How to write an op-ed

An op-ed starts not with a topic but with a position. A topic can be broad, such as public transport, school education or working from home. A position is narrower: “the city is spending money on the wrong kind of transport,” “parents are given too little clear information,” or “remote work fails not because people are at home, but because there are no rules.” If you cannot state your thesis in one sentence, the piece will almost certainly split into several different articles.

How a column differs from neighbouring genres

A news story tells readers what happened. A report shows an event through observation and detail. An editorial expresses the publication’s position. A column is signed by an individual author and built around that author’s argued point of view. That is why “I think” proves nothing by itself: the reader needs reasoning, facts, experience and a conclusion.

For English-language opinion pieces, 600–800 words is a useful working range when an outlet does not specify its own limit. Always follow the publication’s stated requirements when they differ.

A working formula: thesis, three arguments, experience, conclusion

The first paragraph should state the thesis. Not the author’s biography and not a historical detour. By the end of the first 60–80 words, the reader should understand exactly what you are arguing and why the rest is worth reading.

After the thesis, give three different kinds of argument. The first might rest on an observable fact, the second on professional or personal experience, and the third on a consequence the reader can verify. Three versions of the same argument do not strengthen a piece. It is better when they answer different questions: what is happening, why it is happening, and what follows from it.

Personal experience is not there for confession. Its purpose is to show how you know what you are talking about. “Over five years I saw the same failure in dozens of projects” is more useful than “I have been interested in this topic for a long time.” Detail makes competence visible.

The ending should not retell the introduction. It should turn the argument: offer a rule, a choice, an action or a new question. If you can delete the last paragraph without losing anything, the ending is weak.

Three openings that work, and three that get in the way

A useful opening can begin with an observation: “In the past month, three unrelated clients brought me contracts containing exactly the same mistake.” A second option begins with a conflict: “We are used to treating a fast reply as good service, even though speed itself can sometimes create the problem.” A third starts from a concrete fact: “Two small libraries in our district have closed, but the queue for textbooks has not become any shorter.”

Dead openings are easy to recognise: “In today’s world…”, “Everyone knows…”, “This is a very topical issue…”. They promise nothing and could stand in front of a piece about medicine, cinema or tax. Start where meaning has already begun.

Example column and breakdown

Sample topic: “Why short meetings often create long consequences.”

Opening paragraph: “A fifteen-minute meeting looks like a saving of time until five people leave it with five different versions of the decision. The problem is not the length of the meeting, but the fact that it ends without a recorded outcome.”

That is the thesis: a short meeting is not automatically an efficient meeting. The author can then give three arguments. First, the absence of a written decision creates repeated requests for clarification. Second, people understand spoken wording differently. Third, a deadline without a named owner turns into a wish. Then comes experience: “In projects where every meeting ended with three lines, decision, owner and deadline, the number of follow-up calls fell sharply.” The ending: “Do not shorten the meeting. Shorten the uncertainty that follows it.”

Notice what the example does not do. It does not advertise the author or try to prove the author’s importance. It answers a reader’s question and gives a rule that can be tested tomorrow.

What editors usually cut

Advertising damages trust. If an article ends by asking the reader to buy the author’s service, it is serving a different purpose. External addresses are also frequently removed or forbidden by platform rules. A second thesis is another common thing to cut. If you are trying to prove both that meetings are too long and that offices are unnecessary, choose one argument.

In this publishing model the rule is stricter: direct advertising is not published at all, and addresses inside the body are removed by the platform. A column must remain useful even to a reader who knows nothing about the author.

Checklist before publication

• the thesis fits into one sentence;
• the first 100 words make the disagreement clear;
• the text contains at least two different types of argument;
• personal experience supports the point instead of replacing evidence;
• one paragraph does not try to perform two unrelated jobs;
• the ending adds a next step instead of repeating the introduction;
• the text contains no advertising, phone numbers, addresses or calls to buy a service.

Try a short exercise: write 300 words about something that happened near you this week. Do not choose a global issue. Take an observable situation, formulate one thesis and carry it through to a conclusion without adding a second storyline.

When one thesis quietly turns into two

The most common failure in a column begins not with style but with the idea itself. An author starts with “why public transport needs dedicated lanes” and, halfway through, is already arguing about parking prices, pavement quality and police work. All four subjects belong to urban life, but the reader now has to keep four separate disputes in mind. The column begins to look like a list of complaints.

Test the thesis with a simple substitution. Write it in one sentence and ask whether every major paragraph could begin with the words “this supports my thesis because…”. If one section requires a different formulation, you have acquired a second thesis. Save it for the next column instead of attaching it to the first.

For example, the thesis “parent chat groups should not replace official school messages” allows you to discuss missed announcements, conflicting interpretations of verbal requests and responsibility for timetables. Whether pupils should use phones during lessons is a different argument. It may be more interesting than the original one, but it should not hide inside it.

How to use personal experience without turning the piece into a diary

Personal experience works as evidence of an observation, not as a claim to final truth. A scene should answer one question: what exactly did the author see that helps the reader understand the broader thesis? “I have worked with teams for many years” proves almost nothing. “On three projects in a row, no one wrote down the decision after the meeting, and two days later participants were giving three different versions of the agreement” gives the reader something concrete to test.

After the scene, move from the specific to the general. Do not write, “therefore all meetings are useless.” A more accurate sentence would be: “this recurring failure shows that a meeting without a recorded decision creates a new layer of uncertainty.” That wording leaves room for exceptions and makes the argument stronger.

It is useful to have two kinds of experience: a case where the rule worked and a case where it did not. Contrast protects a column from overconfidence. If an author tells only stories that confirm the opinion, readers quickly notice the selective picture.

Two endings for the same material

A weak ending repeats the introduction: “That is why decisions should be recorded after meetings.” The reader already knows that.

A stronger ending changes the scale: “If, after a meeting, you cannot write in three lines what was decided, who is responsible and by when, the problem is not the minutes. Most likely, no decision was actually made.” This introduces a new thought, but it grows out of the whole argument.

Another option is a concrete action: “At your next meeting, do not shorten the discussion. First reserve the final two minutes for three lines only: decision, owner, deadline.” This ending does not summarise the column; it gives the reader a next step that can be tested.

If the argument rests only on outrage

Strong emotion can explain why an author chose a subject, but emotion does not prove the thesis. After writing “this makes me angry,” ask what the reader would need to see in order to agree even without sharing that feeling. It might be a rule, a measurable result, a recurring pattern or a concrete contradiction. A column becomes stronger when emotion starts the thinking rather than replacing it.

Another useful test is to formulate the strongest honest objection to your own position. If the only possible reply is to repeat the original thesis, the argument is still weak. A good column sees the strongest objection in advance and answers it with facts or with a limitation: “this does not work in every case, but it does under these conditions.” Such a qualification does not weaken a position; it shows where the position actually applies.

Where to publish it

A finished opinion column can be pitched to a local or specialist newsroom, posted on your own platform, or published through an outlet that lets approved outside authors release columns themselves. The right choice depends on the goal. For a discussion with a specific local audience, choose a local publication. For a professional audience, choose a specialist one. If you want to start without waiting for an editor to answer an email, direct author publication after one-time approval is another route.

What Columnist gives you

Once approved, you choose a publication in your language and publish a column without waiting for an editorial reply. The piece appears with the publication’s masthead, date and section. An author card sits below the article, and later columns are collected on a dedicated author page. A cover image is required, and photographs can be included in the text with captions. You can also withdraw your own publication from the dashboard.

Write your first column and publish it through Columnist at columnist.mib.news.

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