Editor gives tips on writing opinions

Writing opinions can be a touchy subject for high school students. Like the speaker at this morning's session of the ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute, Le Templar, said, our students need to focus on Opinion Journalism, not just screaming from the mountain.

Whenever our students feel wronged, they feel that they should write an opinion article about it. Many times, this article would be filled with rumors, unattributed attacks, wild exaggerations and unfounded examples, all of which Templar warned to avoid when writing an opinion piece. He made great points when he said to steer our students toward a newsworthy topic with verifiable facts.

I encourage my students to find both sides of the argument. As an example, when one of my right-leaning students wanted to write an opinion article about how great John McCain would be as a president, I asked him to not only research what he likes about McCain, but also research Barack Obama and find out what he stands for. This not only gives my student (the writer) more information but it makes for a more well-researched piece of journalism.

In the future, I will do more of what Templar suggests: have my students identify a problem and then point to solutions instead of simply complaining about how they feel wronged.

Jeff Fencl
Del Norte High School
Albuquerque, N.M.