Op-ed style article: second example of op-ed (part 2)

Op-ed style article

Another chosen op-ed style article is named Thanks for Not Sharing by R. Cohen (The New York Times, December 6, 2012). In this article the author sarcastically analyses the absorption of the unwanted shared personal information and images that is spread over the social media. First of all, in this article we also can find strong and persuasive arguments, original ideas and strong opinion that should be in a good editorial. But this op-ed article is good for his title as well, which is a little bit shocking and attention grabbing. It is said that readers have short attention spans and it is necessary (when writing editorial) to attract readers with a strong headline that emphasizes your central message. Also, a title should be catchy for readers to grasp the idea quickly. In this op-ed article (as well as in the first example) the title is the first introduction to the argument and it makes editorial to be really good written.

This op-ed style article is a little bit more artistic then the first one. The information, which is given, is not only new or innovative but contradicting peoples stereotypical opinion as well. For example, ”let us ponder oversharing and status anxiety, the two great scourges of the modern world (Facebook and Twitter)”. Many people like sharing things on social media or talk about what they are doing but the author destroys the opinion about liking it. He says that social media does not mean that you have to be that social. To deny the stereotypical thinking is one of the most important causes of great editorial.

Also, a lot of commentary writers agree that in a good editorial should be some clear and real life examples. In this article is a lot, for example, “I found Deanna tweeting that she had picked up pet food“, and so on. In that case, the author approaches to his readers, who have opportunity to understand the data easy. 

Finally, the strong side of this editorial is humor and sarcasm: “here is a new urge to behave as if life were some global high-school reunion at which everyone has taken some horrific tell-all drug“. Opinion writing is half entertaining, half informing. And it is said that a delicious word out of the place or a clever turn of phrase can keep a reader going and absorbing your argument.

In conclusion, I would like to say that my chosen articles are different but both are very good examples of editorial writing. These articles are interesting, original and there are built clear and coherent arguments, with attention to context and audience.