An Op-Ed is an essay that offers a writers’ viewpoint on a current event. It is written by a guest author or columnist, someone who is not a part of a publication’s editorial board. Op-Eds reflect current events and are targeted at the audience of the newspaper and usually tries to persuade the audience of a unique and fresh opinion.

For your Op-Ed, you will write a 3-4 page piece about a topic that is important to you. You will take a specific stance and will support your claim with at least three sources. These sources can be an interview with someone who your topic affects, a website, a magazine article, a newspaper article, or a scholarly article. Try to have a mix of types of sources in your article. One of the three must be a scholarly article found from the CUNY online database.

Before you write your article, you will write a 1 page topic reflection that states why your topic is important to you and what message you want to send. Then you will do a rhetorical analysis of a model article of your choosing. There will be a round of first drafts, then individual conferences with me before you hand in your final draft.

After you write your article, you will write a 1-2 page reflection about your process of writing the essay.

Due dates

Topic Reflection: due 2/18

Rhetorical Analysis: due 2/20

First draft: due 2/27

Final draft and Reflection: due 3/10