I CAN'T help but be sad at writing my last column. But what's more saddening is how many people have told me over the past year that they think the quality of writing at The Cavalier Daily has fallen significantly. Since Christa, Margaret, Maggie and I are all graduating in less than a month, a host of new columnists will have to take our places.
For my last column I've decided to give gratuitous advice to current and future Opinion writers. What follows are my five rules for writing a good Cavalier Daily op-ed. Although Opinion writers may be the intended audience, everyone must persuade others in writing at some point.
1. Write in the first person. The goal of any op-ed is to persuade, inform and/or entertain. All of these are much easier if you can make a personal connection with your readers. A first person column feels like a conversation, while a third person column sounds stilted. Even worse, it's very easy to slip into the passive voice when writing in the third person, which is bad English. It's impossible to use the passive voice when writing in the first person. I even use the first person in my academic writing. I think "my results show" sounds a lot better than "it can be seen that."
2. Write about University topics. Most people don't know that Opinion columnists are required to write at least half their columns about the University or things happening on Grounds. If you want people to read your columns regularly and care about them, write about University topics all the time. I must admit, I resisted this for about a year and wrote columns about the French economy and the Middle East. The truth is, no one cares what I think about issues outside Charlottesville. I know this hard to believe, but no one cares what you think about non-University issues either. If people want to read an op-ed about the Middle East, they'll read Dennis Ross in The Wall Street Journal. If they want an opinion about the economy, they'll read Paul Krugman in The New York Times. These men are experts in their fields. The only thing I can claim expertise in is knowledge of the University. I get dozens, if not hundreds, more letters to the editor, e-mails and Facebook messages when I write columns about topics relevant to the University community. The Cavalier Daily can't possibly compete with a national paper, but it's not supposed to. It's a student paper -- take ownership of it.
3. Don't write about Honor. This is mostly a caveat to my last piece of advice. I've been writing this column for three years now, and I can proudly say that I haven't written a single column about the Honor Code. The issue has honestly been written to death. There's nothing you or I could say that hasn't been said hundreds of times already. Everybody completely understands the tension between tradition, deterrence, justice and reporting rates inherent to the single sanction. It's also common knowledge that athletes and international students are disproportionately expelled on Honor violations. There's nothing interesting left to say -- leave it to the guest columnists. Please write about the myriad of interesting issues left.
4. Go to events you disagree with. Another little known Opinion policy is that columnists must write about at least one event per semester. Some of the worst columns I've seen on these pages are writers attending speakers they already agree with. These columns contain no original opinions or analysis. They're basically mediocre news articles about subjects that aren't newsworthy. If, on the other hand, you go to an event you disagree with, then there are three possibilities. First, you summarize the speaker's argument and then refute them -- an interesting column. Second, you agree with some of the speakers' points but disagree with others -- a great column. Third, the speaker gets you to change your position. Although this last category is admittedly rare, it holds the potential for a truly fantastic column.
5. Don't write partisan columns. These are, in my opinion, the absolute worst columns. They make otherwise very intelligent people sound stupid. They contain nothing I couldn't get by printing talking points off the DNC's or RNC's Web site. Nakedly partisan columns don't convince anyone, anger the opposition and mostly just preach to the choir. If you want to be a good op-ed writer, take principled stands and fill your columns with cogent analysis, don't be a partisan hack.
But I'm graduating in a few weeks, why should I care? Because the print newspaper is a dying medium. Throughout America, there's only one paper whose subscriptions are rising: The New York Post. All news magazines' subscriptions are also declining, except for one: The Economist. That's the choice facing The Cavalier Daily and all other print newspapers: Become a glorified tabloid or become a truly intelligent, well-respected publication. The choice is in your hands.?
Josh Levy's column appeared Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jlevy@cavalierdaily.com.
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