How to Write Opinion Columns that Keep the Reader Engaged

A lot of people seem to assume that the job and life of a top newspaper columnist is easy, and that if they had the same job, they could bang out a column by noon and then take off to the mall to spend some of those bundles of money good columnists tend to make.

But good columns are far tougher to write than they look. In a marquee column, every word will be scrutinzed by the reader, and every word has to count because columnists typically only get one small column that doesn't allow for a lot of space to expound on thoughts.

I took a column-writing class in college at The University of Michigan-Dearborn, and my teacher did an excellent job of helping me and the rest of the class see just how difficult it can be to write good columns. His name was Tim Kiska and he had been the television critic at the Detroit News and later the Detroit Free Press, so he certainly knew his way around a good column.

He constantly pushed us to revise and re-think every word in our columns, and re-writes were a common practice that helped us get better as writers each time.

That brings me to my first tip when writing a column: re-writes and revisions are often necessary to make sure everything's nice and tight, and to make sure that you are being as precise as possible with the words you use, especially the verbs. Your use of spot-on vocabulary is of the utmost importance when you're working with a small writing space, especially when compared to a longer, more straightforward article.

Writer's block can creep up on column writers very easily because they are worried about making everything perfect the first time around, but if you approach the column like that, you can end up sounding boring and mechnical as you focus on the technical aspects of the writing above everything else.

The key for a column writer is get across as much emotion as possible. You are charged with developing your own "voice;" that is to say that you want to try and sound as much like yourself as you possibly can, as if you were having an everyday conversation with a friend.