Op-Edxample

March 25, 2009 7:47 AM

Examples of beautiful, powerful, and great Op-Eds?

I have been playing around for a while with writing some Op-Eds. I am looking for beautiful and powerful Op-Eds to use as examples for my own writing. Does anyone in the Hivemind know examples of great Op-Eds?

posted by Spurious to writing & language (7 comments total)

The famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial springs to mind.
posted by amyms at 8:18 AM on March 25

Okay, first, quit it with the boldface. Let your words be your emphasis. Next, what do you mean exactly by "op-eds?" Just outside opinion pieces? Editorials too? What about columns in general?

This Breslin column interviewing the one man everyone ignored on the day of JFK's funeral is one of the greatest pieces of short newspaper writing ever. I guess it's not really an oped.

I can't really think of any very famous opeds off the top of my head. I think they tend not to be famous because they are usually penned by non-writers pushing an opinion, and therefore don't usually display the beauty and power you are looking for. The Santa Claus editorial was clearly written by a writer.
Maybe you would do better looking at regular newspaper columns.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:50 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]

I don't know if you're looking for inspiration or what topic exactly, but I recently loved this one.
posted by scazza at 9:48 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

Gentlemen, Start Your Coffins is considered one of the greatest sports columns ever, and one of the most controversial pieces of writing about auto racing.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:17 AM on March 25

This Jonathan Lethem Op-Ed linking the movie The Dark Knight to the world outside the multiplex is astonishing.
posted by umbú at 11:23 AM on March 25

This editorial is incredibly powerful, published after the writer (from the Sri Lankan weekly The Sunday Leader) was assassinated.
posted by goo at 11:28 AM on March 25

Have you looked at any books of collected op-eds? Anna Quindlen used to write terrific columns for the NY Times -- they were "beautiful, powerful, and great," as you are looking for -- and they are collected here and here. (The latter contains both NY Times and Newsweek pieces.)
posted by Tin Man at 12:04 PM on March 25