Le Templar, editorial page editor of the East Valley Tribune, spoke to the Reynolds fellows today about writing opinion. With his help, I can now articulate a clear distinction between editorials and columns. In trying to explain this to my students in the past, I have often hedged. I guess I intuitively felt the difference in voice and tone between an editorial and a column, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
The editorial is, as I already know, the institution of the newspaper speaking. But it is the consensus of reflective individuals not given to passionate opinions--opinions, to be sure, but ones steered by the mind more than the gut. Thinking of columnists as storytellers who use techniques of fiction also helps distinguish columns from editorials.
I also liked Templar's notion of the columnist's responsibility to find the opposing view's best argument, instead of its worst, and then to work methodically to analyze the logic and facts behind it.
Joanne Drapiewski
Frederick Douglass Academy II
New York, N.Y.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
You articulated my point in a way that I couldn't (in the post below-I danced all around it but you nailed it).
ReplyDeleteTemplar's presentation today did exactly that-it gave a clearly defined and well articulated explanation of something and then tips on how to do it well and then models.
I really enjoyed his presentation. Its one of the first where I wasn't trying to "make sense of it all" in my own head, and I wasn't spinning out of control by the end of it.
Melissa Cordova
Eli Whitney Technical High School
Hamden, Conn.
In my sophomore English class, we do an entire unit on persuasive essays. I always teach my English students that the strongest persuasive essays address the opposing argument at some point and show why the opposition is not as compelling. Yet, for some reason, it never clicked that editorials should be written the same way!
ReplyDeleteWhile I always knew to encourage my newspaper students to draw conclusions and persuade, I, unfortunately, left out the "journalist first" idea. That may be why some of our editorials landed me in the principal's office. However, after Le Templar's lecture, I have high hopes that this coming year is going to be completely different. Le Templar's tips on how to write editorials and pitfalls to avoid will definitely be making an appearance on my classroom whiteboard.
Sharon Nolan
North Canyon H.S.
Phoenix, Ariz.