Assignment/Activity Title— Final Op-Ed Journalism Year—2013
Skill— Writing
and Research Portfolio
Category—Critical Thinking
The
final Op-Ed in journalism was an extremely important assignment in my academic
career because is was the culmination of me learning an entire style of
writing, with which I was not previously acquainted; as well as an exercise in
good research. Journalism was my
most difficult class during the first quarter of this year because I had to
learn a completely new writing style.
I have become relatively comfortable with the standard five-paragraph
writing format, having done it for so many years, but entering the world of
op-ed writing was like being doused with a bucket of freezing water. The difficulty in writing good op-eds
was not the structure of the writing, but being able to recognize one’s own
logical fallacies. When writing a
five-paragraph essay in English, for example, the concept is not really that
difficult to grasp. In contrast,
when writing a good op-ed about current events one must be able to grasp
extremely complicated concepts and make a logically viable argument, while
still remaining engaging and interesting.
This was my difficulty in writing the op-ed. My eventual argument was that, following the events at the
Navy Yard, local police and law enforcement should share detailed police
records with other localities in a comprehensive crime-sharing database. I was calling on local authorities to
take the initiative in collecting detailed crime information to stop crucial
facts from falling through the cracks.
Unfortunately, it took me a very long time, and multiple re-writes, to
come up with a clear stand. During
the writing of my first few drafts, I would write the piece, and then, after
reading over it, realize that I had taken no strong stance on anything. I would write things that made sense if
one were to look at each sentence separately, but when put together lacked any
clear focus or direction. After a
while, thankfully, I was able to recognize my errors while I was writing and
put together a good piece of writing with a legitimate policy argument.
The
op-ed also helped me refine my researching and organizational skills. I, obviously, have had to do
comprehensive research on a topic (the feminism essay and the Critical Thinking
Paper are prime examples), and organize the facts I collected into my
writing. The research I underwent
for this assignment was a little different because I had to deal with more
complicated issues than those with which I have dealt before, and incorporate
them into a shorter piece than many of my previous assignments. This forced me to pick and choose the
most powerful statistics
and facts instead of just spewing a mass of knowledge on to the paper. The op-ed was also different because I
had to make a clear policy proposal.
This meant that I had to do serious research into whether my policy was
achievable. If one were to write
an op-ed in a major newspaper, with great facts and good writing, but make a
policy proposal that was totally ridiculous, he or she would be laughed out of
the newsroom. I had to determine
whether the different localities would be able to cooperate without national
control, and, after looking at several examples of similar programs working on
a smaller scale, I decided that my proposal was legitimate. This assignment forced me to think
critically about an important issue facing our country, and taught me the basic
skills I need to make a valid public policy argument.
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