Adding Value in a Hurry

Maria Henson's series on spouse abuse was time consuming to say the least. She spent almost two years on research for her editorial while others tend to spend between one or two hours. The results to a nationwide survey by Dr. Ernest C. Hynde of the University of Georgia found that almost half of those surveyed felt that lack of time to write editorials is a major problem. It is important to remember "Henson was reporting on statewide spouse abuse in Kentucky writing nearly 30 editorials in a series published over 13 months." This was obviously not a simple task. Also, Henson had to be sure not to bore her readers since it was in the format of a series.

I agree with Conrad C. Fink, author of Writing Opinion for Impact, when he says in-depth reporting should follow three guidelines. I learned that readers on average spend 26 minutes reading a newspaper proving that there is a lot of competition for your writing. "True added value" is needed to catch and keep your readers attention. Fink writes, "Don't let your reporting stray into matters of secondary importance." It is simply not good enough to use only an anecdote in your reporting; factual substance must be included to help build credibility between you and your audience.

Writing your opinion certainly doesn't mean you can take the easy way out. I see now that opinion writing takes just as much research as news reporting.