“Great ideas start very small,” she said. “People used to think the world was flat. Allowing people to voice their knowledge and opposition can change opinions.”

Tracie McMurray, an English teacher at Mountain View High School in Mesa who also attended the workshop, said she sometimes worries that misinformation perpetuated by the media can “make it harder for people to understand what’s really going on.”

Fighting misinformation

Misinformation is all too common in the media, agrees ASU professor Carol Johnston. She serves as associate director of the nutrition program, which offers a bachelor’s in nutrition communication.

“There is a lot of miscommunication and misconception out there, and nutrition is one of those topics everyone has an opinion about,” she said.

The nutrition communication program was started so that nutrition students could train in the area of media and communication in order to combat falsities and half-truths about the field.

“Training people to be good communicators to help set the record straight with factual information is so important,” said Johnston, “especially now with social media,” which can spread bad information very quickly.

More structure than social media

Attendees at the workshop expressed similar concerns about social media, saying that they felt that learning to write persuasively in a more structured way, as in an op-ed, lent more credence to their points of view.

Ashley Yap, an English teacher at ASU Prep and one of the workshop leaders, added to that sentiment.

“We have outlets like social media, but those are bite-sized,” Yap said. “Op-eds force you to pause and consider what you want to say and how to say it. It’s this special place that’s different from just firing off a tweet or sharing something that’s already been written.”

“What op-eds do is allow us to hear from many different voices on any given topic,” she said, giving readers an accessible way to grasp the pros and cons of an issue. “They can be a really effective way to get people to think a little more about their position.”

Tips for an effective op-ed

Wallace shares her advice for those who hope to write an op-ed — and get it published:

• Be clear. The main thing is clarity of thought. A big reason op-eds don’t make it into newspapers is because they try to make too many points at once. Figure out what your point is, what is the one message you want to leave the reader with.
• Be concise. Write clearly and concisely. You want to cram as much information in there as you can. Give specific examples, but keep it short and sweet.
• Be interesting. You’ve got to figure out how to make it interesting. Tell a personal anecdote, make it come to life with an example. Give people something that makes them want to keep reading.
• Know your audience. Depending on the publication, you may want to adjust your style. Read what kind of op-eds get published there. How to write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal will be different than how to write an op-ed for USA Today.

Top photo: ASU Prep biology teacher Camila Tompkins points out some weaker arguments in an op-ed during a writing workshop at ASU Prep in February. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now