Editorial for Portfolio

Ready to Commit?

Now that we’ve had a month to pore over your Editorial Drafts, it’s time to commit to the more formal Editorial for Portfolio.

Time to Publish your Editorial for Portfolio

In the month since OCT 07, you’ve either received substantial Feedback or neglected to receive substantial Feedback. By midnight MON NOV 11, you’ll need to copy and paste your current effort into a new post called Editorial for Portfolio.

Editing phase ends soon

Once it’s published, you’ll have one more week to request feedback on the resulting post. The deadline for Feedback on your Editorial for Portfolio will be MON NOV 18.

Editorial Components

As we discussed in class, your editorial will be a demand for change—change of policy, resolution of a problem, increased funding, new legislation, or simply a change of attitude—something, though HAS TO CHANGE.

Your Editorial will signal its demand with imperative language: “must,” or “should,” or “what is needed,” or “not to do so would be unconscionable” language. Read a few and you will find such sentences in virtually every editorial you read, as we proved in class.

Editing Checklist

  1. Address the topic directly, the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” conduct since 9/11, or the coverups of that conduct, or an ethical question about a newsworthy technology breakthrough, or whatever serious social issue commands your attention.
  2. Refer specifically to at least one New York Times editorial, article, or column from the last few months and link to that source.
  3. Cite other sources, or not, as you wish, to support your argument.
  4. Be certain your Thesis Statement effectively identifies your issue, your position, and the change you demand, like the examples we crafted together in class.
    1. An example: “The needless death of four firefighters Saturday proves it is time to demolish the Barclay housing project.”
  5. Place your thesis sentence anywhere you wish, but make it bold by selecting the type and clicking the “B” in the type formatting space above your text input window.
  6. Use 1000 words clearly and succinctly for this Editorial. My first act of Feedback, if you invite me to provide it, will be to cross out needless words that pad the length of your post with filler. As you write, ideally, you’ll find it difficult to TRIM your post DOWN to the required 1000-word count.
  7. Unlike Letters to the Editor, editorials do not contain credentialing. You may pontificate as most editorialists do, as if you had already earned everyone’s attention.
  8. Proofread. Proofread again. Use Word’s proofreading feature. Enlist a literate friend to give your post the once-over. Make a friend at the Writing Center BEFORE the last week of the semester. Get whatever help you need to avoid avoidable errors.
  9. Keep it timely. Editorials always respond to a very current social condition or bit of crucial news. They may address broad issues, but narrowly. Identify the specific situation (the new legislation, the survey that shows a crisis is brewing, the military action, the withdrawal of troops, or others) that prompted you to write about your chosen thesis AT THIS TIME. In other words, what is urgent about your proposal?

Submission Details

  • Post your editorial by midnight MON NOV 11 so I can read all 38 of them before class meets TUE NOV 12.
  • Any writer who posts early can request early feedback and a chance to update the original before the deadline.