ECON 355W
Spring, 2023
Chris Bidner
SFU Economics
GUIDE TO THE MINI OP-ED
OVERVIEW
An Op-Ed is a focused piece of writing in which the author conveys specific points. In doing so, the
author illustrates their arguments with examples and evidence. For this writing assignment the points
that you are to make will be drawn from the lecture material associated with the week’s topic, and
your arguments are illustrated by material from recent news articles. A mini Op-Ed serves the same
purpose but on a smaller scale (note word limits). See the course’s Canvas site for more guides to
writing an Op-Ed.
Your goal is to change how your reader thinks about some aspect of economic development.
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Your reader: an intelligent non-expert (e.g. non-Econ university students).
Resources: course material (lectures and readings), current news articles.
You must be prepared to discuss your submission in tutorials.
Due: Wednesdays at 5:00 PM. Late submissions are not accepted, so please plan ahead.
SPECIFICS AND CRITERIA
Regular Version
You are to select three key points from the lecture material and explain them to your reader. I will
assign a number of news articles that you can use to illustrate at least one of your points.
Criteria
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Number of words does not exceed 200.
All [fields] in the template are completed accurately.
Zero spelling, punctuation, and gramma errors.
Your three key points are
o easily identifiable
o distinct
o accurate
o unlikely to already be clearly understood by your reader
You use the news article to illustrate at least one of your points. The illustration must be
o easily identifiable
o relevant
o accurate
The submission must be your own work. Any help that you received in preparing your
submission must be identified in the ‘acknowledgements’ section.
Plus Version
The ‘plus’ version requires everything from the regular version, plus some additional requirements.
You are to find another news article, published within the previous two weeks, and use this to provide
a more detailed illustration of an additional key point from the lecture material.
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ECON 355W
Spring, 2023
Chris Bidner
SFU Economics
Criteria
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All the criteria from the regular version (except the word limit) must be met
Number of words does not exceed 300.
Your additional key point
o is easily identifiable
o is distinct from the three others
o is accurate
o is explained in greater detail (relative to the three others)
Your news article
o is from a credible source1:
 not academic articles, text from random websites, etc
 e.g. articles from The Economist, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, etc.
o was published within the previous two weeks
o must provide a relevant illustration of your additional point
o is properly referenced. Any style is fine but it must include a publication date and link.
Style
o all phrases and sentences are clear, e.g.
 no redundant phrases
 no unnecessarily complex sentences
 no unnecessarily complex words
o the organization is logical
o opening phrases are inviting
RATIONALE
The skills required for writing an Op-Ed are readily transferable to other forms of writing that you will
encounter in your professional and personal lives. It forces you to keep the reader in mind, and to
focus your efforts on changing their thinking.
Explaining an idea/insight/argument/theme from the lecture or readings forces you to engage the
material in a particular manner. This manner allows you to get more out of the course than you would,
for instance, by merely rote learning facts and formulas that are soon forgotten after the exam.
Tying your learning with current events gives you an occasion to keep up with major world events.
This is valuable, independent of anything learned in the course.
Sharpening opinions and argument skills will help in securing a job, and your final product will
provide you with a writing sample that can be submitted with your applications for jobs or graduate
school.
For instance, articles from The Economist, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, etc. Do not use academic
articles, text from random websites, etc.
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