How to write an opinion essay and why you should do it now

As educators, we often think of ourselves as instilling ideas and learning in others through our teaching and research. Our teaching occurs inside classrooms or sometimes in hallways, and our research is reported in academic journals or scholarly books. Most of us say we care about making change in the nation and the world, but if we’re only teaching in classrooms and publishing in scholarly outlets, is our influence really as significant as it could be? I don’t think so.

To have a larger and lasting effect, educators must write for education and mainstream media outlets. When I tell most faculty members and educators that they should write op-ed or opinion pieces, the first response is “I can’t dumb down my work.” My response? If your work is not written in an inclusive, accessible way, how can it influence anyone? I regularly write opinion pieces for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Diverse Issues, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Over the past few years, I have written several hundred op-eds. Since I’ve started doing that, I’ve improved the quality of my writing, become a quicker writer, and have been forced to become more well-read in order to speak to larger and more diverse audiences.

Another common excuse is that educators have nothing important to say. If you have nothing important to say, then what are you doing every day as you teach and research? Are you really learning nothing from your work?