrate a person, place, or thing)
  • Defend (you can defend a person, place, or thing)
  • Endorsement (support a person, place, or thing)
  • Catalyst (for conversation or change)

How To Write an Editorial (7 Easy Steps)

As a reminder, you can write an editorial by following seven simple steps.

  • Choose a topic
  • Choose a purpose
  • Select an editorial type
  • Gather research
  • Write the editorial
  • Write the headline
  • Edit your editorial

If you want a short, visual explanation of how to write an editorial, check out this video from a bona fide New York Times Editor:

1) Choose a Newsworthy Topic

How do you choose a topic for your editorial?

You have several options. Your best bet is to go with a topic about which you feel strongly and that has broad appeal.

Consider these questions:

  • What makes you angry?
  • What makes your blood boil?
  • What gets you excited?
  • What is wrong with your community or the world?

When you write from a place of passion, you imbue your words with power. That’s how to write an editorial that resonates with readers.

2) Choose a Purpose

The next step for how to write an editorial is to choose your purpose.

What do you want to accomplish with your editorial? What ultimate outcome do you desire? Answering these questions will both focus your editorial and help you select the most effective editorial type.

Remember: a best practice is honing in on one specific purpose.

Your purpose might be:

  • To trigger a specific action (such as voting)
  • To raise awareness
  • To change minds on an issue

3) Select a type

Now it’s time to select the best editorial type for your writing. Your type should align with your purpose.

In fact, your purpose probably tells you exactly what kind of editorial to write.

First, determine which major type of editorial best fits your purpose. You can do this by asking yourself, “Am I giving an opinion or offering a solution?”

Second, select your subtype. Again, look to your purpose. Do you want to explain? Persuade? Endorse? Defend?

Select one subtype and stick to it.

4) Gather Research

Don’t neglect this important step.

The research adds value, trust, credibility, and strength to your argument. Think of research as evidence. What kind of evidence do you need?

You might need:

  • Research findings

All of these forms of evidence strengthen your argument.

Shoot for a mix of evidence that combines several different variations. For example, include an example, some statistics, and research findings.

What you want to avoid:

  • Quote, quote, quote
  • Story, story, story

Pro tip: you can find research articles related to your topic by going to Google Scholar.

For other evidence, try these sources:

  • US Census Bureau
  • US Government
  • National Bureau of Economic Research

You might also want to check with your local librarian and community Chamber of Commerce for local information.

5) Write Your Editorial

Finally, you can start writing your editorial.

Aim to keep your editorial shorter than longer. However, there is no set length for an editorial.

For a more readable editorial, keep your words and sentences short. Use simple, clear language. Avoid slang, acronyms, or industry-specific language.

If you need to use specialized language, explain the words and terms to the reader.

The most common point of view in editorials is first person plural. In this point of view, you use the pronouns “we” and “us.”

When writing your editorial, it’s helpful to follow an Editorial Template. The best templates include all of the essential parts of an editorial.

Here is a basic Editorial template you can follow:

Introduction Response/Reaction Evidence Rebuttal Conclusion

Here is a brief breakdown of each part of an editorial:

Introduction: The introduction is the first part of an editorial. It is where the author introduces the topic that they will be discussing. In an editorial, the author typically responds to a current event or issue.

Response/Reaction: The response/reaction is the part of the editorial where the author gives their opinion on the topic. They state their position and give reasons for why they believe what they do.

Evidence: The evidence is typically a series of facts or examples that support the author’s position. These can be statistics, quotations from experts, or personal experiences.

Rebuttal: The rebuttal is the part of the editorial where the author addresses any arguments or counter-arguments that may be raised against their position. They refute these arguments and offer additional evidence to support their point of view.

Conclusion: The conclusion is the last part of an editorial. It wraps up the author’s argument and provides a final statement on the topic.

6) Write The Headline

Your headline must be catchy, not clickbait. There’s a fine line between the two, and it’s not always a clear line.

Characteristics of a catchy headline:

  • Makes the reader curious
  • Includes at least one strong emotion
  • Clearly reveals the subject of the editorial
  • Short and sweet
  • Doesn’t overpromise or mislead (no clickbait)

Your headline will either grab a reader’s attention or it will not. I suggest you spend some time thinking about your title. It’s that important. You can also learn how to write headlines from experts.

Use these real editorial headlines as a source of inspiration to come up with your own:

  • We Came All This Way to Let Vaccines Go Bad in the Freezer?
  • What’s the matter with Kansas?
  • War to end all wars
  • Still No Exit
  • Zimbabwe’s Stolen Election
  • Running out of time
  • Charter Schools = Choices

Suggested read: How To Write an Autobiography

7) Edit Your Editorial

The final step is to edit and proofread your editorial.

You will want to check your editorial for typos, spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes.

I suggest that you also review your piece for structure, tone, voice, and logical flaws.

Your editorial will be out in the public domain where any troll with a keyboard or smartphone (which, let’s be honest, is everyone) can respond to you.

If you’ve done your job, your editorial will strike a nerve.

You might as well assume that hordes of people might descend on your opinion piece to dissect every detail. So check your sources. Check the accuracy of dates, numbers, and figures in your piece.

Double-check the spelling of names and places. Make sure your links work.

Triple-check everything.

Editorial Structures and Outlines

As you learn how to write an editorial, you have many choices.

One choice is your selection of structure.

There are several editorial structures, outlines, and templates. Choose the one that best fits your topic, purpose, and editorial type.

Every editorial will have a beginning, middle, and end.

Here are a few specific structures you can use:

  • Problem, Solution, Call to Action
  • Story, Message, Call to Action
  • Thesis, Evidence, Recommendation
  • Your View, Opposing Views, Conclusion

How Do You Start an Editorial?

A common way to start an editorial is to state your point or perspective.

Here are a few other ways to start your editorial:

  • The problem
  • Startling statement
  • Tell a story
  • Your solution

Other than the headline, the beginning of your editorial is what will grab your reader.

If you want to write an editorial that gets read, then you must write a powerful opening.

How Do You End an Editorial?

You can end with a call-to-action, a thoughtful reflection, or a restatement of your message.

Keep in mind that the end of your editorial is what readers will most likely remember.

You want your ending to resonate, to charge your reader with emotion, evidence, and excitement to take action.

After all, you wrote the editorial to change something (minds, policies, approaches, etc.).

In a few sections (see below), you will learn a few simple templates that you can “steal” to help you end your editorial. Of course, you don’t have to use the templates.

They are just suggestions.

Often, the best way to conclude is to restate your main point.

What Makes a Good Editorial?

Even if you learn how to write an editorial, it doesn’t mean the editorial will automatically be good. You may be asking, What makes a good editorial ?

A good editorial is clear, concise, and compelling.

Therefore, the best editorials are thought out with a clear purpose and point of view. What you want to avoid is a rambling, journal-type essay. This will be both confusing and boring to the reader.

That’s the last thing you want.

Here are some other elements of a good editorial:

  • Clear and vivid voice
  • Interesting point of view
  • Gives opposing points of view
  • Backed up by credible sources
  • Analyzes a situation
“A good editorial is contemporary without being populist.” —Ajai Singh and Shakuntala Singh

How Do You Know If You’ve Written a Good Editorial?

Many people want to know how to tell if they have written a good editorial.

How do you know?

You can tell by the response you get from the readers. A good editorial sparks a community conversation. A good editorial might also result in some type of action based on the solution you propose.

An article by Ajai Singh and Shakuntala Singh in Mens Sana Monograph says this about good editorials:

It tackles recent events and issues, and attempts to formulate viewpoints based on an objective analysis of happenings and conflicting/contrary opinions. Hence a hard-hitting editorial is as legitimate as a balanced equipoise that reconciles apparently conflicting positions and controversial posturings, whether amongst politicians (in news papers), or amongst researchers (in academic journals).

Note that newsworthy events, controversy, and balance matter in editorials.

It’s also a best practice to include contradicting opinions in your piece. This lends credibility and even more balance to your peice.

Editorial Examples & Templates

As you write your own editorial, study the following example templates “stolen” from real editorials.

You can use these templates as “sentence starters” to inspire you to write your own completely original sentences.

Phrases for the beginning:

  • It’s been two weeks since…
  • Look no further than…
  • The country can’t…

Phrases for the middle:

  • That’s an astonishing failure
  • It should never have come to this
  • Other [counties, states, countries, etc.] are…
  • Within a few days…
  • Not everyone shares my [opinion, pessimism, optimism]
  • Officials say…

Phrases for the end:

  • Let’s commit to…
  • Finally…
  • If we can…we will…

Honestly, the best way to learn how to write an editorial is to read and study as many published editorials as possible. The more you study, the better you will understand what works.

Study more editorials at these links:

  • New York Times editorials
  • USA Today editorials
  • The Washington Post

How To Write an Editorial for Students

Writing an editorial for students is virtually the same as writing an editorial at any other time.

However, your teacher or professor might give you specific instructions, guidelines, and restrictions. You’ll want to read all of these thoroughly, get clarity, and follow the “rules” as much as possible.

Writing an editorial is a skill that will come in handy throughout your life. Whether you’re writing a letter to the editor of your local paper or creating a post for your blog, being able to communicate your ideas clearly and persuasively is an important skill. Here are some tips to help you write an effective editorial:

  • Know your audience. Who are you writing for? What are their concerns and interests? Keep this in mind as you craft your message.
  • Make a clear argument. What is it that you want your readers to know? What do you want them to do? Be sure to state your case clearly and concisely.
  • Support your argument with evidence. Use facts, statistics, and expert opinions to make your case.
  • Use strong language . Choose words that will resonate with your readers and make them want to take action.
  • Be persuasive, not blasting. You want your readers to be convinced by your argument, not turned off by aggressive language. Stay calm and collected as you make your case.

By following these tips, you can write an effective student editorial that will get results.

What Is an Editorial In a Newspaper?

The editorial section of a newspaper is where the publication’s editorial board weighs in on important issues facing the community. This section also includes columns from guest writers and staff members, as well as letters to the editor.

The editorial board is made up of the publication’s top editors, who are responsible for setting the tone and direction of the paper.

In addition to op-eds, the editorial section also features editorials, which are written by the editorial board and represent the official position of the paper on an issue.

While editorial boards may lean one way or another politically, they strive to present both sides of every issue in a fair and unbiased way.

Ultimately, the goal of the editorial section is to promote thoughtful discussion and debate on the topics that matter most to readers.

Final Thoughts: How To Write an Editorial

Whew , we have covered a lot of ground in this article. I hope that you have gained everything you need to know about how to write an editorial.

There are a lot of details that go into writing a good editorial.

If you get confused or overwhelmed, know that you are not alone. Know that many other writers have been there before, and have struggled with the same challenges.

Mostly, know that you got this .

Related posts:

  • How To Write an Ode (7 Easy Steps & Examples)
  • Jasper Commands Template: Ultimate Guide + 300 Commands
  • Best AI Essay Writer (With Examples)
  • The Best Writing Books for Beginners

National Institute of Health (On Editorials)

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Article contents

Editorial journalism and newspapers’ editorial opinions.

  • Julie Firmstone Julie Firmstone School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.803
  • Published online: 26 March 2019

Editorial journalism and newspapers’ editorial opinions represent an area of research that can make an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between the press and politics. Editorials are a distinctive format and are the only place in a newspaper where the opinions of a paper as an organization are explicitly represented. Newspapers and the journalists who write editorials play a powerful role in constructing political debate in the public sphere. They use their editorial voice to attempt to influence politics either indirectly, through reaching public opinion, or directly, by targeting politicians. Editorial journalism is at its most persuasive during elections, when newspapers traditionally declare support for candidates and political parties. Despite the potential of editorial opinions to influence democratic debate, and controversy over the way newspapers and their proprietors use editorials to intervene in politics, editorial journalism is under-researched. Our understanding of the significance of this distinctive form of journalism can be better understood by exploring four key themes.

First, asking “What is editorial journalism?” establishes the context of editorial journalism as a unique practice with opinion-leading intentions. Several characteristics of editorial journalism distinguish it from other formats and genres. Editorials (also known as leading articles) require a distinctive style and form of expression, occupy a special place in the physical geography of a newspaper, represent the collective institutional voice of a newspaper rather than that of an individual, have no bylines in the majority of countries, and are written with differing aims and motivations to news reports. The historical development of journalism explains the status of editorials as a distinctive form of journalism. Professional ideals and practices evolved to demand objectivity in news reporting and the separation of fact from opinion. Historically, editorial and advocacy journalism share an ethos for journalism that endeavors to effect social or political change, yet editorial journalism is distinctive from other advocacy journalism practices in significant ways. Editorials are also an integral part of the campaign journalism practiced by some newspapers.

Second, research and approaches in the field of political communication have attributed a particularly powerful role to editorial journalism. Rooted in the effects tradition, researchers have attributed an important role to editorials in informing and shaping debate in the public sphere in four ways: (1) as an influence on readers, voters, and/or public opinion; (2) as an influence on the internal news agendas and coverage of newspapers; (3) as an influence on the agendas and coverage in other news media; and (4) as an influence on political or policy agendas. Theorizing newspapers as active and independent political actors in the political process further underpins the need to research editorial journalism. Third, editorial journalism has been overlooked by sociological studies of journalism practices. Research provides a limited understanding of the routines and practices of editorial journalists and the organization of editorial opinion at newspapers. Although rare, studies focusing on editorial journalism show that editorial opinion does not simply reflect the influence of proprietors, as has often been assumed. Rather, editorial opinions are shaped by a complex range of factors. Finally, existing research trajectories and current developments point to new challenges and opportunities for editorial journalism. These challenges relate to how professional norms respond to age-old questions about objectivity, bias, and partisanship in the digital age.

  • editorial journalism
  • leader writing
  • advocacy journalism
  • campaign journalism
  • newspapers as political actors
  • press partisanship
  • media effects
  • opinion leading
  • journalism studies

Introducing Editorial Journalism

The potential for newspapers’ editorial opinions to influence voters and politicians has driven debate and scholarship to coalesce around editorial opinion as the most tangible manifestation of the power of the press. Elections are very often followed by public debate about the power of newspapers to shape the outcome. Indeed, newspapers are not averse to claiming responsibility for influencing voters, as evidenced by the notorious British tabloid headline “It’s the Sun wot won it” the day after the unexpected election of a Conservative government in 1992 . Whether editorials have the power to change voters’ behavior is contested, yet much scholarship is based on the premise that newspapers’ opinions at least exert some influence in the construction of public knowledge: “How editorial writers interpret and use facts and opinions to persuade, to set an agenda, or to scold can bring about an important different meaning for the reading public” (Hallock, 2007 , p. 11).

The distinctive role of editorials as the collective identity of a newspaper and their overt and deliberate persuasive intentions distinguish editorial journalism from other journalism. Our understanding of the significance of this distinctive form can be better understood by structuring an analysis of research and theoretical approaches to editorial journalism into four key themes. The first draws on research to define editorial journalism as a distinctive practice. The second theme considers the significance attributed to editorial journalism by theoretical approaches that conceptualize the opinion-leading role of the press and provide evidence of the persuasive power of editorials in the public sphere. In the third theme, findings from sociological studies of the practice of editorial journalism are reviewed to consider influences on newspapers’ editorial opinions. Finally, existing research trajectories and current developments point to new challenges and opportunities for editorial journalism. These challenges relate to how professional norms respond to age-old questions about objectivity, bias, and partisanship in the digital age.

Editorial Journalism as a Distinct Genre and Practice

The genre of editorial journalism is exclusive to newspapers and refers to the practice of writing editorial articles (editorials), sometimes known as leaders or leading articles. These articles make up the editorial column, an historical feature of the printed newspaper format worldwide although there are some places where editorials are not commonplace including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria. 1 Editorials are published in the name of the newspaper rather than attributed to individual journalists (see below for exceptions), and are intended to represent the collective opinion or the public voice of a newspaper. Editorials allow newspapers to make allegiances known; support and oppose individuals; speak on behalf of their readers; speak to readers; and speak to politicians, parties, and other organizations. Editorial journalism is not be confused with the use of the term “editorial” to refer to content in a news product that has been produced as journalism rather than other non-journalistic content such as advertising. The concept as explored here also differs from “editorializing,” which can occur in all types of journalism. Editorializing refers to instances when a personal opinion is expressed, usually when a journalist should only be giving a report of the facts.

Editorials differ from other opinion formats such as columns, commentary pages, letters to the editor, op-ed pages, or guest contributions. Formats vary but it is most common for editorials to be physically located toward the front or midway through the newspaper, and they are usually adjacent to the op-ed pages, cartoons, and letters to the editor. In some places editorials appear on the back page (Greece), on the front page (Saudi Arabia), or either on the front page or the first four to six pages (China). In some countries, there are variations among newspapers, for example, with some publishing editorials with bylines on page 2 and others giving comment in the name of the paper on page 22 (France). In Australia, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, papers tend to publish editorials in roughly the same place (the middle) each day as a matter of tradition. With the exception of Greece, Sweden, some French papers (and no doubt some other countries), editorials are not attributed to individual journalists because they represent the collective voice of the newspaper.

The separation and clear identification of editorial articles as opinion has been carried over to online versions of newspapers. Editorials are written by specialist journalists known as leader writers (in the United Kingdom) who occupy senior positions within newspapers and/or by members of the editorial board (in the United States), and by high profile named journalists (Greece). In the most common format in the United Kingdom, a daily leader column consists of three editorial articles, usually of diminishing length and with the first article indicating prominence. Editorials vary in length according to the traditional newspapers formats (broadsheet/quality/tabloid) and are rarely over five hundred words. The editorial (or leader) column is most often visually framed as the institutional view of the paper, with headers that often include newspaper mastheads, value statements, crests, or logos. In exceptional cases such as election time or as part of a newspaper’s campaign, editorial opinion is published in a different format to give it greater prominence. Publishing editorials in unusual places such as on the front page (rare in the United Kingdom), or devoting an entire page or a double-page spread to an editorial pushes a newspaper’s opinion further up the agenda (Firmstone, 2016 , 2017 ).

The visual and physical demarcation of editorials from other content evolved as a crucial practice by which to observe the professional journalistic norm of separating fact from opinion. The ethical motivation to ensure that fact-based content is not tainted is further assured by the common practice of enforcing an unmovable boundary between the roles of news and opinion production.

The History of Editorial Journalism

Editorials and their status as a distinct genre stem from the historical development of journalism as a profession with ideals and practices that demand news reporting to be objective, to separate fact from opinion and, in the United States, to maintain a commitment to neutrality (a non-partisan press). The editorial emerged as a distinct format in response to the norms and values associated with the establishment of journalism as a profession in the early 20th century . Comprehensive historical accounts of the development of newspaper journalism (predominantly only available for the United States) describe how the separation of fact and opinion became a central organizing principle of journalistic practice (Jacobs & Townsley, 2011 ; Schudson, 1978 ). In tracing the origins of the leading article back to Victorian times, Liddle describes editorial journalism in the 1800s as “the most important, authoritative, and characteristic mode of British journalism” (Liddle, 1999 , p. 5).

From a point in the 1860s when the U.S. press was at its most political and expressed allegiances to political parties explicitly, newspapers moved to cut their official ties with political parties over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries . Great value was placed on demonstrating independence from parties and government through objective, fair, balanced reporting. At the same time, newspapers and their owners wanted to assert their voice as an independent and powerful force in public deliberation.

The creation of the editorial column in the United States in the 1920s enabled a strict separation of fact-based “objective” journalism from opinion (Schudson, 1978 ). Editorials were introduced as a vehicle to illustrate to readers a newspaper’s independence from government on a daily basis (Conboy, 2005 ). The segregation of news reporting from editorial opinion also served to allow journalists to defend their reporting as independent from the capitalist interests of newspaper owners. In the early 21st century , journalistic norms in the United States dictate that news pages report objectively and autonomously from the political views and opinions of the editorial board and proprietors. This requirement features in the American Society of News Editors “Statement of Principles”: “To be impartial does not require the press to be unquestioning or to refrain from editorial expression. Sound practice, however, demands a clear distinction for the reader between news reports and opinion. Articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified” (ASNE, 2018 ).

The corresponding regulatory guidelines in the United Kingdom highlight a key difference in the way that the objectivity norm developed on each side of the Atlantic. Although objectivity in the United States was bound up with the development of an impartial press, the values British newspaper journalists associated with objectivity did not evolve to prohibit partisanship (Hampton, 2008 ). Instead, objectivity was more about independence and truth, and developed in institutionally specific contexts. The Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO) guidelines state that newspapers are “free to editorialise and campaign but are obliged to make a clear distinction between comment, conjecture and fact” (IPSO, 2018 ). In spite of these voluntary regulations, the line between opinion and fact-based news reporting in the United Kingdom is blurred. Although no longer officially aligned with political parties, the U.K. press is famously partisan. Although news reporting purports to operate separately from opinion, it is generally agreed that editorial opinions shape the selection and framing of news reports.

Unfortunately, less is known about the historical development of editorial journalism in other cultural contexts. As the field of journalism studies expands, cross-national studies reveal that objectivity varies in importance in different journalistic cultures (Hallin & Mancini, 2004 ). For example, in Germany a clear distinction is not made between subjective commentary and news reporting (Esser, 1998 ; Hallin & Mancini, 2004 ). Despite such country-based differences, the editorial column represents a common format worldwide, where such deliberations are not required.

Newspapers’ Editorial Opinions and Partisanship

Newspapers use the distinctive format of an editorial to intervene into politics and to influence public opinion. During elections, newspapers traditionally use their editorial voice to endorse a candidate or party. The endorsement of political candidates is an “integral part of the electoral machinery” (Meltzer, 2007 , p. 99) and the bellwether of a newspaper’s partisanship. Endorsements and support for parties are often the culmination of editorial opinions that have been voiced over a prolonged period prior to election periods. Explicit declarations of partisanship are typically made on or around polling day and continue to shape editorial coverage until and unless an organizational decision is made to switch allegiances. It is possible to make observations about the overall political leaning of the national press by combining measurements of partisanship with a newspaper’s share of circulation (Seymour Ure, 1997 , 2002 ; Wring & Deacon, 2010 ). The strong connection between ownership and partisanship has led to concerns about plurality because of the gradual shift toward a concentration of ownership within many national newspaper systems (Hallock, 2007 ).

Although editorials routinely engage in debates that encompass a far wider range of political opinions than the formal support of political parties, most studies only use editorials as simple measures of partisanship during election time. Even though newspapers use their editorial voice to opine on a wide range of issues, far fewer studies have measured editorial opinion outside of elections and on topics other than politics. Hallock’s historical analysis of U.S. editorials from the late 1700s to mid-1900s found that editorials were published on a vast range of topics “all in the higher cause of American nationalism and culture” (Hallock, 2007 , p. 33). The following selection of studies is referenced to indicate the range of topics newspapers have chosen to take stances on. Content analyses of editorials that go beyond simple measurements of partisanship include one of the first articles to systematically analyze editorial content that looked at the elite orientations of U.K. newspapers (Namenwirth, 1969 ), specific issues such as vice presidential and presidential campaigns, (Blankenship, Mendez-Mendez, Guen Kang, & Giodano, 1986 ; Myers, 1982 ), the deregulation of broadcasting (Pratte & Whiting, 1986 ), and the Japanese-American relocation during the Second World War in 1942 (Chiasson, 1991 ). Studies have been made of editorial framing of issues in the U.S. press relating to race (Hannah & Gandy, 2000 ; Richardson & Lancendorfer, 2004 ), the war in Afghanistan (Ryan, 2004 ), and the medical marijuana debate (Golan, 2010 ). Analyses of the editorial framing of issues in Europe include a seven-country comparison of the communication of the European Union (EU) (Pfetsch, Adam, & Eschner, 2010 ) and analyses of opinions of the U.K. press toward the EU (Firmstone, 2009 , 2016 ).

Editorials as Texts—Persuasive Style and Content

The persuasive style and content of editorials has been evaluated by scholars to varying degrees of sophistication using a range of analytical approaches including historical, content, framing and discourse analysis. Historical analyses show that the agenda and style of U.S. editorial journalism is “heavy on politics, frequently strong in emotion and language” (Hallock, 2007 , p. 41). A U.K. journalist is quoted in Liddle’s historical account as saying “I may now have it now in my power to instil the most pernicious opinions on almost any subject, into the minds of three millions of human beings” (Liddle, 1999 , p. 2). Editorial styles in the U.S. press from 1965–1985 showed a trend toward more forceful editorials which “were taking stands, employing opinion or opinion in conjunction with information in their leads and expressing reactions or calls for action in their endings” (Hynds, 1990 , p. 311). Editorial journalism demands a distinctive writing style that differs greatly from news reporting. A Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial writer advocated a successful formula to attract readers to editorials: “Report thoroughly, think clearly, write gracefully. Be passionate in your beliefs. Be persuasive in your writing” (Gartner, 2005 ). In direct contrast to most other forms of journalism, subjectivity and opinion is not only permitted in editorials—it is expected.

Editorials are discursively structured in such a way that makes it possible to identify four key elements of framing, defined by Entman ( 1993 ) and Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley ( 1997 ): the positions or judgments that newspapers take on issues (position); the way the issue is defined as a problem and the consequences of the problem (problem definition); the agents that are identified as being responsible for or causing the problem (cause); the evaluations that are given for how the problem should be treated or remedied (treatment recommendation). Evaluating editorials in the British press using this method provided evidence that editorials are written to attempt to influence politics either indirectly, through reaching public opinion, or directly, by targeting opinions directly at politicians (Firmstone, 2009 , 2007 ). Another approach based on “political claims-making” (Koopmans & Statham, 1999 ) treats an editorial as a claim or “an instance of strategic action in the public sphere” and sees editorials as structured around demands addressed to actors or institutions, who are criticized or supported in the interests of an actor in an argumentative framing (Pfetsch, Adam, & Berkel, 2008 ; Pfetsch et al., 2010 ). Editorial pages have also been the subject of a number of discourse analyses grounded in the study of linguistics. However, with the exception of Van Dijk, few discourse studies are concerned with the dynamics of editorials as journalism or as indicators of the relationship between the press and politics. Van Dijk established a model of the argumentation style of editorials, showing they are discursively constructed to intervene in public deliberation. Editorials feature three categories: (1) defining and subjectively summarizing the situation, (2) providing an evaluation of the event or issue, (3) concluding with recommendations and expectations for solutions directed at news actors (Van Dijk, 1992 , p. 244). Most recently, a “tenacity” scoring system has been developed to measure the attention-seeking features of editorial techniques that are employed to promote editorial opinions beyond the usual text-based editorial columns (Firmstone, 2016 , 2017 ).

What Makes Editorial Journalism Unique?

The norms of professional journalism limit the intentional expression of opinions to a handful of formats published separately from news. These include comment and analysis articles (known as op-eds in the United States), letters to the editor, columns, and editorial articles. Here it is important to make a further distinction beyond the dichotomy of fact-based reporting versus opinion pieces, to explain what makes editorial journalism unique. Editorials are a distinctive format because they are the only place in a newspaper where the views of the newspaper as an organization are represented. In practice, editorials reflect the views of a small and specialist group of journalists who are included in discussions about the newspaper’s editorial line, rather than any kind of consultative process with the whole staff (see “ Routines for Issue Selection, Deciding the Agenda, and the Line and Tone of Editorial Opinion ”). In addition, editorials are the principal format for the expression of a newspaper’s partisan views. In contrast, opinions in comment and analysis pieces represent the views of individual journalists or guest commentators and fulfill different objectives. Editorials are therefore the most reliable way of measuring the collective opinion of a newspaper as an entity. Understanding the opinions of newspapers as institutions or organizations as distinct from the opinions of individual journalists is considered important by scholars who are interested in the relationship between the press and politics.

Editorials and Other Forms of Opinion Journalism

Editorial journalism can be located as a specific form of journalistic practice by considering its relationship with two other types of opinion journalism: advocacy and campaign journalism. Advocacy journalism encompasses “a broad church of subjective forms of reporting that promote social issues and causes, such as ‘muckraking’, ‘crusading’, ‘alternative’, ‘activist’, ‘peace journalism’, ‘civic’ advocacy journalism and ‘interpretive’ journalism” (Fisher, 2016 , p. 714). Some definitions of advocacy journalism also include editorial comment (Anderson, Downie, Jr., & Schudson, 2016 ). Historical accounts of the development of advocacy journalism describe the introduction of editorials as a distinct format as a response to the need to keep advocacy journalism away from objectivity-driven journalism (Waisbord, 2009 ). Although editorial journalism can be considered as a specific form of advocacy journalism, it is rarely theorized or empirically researched as such. Historically, editorial and advocacy journalism share an ethos for journalism that endeavors to effect social or political change, yet editorial journalism is distinctive from other advocacy journalism practices in significant ways. Advocacy journalists make choices as individuals to attempt to effect social change on behalf of the causes they support, in contrast to the broader, collective aims of editorial writing. Editorial journalism is the result of a shared decision-making process and reflects the partisanship and position of a newspaper, not those of an individual. Advocacy journalism is adopted by journalists who reject the pursuit of objectivity in news reporting as unrealistic. In the specific role of editorial writing, journalists do not struggle to reconcile the two opposing professional values of gatekeeper and advocate identified by Janowitz in his seminal discussion of advocacy journalism (Janowitz, 1975 ). The explicit purpose and unique identity of editorial journalism distances it from common critiques of individuals who practice advocacy journalism. In contrast, critiques of editorials focus more on how proprietors and newspapers use editorials to influence public opinion and the political process.

Editorials are an integral part of the campaign journalism practiced by some newspapers. Campaign journalism is distinct from other forms of journalism, including advocacy journalism, because it aims to influence politicians rather than inform voters, and claims to advocate in the interest of the public and/or to represent public opinion (Birks, 2010 ). Other definitions highlight the close connection between editorial journalism and campaigns in stating that campaigns are a result of a conscious editorial decision on behalf of a newspaper to intervene in policy debates, with the express intention of effecting change (Firmstone, 2008 ; Howarth, 2012 ). Campaign journalism typically involves newspapers publishing a series of campaign-branded news articles and editorials over a sustained period of time. As with editorials, the partisan nature of campaign journalism is defended against accusations of bias because it is explicitly labeled as such. It is distinguishable from “straight” news. Editorial journalism can therefore be defined as the practice of journalists who produce editorial articles that represent the collective opinion of a newspaper. This entry focuses narrowly on editorial journalism as distinct from other forms of opinion journalism.

The Significance of Editorial Journalism: Persuasive Power

The significance of editorial journalism is rooted in theories about the democratic role of newspapers and the persuasive power of the news media. Concerns about concentration of ownership, close relationships between proprietors and political elites, and the degree of political parallelism between newspapers and political parties makes newspapers an important focus for anyone interested in the role of the media in democracy. In the context of this potential persuasive power, the content produced by editorial journalists has featured most commonly in political communications research. Rooted in the effects tradition, researchers have attributed an important role to editorials in informing and shaping debate in the public sphere in four ways: (1) as an influence on readers, voters, and/or public opinion; (2) as an influence on the internal news agendas and coverage of newspapers; (3) as an influence on the agendas and coverage in other news media; (4) as an influence on political or policy agendas. Aside from these roles, the field of discourse analysis considers that editorials should be read for signs of their broader political and sociocultural function. Van Dijk argues that analyses of the argumentative structure and strategies in editorials can reveal the underlying ideologies of newspapers and the journalists who write them (Van Dijk, 1992 ). He sees editorials as “the manifestation of evaluative beliefs of newspaper editors” (Van Dijk, 1995 , p. 1).

Despite the heterogeneous nature of journalism, studies of its consequences for the construction of public knowledge and its impact on the political process rarely distinguish between different journalistic roles and news formats. What follows therefore focuses as much as is possible on evidence relating specifically to editorial journalism, but necessarily refers to political journalism more broadly at times.

Influence on Readers, Voters, and Public Opinion

Newspapers make their own decisions on what issues should be selected for debate and provide their own opinion in editorials. They are not required to report on the agendas and opinions of other actors, as in news reports. By selecting and presenting issues according to their own agenda, newspapers are able to take on an active role in public deliberations of political issues. McCombs states, “Resting on the assumption that the news media are a special kind of public institution – an institution that represents the public interest vis-à-vis the government – investigative reporting and editorial campaigns actively seek to move issues onto the public agenda” (McCombs, 1997 , p. 438).

The question of whether and how newspapers’ editorial opinions influence public opinion is complex and contentious. As with the broader question of media influence and the effects tradition, researchers have struggled to find methods and contexts that can conclusively prove a causal relationship (McDonald Ladd & Lenz, 2009 ). Research design and methodological limitations mean that interpreting the relationship between newspapers’ political opinions and those of its readers is problematic. Only a small body of research has narrowed the search for media effects to exploring the relationship between editorials and public opinion. This research concentrates on editorial coverage during elections and more specifically on the relationship between editorial endorsements of parties or candidates and voting behavior. It is also highly concentrated on the U.S. media and on “quality” papers. The evidence is mixed (McDonald Ladd & Lenz, 2009 ). Some have found that endorsements have little or no effect (Norris, 1999 ), and others suggest they only affect readers who are less engaged in politics (Hagen & Jamieson, 2000 ). Such findings are in line with overall thinking, which attributes a greater influence to the media when readers are not well informed about an issue (see Iyengar, 1991 ; Kahneman & Tversky, 1984 ; Zaller, 1992 ; Zucker, 1978 ).

In a study that claimed to overcome the multiple methodological problems that limit the strength of previous findings, McDonald Ladd and Lenz ( 2009 ) profess to provide “rare evidence that the news media exert a strong influence on mass political behavior” (McDonald Ladd & Lenz, 2009 , p. 405). Examining U.K. newspaper coverage at a time when several newspapers uncharacteristically switched their partisanship ( 1997 ), they found a persuasive effect of endorsements and slant on between 10% and 25% of readers. Two studies of senatorial campaigns in the United States claim similarly strong evidence of the effects of editorial endorsements on readers (Druckman & Parkin, 2005 ; Kahn & Kenney, 2002 ). Endorsements affect citizens’ preferences, particularly those who read daily, and incumbent candidates supported by editorial coverage were more successful than non-endorsed candidates with readers (Kahn & Kenney, 2002 ). Although they caution that their findings may not be generalizable, Druckman and Parkin ( 2005 ) found “concrete evidence that relative editorial slant can influence voters” (Druckman & Parkin, 2005 , p. 1047).

Outside the effects tradition, very little is known about the readership of editorials. Prior to the ability to measure audience metrics digitally, the industry relied on surveys to measure the popularity of editorials and the demographics of their readership. In the 1990s, these indicated that editorial pages were popular and read by over 60% of newspaper readers (Hallock, 2007 ). It is claimed that editorials are most popular with older readers and elites (Hallock, 2007 ), which confirms their potential to influence policymakers and elites. Others admit that editorial “influence is difficult to document” (Hynds, 1990 , p. 441). Having outlined how editorials influence readers, we now consider two main ways that editorial opinion can exert an influence beyond its readers: intra-media and inter-media agenda setting.

Influence on Newspapers’ Internal News Agendas and Other Coverage

It has long been argued that, regardless of whether or not the relationship is intentional, the editorial column sets the tone for the rest of the newspaper (Page, 1996b ; Rowse, 1957 ). Interviews with journalists indicate that journalists’ production of news is shaped by positions and opinions given in their newspaper’s editorials (Baisnée, 2002 ; Firmstone, 2009 ; Morgan, 1995 ). Only a handful of scholars have analyzed content to explore the relationship, known as intra-media agenda setting, between editorial views and news coverage within the same newspaper (Kahn & Kenney, 2002 ).

The search for similarities in agendas and tone or slant relates to two concerns. The first of these is that opinion and/or bias seeps into other areas of newspaper coverage that, depending on journalistic norms, are expected to be objective and impartial. If the press claims to be an objective source of straight information, then any straying into bias is seen as problematic (Druckman & Parkin, 2005 ). Several studies in the United States provide strong evidence that coverage of electoral campaigns, including the tone, the level of criticism, and support for candidates, is affected by editorial positions (Druckman & Parkin, 2005 ; Kahn & Kenney, 2002 ). In contrast to the overt bias associated with European press journalism, readers of the U.S. press expect news coverage to be impartial and free from opinion. Based on claims that voters are influenced by coverage about electoral candidates, concerns have been raised about the potential effect of “hidden bias” in coverage that reflects the editorial positions of newspapers (Kahn & Kenney, 2002 ).

The second area of research critiquing the influence of editorial opinion on news coverage extends these concerns to the principle of internal plurality. Although newspapers in the United States are permitted to provide an opinion in editorials, professional norms expect the rest of the newspaper to display a plurality of voices and views. Several studies demonstrate that op-eds replicate the opinions offered in editorials (Golan & Lukito, 2015 ). The concern is that such mimicry reinforces the editorial views of the newspaper rather than providing readers with a diversity of opinions. Homogeneity in the views and opinions offered within a newspaper prevents readers accessing the information necessary for them to consider an issue from a variety of perspectives. This limits the potential for op-eds to perform a democratic role. The separation of fact from opinion is less formalized in the European press, with a “blurry” line between editorials and news during elections (McDonald Ladd & Lenz, 2009 ). Such blurring of boundaries is, however, contentious. For example, a recent analysis showed a strong relationship between newspapers’ opinions and critical news reports about the opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn during the 2017 U.K. election. Claiming that the “clear distinction between comment, conjecture and fact” required by the IPSO editorial guidelines had been ignored, the study concluded that the British press acted in “radical insularity . . . for the ethical, political and social responsibilities of journalists in a democracy” (Cammaerts, Decillia, & Magalhães, 2018 ).

The Influence of Editorials on Other News Media, Political Elites, and Policymakers

A less direct yet important way that editorial opinions influence debate in the public sphere is when issues or opinions from editorials feature in the coverage of other news media. Advancing the original theory of agenda setting, inter-media agenda setting refers to the influence that newspapers can have beyond their own readers by shaping the agenda of other media outlets (McCombs, 2005 ). Although they rarely distinguish between editorial and news content, studies of press agendas describe inter-media agenda setting operating in two ways that are applicable to editorials.

First, journalists at rival news organizations take newspapers’ agendas as cues for story selection. Using one another as sources, the news media literally “look over their shoulders” at one another (McCombs, 2004 ). Studies grounded in this comparatively under-researched branch of agenda setting have consistently identified a strong relationship between issues covered by newspapers and the news agendas of television and radio news (Golan, 2006 ). The influence of newspapers on television news agendas is stronger than the other way around (Golan, 2006 ; Vliegenthart & Walgrave, 2008 ). In specific relation to opinion, given the open partisanship of the U.K. press, the inter-media agenda-setting power of newspapers, particularly broadsheets, amplifies their opinion-leading role (Cushion, Kilby, Thomas, Morani, & Sambrook, 2018 ). Interviews with journalists confirm that they are motivated to write editorials in response to editorials published by other newspapers (Firmstone, 2008 ).

Second, the reach of editorial opinions is expanded when other news outlets, particularly radio and TV news, repeat newspaper coverage in special features where broadcast journalists review the day’s newspapers. An overarching reason to be concerned about the relationship between editorials and other news is that it might allow partisanship to seep into coverage that would otherwise be impartial. This is particularly the case in the United Kingdom, where a reliance on, or repetition of, coverage from the disproportionately right-wing U.K. press is thought to threaten the impartiality of broadcast news, with clear “ideological implications” (Cushion et al., 2018 ; Renton & Scholsberg, 2017 ).

The fourth and final influence ascribed to editorials relates to elite opinion. According to British journalists, politicians monitor editorials and sometimes contact journalists about the opinions voiced in them (Firmstone, 2008 ). Although the fact that newspapers’ comments are “received” by political actors does not establish that newspapers influence the actions of policymakers, it suggests that newspapers’ editorial agendas are “heard” by key influencers. Writing about news in general, scholars have long claimed that newspapers play a role as opinion leaders for politicians and political elites, and are influential because they are used by politicians as an indicator of public opinion (Cohen, 1983 ; Linsky, 1986 ).

Newspapers as Independent Political Actors

Although theories of the power of the press have paid limited attention to the specific function of editorial opinion, a relatively new strand of research in political communication illustrates the significance of newspapers’ editorial opinions. Highlighting the persuasive and evaluative functions of the media, scholars have recently drawn attention to the independent role of newspapers in providing opinion and pushing issues onto the agenda (Gurevitch & Blumler, 1990 ; Eilders, 1997 , 2000 , 2002 ; Firmstone, 2008 , 2016 ; McCombs, 1997 , Page, 1996a ; Pfetsch et al., 2010 ; Price, 1992 ; Statham, 2007 ). Eilders argues that through interpretative, evaluative, and potentially persuasive content, the media provide orientation to the process of opinion formation by making judgments regarding policy, political actors, and political decisions (Eilders, 2000 ). Scholars suggest that newspapers should be considered as independent political actors who can legitimately use their right to express their view in the public sphere to pursue their own political interests and goals.

In a seminal article, Page suggests that questions regarding “what kinds of media act in this way, under what circumstances, and concerning what issues” remain unanswered (Page, 1996a , p. 23). Theorizing newspapers as active and independent political actors in the political process through their editorial role underpins the need to further research editorial journalism to address questions about the issues newspapers choose to present as important, how newspapers present their evaluation of issues, and what influences newspapers’ opinions.

What Shapes Newspapers’ Editorial Positions?

Despite the potentially powerful influence of editorial journalism on public opinion and the democratic process, sociological research into the factors that influence newspapers’ editorial opinions remains scarce (Firmstone, 2008 ). For example, much critique of the opinion-leading role of the British Eurosceptic press is based on suppositions deduced from the content of news coverage and tends to point to the fairly obvious input of proprietors as the most significant determinants of such coverage (Firmstone, 2008 ). Studies of journalism to date provide little empirical evidence relating to the specialist journalistic activity of producing editorial opinion. Organizational studies of journalism have concentrated on front-line reporters, with the result that little is known about the interactions between editorial and higher level journalists (Firmstone, 2009 ; Reese, 1991 ; Schudson, 2000 ). Although scholars have established that news values are a central organizing concept of news production routines (Galtung & Ruge, 1965 ; Harcup & O’Neill, 2017 ) and professional journalistic roles (Hallin & Mancini, 2004 ; Tumber & Prentoulis, 2005 ), they have not yet investigated the concepts that shape the routine production of editorial content. Similarly, organizational policies are known to play an important role in shaping news reporting (Gans, 1979 ; Soloski, 1989 ), but we have little understanding of how journalists interpret editorial policies in relation to editorial journalism. These gaps have only been partially addressed by a handful of relatively recent empirical studies using interviews with editorial journalists in the United Kingdom (Firmstone, 2007 , 2008 , 2009 ) and the United States (Hallock, 2007 ), a comparative study based on interviews with a range of journalists including leader writers in seven European countries (Statham, 2007 ), and an ethnography of U.S. editorial boards (Meltzer, 2007 ). Some of the most important questions asked about editorial journalism relate to the factors that shape editorial opinions. Price suggests that the “activist role of the media, especially newspapers, ensures continuing concern over possible biases in news and editorial practices, owing to the political leanings of network executives, publishers, producers, or rank-and-file journalists” (Price, 1992 , p. 82).

Routines for Issue Selection, Deciding the Agenda, and the Line and Tone of Editorial Opinion

In contrast to news values, very little is known about the selection criteria routinely applied in editorial journalism. A sociological analysis of editorial journalism in the United Kingdom identified four editorial values that guided the selection of issues for comment: (1) assessment of news values (topicality), (2) level of editorial importance, (3) impact on readers and the United Kingdom, and (4) salience in the wider media debate (Firmstone, 2008 , 2009 ). Judgments regarding the topicality of an issue are based on common journalistic perceptions of news values. The level of editorial importance of an issue is determined by four organizational specific circumstances: (1) the collective interest of the leader-writing group, (2) the interests of individual journalists within the group, (3) the interests of the editor, and (4) editorial policies such as relationship to the paper’s marketing strategy and campaigning policies. This leads us to the organizational structures of editorial journalism.

Day-to-day decisions about issue selection and the line to be taken are made at daily meetings known as leader conferences in the United Kingdom and editorial boards in the United States. The practice of editorial writing has evolved from being the domain of a single owner or an individual journalist who wrote everything in a very small paper to the current situation where opinions are reached by consensus in editorials boards (Hallock, 2007 ). Editorial boards, which include the editor, publisher, and other newspaper executives, discuss and debate issues in daily meetings until a consensus representing the institutional agenda of the paper is reached. Although the editor makes the final decision, decisions are reached through a consultative process in the leader conference at the vast majority of British newspapers. However, there are significant variations between national newspapers in terms of how well defined and known the “line” of a newspaper is on any given issue, how democratic the collective editorial decision-making process is, and consensus on the issue within the team (Firmstone, 2008 ).

Partisanship as expressed in editorials—specifically, support for parties at election time—is strongly dependent on historical ties to political parties and traditional alignments. It is rare for newspapers to break with tradition to declare support for a different political party. Newspapers base editorial positions regarding social and political issues on their traditional partisan stance, but some questions about contentious topics that cause division within political parties require internal debate (Firmstone, 2008 ; Funt, 2017 ). For example, debates over Britain’s membership of the EU did not fall neatly into the traditional partisan divisions of left and right. Many editorial boards deliberated about endorsing Donald Trump despite their historical Republican allegiances (Funt, 2017 ).

The Influence of Proprietors, Ownership, and Editors

A contested point is the extent to which editorial columns represent the voice of a newspaper in the interests of its readers or whether this public voice is expressed more in the interests of the proprietor and/or individual journalists (including editors) who wish to influence readers or political elites. The evidence suggests a mixed picture, with owners and proprietors having a strong influence over the direction of partisanship, but less impact on how that opinion is expressed. The most significant changes in the direction of newspapers’ editorial lines and partisanship usually occur as a result of a change in ownership . However, a change in ownership does not always result in changes to the editorial policy of the paper, especially when such changes may alienate readers. Editorials at newspapers serving local communities in the United States were described as serving a community’s conscience by setting its priorities and serving as a community sounding board (Hallock, 2007 ). In some cases, specifically the contentious issue of the EU, the editorial importance of an issue to a newspaper was seen to override considerations of the perceived level of interest among readers (Firmstone, 2009 ). Candidate endorsements may reflect the opinion of the proprietor, whether an individual or a corporate entity, the editor, an individual editorial writer, or a collective decision of an editorial board (Firmstone, 2008 ; Funt, 2017 ). Journalists admit that proprietors often take an interest in editorial opinions, but they commonly report that such influence never results in significant changes to the overall message of an editorial (Firmstone, 2008 ; Funt, 2017 ). Much research in the 1980s in North America centered on concerns that the increasing concentration of ownership of newspapers by corporate “chains” would lead to a reduced diversity of editorial opinions and to less vigorously politically engaged editorials because of fears about offending readers and advertisers (Demers, 1996 , 1998 ; Lacy, 1991 ; Thrift, 1977 ). This so-called editorial vigor hypothesis was largely disproved with studies finding no relationship between editorial page content and chain ownership (Demers, 1996 , p. 870).

A study of the influential role of other factors on opinion, such as individuals and the implications of organizational routines, has questioned the accuracy of assuming that the editorial opinions of the British press are simply explained by the influence of proprietors (Firmstone, 2008 ). Aside from decisions about the overall position of a newspaper, proprietorial influence is minimal and does not account for the way that editorials are written. For instance, the study found no evidence of any direct influence of proprietors in the selection of issues for comment, the range of issues commented on, and the way in which issues were framed nationally or otherwise. On the specific topic of Europe, Statham’s comparative study concluded that, with the exception of one paper in the United Kingdom, journalists did not consider the political stance of proprietors to be more of a consideration when commenting on Europe than when commenting on other issues (Statham, 2007 , p. 470). Key journalists at some newspapers may have an equal or greater influence on editorial opinions than proprietors (Firmstone, 2008 ). Certainly, in the day-to-day production of opinion, individual journalists have greater opportunities to directly shape newspapers’ opinions than is attributed to them by studies of news production. Although news production studies see individuals as “replaceable cogs in the wheel” and suggest that “news changes very little when the individuals who make it are changed” (Golding & Elliot, 1979 , p. 209), the opposite is true of editorial journalism (Firmstone, 2008 ). Moreover, in cases where newspapers’ attempts to influence are part of focused editorial campaigns, individual journalists can be pivotal in formulating the subject and the style of campaigning policy (Firmstone, 2008 ). With specific regard to the influence of editors, a content analysis of editorials at one U.S. newspaper under three different editors concluded that “the geographical and persuasive positions of a newspaper’s editorials change considerably with each new editor, even though subject areas from editor to editor may receive the same priority” (Windhauser, Norton, & Rhodes, 1983 , p. 583).

Editorial Journalism and Diversity

Although there are few studies that consider the backgrounds of editorial writers separately from other journalists, there are strong indications that editorial journalism lacks diversity and gender equality. The anonymous nature of editorial columns (in most countries) removes the possibility of attributing gender, or indeed any other individual trait. All editorial journalists interviewed for a study of the British national press were male, white, and predominantly senior (Firmstone, 2008 , 2009 ). Editorial boards in the United States are male dominated, with few coming from ethnic minority backgrounds (Harp, Bachmann, & Locke, 2014 ), and have been described as “cantankerous males of fairly mature years” (Duff, 2008 , p. 232). Given that the personal attitudes and values of journalists significantly influence newspapers’ opinion leading (Firmstone, 2008 ), it is concerning that editorial journalism is a male-dominated domain. In a discourse analysis of editorials about race, Van Dijk argued that the dominance of white, male, middle-class leader writers results in the reproduction and legitimization of their dominance of in society (Van Dijk, 1992 ).

Discussion of the Literature

As is clear from this entry, the investigation of editorial journalism as a distinctive practice has been largely overlooked and conflated with broader studies of news and journalism. In the historiography of research about editorials, relatively small pockets of research have focused on the editorial function of newspapers along three parallel trajectories. First, based on the assumptions of media effects theories about the potential consequences of editorials for public knowledge and democratic processes, research has been heavily skewed toward measurements and analyses of the content of editorial articles. Within this trajectory, there has been a strong contribution from political communications scholars on the effects of editorial endorsements of candidates and parties at election time. Although editorials routinely engage in debates that encompass a far wider range of political and social issues, far fewer studies have analyzed editorial opinion outside of election periods.

Ongoing normative questions about the role and performance of the press have also motivated research that analyzes content to evaluate the relationship between editorial opinion, bias, and objective reporting. A second content trajectory rooted in the tradition of discourse analysis has singled out editorial articles as having a unique argumentation structure Van Dijk ( 1992 ). The majority of discourse studies have analyzed the language and semantics of editorials with the aim of understanding the way a specific issue has been communicated. Others have analyzed the structure of editorials as a text and as a series of interactions between the writer and the reader (Bolívar, 1994 ), as an assessment of the rhetorical structure. See Le ( 2010 ) for a useful overview of linguistic studies. Third, a relatively small body of journalism studies research has focused on the routines, practices, and role orientations of editorial journalists and newspaper editorial boards. It is notable that, with two exceptions (Firmstone, 2008 , 2009 ; Hallock, 2007 ), empirical analyses have analyzed either editorial content or investigated editorial practices, not both. Perhaps more importantly, aside from attempts to measure the relationship between readership of specific newspapers and voting preferences, the audiences of editorials have been entirely neglected. In addition to scholarly approaches, insights into the world of editorial journalism from the perspective of industry commentators and in the memoirs of veteran editorial journalists also provide valuable understanding (Funt, 2017 ; Gartner, 2005 ; Hynds, 1990 , 1995 ).

Despite following different trajectories, existing research arrives at a shared point of departure for the future. Editorial journalism as a distinct and potentially powerful genre and practice merits far more attention than it has received to date. In particular, theorizing newspapers as active and independent political actors underpins the need for further research into editorial journalism (Firmstone, 2009 ). In addition, sociological research including ethnography, interviews, and participant observation is needed to find out more about the practice of editorial journalism and influences on editorial opinions (Firmstone, 2008 ). More qualitative research is needed to look beyond newspapers’ editorial agendas and the salience of issues in order to understand the decisions behind such choices. Understanding is severely limited to the U.S. context. Future research must expand our understanding of editorial journalism into different journalistic cultures and media systems, and perhaps most urgently, pursue a de-Westernization agenda.

Finally, the rise of online news media requires a broadening of the current research agenda in three main directions. First, editorial opinion emerged as a specific role assumed by newspapers in the media systems of liberal democracies. Its practice continues to be shaped by this history as well as regulatory contexts. Professional norms and regulations for the relationship between editorial opinion and news at net native news organizations are under development. Future research should shine light on how net native news organizations and regulatory policies develop in response to age-old questions about objectivity, bias, and partisanship. Second, as has already begun, inter-media agenda-setting studies should expand to include the relationship between newspapers’ editorial opinions and news in the networked news media ecology. Early research suggests that partisan online media may be replacing newspapers as agenda setters for the mainstream media (Meraz, 2011 ), with others finding a continuing dominance of mainstream media (Rogstad, 2016 ; Sjøvaag, Stavelin, Karlsson, & Kammer, 2018 ). Third, the digital flattening out of the once distinctive physical geographies used to separate fact from opinion in newspapers raises a host of questions about how the opinion-leading role of legacy newspapers will operate in future online news environments.

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Opinion, news or editorial? Readers often can’t tell the difference.

Confusion about labeling and design fuel reader complaints that opinions, political agendas and bias are creeping into reporters’ work..

editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

In print, it’s fairly clear what’s an opinion piece and what’s a news article. Online, things aren’t so clear. Confusion fuels readers’ complaints that opinions, political agendas and bias are creeping into reporters’ work.

Research has shown that a lack of labeling can lead to reader confusion . In recent years, online news outlets have begun including the word “opinion” in bold text at the top of articles, sometimes highlighted in yellow or even directly in the headline.

“In our dream world, opinion content all begins with the word ‘opinion,’ a colon and then the headline, just to make it absolutely clear,” said Joy Mayer, founder and director of Trusting News, a nonprofit helping newsrooms earn trust and credibility. “It’s the only clear word to use.”

Though journalists may not realize it, other conventions use industry jargon, said Mayer. Readers don’t always know what “editorial” means, and the word itself has multiple uses. Generally speaking, an editorial is an opinionated column, but confusingly, the editorial department is the news department of a publication. (To further the confusion, Merriam-Webster defines editorial as “of or relating to an editor or editing.”) Similarly, some newspapers put the last name of the columnist at the front of a headline, but that practice is also occasionally used for sourcing.

Mayer said that journalists tend to fall back on conventions that have been in place for a long time.

“We often tend to really overestimate how close attention audiences are paying and audience interpretation of the page furniture that we put in place that we think signifies what kind of content they’re getting,” said Mayer.

Page furniture describes the design elements and packaging of an online article that help readers discern what they’re looking at. Damon Kiesow, Knight chair in digital editing and producing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, calls these signals “affordances.”

“Affordances are cues that signal how the user should interact with a product. They should be clear,” said Kiesow, who is researching specific measures papers can take to combat this confusion. “We don’t need to make digital look visually more like print, but we need to understand what are those aspects of print that are communicating these signals and adapt those signals in whatever way is appropriate to digital.”

editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

(Graphic by Eliana Miller)

Kiesow believes labeling is an important first step, but it’s not enough — a well-designed door shouldn’t need a push-pull label. Designers and editors need to look at the issue from a human-centered design perspective and completely rethink the issue, he said.

His preliminary research shows that despite labeling, readers still find affordances confusing. This poor digital design imposes a large cognitive load on the consumer, who needs to make far more judgments when reading an article online about what to read and how to interpret stories.

“Readers are not going to pay for content if they feel like they’re doing all the work in the relationship,” Kiesow said. “By removing barriers to the news, removing barriers to understanding, removing barriers to usability, we make the product more valuable. Journalism is only half of the product; the user experience and the journey around the journalism is the other half the product, and that’s what we need to work on.”

Beyond labeling and page design, some opinion editors are actively trying to engage and educate their audiences on media literacy. At the Miami Herald, editorial page editor Nancy Ancrum writes to confused readers, explaining that columnists are, in fact, paid to opine. Meanwhile, at The Tennessean in Nashville, opinion and engagement director David Plazas makes videos interviewing opinion contributors about their pieces.

“I went to journalism school and I learned about all these labels, but if I weren’t a journalist, and I hadn’t had that experience, I might not make that distinction unless I was a daily reader,” said Plazas. “Especially when people are saturated with information in the digital landscape, we have to be very mindful of the fact that they may not notice that something’s an opinion or a sports story.”

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In print, opinion columns are always at the back of the paper’s first section, editorials are typically on the left-hand side of one of the last pages and there might be an editorial cartoon or two as well. Print readers often pay for a delivery subscription for one or maybe two papers and they’re familiar with their papers’ design.

Online readers are not as loyal. They may visit a news outlet’s website only once or twice and thus aren’t familiar with the paper’s conventions and labels.

“These readers need a much more distinct, strong, clear, unavoidable signal (online) that this is an opinion content,” said Kiesow.

Mayer emphasized that page furniture is lost when someone comes to an article online through search or social media. Layout changes as stories move from one platform to another, too; an article’s presentation on a phone is different from its presentation on a computer screen. She suggested adding explainers at the top of articles or pop-up boxes defining terms like “opinion,” “editorial” and “letter to the editor.”

“Pixels on a phone screen are in short supply and so it can be tough to think about layering more things at the top of the story,” said Mayer. “But I think when it comes to our credibility and people’s ability to fully understand what they’re looking at, it seems like to me like it’s worth the investment.”

Many opinion editors, Plazas and Ancrum included, agree that the onus falls on the media industry to address this confusion, not the readers.

“Journalism is about making sense of the world, helping individuals understand what’s happening in their communities,” said Kiesow. “Design should be about helping readers understand journalism.”

Eliana Miller is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College. You can reach her on Twitter @ElianaMM23 , or via email at [email protected].

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Structure of an Editorial: What You Need to Know

editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

An editorial is a powerful journalistic tool that presents an issue, provides an argument, and influences public opinion. Its structure typically includes:

Table of Contents

  • A captivating headline.
  • A compelling lead.
  • A presentation of the issue.
  • The development of an argument.
  • Consideration of counterarguments.
  • A persuasive conclusion.

Crafting a solid editorial involves careful construction of each element, in-depth topic exploration, and meticulous editing and revision to ensure clarity and impact.

Introduction to Editorials

Editorial Definition: An editorial, within the realm of journalism, is an article that presents the stance or opinion of a publication’s editorial board or an individual editor or guest author. Unlike the objective narrative found in news reports, an editorial provides a subjective viewpoint. It typically relates to current issues, events of public interest, or matters of local or global concern.

A Stage for Opinions: The Editorial Definition

Editorials carve out a significant space in journalism, providing a platform for expressing opinions, presenting arguments, and inciting thoughtful discourse. They are the conduits through which publications can comment on public affairs, societal concerns, political developments, and other topics. An editorial offers a publication’s unique “take” or perspective on a specific matter.

Editorials: Tools for Shaping Perception

Given their inherently subjective and persuasive nature, editorials possess considerable potential to influence public sentiment, provoke intellectual discussions, and act as catalysts for change. The voice projected through an editorial can illuminate new perspectives, challenge conventional viewpoints, and urge readers to think about various issues critically.

Characteristics of Editorial Definition

An editorial comprises several key elements. First, it presents a clear articulation of the issue at hand. Next, it establishes a firm standpoint on the issue. It then presents a series of well-reasoned arguments to support this standpoint, considers possible counter-arguments, and culminates in a compelling conclusion. The overarching aim of an editorial is to persuade its readers and advocate for a specific viewpoint or course of action.

Summing Up: Editorial Definition

In summary, an editorial is a persuasive, opinionated journalistic piece embodying the stance of a publication or an individual author on a particular issue or event. Through meticulously crafted arguments and thought-provoking perspectives, it seeks to influence public opinion, stimulate public discourse, and drive societal change.

By understanding an editorial’s precise definition and purpose, one can better appreciate its role in stimulating dialogue, shaping public thought, and fostering a more informed and engaged society.

The Headline: Capturing Attention

In the editorial model, the headline plays a pivotal role. As the first point of contact with the reader, it must be carefully crafted to capture attention, incite curiosity, and accurately represent the following content. It’s the entry point into the editorial, setting the tone and creating expectations. A compelling headline differs from an editorial that gets read and passed over.

The Importance of Capturing Attention

The editorial landscape is competitive, filled with countless voices vying for readers’ attention. Amid this noise, a well-constructed headline is crucial. It serves as a beacon, guiding readers to the editorials that resonate with their interests or incite their curiosity.

The headline’s role in capturing attention is more than attracting as many readers as possible. It’s about attracting the right readers — those who will engage with the content, reflect on the arguments made and be moved by the call to action.

Creating Impactful Headlines

When constructing a headline, one must consider both the impact and the accuracy. An impactful headline is intriguing, even provocative. It creates a desire in the reader to delve into the text to understand the presented perspective. But, in the editorial model, a headline’s impact is only possible if it accurately reflects the content. An editorial is a piece of journalistic writing. As such, it must uphold a commitment to truth and accuracy, including its headline.

Keeping Headlines Concise and Informative

Concision and informativeness are also vital in creating a strong headline. A headline must convey the essence of the editorial’s argument in just a few words. The goal is to provide enough information to intrigue the reader without giving away the full argument. Striking this balance is an art form requiring creativity and a solid understanding of the issue.

The Final Word: Crafting the Perfect Headline

Creating the perfect headline for an editorial is a challenging yet rewarding task. A key component of the successful editorial model is a headline that captures attention, accurately reflects the content, and encapsulates an argument concisely and informative. Mastering the art of headline writing enhances the reader’s experience and amplifies the editorial’s impact.

Book used in learning about editorial.

The Lead: The Hook of Your Argument

At the forefront of an editorial note lies the lead, the first paragraph that sets the stage for the editorial’s argument. The lead operates as the gateway, the enticing element that lures readers into the piece’s depth. A compelling lead sets the tone, context, and purpose, offering a taste of the argument without fully disclosing it. The ‘hook’ grabs the reader’s attention and encourages them to read further.

The Importance of a Persuasive Lead

A strong lead is essential for a persuasive editorial note. A well-crafted lead introduces the issue, sparks interest, and subtly hints at the editorial’s stance. The first few sentences should be compelling enough to persuade readers to commit to reading the entire piece. The lead also sets the context for the reader, offering enough background to understand the unfolding argument.

Hooking the Reader: The Art of Engagement

Crafting an effective ‘hook’ in your lead is an art. It might be a provocative statement, an intriguing question, a compelling fact, or a striking anecdote. Regardless of the strategy, the hook should relate directly to the topic and align with the editorial’s tone. It should stimulate curiosity, elicit an emotional response, or provoke thought, encouraging the reader to delve deeper into the argument.

Best Practices for Creating Strong Leads

Creating a strong lead requires clarity, brevity, and creativity. Begin by clearly defining the issue and providing enough context for the reader to understand its importance. Be concise and to the point, making every word count. Avoid clichés and aim for original, thought-provoking statements that align with your editorial’s tone and style.

Lastly, while the lead should tease the editorial’s argument, it should only partially reveal it. The purpose of the lead is to spark interest and encourage further reading, leaving the full disclosure of the argument for the body of the editorial.

Mastering the Lead

A persuasive lead is a crucial component of a successful editorial note. The hook captures readers’ attention, sets the context, and teases the argument. Mastering crafting an engaging lead is key to creating impactful and persuasive editorials.

Presenting the Issue: The Heart of the Matter

The heart of an editorial letter lies in the issue it presents. This issue, often a point of societal importance, is the driving force behind the editorial, forming the basis for the unfolding discussion and argument. Presenting the issue effectively is crucial to maintaining reader interest and setting the stage for a persuasive argument.

Exploring the Topic In-Depth

Exploring the topic in-depth is essential before presenting the issue in the editorial. This exploration should involve a thorough understanding of the issue’s context, history, and implications. This understanding not only aids in presenting the issue effectively but also informs the argument that will be made in the editorial letter. Comprehensive research, objective observation, and an open-minded approach are key to in-depth exploration.

Providing Background: Setting the Context

Once the topic has been thoroughly explored, the next step is to provide background information to the readers. This information forms the context within which the issue exists. The background should be comprehensive yet concise, providing the reader with enough information to understand the issue’s significance without overwhelming them with unnecessary details. It could include relevant historical events, prevailing attitudes, or recent developments related to the issue.

Clearly Stating the Problem

After setting the context, the issue or problem should be stated clearly and concisely. The statement should articulate the problem, its importance, and who or what it affects. The language should be engaging and accessible, avoiding jargon that might confuse the reader.

The Issue: The Heart of the Editorial Letter

Presenting the issue effectively is a fundamental aspect of writing an editorial letter. The issue forms the heart of the editorial, providing the basis for the argument that will be made. By exploring the topic in-depth, providing necessary background information, and clearly stating the problem, writers can engage their readers and set the stage for a persuasive, impactful editorial. With these elements in place, the stage is set to develop the argument and explore possible solutions.

Smartphone and laptop used in learning about editorials.

The Argument: Building Your Case

The heart of any piece of editorial content lies in the argument it presents. This argument is the case being made, the perspective being endorsed, and the cause being championed. Building a compelling argument involves presenting various perspectives, marshaling evidence supporting the claims, and skillfully leading the reader toward a persuasive conclusion.

Presenting Perspectives: Balance in the Argument

The initial stage in crafting a compelling argument is acknowledging different viewpoints. Despite an editorial inherently being a platform for advocating a particular perspective, considering alternative views enhances the depth and credibility of the argument. It demonstrates that the issue has been explored thoroughly, with nuanced understanding and sensitivity to differing opinions.

Employing Evidence: The Foundation of Credibility

The next step in building a persuasive case is substantiating claims with relevant evidence. This evidence can include data, expert opinions, case studies, or real-life examples. The editorial content gains authority and credibility by supporting the claims. It shows the reader that the argument is not based merely on opinion but on solid facts, rigorous analysis, and credible sources.

Aligning the Argument with the Editorial’s Purpose

The argument should consistently align with the overall purpose of the editorial. The argument should echo whether the editorial is written to inform, persuade, criticize, or praise. The structure of the argument, the tone of the language, and the types of evidence used all reflect the editorial’s intended purpose. It’s essential to keep the audience in mind when aligning the argument, considering what will be most compelling and persuasive to them.

Crafting a Persuasive Case

Building a compelling argument is a critical aspect of creating engaging editorial content. By presenting a balanced view of the issue, supporting claims with credible evidence, and aligning the argument with the editorial’s purpose, writers can craft a persuasive case that resonates with readers. A well-constructed argument informs readers and influences their perceptions and potential actions, marking the real power of impactful editorial content.

Counter-arguments: Considering Different Perspectives

To create a comprehensive and fair image of editorial writing, it’s essential to consider and include counter-arguments. Addressing opposing viewpoints demonstrates a balanced understanding of the issue and strengthens the main argument’s credibility and persuasiveness.

Acknowledging Opposing Views: A Show of Respect

The first step in dealing with counter-arguments is to acknowledge them. By doing so, the writer respects diverse opinions, thereby fostering an environment for healthy discussion. This display of intellectual honesty helps establish the writer’s credibility and paints a picture of an open-minded, and fair editorial process. A respectful approach can foster reader engagement, while signaling their perspectives are valued.

Countering Different Perspectives: A Balanced Editorial

Once the counter-arguments have been acknowledged, the next step is to counter them respectfully. This involves presenting evidence or reasoning that challenges opposing viewpoints, while drawing attention to the central argument. This process should be executed fairly and objectively, thus avoiding personal attacks or misrepresentations of opposing views. A balanced, respectful counter-argument enhances the overall quality and persuasiveness of the editorial.

Strengthening Your Case: A Credible Image of Editorial

Incorporating counter-arguments and responding to them can fortify the main argument. Addressing potential objections and doubts makes the editorial more convincing, while demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the issue. Additionally, this process can help uncover blind spots in the main argument and provide opportunities to address them, while strengthening the editorial’s overall case.

Embracing Different Perspectives

To conclude, acknowledging and countering opposing viewpoints significantly contribute to creating a balanced, and credible image of editorial content. This practice strengthens the main argument, promotes respect for diverse opinions, and encourages thoughtful, while creating constructive dialogue. By embracing different perspectives, writers can enhance their editorial content, making it more comprehensive, credible, and impactful.

Book on table used for learinng about editorials.

The Conclusion: Making Your Point

The conclusion is the final and one of the most significant parts of an editorial. It’s where you reaffirm your main argument, propose a solution or a call to action, and leave a lasting impression on the reader. By effectively summarizing and driving home the points made, the conclusion reinforces the impact of the editorial.

Reaffirming the Main Argument: Reinforcing Your Stance

A crucial element of the conclusion is reaffirming the main argument. Here, the writer reiterates the central point without merely repeating the content. Instead, they offer a fresh perspective or additional insight into the issue, driving the argument home and reinforcing their stance. In an editorial example, this could involve summarizing key points from the argument and underscoring their significance.

Proposing a Solution or Call to Action: Driving Change

In many cases, the conclusion of an editorial is a suitable place to propose a solution or a call to action. Here, the writer can offer a practical resolution to the problem discussed or encourage readers to act in a certain way, furthering the aim of the editorial. A call to action can motivate readers to change their views, engage in a discussion, or even effect social change.

Leaving a Lasting Impression: The Final Impact

The conclusion is the writer’s last chance to leave a lasting impression on the reader. To achieve this, the writer can end with a compelling statement, a provocative question, or a powerful quote that echoes the editorial’s main argument. This final note can inspire thought, evoke emotions, or prompt action, leaving a memorable impact on the reader.

Sealing the Editorial Example

To wrap up, a well-written conclusion is key to cementing the overall impact of an editorial example. The conclusion solidifies the editorial’s main points. It resonates with the reader by effectively reaffirming the main argument, proposing a solution or call to action, and leaving a lasting impression. With these elements, writers can ensure that their editorials are impactful, persuasive, and memorable.

Editing and Revising: Perfecting Your Editorial

As essential as drafting an editorial is, it’s equally critical to refine it through careful editing and revising. From the perspective of editorial services, these final steps can distinguish a piece from being merely good to becoming truly exceptional. This section will delve into the best practices for ensuring clarity, coherence, and correctness in your editorial and for aligning it with the standards and style of the publication.

Checking for Clarity: Straight to the Point

The first step in the editing process is checking for clarity. The message of the editorial should be straightforward to understand. This involves ensuring that arguments are clear, the language is simple yet effective, and the information is accurately represented. Using the editorial services’ perspective, this stage also involves reviewing the piece from the reader’s viewpoint to ensure it communicates its points effectively.

Ensuring Coherence: The Flow of Ideas

Another important aspect of editing is ensuring coherence. The editorial should flow naturally from one point to the next, with each paragraph connecting logically to the previous one. Transition words and phrases can improve this flow and guide the reader through the argument. From the perspective of editorial services, coherence also means making sure the overall argument is consistent, and the editorial stays on point.

Correctness: Grammar and Facts

Fact-checking and grammar correction are also vital elements in the editing process. Any inaccuracies or grammatical errors can harm the piece’s credibility and distract from the message. Careful proofreading and fact-checking can prevent these issues and maintain the integrity of the editorial.

Aligning with Standards and Style: The Publication’s Touch

Lastly, the editorial should align with the standards and style of the publication. This may involve adhering to a specific style guide, maintaining a particular tone or language, and ensuring the content fits the publication’s audience and ethos. Expert editorial services can guide you to ensure the piece is polished and publication-ready.

The Value of Iterative Revision: Perfecting the Editorial

Editing and revising are crucial steps in crafting a high-quality editorial. Writers can perfect their editorials through careful review for clarity, coherence, correctness, and alignment with the publication’s standards and style. The process is iterative, often requiring multiple rounds of revision. Still, the result is an impactful, well-written editorial that resonates with readers.

What is an editorial? 

An editorial is usually written in newspapers, magazines, or online platforms. It is designed to express an opinion or perspective on an issue of public interest. It aims to influence readers, promote critical thinking, or encourage action.

How important is the headline in an editorial? 

The headline is vital as it captures the reader’s attention and provides a snapshot of the content. An effective headline is concise, impactful, and accurately represents the editorial’s main theme.

What is the lead in an editorial? 

The lead is the opening paragraph of an editorial. It serves to ‘hook’ the reader by introducing the topic, stating the issue, and providing a glimpse of the argument. It sets the tone for the rest of the editorial.

How should the main issue be presented in an editorial? 

The main issue should be presented engagingly and in-depth. The writer should provide enough background for the reader to understand the issue’s context and importance. This forms the heart of the editorial.

What is the role of counterarguments in an editorial? 

Counter-arguments are essential for creating a balanced and credible editorial . They show the writer’s understanding of differing opinions and allow a more comprehensive exploration of the issue. Respectfully countering these arguments also strengthens the main argument.

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This Lesson Plan is a part of the ED Collection:

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Here’s What We Think: Editorials and Opinion Articles

In this activity, students learn the purpose of editorials and opinion articles and evaluate their effectiveness.

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Additional Details

  • Current Events

Instructions

  • Find out what the class already knows about editorials and opinion articles. Tell them: Most newspapers have an editorial and opinion section. These articles express opinions and ideas. They do not necessarily report news; rather, they comment on current events. Editorials are written by a member or members of the editorial staff of a newspaper and express the opinion or idea of the newspaper as a whole. Opinion articles, sometimes called op-eds because of their traditional position opposite the newspaper’s editorial page, express the opinion or idea of only the person or people writing the article.
  • Discuss: What’s the purpose of editorials and op-eds? What’s the difference between fact and opinion?
  • Explain, interpret or inform
  • Praise, commend
  • Argue, persuade, propose a solution or call for action
  • Criticize, identify a problem
  • These can be chosen in advance to save time or students can find their own articles.
  • Give the class time to read the articles and complete the worksheet.
  • Discuss their work as a class.
  • Here’s What We Think: Editorials and Opinion Articles worksheet (download), one per student
  • Newspapers, magazines or internet access

Discussion Questions

  • Which type of editorial/op-ed was most common?
  • How can an editorial or opinion article open or advance dialogue on an issue?
  • What makes an editorial or opinion piece effective?
  • What influence do they have? How do you know?
  • Compare and contrast editorial and opinion articles.

Extension Activity

Write an editorial. Have students outline or write an editorial. First, have students brainstorm  important issues in their school or community. Write the ideas on a board. Have students vote to narrow the list to one issue. Then divide students into small groups; each group will be “an editorial board” for their school newspaper and decide their position on the issue. Together they should outline an editorial. (Optional: Have students write the full editorial in class or as homework. They may need to do research to get additional facts.)  Follow this format:

  • Begin with an objective statement/introduction of the issue or controversy.
  • Give and discuss the opposing viewpoint. (Who are the opponents? What are their opinions?)
  • Refute the opposition’s beliefs.
  • State your paper’s position and reasoning. Use facts and details.
  • Offer a realistic solution.
  • Conclude concisely.

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The learning network | for the sake of argument: writing persuasively to craft short, evidence-based editorials.

The Learning Network - Teaching and Learning With The New York Times

For the Sake of Argument: Writing Persuasively to Craft Short, Evidence-Based Editorials

<a href="//opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/on-writing-with-others/">Related Article</a>

Language Arts

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

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Overview | How can writing change people’s worldview? How can it influence public opinion? How can it lead to meaningful action?

The persuasive essay is a quintessential high school writing assignment. With the Common Core standards, it seems to have taken on a new urgency in many school districts and classrooms. But students should know that evidence-based persuasive writing is more than just an academic exercise — it is very much alive in the real world. Perhaps one of the best and most widely recognized examples of persuasive writing in action is the classic newspaper editorial, three to four of which The New York Times publishes every day.

In this lesson, we offer suggestions on how to guide students through the writing process when writing editorials — from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work — and all the steps in between. This lesson can be used in conjunction with our Student Contest on editorial writing, or with any argumentative writing project you do with students.

Materials | Computers with Internet access. Optional copies of one or more of these three handouts: Debatable Issues (PDF), Problem-Solution Organizer (PDF), and the rubric for our Student Editorial Contest (PDF).

Step 1 | Brainstorming: What Do You Care About?

Finding the right topic is essential. Students should pick something that a) they genuinely care about; b) other people would want to read about; c) they can make an argument about; and d) they can find evidence about to support their claim.

You might get students started brainstorming ideas by having them journal about or discuss with partners questions like:

  • What would you like to change if you could? What problems or policies do you think should be addressed — whether something global, like climate change, or something closer to home, like a later start time for your high school classes? Make as long a list as you can.
  • What issues, topics and fields are you passionate about? Make a list. Your list might included fields as broad as “music” or as specific as “the early days of hip-hop.” What questions or controversies in these fields do experts or fans often argue? Where do you stand?
  • What do you do outside of school? What are some things you’re an expert on? What aspects of those hobbies or interests do you find yourself having to explain to others? Why?
  • What issues or ideas do you often find yourself discussing or arguing about with friends, your family or online?
  • What issues or controversies have you followed recently in current events? What are your opinions about them? What might you need more information about?

Students can then share their ideas and, as a whole class, compile a list on the board or on a class blog or wiki.

To open the class to even more ideas, you might then invite students look through our list of 200 Student Opinion questions that invite argument . Not only can this list help students pick a topic, but each question links to a relevant New York Times article, which may be very helpful when students begin to look for evidence.

A Note on Collaboration: The editorial writing process at The New York Times is done collaboratively . That means, a team of writers works together from choosing a topic through researching it and drafting the writing. Teachers may want to give students opportunities to collaborate on their editorials as well, whether for only one step of the project, such as research, or from beginning to end.

RELATED RESOURCES

From the learning network.

  • Student Contest | Write an Editorial on an Issue That Matters to You
  • Skills Practice | Persuading an Audience Using Logos, Pathos and Ethos
  • 10 Ways to Develop Expository Writing Skills With The New York Times

From NYTimes.com

  • Archive of Editorials

Around the Web

  • Online Writing Lab | Conducting Research

Step 2 | Modeling: What Is An Editorial?

To help students envision what they will be writing, it is worth spending time discussing what an editorial is and looking at some examples.

Ask students: What is an editorial? Have you ever read any? Where would you find one? What do you think is the purpose of an editorial?

We selected three recent examples from the Times editorial page that students can look over as models, though you or your students may pick others from the thousands in the Opinion archives :

  • Firearms’ Toll Among the Young (267 words)
  • Zero Traffic Fatalities (277 words)
  • The Globalization of Pollution (397 words)

Have students choose an editorial to read on their own or as a whole class. As they read, have them note:

  • What is the opinion or call to action in this editorial?
  • What evidence does it use to make its argument?
  • How persuasive do you find the editorial? Is it effective?
  • What do you notice about the language and tone of the editorial? About other choices the writer(s) have made?

Students may want make annotations or use highlighters as they read, then discuss their findings as a class.

Note: You may want students to look at the rubric you will be using to grade their editorials before they start the research and writing process. Here is our the rubric (PDF) that we are using for our Student Contest .

Step 3 | Researching: What Do the Experts Say?

Once students have selected a topic, they should begin their research by gathering background information. That might mean reading newspaper articles, consulting an encyclopedia, finding reliable websites or reaching out to an expert to make sure they have enough context about why their topic is important to write a strong persuasive essay.

As they do their research, students can take notes using index cards or in a notebook, or they can use our Debatable Issues (PDF) handout. Alternatively, if students plan to offer a solution to a problem in their editorial, they may want to use our Problem-Solution Organizer (PDF).

For more detail about the nitty-gritty of the research process, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University provides a guide to conducting research that can be helpful with areas such as evaluating source reliability and doing Internet searches.

Students can find articles in The Times by using the search feature . For our contest, we ask that students have at least one Times and one non-Times source for their evidence, although of course we hope most will read far beyond that requirement as they learn about the topic.

Students might be grouped by common interests to work together during the research portion of this process, then write individual editorials, or they might do the entire assignment in partners or as a group.

How to Write an Editorial

The New York Times’s editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal provides seven tips for writing an effective editorial.

Steps 4 and 5 | Outlining and Drafting; Revising and Editing: How Do You Write an Editorial?

Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor at The Times, explains in this brief video that a good editorial consists of “a clear position that is strongly and persuasively argued.” He then goes on to recommend seven pointers for students.

1. Know your bottom line. “You have to know what you want to say. You have to have a clear opinion — what we call a bottom line.” 2. Be concise. “You need to get to the point of your editorial quickly. You have to state it clearly and you have to be concise.” 3. Give an opinion or solution. “There are basically two kinds of editorials. One expresses an opinion about a situation, like if you want to write about human rights abuses in some part of the world or the country that you’re concerned about. The other kind of editorial proposes a solution to a specific problem. For example, if you want to write about traffic congestion in northern New Jersey, where I live and there’s a lot of traffic, you should have an answer to how to fix the traffic problem.” 4. Do your research. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, you’re not entitled to your own facts. Go online, make calls if you can, check your information, double-check it. There’s nothing that will undermine your argument faster than a fact you got wrong, that you did not have to get wrong.” 5. Write clearly. “Good writing is important. Make your writing clear and easy to understand. Write as if you’re sending a letter to a well-informed friend who cares about what you think. But don’t use any slang. OMG — no. Use examples whenever you can. It’s better to use an example than just to use a word or an adjective that describes something. If you want to say that the mayor’s pre-K policy is wrong, explain how — don’t say it’s just stupid. In fact, never use the word stupid.” 6. Every writer needs an editor. “After you’ve written your editorial, give it to someone you trust to read and listen to what they say. If they don’t understand it, that means it’s probably not clear.” 7. Be prepared for a reaction. “When you write something and you publish it, be prepared for a reaction. If you write a good editorial, people are going to respond to it. And if you criticize people, they definitely are going to respond. So if someone writes you a letter, write them back. Be prepared to defend your position. Don’t get defensive, just explain why you said what you had to say. And if they question your facts, be ready to show that you were right.”

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University has a guide to writing argumentative essays that may also be helpful for students as they think about organizing their editorial and developing a logical argument.

Step 6 | Publishing: How Can My Editorial Reach an Audience?

Students will have the chance to publish their editorials as comments on the Learning Network on or before March 17, 2014, as part of our Student Contest . Along with our partner, the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, we will then choose the best to publish in a separate post. But even if your students aren’t writing for our contest, the genre is meant to have an audience. That audience can start with the teacher, but it ideally shouldn’t end there.

Students can read their editorials to the class or in groups. Classmates can have a chance to respond to the author, leading to a discussion or debate. Students can try to publish their editorials in the school newspaper or other local newspapers or online forums. It is only when editorials reach a wider audience that they have the power to make change.

Teachers: How do you teach the persuasive essay? Let us know, below. And if you ever use The New York Times to do it, consider writing in to our Reader Ideas column.

This resource may be used to address the academic standards listed below.

Common Core E.L.A. Anchor Standards

1   Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2   Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

4   Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5   Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6   Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

8   Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

10   Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

1   Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

4   Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5   Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

6   Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

7   Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

8   Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

1   Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2   Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

3   Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

6   Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

What a great lesson plan. I like the emphasis on writing as a tool to empower. The Debatable Issues PDF and the other links within this article are excellent resources. Using editorials as models is also important, as students get to see real-world application of argumentative/persuasive writing skills. The succinct list of 7 direct pointers is valuable as well. Thank you.

James Mulhern, //www.synthesizingeducation.net

We are looking at the articles that are linked to the topics on school computers. After reading a few of them, students are prompted to purchase a subscription to the Times to continue looking. Is this contest designed only for schools that have a subcription already? If so, this should be made clear in the lesson plan section. Can a short subscription be purchased?

Amy, All links to New York Times articles from the Learning Network are free, so even though your students are prompted to buy a subscription, they should still be able to click through to read the article. If students are going from article to article on the rest of NYTimes.com, however, they will be stopped after they have hit the limit of 10 free articles each month. Special subscriptions are available for schools (link: //www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/edu/lp2266.html?campaignId=3JU39 ), but they are not necessary since we only require one Times article for evidence. One way to find more free articles is to have students search their topic on our blog first, since we’ve likely done more than one post on the subject in the past. Since everything we write links back to The Times and does not “count” toward the 10-article monthly limit, that should give each reader a few more free links. Thank you for asking, and we’re sorry if these work-arounds are a bit awkward, but we hope your students will still participate. — Michael and Katherine

The article that I would like to discuss is titled “How Single Motherhood Hurts Kids”. The title itself is filled with an opinion all its own, which is understandable, but I also have an opinion on this topic as well. The article discusses the topic of transitions that the child may have to go through and the difficulties that they may have to face due to having a single parent. Though all of these are very reasonable accusations and worries, from personal experience and research there is proof that children with a single mother or parent can grow up just as good if not better than a child with both parents in the home. Divorce and parents separating is and unfathomable thing for a child to go through. So one point i would like to make clear is that I am not making divorce seem like a good thing or a good benefit for the parents or the child, but what I am going to point out is the benefits that can rise out of such a dark transition for a family. “unmarried parents here are more likely to enter into parenthood in ways guaranteed to create turmoil in their children’s lives.”(Hymowitz) Yes divorce is going to cause issues in a childs life, and cause issues that may change their life, but what people do not think about is the person that the child may become because the mother or father chose to get them out of a unhealthy relationship. The child is not doomed for unhappiness because their parents no longer live together. Another topic that came up in the article was the transitions that will occur in the childs life now that they live with only one parent now. Yes it is inevitable that the single parent in time will look to possibly remarry. But there is no problem with this fact. What people should view this as is showing that there is hope to the child. By the mother or father choosing a better life for both the child and them this will help show the child how to be independent, and help them later in life. “These children are more likely to build upon their own independence in a home where they may not always have one or both parents hovering over them” (Campbell) By this pushing them to be more independent it will help them make choices later on in life. Of course having both parents at home is ideal but in the case that they are not, it is important for people to know that there are single parents out there that have the best interest for their kids and can offer them just as good of a life as two parents.

We’re about to tackle this contest with some 300 students. I’m wondering how to search the student responses in order to determine whether or not our students uploaded a sample. Is there a way for the teacher to search in order to verify based on the “code” suggested in the instructions?

Hi Shane — I wish I could tell you it was easy to do that, but unfortunately it’s not. Short of having you search for the code on each individual comment page, what we’ve suggested in the past is that teachers make students responsible for reporting the unique URL for each of their comments in order to get credit. So, for instance, this ( //learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/student-contest-write-an-editorial-on-an-issue-that-matters-to-you/#comment-1498619 ) is the URL for the most recent comment on the contest right now, by someone called R.E. Thank you for participating, and, again, I’m sorry the system isn’t easily searchable. –Katherine

Nothing Is As It Seems It is undeniable that human beings are eager and desiring individuals who acquire a consuming craving to reveal the unknown. Uncertainty brings fear and anguish into the lives of people, which is not cured until the dilemma present is clarified. Sometimes, this intense ambition to uncover the unknown leads to false culminations and makes the unjustified, justified. One of modern society’s tremendous deceptions is found in the tragedy that happened at Columbine High School. On April 20th, 1999, fifteen gunshots echoed through the halls of Columbine High School, dreadfully ending the lives of fifteen people. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were two high school seniors who obtained a consummate anger toward the world, and proved it in a brutal and cold-blooded way. Many people perceive the Columbine disaster as being the baleful outcome of bullying. This, however, was not the case. According to David Brooks of The New York Times, “Most of these misconceptions have been exposed. The killers were not outcasts.” Klebold and Harris “laughed at petty school shooters, and they sought murder in a grander scale.” Dylan and Eric weren’t bullied, but simply rebellious, enraged, and vengeful. When this heartbreaking event happened, people all over the country began to attempt to determine the two boy’s reasoning behind this mass massacre that they executed. Since death and the media was involved, it seemed even more vital to make an immediate and reasonable closure. Furthermore, with an ongoing issue with bullying throughout schools in the United States, this catastrophic occurrence appeared to have an accessible blame. Teachers and education systems across the country used this calamity to promote an anti-bullying campaign. ‘Rachel’s Challenge’, which was named after Rachel Scott, the first person killed in Columbine, was advertised in many schools to address the importance of compassion and human kindness. By turning the story of a tragic death at Columbine High School into a mission for change, Rachel’s Challenge is helping create safer learning environments and making a world-wide impact (“Rachel’s Challenge”). Although this movement immensely benefited and continues to benefit relationships between students, bullying was falsely proclaimed as the rationalization behind this movement. The calamity of the Columbine shooting serves as patent proof that humans’ craving for answers to obscurity ultimately lead to inaccurate acquisitions. Making the unjustified seem justified is a dominant characteristic of human nature. People are in constant strive for resolutions and vindication, because to us, the unknown is unbearable. It is crucial for a cessation to be made only after thorough observation and evaluation of the existent perplexity, for sometimes, nothing is as it seems.

Works Cited Brooks, David. “The Columbine Killers.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2004. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. “About Rachel’s Challenge.” Rachel’s Challenge. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

Enroll yourself in all honors and AP courses. Get A’s in all of your subjects. Get that GPA up. But be well-rounded. Colleges won’t like you if you’re not well-rounded. Do a sport; do a few sports and a few clubs too. Go to those practices and meetings every week. Volunteer at the soup kitchen, and at your church. Every week. But do make sure you get your nine hours of sleep every night. Teenagers are supposed to get nine hours of sleep every night. And if you do it right, colleges will love you. But don’t forget to throw those SAT classes into the mix, because if you have a low SAT score, the colleges won’t accept you. Then, with no college acceptances, your life has been a waste for the past 18 years and you are going to have no job and live in a cardboard box. These statements constantly echo in the average teenager’s mind. Everything we do sets us up for college… SO, we better not mess up. But is the stress and the pressure really justified? Alfie Kohn states, “…students suffer intellectually as well as psychologically because the pressure to succeed academically leaves little room for exploring ideas…” The high expectations of teens, as Kohn explains it, leave little to no room for teenagers to breathe and think, thus causing an unbearable amount of stress. Alright, point noted. But this stress doesn’t really affect anyone; it’s just one of those myths everyone tells you about high school before you’re finally there…right? “Almost 40 percent of parents say their high-schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a new NPR poll…In most cases, that stress is from academics…Homework was a leading cause of stress, with 24 percent of parents saying it’s an issue. A survey by the American Psychological Association found that nearly half of all teens — 45 percent — said they were stressed by school pressures…” as well, according to Patti Neighmond of NPR. I’m guessing that earlier assumption was wrong, then. Students, as well as their parents, experience stress due to a heavy work load. The problem has been identified. Now where’s the solution? Do we lower our academic standards as a society in order to help students achieve better grades, or do we let them suffer? Do we shorten the school day so that students have more time to do homework, study, and sleep, or do we keep it the way it is? Do we give less work to ease the stress, or do we stay with the same work load to prepare the students for college? Now, is college really anything like high school? No one really knows, do they?

Works Cited Kohn, Alfie. “Reconsider Attitudes About Success.” New York Times. N.p., 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. < //www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/12/stress-and-the-high-school-student/reconsider-attitudes-about-success>. Neighmond, Patti. “School Stress Takes A Toll On Health, Teens And Parents Say.” National Public Radio. N.p., 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. < //www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/02/246599742/school-stress-takes-a-toll-on-health-teens-and-parents-say>.

Jessica Bowman Mrs. Otto English II Pre-AP 16 March 2014 Is Dance a sport Or an Art? Dance – “To move one’s feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps, especially to the accompaniment of music.” Dance is neither defined as a sport or an art. Why do people think that dance does not fall into the sport category and is only an art? The wonderful thing about dance is that it is not a sport or an art. It is both. Sport – “An athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature”. Art – “The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” There is a fine line with any activity between sport and art. An activity requiring a person to be active and on their feet, like basketball for instance, is truly a sport. But, is shooting a ball through a hoop aesthetic and beautiful? Not really. Art is something that a person can be creative and expressive with. I’m not talking about just painting a picture. I’m talking about different ways to express one’s self, whether it be singing, or even playing an instrument. So, where does dance fit in to all of this? Why is it that when people hear the word sport, they automatically think of football, or soccer, or baseball? Dance is an athletic activity that requires much skill and can be very competitive. For instance, in the Olympics, rhythmic dancers must work diligently in order to be better than anyone else? If competing for an Olympic gold medal isn’t competitive then I don’t know what is. Dance also requires one to be physically fit. A perfect example of this is a drill team. The dancers may make all of those high kicks look easy, but coming from a drill team girl herself, no matter how much you run you will always be out of breath after a kick routine. It takes stamina to be any kind of dancer. It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer. Dance isn’t just all about running dances over and over again for a competition. It is so much more than that. Dance is a place where you can express your feeling through your movement. It’s a place where you can let all of your stress out and just move. Dance allows one to fully use their creativity and create shapes with their body. You can tell a story through gestures and mobility. You can translate your words through your body. Dance is both beautiful and powerful. Even though it requires strength and skill, it is also appealing to look at and very enjoyable to watch. Therefore, dance is both and art and a sport.

Work Cited Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Jamison, Judith. “The Ecstasy, and Agony, Linking Dance and Sport.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Dec. 2001. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

“Dance.VS.Sports – Dancers: Artists or Athletes?” Dance.VS.Sports – Dancers: Artists or Athletes? N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Steven S Block 2 Mrs. Otto English II Pre-AP 17 March 2014

Should IPhone/IPads be in youth? In this day in age, technology is at our fingertips, kids and adults having easy access to information. Technology has grown rapidly all over, but mainly in the United States. With this excessive amount of technology, teachers try to use devices such as IPads and using their phones in order to do an activity in class. Especially in the Elementary schools, kids should not be using iPad to learn. This equipment is too expensive to have for children as young as second, third, or fourth grade to be accessing. These young of kids even have iPads for themselves just to play games on them! Instead of playing outside and doing something constructive, they are wasting their time on their iPhone or IPad doing pointless things for their age. Using them to learn is one thing, but playing mindless games for hours at the age of seven? Plus, kids do not need IPads in schools to learn about the real world, how do you think other people did it? Steve Almond, a writer from the New York Times in his article about technology in youth states “Frankly, I find it more disturbing that a brand-name product is being elevated to the status of mandatory school supply. I also worry that iPads might transform the classroom from a social environment into an educational subway car, each student fixated on his or her personalized educational gadget.” I believe to that when you provide technology to kids that young, they will get distracted and not actually learn. I got my first phone about five years ago and I loved it! But today, when you have third graders with the iPhone 5c, while I didn’t even get a phone until last year and I’m sixteen, it’s just ridiculous. It really isn’t the kids fault; after all, they’re not buying the phone. The Parents are really the ones to blame in my opinion. It really all depends on the kids, if they are independent or not, but it’s up to the parents really to decide. Liz Perle from The Common Sense Media claims a reminder for parents “When you hand kids phones today, you’re giving them powerful communications and production tools. They can create text, images, and videos that can be widely distributed and uploaded to Web sites. They can broadcast their status and their location. They can download just about everything in the world.” This really puts the pressure on the parents to know when their child is mature to handle these expensive, and possibly dangerous devices.

Works Cited Almond, Steve. “My Kids Are Obsessed With Technology, and It’s All My Fault.” NY Times. N.p., 21 June 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. < //www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/my-kids-are-obsessed-with-technology-and-its-all-my-fault.html?pagewanted=all&action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry721%23%2Fchild+technology> Perle, Liz. “When Should You Get Your Kid a Cell Phone?” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014 < //www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-when-should-you-get-kid-cell-phone.html>

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, since 1976 has killed 1,099 people as of 2008. 57% of these people were white, 34% were black, and the other 9% were other races, according to Capital punishment is not sending out a good message to the world. It is basically saying depending on who you killed and how many you killed, your right of life is taken from you. Capital punishment is known to be biased towards a race and biased towards the value of the family economically. Capital punishment takes the right of life away unnecessarily. Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, agrees that the capital punishment should not be used. He thinks that because that the main characters, Dick and Perry, killed four wealthy people in cold blood, they don’t have to be killed in cold blood as well.¬¬¬ “… four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.” This book shows that this case touched many people because the Clutters were loved by many and because of that the case gave too harsh consequences. This sends a wrong message to the world, it is basically saying if a person is low on the hierarchy then not many people care what happens to them as much as someone who is high on the hierarchy. Though lots of people executed may have deserved the death penalty in some eyes, a very serious problem in capital punishment is executing an innocent person. If the government convicts the wrong person and that person is executed, then an innocent person has lost their right of life for no reason and can’t be given back. There have been around 10 cases in which there has been strong evidence of innocence, yet these 10 human beings were killed. The government took these people’s rights from them and they cannot give it back. Capital punishment takes rights from people that they don’t have the right to take away. Capital punishment should be abolished and so far 18 states have come to their senses and realized that the capital punishment is wrong.¬¬ ”Capital punishment is a fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.” Capote, Truman. In cold blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences. New York: Random House, 19661965. Print. Cuomo, Mario. “Death penalty is dead wrong: It’s time to outlaw capital punishment in America – completely.” NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. “Death Penalty Focus.” Death Penalty. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. “The Slow Demise of Capital Punishment.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

Graffiti IS an art in itself

Opinions on what is considered a work of art are vast. Just ask Mark Quinn, the British artist, who created a famous piece of work by taking a mold of his head and dunking it in his own blood. He called this piece “Self”. Oh and Quinn didn’t stop there. “The first blood head was made in 1991 and shown in the Sensation exhibition in Brooklyn. Since then the artist has made a new cast every five years, documenting his own transformation and ultimate deterioration. The three earlier blood heads are all in overseas collections. The Gallery wants to present the latest series in London, as a centerpiece in its contemporary collection and as a way of engaging with issues of representation of the human figure in contemporary culture.”(National Portrait Gallery) So what makes this piece of artwork so intriguing? Well, it depends on the audience. Some people may not consider a blood dipped cast of ones head very artful. The same argument arises when discussing graffiti’s position in the art world. Art, by definition, is a word for self-expression. It’s a way for a person to communicate with others without having to use voice. Clearly art can be shown in many different forms. Just because graffiti isn’t often hanging in museums with a little red rope surrounding it doesn’t mean that its not valuable. In fact, a rather large piece of the Berlin Wall is in the Newseum in Washington D.C.. The graffiti covered stone is viewed by thousands of people every day. The attraction is not just the stone but the incredible history that is actually documented on it, in the form of graffiti. The best part about graffiti is that its free! In the New York Times article (Graffiti finds its place in contemporary art) they described a street artist “Haring, chalking his drawling’s in the subway, saw himself as bringing art to the people, according to Lewinsohn, quoting the New York art dealer Tony Shafrazi. “Twenty Million people traveling through the subway got to see his work, “Lewinsohn quoted Shafrazi as saying. “Keith considered that world to be almost a museum of its own kind. “He thought that many of those people didn’t have the means or the knowledge to go museums, so he was bringing the art to them.”(Barbieri) It’s not being made for money, but for the enjoyment of the artist themselves. Just because it is in word form or plastered on the side of a train doesn’t mean its not a form of artwork, it just means its an unpublicized creation made for all’s enjoyment. Is Graffiti art, yes it is. Like Raymond Salvatore Harmon once said ” Art is an evolutionary act. The shape of art and its role in society is constantly changing. At no point is art static. There are no rules.” So next time you hear the names Jr from France, Jaz form Argentina, or even Gaia from the U.S.A, maybe we should thank them for a more entertaining and artistic walk home.

National Portrait Gallery. “Accessibility.” National Portrait Gallery -. National Portrait Gallery, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. < //www.npg.org.uk/footer/accessibility.php>.

Barbieri, Claudia. “Graffiti Finds Its Place in Contemporary Art.” Editorial. New York Times. Claudia Barbieri, Friday May 2008. Web. < //www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/arts>.

Raised In Fear Exploitation and sexual violence against women is a plague terrorizing women as it becomes more acceptable every day. Young women are taught to cover up and be on guard from a young age as it would be their fault for triggering an attack on themselves by being “too exposed” or “too flirtatious.” Everyday sexual violence is glorified in the media and vulgar acts towards women are praised on television and in movies leaving the world in a state that can only be described as a “rape culture.” Rape culture is teaching young men that it’s okay to dehumanize women and conquer them without consequence. Not only are rape victims becoming more abundant, the victims and their attackers are becoming younger. Most of these young men aren’t creepy outcasts but they are the charming, athletic stars. Just last year two football stars are charged with the rape of a fellow female classmate and found guilty (Oppel). A guilty verdict was the move in the right direction but all too often charges are dropped because no one is fighting for the victim, such as the Montclair case where the prosecution suddenly dropped all charges against the two attackers (Gettleman). This especially dangerous because when there is no consequence the attackers continue raping and assaulting and often become more violent. Many people will argue more particularly in a younger attacker’s defense that they have their whole life ahead of them and so much potential. The gaping double- standard comes into play as the attackers are defended, but their victims are told by respected adults, friends, peers, even the police that they are at fault for being promiscuous and bringing the attack upon themselves. They are scrutinized, called vile names, and bullied to recant if they do speak out about the despicable acts that were carried out on them. Even with the abundance of survivors speaking out and thousands participating in walks to stand against sexual violence with the statistics that 1 in 3 women are victims of sexual violence and 600 women in the United States alone are raped every day, a plenty of people still say that “rape culture” against women doesn’t exist. They claim that it is a false feminist outcry, however their ignorance is the reason 40% of rapes aren’t even reported as they put the blame on the victim. This sexually violent culture needs to be eradicated. Instead of teaching young women to always be on the defense, young men should be taught that conquering and dehumanizing is wrong. No means no under any circumstance needs to be enforced. Once everyone takes a stand and stops trying to cover up the problem by supporting victims and punishing attackers, the world will be safer for everyone. Little girls should never be raised to live in fear of sexual assault.

Works Cited

Gettleman, Jeffrey. “Rape Case Against 2 Montclair Football Players Is Dropped.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Nov. 2004. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Horowitz, Alana. “Steubenville Rape Trial Verdict: Trent Mays, Ma’lik Richmond Found Guilty.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Mar.

Marshall University. “Women’s Center.” Womens Center. Marshall University, 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Oppel, Richard A., Jr. “Ohio Teenagers Guilty in Rape That Social Media Brought to Light.”The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Order of the White Feather. “Rape Culture & Statistics.” The Order of the White Feather. Order of the White Feather, 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

WOAR. “Resources & Information.” Sexual Assault Statistics – Sexual Violence and Rape Statistics. WOAR, 2005. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Raised In Fear Exploitation and sexual violence against women is a plague terrorizing women as it becomes more acceptable every day. Young women are taught to cover up and be on guard from a young age as it would be their fault for triggering an attack on themselves by being “too exposed” or “too flirtatious.” Everyday sexual violence is glorified in the media and vulgar acts towards women are praised on television and in movies leaving the world in a state that can only be described as a “rape culture.” Rape culture is teaching young men that it’s okay to dehumanize women and conquer them without consequence. Not only are rape victims becoming more abundant, the victims and their attackers are becoming younger. Most of these young men aren’t creepy outcasts but they are the charming, athletic stars. All too often charges are dropped because no one is fighting for the victim, such as the Montclair case where the prosecution suddenly dropped all charges against the two attackers (Gettleman). This especially dangerous because when there is no consequence the attackers continue raping and assaulting and often become more violent. Many people will argue more particularly in a younger attacker’s defense that they have their whole life ahead of them and so much potential. The gaping double- standard comes into play as the attackers are defended, but their victims are told by respected adults, friends, peers, even the police that they are at fault for being promiscuous and bringing the attack upon themselves. They are scrutinized, called vile names, and bullied to recant if they do speak out about the despicable acts that were carried out on them. Even with the abundance of survivors speaking out and thousands participating in walks to stand against sexual violence with the statistics that 1 in 3 women are victims of sexual violence and 600 women in the United States alone are raped every day, a plenty of people still say that “rape culture” against women doesn’t exist. They claim that it is a false feminist outcry, however their ignorance is the reason 40% of rapes aren’t even reported as they put the blame on the victim. This sexually violent culture needs to be eradicated. Instead of teaching young women to always be on the defense, young men should be taught that conquering and dehumanizing is wrong. No means no under any circumstance needs to be enforced. Once everyone takes a stand and stops trying to cover up the problem by supporting victims and punishing attackers, the world will be safer for everyone. Little girls should never be raised to live in fear of sexual assault.

Works Cited Gettleman, Jeffrey. “Rape Case Against 2 Montclair Football Players Is Dropped.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Nov. 2004. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Horowitz, Alana. “Steubenville Rape Trial Verdict: Trent Mays, Ma’lik Richmond Found Guilty.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. Marshall University. “Women’s Center.” Womens Center. Marshall University, 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Oppel, Richard A., Jr. “Ohio Teenagers Guilty in Rape That Social Media Brought to Light.”The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Order of the White Feather. “Rape Culture & Statistics.” The Order of the White Feather. Order of the White Feather, 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. WOAR. “Resources & Information.” Sexual Assault Statistics – Sexual Violence and Rape Statistics. WOAR, 2005. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Money is something that many people believe is just an object, but an object that should be treated with respect. While others think that money is not only an object but one that should be thrown around and squandered at will. But the real question is;

“Can money buy happiness?”

Technically only you can make yourself happy, money will only occupy you for so long until you realize that it cannot buy you happiness. Students and professors like Carol Hyman at the Berkley College in California have been studying whether money is something that in fact does make people happy. And have concluded that;

“Employees that are primarily motivated by the love (of work) become less happy the more money they make.”

When explained, people tend to be fooled by the things that money can do. Although it can buy you exotic trips, fancy cars, and designer clothes it will never buy the best things in life. You can’t buy laughs, making people feel good, and long hugs. Don’t be fooled by money’s desirable appearance.

The best things in life are free, the second best things in life are expensive. May you never find happiness with money, love of a pet, or share a laugh with a friend. Money can be wicked, barbaric, it can eat your soul away, till all that is left is a relentless wanting, a constant aspiration for more, and when more is not not enough, you become relentless.

“Maybe it is more about expectations, desire and a constant “wanting” than it is about actual income.”

No matter the money that you make, can u really be happy? Happiness should be a feeling we find within ourselves as human beings, not in the amount of money we contain. As katherine Schulten vocalizes, the more money you make, can only make you want more, though the less money you make, the more contained on sanity you are.

Ultimately, money should come as an object, after all, it’s only just paper, thin, green, paper. Obsessions can be developed, but only when money takes you for granted. And if you want to feel rich, just count all the things money can’t buy, the list will be eternal. Merry moments, don’t have price tags on them, they have everlasting smiles attached to them. Although money can do majestic things, money will never take the place of the best things in life.

Work cited:

//learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/can-money-buy-you-happiness/?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry559%23%2FCan+money+buy+happiness

//www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/16_money.shtml

I Love You, Don’t Hate Me She should love him, but she loves her. There is nothing wrong with the girl who loves her girly best friend, or the boy who dreams of marrying the guy who sits next to him in algebra. Homophobia is a form of discrimination, like someone being a racist; it’s unnecessary. People have an idea that homosexuality or being gay is a “mental illness” that can be cured through “therapy and prayer.” “Empirical evidence and professional norms do not support the idea that homosexuality is a form of mental illness or is inherently linked to psychopathology.” Homosexuality isn’t a sickness that can be made better; it is a way of life, part of the genetic makeup of a human being. People saying that having sexual feelings for the same sex is a hint that something isn’t right in the head is disconcerting for the individual that is a homosexual. To say that is wrong, there is no evidence to say that homosexuality is an illness, nor does it make sense. Religion has no place in a political argument like homosexuality. It is incorrect for someone to say that it is “unholy” to be gay or that “our Lord said it is a sin that will grant you a one way ticket to Hell” because not everyone is religious or has the same religious believes. If someone who is gay doesn’t believe in that a god like figure, then the person arguing that god said it’s unruly just lost the battle because his argument is now invalid. It’s as useless as a Christian going against a Muslim, trying to convert the other because he doesn’t believe what the other says. The arguing and name-calling is intoxicating. The amount of hate homosexuals get is enough to lead them down the path of suicide, self-hatred, and thinking that they are sick. To discriminate a human based on their love for others is inappropriate. “September 9: Billy Lucas, age 15, of Greensburg, Indiana, hanged himself from the rafters of his family’s barn… September 23: Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, Texas, shot himself in the head.” These boys didn’t know each other, but they were both bullied to the point where they believed that if you’re gay, then life isn’t worth living. If people can look past the color of another’s skin, then they should be able to do the same about another’s sexual orientation. Those kids should be in classes, not caskets. Being gay is normal. It’s more of a blessing than a sin. Words hurt and they feast on a person until there is nothing left but a hollowed out carcass. Discriminating people on their sexual orientation only kills; it helps no one.

There are around 7,219,307,200 humans alive in the world and that number is growing. Each person in this world is unique and there is no one person who is like another person. But every person on planet Earth has one thing in common. Our parents chose life. Unfortunately, some people decide to abort their child. Essentially, denying the child a life and an opportunity to thrive. All murder is seen as unlawful. So if murder is unlawful, then why is it lawful to end the life of an unborn child? Abortion is a painful and inhumane method of murder that violates the basic right of life that should be extended to all human beings. It is obvious that some people don’t think that the unborn child is a child. That became clear to the Pro-life Community when our political representatives denied the Unborn Child Awareness Act, which stated mothers who wanted to abort their baby had to first learn about what would be taking place. It also entailed that the mother could then give her child some drugs to lessen the pain, should she choose to continue with the murder. Although babies are beloved outside the womb, an unborn child has less legal protection than commercial livestock. This means that the slaughterhouse have to follow laws stating, “…killing animals is only deemed “humane” if “animals are rendered insensible to pain….” (Pain). Another argument that is used frequently in debates concerning abortion is ‘the child isn’t a child until birth. It is a zygote and cannot feel the abortion going on.’ Yet in reality, “the zygote is composed of human DNA and other human molecules, so its nature is undeniably human and not some other species.” (Schwarwalder2). This proves that science is on the side of pro-life because it proves that the unborn child is that; a child. In a perfect world, everyone would know what horror abortion brings to not only the child but also, in some cases, the mother. Childbirth, in many cases, is now safer to the mother because of recent technology that has rapidly reduced the number of deaths during delivery to almost nothing. And to add onto that, a mother who decides to abort her child can get infected, can lose the ability to have child, and will have to always live with the horror of murdering a child. Abortion is a worldwide issue, and the problem is that everyone knows the term ‘abortion’; but no one knows what abortion really is. That is where we as Pro-life citizens have to start. The problem needs to be put out to the people who are pro-choice. This is where we can start out task of saving lives.

Highschool Killed The Teenager The monster is crushing. He is excruciating, and his effects are great. He claws at skin as teachers scream “the colleges, they will love this!” He churns stomachs as work piles up, and pounds a steady beat in heads as parents whisper “don’t forget about this.” He reports back to dreams each night, reminding the subconscious mind to hold onto what the conscious brain so wants to let go. But worst of all, the monster is fed by a mandatory aspect of 3.3 million peoples lives (“Fast Facts”). High school. Coined “the best years of a teenagers life,” high school comes with high expectations and low tolerance. Homework is piled on, because the U.S needs to get better; at math and science and reading and writing, and the only way to tell if you are an adequate member of society, is by passing a standardized test. A test, truley, of your tolerance of stress and ability to memorize facts. The monster is fueled by standardized tests. The monster is also fueled by phrases such as “in the real world,” and “this is the easy part.” This monster does not only gauge out insides, but ravages outsides. Hair begins littering the floor, bones stick out, and food loses its appeal. Skin turns white, the final stage of surrendering to the monster. Signs like those are apparent on countless students all over the country, and “a survey by the American Psychological Association found that nearly half of all teens — 45 percent — said they were stressed by school pressures” (Neighmond). But high school continues to feed the monster. He dines on essays, snacks on applications, and feasts on homework. The monster is even beginning to invade little kids, because elementary and middle school wants to be as much like high school as little brothers and sisters want to be like their siblings. But he thrives in high school students whose heads are stuck in a book, because they care; about college, about grades, friends and family. He cannot live without care. The monster is crushing. The monster is stress. High schools serves stress as a side every single day, along with other high expectations. Nancy Kalish, of The New York Times, calls parents to action, stating “[w]e all know how badly we react to nonstop stress — why would we expect our children to be any different?” (Kalish). There are ways to save students, to kill the monster, to relax the stress. Shorten days, limit number of AP classes a student can take, lessen the homework load. The monster does not have to be crushing. Instead, the monster should be crushed. //www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/12/stress-and-the-high-school-student/it-starts-before-high-school //www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/02/246599742/school-stress-takes-a-toll-on-health-teens-and-parents-say //nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372

Thank you so much for hosting this fantastic activity. It was exciting to watch the flurry of activity in my classroom yesterday as students worked to meet the 5:00 deadline.

Now we’re wondering about what is next. Can you let us know the timeline for review and selection? I want to create a follow up lesson where the students review the editorials you selected, especially when they can look at how they responded.

Hi Shane — We were so delighted, and so taken aback, by the response! This contest set a Learning Network record, and we’re still figuring out our timeline for judging. But yes: sometime this week we’ll publish next steps, and put a link here. Thank you for assigning it and your students for participating! –Katherine

Technology does have us become more alone because personally there is a life story about that however to cut it short, I used the computer because I did not have any friends in school and as now my friends may slightly increase, my best friend is still the computer. It is a time waster and I have learned people do not have very interesting life so they do things, both good and bad online. Play video games, research, and other thing people can consider being good or bad. Now the reason why I say technology can make us more alone is because there is sadness to the computer, because I admit I do use the computer a lot and sadly like it a little too much. However due to recent discover and realization, the computer is numbing and can lack of intelligent ideas and facts that can grow into a myth where people create ideas and theories inside which are not, always true. People are becoming also, less creative because their minds are too lazy to think and daydream about something to do. In short the negatives can be balanced however as I like to say: “people have different ideas of how computer can be good and bad”.

Heya! I know this is sort of off-topic however I needed to ask. Does managing a well-established website such as yours require a lot of work? I am completely new to writing a blog but I do write in my diary on a daily basis. I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share my experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!

excellent points altogether, you just gained a new reader. What might you recommend about your put up that you made a few days in the past? Any sure?

Eliminate Vaccination Loopholes “Herd immunity” is critical to a healthy society. Without a sufficiently vaccinated population, our communities could be overwhelmed with preventable viruses like the measles. In 2015, we are facing a measles outbreak due to a lack of immunized people and the contagiousness of this disease. Currently, our “herd immunity” is threatened by low vaccination rates in 17 states. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, there is even a school in California that has a shockingly low immunization rate of 30%. For measles, “herd immunity” means that 90% of the population is immune to the virus. Parents are using the “personal exemption” loophole allowed in 48 states, to opt out of required vaccinations for their children. Parents can easily deny or delay vaccinations based on personal beliefs. This is too easy. States should not allow the personal exemptions regarding vaccinations. “Personal exemption” laws provide a loophole for parents who are looking for a reason to opt out of vaccinations. Parents opt out for many reasons. Some believe that vaccines are dangerous, can cause serious side effects, or contain harmful ingredients, while others don’t trust safety assurances made by the FDA or the CDC. All scientific studies confirm the safety and effectiveness of the shots. Still others opt to delay some vaccinations so their kids don’t get as many shots in one visit. The risk of getting measles is much worse than a sore shoulder for a day or two. By delaying, the children are off the suggested schedule and therefore some vaccines are less effective. In a period of 20 years, ending in 2014, an estimated 732,000 American children didn’t die due to vaccinations preventing illnesses like the measles. Another main reason why people opt out of their vaccinations is because they expect everyone else to get vaccinated so they don’t have to. This does not work when more and more people think this and are able to exempt their children from the required vaccinations. For children to be safe from preventable horrible, even deadly diseases, they have to get vaccinated, at the right, scheduled time. The effectiveness of vaccines has made some people doubt the need for them. By working so well, vaccines have all but extinguished the flame of preventable diseases. Since people now have not had measles affect their life, they don’t know how bad it is, which helps them with the decision to not vaccinate their children. People have to get vaccinated for the sake of the entire community. By allowing “personal exemptions”, states are putting their communities in jeopardy. We need to eliminate vaccination loopholes for the good of everyone.

The Associated Press. “Oregon Considers Banning Most Vaccine Exemptions.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 Mar. 2015. Oshinsky, David. “Return of the Vaccine Wars.” Wall Street Journal [Seattle] 21 Feb. 2015: C3. Print. “Vaccines ProCon.org.” ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Lolita: A Slave for Entertainment Is it really ok to lock up an animal and use them as a slave to entertainment? At only 4 years old, Lolita was torn away from her family. 80 Orcas were corralled in the largest orca capture ever. Lolita was kidnapped. Ripped away from her family and sold to Seaquarium for only $6,000. The 48 year old Orca whale is currently living sadly in Miami Seaquarium. Lolita should be released from Seaquarium after over 40 years. Miami Aquarium has become one of the most popular and famous aquariums in the country. Each year they profit millions of dollars off animals. However animal rights activists say Lolita’s 80 x 60ft. wide and 20 feet deep tank is one of the smallest whale enclosures in the world. Their report gives evidence of Lolita’s deplorable living conditions. Of the 160 captive killer whales that have died in captivity, more than 70% didn’t make it beyond 10 years in captivity. The feeling of being locked up, with limited space, and no family is awful. This is exactly how Lolita feels. To pay money to Aquarium to see this is wrong. She has been alone without a companion of her species since 1980 after Hugo, another whale, died after crashing his head repeatedly on the enclosure. “She has no opportunity to socialize or interact with other members of her species, which is excruciating for such a social and intelligent animal,” PETA says. It is unfair to keep a beautiful animal like this held solitary. This proves the sad living conditions for Lolita, who has spent the past 35 years alone in her tank. Orcas are extremely intelligent animals. To be alone like this is much different environment than usual.”They’ll be able to communicate, and begin reforming that bond that was broken 40 years ago,” said Howard Garrett, director of the Orca Network who says the release of Lolita is long overdue. The operation is to release Lolita and return her near the San Juan Island. There, she will be kept in a pen to catch fish naturaly Seaquarium staff says the plan is unsafe and risky. Curator Robert rose, who works with Lolita says, “This is a non-releasable animal” If freed, “she’s going to die without question.” The staff also say she will end up like Keiko. Keiko was released in 2002 and died the following year after being rejected by wild orcas. Although she will have different knowledge of the ocean, Lolita would return into her home, where her family is waiting. Researchers say that her family is off the coast of Washington and has a call that Lolita still remember. The captivity of Lolita and other orca whale should stop. REUTERS. “After 44 Years, Miami Orca May Edge Closer to Freedom.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2015. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

“Life Expectancy of Orcas in Captivity.” Life Expectancy of Orcas in Captivity. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

We Should Have Background Checks Kyle Petrie We should have background checks in all of USA. Did you know that roughly 16,272 murders were committed in the United States during 2008. Of these, about 10,886 or 67% were committed with firearms. Think about how many of these could have been prevented if we had background checks. Many criminals wouldn’t have gotten their hands on guns and many innocent people’s lives could have been saved.

Also, based on survey data from the U.S. Department of Justice, about 5,340,000 violent crimes were committed in the United States during 2008. These include simple and aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders. Of these, about 436,000 or 8% were committed by offenders visibly armed with a gun. That’s right, 436,000 violent crimes were committed with people who had guns. A 1997 survey of more than 18,000 prison inmates found that among those serving time for a violent crime, “30% of State offenders and 35% of Federal offenders carried a firearm when committing the crime. If we had background checks then many of these criminals wouldn’t have been carrying firearms which would have made them probably not do the crime saving lives and keeping them out of jail at the same time. In the 10-year period from November 30, 1998 to December 31, 2008, about 96 million background checks for gun purchases were processed through the federal background check system. Of these, approximately 681,000 or about 1% were denied. 1% may not seem like a lot but 681,000 denied, that means that 681,000 bad people could have had guns in their possession and it only takes one person to attack a school or shoot a lot of people. Though some people say criminals would just get guns other ways like the black market, or private unauthorized dealers, just look back at the fact that background checks stopped 681,000 possibly bad, dangerous people or criminals from getting guns. Background checks are getting more popular, especially in Oregon were private transactions don’t require a check, but sellers have an incentive to do them. If a gun they sell is used in a crime, they can be liable if no check was done. They are protected if a check was done. We should have background checks for all of the reasons above, it would stop criminals from getting guns, it would protect more citizens, and it would keep more people out of jail.

Who is better; Robinson Cano or President Obama? John P Editorial

The President takes out his pen and is about to sign a law just as Robinson Cano hits a home run. What event is more important? Who do you think deserves a bigger salary? Robinson Cano is arguably one of the best second basemen in MLB history but he still shouldn’t make 43 times the money President Obama makes per year. Being a baseball player, I do have a lot of respect for the amount of work MLB players put in to get to the MLB, but I still believe that they make too much money. “Out of the 912 players in the MLB, the average salary was 3,014,572 dollars.” This is way too much money for a baseball player to make. Many people say that MLB players put in so much work and they deserve to get all this money but I disagree. I do believe that MLB players do put in a lot of work but I disagree about their salary. People who entertain other people shouldn’t make more money than someone who runs the whole United States. “Last year baseball players with a .230 to .239 batting average (which is very bad) were paid 937, 756 dollars. This is 4.7 times the salary of the president, 9.4 times the salary of the members of the cabinet and 7.6 times the salary of Chief Justice.” Baseball Players make more than the people who keep America from falling apart! Without the President and Chief Justice we wouldn’t be what make us America and yet we decide to give baseball players a lot more money than these people. Alex Rodriguez signed a contract with the New York Yankees that gave Alex Rodriguez about 29,000,000 dollars for 10 years. Do you think someone should make this much money? Is one baseball players worth so much more than the president? We need to lower the amount of money MLB players make and increase the Presidents salary. Next time you’re at a baseball game look around at each player who steps onto the field and ask yourself; Are they worth more than the President? Gray, Matthew. “Should Major League Baseball Players Get Paid This Much Money?” Sports Networker. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015. Herman, Louis J. “Of Course, Athletes Are Paid Too Much.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Apr. 1991. Web. 05 Mar. 2015

The Heroes of My School As a student myself, I know that we can always use more friendly faces and open-ears in schools and more understanding and empathetic adults roaming the halls. I know that we can always use more counselors. Why? Take Leelah’s story, for example. Leelah Alcorn was 17 when she took her own life. Born with the name Joshua, Leelah was transgender and treated like an outcast in her own home. She was surrounded by deeply religious parents and forced to attend conversion therapy, an attempt to change Leelah’s sexual orientation. Leelah was bullied. Not by her classmates, not by her teachers, but by her parents, the people sleeping in the room next door. The people who’d promised to love her and accept her and teach her. It may be difficult to recognize this type of bullying when America’s youth has been taught to respect and listen to our elders, but it is terrifyingly real. According to a study done by the NYU School of Medicine, twenty-four percent of high school students have seriously thought about attempting suicide and 90% of suicidal teenagers believe their families do not understand them. Where do these kids turn to for help? If they don’t feel like they can trust an adult at home or that adult is the problem, what are they supposed to do? Some may suggest the counselor’s office as a welcoming place for students. They’d be wrong. The national student-to-counselor ratio is 478 to 1. This means the counselors are always busy, and their doors are always shut. It’s not that the counselors don’t want to give students 100% of his or her time and attention, it’s just that they can’t. There’s practically a three month wait list just to talk to one, let alone get a solid solution to someone’s problem. It’s first come, first serve. School counselors are heroes. They give teens support and care when others do not. We need to hire more counselors so every student can feel safe, happy and healthy at home and at school.

Works Cited Harris, Elizabeth A. “Where Have All the Counselors Gone?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Dec. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. “Suicide Note of Transgender Ohio Teen Inspires Call to Help Others.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2015. “Teen Suicides Statistics – Yello Dyno.” Teen Suicides Statistics – Yello Dyno. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. “Reasons for Teen Suicide.” Teen Suicide (Teenage Suicide, Teenager Suicide). N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

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  • Opinion Writing

Types of editorials

Description

This is a lesson that outlines the difference between editorials and columns and types of editorial  topics. After presenting on what editorials are and the kinds commonly found, the teacher will reinforce key concepts with guided notes. Students will take a quiz at the end of the lesson.

  • Students will understand why newspapers have editorials.
  • Students will understand differences between columns and editorials.
  • Students will be able to understand different types of editorials.
  • Students will brainstorm topics they can write an editorial about.

Common Core State Standards

Examples of opinion sections (You can use opinion sections in resources, pass out copies of recent newspapers or direct students to opinion sections of newspapers online.)

Slideshow: Editorials and columns

Slideshow: Types of editorials

Guided notes (copies for each student)

Quiz: Editorials

Answer key: Editorials

Lesson step-by-step

1. Why editorials? — 20 minutes

Discuss the significance of having editorials in a publication and present slideshow about differences between editorials and columns.

Distribute copies of opinion sections, and have students note not just the stylistic difference between editorials and columns, but also the topics covered. Explain that editorials are a chance for the newspaper to show leadership and take a stand — the newspaper’s opinion has more weight than one person’s. As students look through the examples of opinion sections, make sure to check that they know how to identify editorials and columns and can tell the difference.

2. Types of Editorials — 15 minutes

Distribute copies of the guided notes. Present types of editorials, encouraging students to follow along and get the answers needed for the quiz.

3. Quiz — 15 minutes

Deliver the quiz covering types of editorials.

The 9 journalistic genres (explained and classified)

In the newspapers we can find all kinds of information, both on recent events and on subjects of interest or on public figures.

There are several journalistic genres, types of texts in which we can classify the articles that we find in a newspaper or magazine, both on paper and online, which meet different degrees of objectivity and in a more or less to a great extent the opinion of their author.

Next, we will find out what are the main journalistic genres , in which groups they are included and what characteristics each of them have.

The main journalistic genres

When we speak of journalistic genres, we are referring to the different ways you can communicate and report on the same event .

It is considered that genres can be grouped into three major groups: informational, opinionated, and interpretive or mixed. Journalistic texts are included in one or the other major group depending on the degree of objectivity their author takes or whether he expresses his position on a certain issue.

Originally, journalistic genres were born out of print media, but with the development and expansion of new technologies, we can find these three types of genres in the form of different texts in digital and audiovisual media . These can be found in a multitude of texts in different formats. Let’s find out.

Informative genres

Informative genres are characterized by the exposure of events from specific data. The author should try to convey the information as objectively as possible. Within this great journalistic genre, we mainly find news, reporting and interviews.

The news is an article that informs about a recent, current and interesting event . This genre is considered the most important and representative among those of the informative type, and it can well be said that without the news journalism would be meaningless. Its content is very varied, which can cover subjects related to politics, economy, society, culture, the world of sport …

Two characteristics allow us to differentiate information from other journalistic genres: brevity and objectivity. The objective of the news is none other than to report an event, without adding any type of analysis or commentary that suggests the position taken by the author in this regard. The writing of a news item must be adjusted as precisely as possible to the events that have occurred.

When writing an article, avoid using adjectives that denote subjectivity, especially prefixes, personal pronouns, or first person verbs. In general, use short, clear and simple sentences.

The usual information structure is an inverted pyramid, in the sense that this type of text uses the technique of journalistic storytelling, starting with what is most important and ending with what is less important. In this journalistic genre, the following can be included.

The headline should use a font that stands out from the rest of the news , generally using bold and a larger font size. The verbal ellipse predominates there (ignore verbs). With him, the main fact in question is expressed.

Lead is the first paragraph of the news , which contains the main body of information, but not necessarily a summary. It must be sufficiently complete and autonomous so that the reader, by reading it, gets an idea of ​​the fundamentals of current events. This is where you can find answers to the classic questions of what (what), who (who), how (how), where (where), when (when) and why (why).

The body of the news is the news itself , appearing in a font smaller than the title and lead. It is presented divided into paragraphs in which the information expressed in the entry is developed in more detail, including background information, the consequences of what happened and the current situation of the issue being addressed in the news. The comments of the persons concerned appear in indirect style and also in direct style in quotation marks.

2. The report

Reports are essentially news scopes , in which detailed information about an event is offered, analyzing its circumstances, antecedents and consequences and gathering the opinions of those involved (witnesses and protagonists).

They can include the journalist’s opinions or ratings, which makes the information a bit more subjective, which is why there are those who see it as mixed.

3. The interview

The interview is the journalistic genre in which the conversation the journalist has with an important figure is reproduced verbatim . Its two most common modalities are:

  • Pure interview: the questions and answers are reproduced verbatim without comments.
  • Interview-report: the character, his environment, his behavior are introduced and biographical data are added. The questions and answers are prepared in a literary way based on the observations and observations of the investigator.

The 9 journalistic genres (explained and classified)

Types of opinion

As the name suggests, opinion genres are those types of articles where subjectivity predominates. The journalist, editor or specialist shows his point of view on a fact or an event. They are also used to express the position of a media concerning a phenomenon or news of interest.

This genre includes formats such as editorial, column, review, letter to the editor, and opinion piece. The comic or vignette that many newspapers add in their pages to express a topic of interest in a humorous and sarcastic manner can also be seen as part of the opinion genre, often being a resource where the author expresses his or her opinion graphically.

The linguistic characteristics of opinion texts are close to those of humanist speech or essay , it is therefore common to see the following features:

  • Presence of the sender in the text, using the first person.
  • Use of expressive resources that embellish the style.
  • Contribution of examples, anecdotes and quotes.
  • Use of argumentation.

4. The editor

At the publisher the newspaper’s point of view is expressed on a topical issue and often appears prominently in the publication , fixed and almost always unsigned. In most cases, these texts are written by the editor of the newspaper himself.

It is an explanatory-argumentative text, in which the newspaper intends to make known its vision and its assessment of the current situation which conditions public opinion. The seriousness of the presentation invites the reader to know what the newspaper thinks and also tries to convince them to adopt at least a thoughtful attitude.

On another side, in editorial texts, the ideological line of the newspaper can be openly shown , expressed in a very subjective language, with features typical of argumentative texts. It should also be said that the first person singular is not generally used, nor added humorous twists, more typical of other opinion pieces.

5. The opinion piece

Unlike the editorial, the opinion piece is still signed . It defends opinions or points of view that do not necessarily have to coincide fully with those of the newspaper.

These texts consist of a critical reflection on topical issues that the writer judges and values, with a mark of subjectivity, but expressing it with the proper journalistic style expected of a media professional.

6. The column

Column is a special type of editorial. This text retains the same general characteristics, but is characterized by its brevity and periodic character. . They are called that because their way of being presented is long and they are texts whose own style is very particular, almost literary.

7. Letter to the editor

The letter to the editor is a type of text in which readers of a certain publication give their opinion about a fact explained in it . They are short texts, generally delimited by the newspaper in which it is to be published and can deal with different subjects such as news, complaints, personal experiences, tributes, opinions. Whether they are published or not, it is the will of the editor of the newspaper.

Interpretive or mixed genres

Interpretive genres are mixed genres, as they contain characteristics of information texts as well as opinion texts. It is characterized by the description of a fact, but including at the end the personal appreciation of the editor-in-chief or the journalist. . The most characteristic type of text among the interpretive genres is the quintessential chronicle, with interpretive interview and reporting.

8. Chronicle

The chronicle is the type of text that offers a subjective interpretation of the events that occurred on a day that the journalist values ​​and interprets , although the antecedents and consequences of these same events are usually also researched. The event is told from the place where it happened and chronologically.

This journalistic genre differs from reporting in that the reporter is present at the event , and follows a temporal sequence as the event itself and its consequences occur. It differs from current events by the fact that its author values ​​events by giving his opinion. It is generally prepared by a correspondent or a special correspondent, addressing the literary story.

9. Criticism

In criticism the author informs and evaluates a certain type of artistic or cultural activity , like a film, a theatrical performance, a concert … This type of text generally appears the day after premieres, presentations or celebrations.

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Newspapers as a Source: Types, Sections, and Objectivity

Alys Avalos-Rivera

A newspaper is a publication that is periodically published (daily or weekly) that presents news and informative articles. In the past, newspapers were only published on paper, usually of the cheapest quality possible to make them affordable to the public and profitable for the publisher as well. Nowadays you can still find newspapers in their traditional form (paper based) or online.

Types of newspapers

Newspapers can be classified in different ways depending on their format, the type of news they cover, and their periodicity. One classification scheme divides this type of publications into two large groups: broadsheets and tabloids. Initially this classification was only based on the size of the pages. A tabloid is usually half the size of a broadsheet. However, with time, tabloids became associated with sensationalist news that present biased (or sometimes even false) information written in a style meant to scandalize happenings so as to catch readers’ attention. In contrast, broadsheets are usually considered as serious publications that strive to present news in an objective manner.

A second classification scheme is based on the coverage of the news published in the newspaper. Although most newspapers would usually contain news of the most relevant international and national events, some newspapers have a special focus on either regional or local news. For this reason, these types of newspaper are only sold in a specific town or region. On the other hand, national newspapers cover news of national and international interest and are sold all over a country. The last classification deals with how often the newspaper is published, which could be daily, three times or twice a week (biweekly or triweekly), once a week (weekly), or even once a month (monthly). Those newspapers that are published on a monthly or weekly basis sometimes focus on specialized news such as sports, arts, business, or news of local interest [click here to go back to reliability ].

Newspaper sections

The article “ Golden handcuffs for teachers won’t solve the staffing crisis in our schools ” was published in The Guardian, a well-respected British newspaper. Follow the hotlink provided in the reference entry to visit the article’s webpage. Once you are there, pay attention to the following details:

  • On the left of the article’s title, you will notice a couple of subtitles. One of them says “Teachers Shortage” (orange fonts). The second title simply says “Opinion” (gray fonts).
  • If you follow these links, you will notice that the first subtitle gives you access to other articles on the same topic which were published in the previous months.
  • The “Opinion” link takes you to the section of the same name. What does the word “opinion” mean in this context?
  • How does the information in the “Opinion” section (also called “Editorial” section in other newspapers) differ from the information provided in other sections?

In the past, when newspapers were actually just made out of paper, they all had different sections that readers could actually differentiate because they were placed on different pages. These sections were used to present the information classified in categories so that busy readers could only focus on those news they really cared about. For instance, if a reader only wanted to read the sports news, s/he could simply search for the sport page and ignore other sections such as entertainment or classified advertisements. Nowadays, if you want to search for a particular section on an online newspaper you have to look at the hotlinks. These links are usually on a ribbon or link menu placed on one of the margins of the webpage (usually the top or the left margin on Western newspapers).

Knowing the nature of the information that each newspaper section affords is of great importance to evaluate a source taken from a newspaper. The section of “Opinion” on The Guardian’s webpage, for example, is devoted to articles that express the writers’ opinions on a given subject, usually a controversial issue. This means that the journalists do not claim being objective or impartial when they write these pieces. On the contrary, the authors freely present their political views or make value judgement of the situations/events being discussed, which is not usually done in other types of journalism. This does not mean that in the “Opinion” section writers do not present evidence to support their claims. They sometimes but not always do! In most of them, the author(s) voice their point of view and weakly support that without providing adequate evidence.

Furthermore, some of these pieces are not confident enough to bring up alternative viewpoints for the audience to have a complete picture and then decide which side to believe. These types of articles are trying to persuade the audience to adopt a particular point of view. By contrast, other sections may have a very different focus. For instance, the “World news” section may only focus on presenting facts while the “Fashion” section may afford more visual material to describe or promote a new trend. To sum up, be cautious before you decide to cite the content in the “Opinion” section of the source.

As an exercise, you can visit a different online newspaper and browse the news provided on each section. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of this piece? To inform? To persuade? To narrate a real story? To sell a product/service? To give advice?
  • Does/do the author(s) claim something about a specific topic? If yes, how do they support their claims? With logic/facts/statistics/emotional appeals/visual evidence/experts’ opinions? [Click here to go back to Evaluating an Internet Source ]

Objectivity

It was mentioned before that broadsheets usually publish news that are written in an objective manner. This means that the writers do their best to represent the facts as close to the reality as possible, without involving their feelings or opinions in the report. If you consider that writers are human beings with feelings and opinions, and that newspapers are a business whose first objective is to make profits, being objective becomes a complex matter. For this reason, we cannot talk about a piece of news that is absolutely objective and a newspaper that is 100% free from bias. In fact, newspapers usually take a particular political stance (position) that somehow determines how the news, especially the editorial or opinion sections, are presented. Some newspapers are said to have a left, center, or right tendency, depending on the type of political views they hold or political parties they favor. A newspaper’s political stance also determines its audience. This means that, for example, a conservative audience would usually favor a conservative type of newspaper.

As a reader, it is important to be aware of the newspaper’s stance and consider it whenever you read your news. A good principle is not to get your news from a single source. This practice will allow you to see the different points of views about a particular event and decide for yourself, instead of simply following other’s opinions. This is especially important if you are considering using newspaper articles as part of your sources for an assignment. Moreover, you should keep this principle in mind when browsing news on other sources different from newspapers, such as TV, radio broadcasts, or online sources such as Google News, or Yahoo News. They all follow a stance and address an audience with a political point of view [Click here to go back to reliability]

As an exercise, you can observe the following statements about the problem of global warming taken from the websites of two famous TV Networks (You can also click on the hotlinks to read the whole articles). Consider the following questions:

  • If you only read the headlines on the Fox News article, what is the idea that you get about the causes of global warming?
  • Is that the same idea that you get once you read the content of the article (pay attention to the words that were bolded for your reading convenience)?
  •  According to the CNN News website, what is causing global warning?
  • Do these two articles agree on the causes of global warming? Why is that?

To find out more about the editorial line (political stance) of these two sources (Fox News and CNN News) and the political views of their audiences you may check the following article from Business Insider . However, remember that this is again a source may also have a political stance and may be not absolutely reliable.

Newspapers as a Source: Types, Sections, and Objectivity Copyright © 2020 by Alys Avalos-Rivera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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IMAGES

  1. Learn How to Write an Editorial Like A Professional Journalist

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

  2. Newspaper Examples Of Articles With Facts And Opinions

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

  3. How to Write an Editorial: Tips for Engaging Your Audience

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

  4. PPT

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

  5. Learn How to Write An Editorial

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

  6. How to Write an Editorial

    editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers

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COMMENTS

  1. What is an Editorial? Its Purpose and Types

    Informing, Persuading, Entertaining. Furthermore, the purpose of editorials extends beyond expressing an opinion. They also seek to inform readers, presenting facts in a new light or drawing attention to overlooked issues. Editorials often attempt to persuade, presenting arguments that sway the reader's opinion.

  2. LibGuides: Rhetoric: Find Editorials and Pro/Con Arguments

    An editorial is a written piece most often found in newspapers and magazines that typically addresses the opinion or viewpoint of senior editorial staff on a current or controversial issue. ... Find editorials in databases: Newspaper Databases often allow you to limit your results by "Editorials" as the document type.

  3. Opinion Pieces and Editorials: A Comprehensive Writing Guide

    Opinion pieces and editorials play a crucial role in journalism, offering writers a platform to express their perspectives and influence public opinion. These forms of writing allow individuals to delve into a range of topics, from politics and social issues to entertainment and culture. Whether you aspire to become a journalist, a columnist ...

  4. How To Write An Editorial (7 Easy Steps, Examples, & Guide)

    Choose a clear purpose (This will guide your entire process) Select an editorial type (Opinion, solution, criticism, persuasive, etc) Gather research (Facts, quotes, statistics, etc) Write the editorial (Using an Editorial Template that includes an introduction, argument, rebuttal, and conclusion) Write the headline (Title)

  5. A Guide to Editorials: The Power of the Pen

    Discover the diverse styles of editorials, the crucial roles in an editorial team, and the impact of digital media on this form of journalism.The guide concludes with practical tips and a comprehensive blueprint for creating impactful and thought-provoking editorials.. Understanding Editorials: An Introduction . Editorial writing is a powerful branch of journalism that has shaped public ...

  6. Editorial Journalism and Newspapers' Editorial Opinions

    Editorials differ from other opinion formats such as columns, commentary pages, letters to the editor, op-ed pages, or guest contributions. Formats vary but it is most common for editorials to be physically located toward the front or midway through the newspaper, and they are usually adjacent to the op-ed pages, cartoons, and letters to the ...

  7. How to Write an Editorial: 6 Steps for Writing an Editorial

    How to Write an Editorial: 6 Steps for Writing an Editorial. Writing an editorial is a great way to share your point of view beyond your existing network of family and friends. Some newspapers welcome guest editorial pieces or letters to the editor, but learning how to write an editorial effectively is essential to getting your work published.

  8. Editorial

    An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times [1] and The Boston Globe, [2] often classify editorials under the heading ...

  9. Opinion, news or editorial? Readers often can't tell the difference

    Generally speaking, an editorial is an opinionated column, but confusingly, the editorial department is the news department of a publication. (To further the confusion, Merriam-Webster defines ...

  10. Structure of an Editorial: What You Need to Know

    Editing and Revising: Perfecting Your Editorial. FAQs. A captivating headline. A compelling lead. A presentation of the issue. The development of an argument. Consideration of counterarguments. A persuasive conclusion. Crafting a solid editorial involves careful construction of each element, in-depth topic exploration, and meticulous editing ...

  11. Headlines in Newspaper Editorials: A Contrastive Study

    The results of the present study revealed certain qualitative and quantitative similarities and differences between the English and Persian editorial headlines. In terms of verbal/nonverbal distinction, the study revealed that editorial writers in TT preferred to write the headlines mostly in a form of full sentences.

  12. Here's What We Think: Editorials and Opinion Articles

    Tell them editorials and opinion articles are often categorized into four types: Ones that: Explain, interpret or inform. Praise, commend. Argue, persuade, propose a solution or call for action. Criticize, identify a problem. Have each student read three editorials or opinion articles. These can be chosen in advance to save time or students can ...

  13. For the Sake of Argument: Writing Persuasively to Craft Short, Evidence

    The persuasive essay is a quintessential high school writing assignment. With the Common Core standards, it seems to have taken on a new urgency in many school districts and classrooms. ... can have a chance to respond to the author, leading to a discussion or debate. Students can try to publish their editorials in the school newspaper or other ...

  14. Editorial: Definitions, Types, and Examples

    Dreams That Keeps You Awake. 9. Pooled Editorial-This is a piece of writing produced by two or more editors working at separate newspapers, and it is simultaneously published in each of those editors' respective publications. 10. Guest Editorial-This is usually sent by someone not coming from the staff of the paper.

  15. Types of editorials

    Examples of opinion sections (You can use opinion sections in resources, pass out copies of recent newspapers or direct students to opinion sections of newspapers online.) Slideshow: Editorials and columns. Slideshow: Types of editorials. Guided notes (copies for each student) Quiz: Editorials. Answer key: Editorials. Lesson step-by-step. 1.

  16. QUIZ 2: TYPES OF NONFICTION Flashcards

    description. a type of writing which explains something. biography. factual accounts of the lives of famous people. argumentative pattern. used to convince the reader that a certain fact is correct. The essay is a very new genre of nonfiction literature developed in the early twentieth century in America. false.

  17. Informational Text: Editorials, Articles, Speeches & More

    Editorials are articles written by the editor of a newspaper or magazine and describe a personal viewpoint on a topic. Lastly, reviews are articles where a topic or event is evaluated. A final ...

  18. The 9 journalistic genres (explained and classified)

    In the newspapers we can find all kinds of information, both on recent events and on subjects of interest or on public figures. There are several journalistic genres, types of texts in which we can classify the articles that we find in a newspaper or magazine, both on paper and online, which meet different degrees of objectivity and in a more or less to a great extent the opinion of their author.

  19. Editorials

    Opinion analysis and political endorsements from The New York Times editorial board.

  20. Quiz 2: Types of Nonfiction-B Flashcards

    Means to try to attempt something. Formal Essay. This nonfiction literature is serious and formal in tone and must be accurate and precise. Diaries, journals and letters. This nonfiction literature is an accurate account of a particular period of history. Editorials. this is a type of essay found in newspapers.

  21. Nonfiction

    editorial. gives one's opinions about a current problem or issue. biography. factual accounts of the lives of famous people. The essay is a very new genre of nonfiction literature developed in the early twentieth century in America. true or false` ... Editorials are a type of essay found in newspapers. true or false.

  22. Newspapers as a Source: Types, Sections, and Objectivity

    A newspaper's political stance also determines its audience. This means that, for example, a conservative audience would usually favor a conservative type of newspaper. As a reader, it is important to be aware of the newspaper's stance and consider it whenever you read your news. A good principle is not to get your news from a single source.

  23. Editorials are a type of essay found in newspaper ? True or False

    The statement; "Editorials are a type of essay found in newspaper," is true. Editorials also denominated as leading articlein the Unites States or leader in United Kindom, is an article written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned.