Develop

thought leadership

by writing2016.10.22

Sharon Pian Chan

MIT EMBA

Peer Coaching

“I believe you can

speak things into

existence.”-Jay-Z

I believe you can

write things into

existence.-me

Josh Vose, “Quantifying the Suck,” Medium

WHAT IS AN OP-ED?

Editorial: The position of the newspaper, always written bythe editorial board. No byline. There is no such thing as a “guest editorial.”

Staff or syndicated column: Opinion pieces written by staff or syndicated writers. Byline will say “staff column” or “syndicated column”

Op-ed or Guest Column: Opinion pieces written by members of the community. Byline may say “Special to” or “Guest columnist.”

Letters to the editor: Responses to previously published news or opinion articles

BY ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS……and daughter of a cancer victim

BY TAYLOR SWIFT……musician and businesswoman

AN OP-ED IS…A knowledgeable argument

YOU ARE ALREADY

AN EXPERT

You are uniquely authorized to

write a guest column about

something

Example: Are you an EMBA

student starting a business late in

life?

Being “chronologically

enhanced” gives the mature

entrepreneur a different

perspective on the world. We

are less interested in

developing “Tinder for Cats”

and more passionate about

fixing difficult challenges…

Noel Zamot, EMBA16, “The Benefits of Being a Mature

Entrepreneur,” MIT EMBA Executive Insights

I have been sexually harassed.

Not once, not twice, but

multiple times. And I’m not

counting catcalls, offhand

comments from strangers or the

time I learned about a bet a

group of male co-workers at

one job made about who

could sleep with me first.

Mona Lee Locke, “Women like me are suffering in silence amid sexual harassment,” Seattle Times

Today is my last day at

Goldman Sachs… And I can

honestly say the environment is

as toxic and destructive as I

have ever seen it.

Greg Smith, “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs,” New

York Times

Undergrads, graduate

students, women working their

first jobs after college want to

know: “What should I wear?”

“How should I keep my hair?”

Dianne Chong, “The most common question from young women engineers? What to wear,” Seattle Times

The Seattle debate about

raising the city’s minimum

wage to $15 per hour has left

many restaurant and bar

owners and employees

hopeful for a pragmatic policy.

Rich Fox, “Count restaurant tips in minimum-wage debate,” Seattle Times

OP-ED IDEAS

News event relates to area of your

expertise, experience

Secondary areas of expertise: your

neighborhood, your background,

your family life, your PT job

WRITING AN OP-ED

4 QUESTIONS

1. What are you arguing for?

2. Why do people need to read about it right now?

3. What is your unique perspective/authority on it?

4. What change do you want to see?

OP-ED STRUCTURE

Short lede, ~100

words

Main argument

Research

supporting

argument

Propose change

Repeat main

argument

ADVICE ON OP-ED

WRITING

Seattle Times op-ed guidelines:

http://seati.ms/opedguide

Writing tips from Alex Lo, columnist

for the South China Morning Post:

http://bit.ly/n3conoped

Other submission guidelines: Just

Google it

Avoid bad writing

Washington Post Opinion’s list of

200 journalism cliches

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

news/opinions/wp/2014/02/27/th

e-outlook-list-of-things-we-do-not-

say/

Bad pitches from business

folks

This why my hospital is leading the way

on managed health care…

Why X industry needs Y solution (which

your business sells)

Why your New York Times story on XXX

topic was terrible

PITCHING AN

OP-ED

WHO PUBLISHES OP-EDShttp://www.ccmc.org/sites/default/files/Top100o

p-eds.pdf

Easy

•Medium

•MIT EMBA Executive Insights Blog

Harder

• Your local Business Journal

• National websites: Huffington Post

Harder

• Metropolitan regional newspapers, Boston Globe

• National newspapers

PITCHING UP THE CHAIN:

STAND OUT FROM THE

CROWD

Read the submission guidelines and

follow them

Have an opinion and state it forcefully

Be pleasantly persistent

Explain why you are the best person to

write this, in 200 words or fewer

Include a headshot > 200 KB

MAKE AN OP-ED

EDITOR HAPPY

Don’t submit to multiple publications at once

Don’t demand to hear back the same day

Don’t expect a commitment to publish on

spec

Don’t expect multiple rounds of editing and

multiple last-minute changes

Don’t call to double check whether we

received it

REPEAT:You don’t have to be Taylor Swift

….But it doesn’t hurt?

Think about how to frame

yourself to maximize your

relevance and the likelihood of

getting exposure

Email excerpt from op-ed writer

Arsalan Iftikhar @TheMuslimGuy:

SOCIAL MEDIA COUNTS

Please let me know when the

article goes live and I will send

out to my 30,000+

Facebook/Twitter followers…

Thanks again for this wonderful

opportunity...Hope to do it again soon

Yours,

Arsalan

NO DOES NOT

MEAN NEVER.

NO MEANS NOT

RIGHT NOW.

SCREW IT. PUBLISH

IT YOURSELF. Recommended reading:

“Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon

http://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/

QUESTIONS?

Rewatch this

presentation at http://bit.ly/mitembawriting@sharonpianchan

shch@mit.edu