Op-Ed for Portfolio

Ready to Commit?

We’ve had two weeks since the posting of your Op-Ed Drafts to engage in revision and feedback, so it’s time now to publish your Op-Ed for Portfolio.

Time to Publish your Op-Ed for Portfolio

In the time since NOV 06, you’ve either received substantial Feedback or neglected to receive substantial Feedback. By midnight MON NOV 26, you’ll need to copy and paste your current effort into a new post called Op-Ed for Portfolio.

Editing phase ends soon

Once it’s published, you’ll have a week or so to polish your post. There will be no specific deadline for revisions, and your professor will continue to provide limited feedback if and as time permits, but the purpose of posting the Op-Ed Draft was to provide time for revision and review BEFORE submitting your Op-Ed for Portfolio.

Components of the Op-Ed

There’s no need to repeat here the models and advice you received on the assignment page for your Op-Ed Draft. Follow the link back to that assignment for a refresher.

Assignment Details (the same as for the Draft)

1. Write an essay in the Op-Ed style with a very specific thesis on a very specific topic of your choosing.

2. Adopt the tone and formality level of the opinion columns published every day in the New York Times. Because Op-Eds are understood to be the opinion of a single person, unlike Editorials, they may use first person singular. (You may refer to yourself as “I.”)

3. Your Op-Ed will draw support from at least three sources. You’re not required to quote them, but you must refer to their content in your essay and provide hyperlinks to the originals whether you quote them, paraphrase them, or summarize them.

4. Op-Ed writers are paid to be opinionated. They do not get published by stating the obvious or reflecting common knowledge. Their essays do much more than simply state facts. Their claims are either controversial or uncommon or surprising. For example, they don’t say, “Our health care system could be improved.” Instead, they say: “The Affordable Health Care Act is killing people.”

5. Title your essay: Op-Ed for Portfolio—Username.

6. Post your essay to the Op-Ed Portfolio category and the Username category.

Submission Details

• Produce your Op-Ed for Portfolio by copying and pasting your Op-Ed Draft into a new post and make your revisions there. The new post will become your portfolio version.
• Publish your Op-Ed for Portfolio by midnight MON NOV 26 so I can verify I have one for each student before class on TUE NOV 27.