Tutorials - How To Write An Editorial

Ok, a good editorial is hard to write, and everyone knows that, but this page will hopefully assist you in creating one. I have written a good few editorials in my life, and have received various pieces of praise for them, so rest assured; I know what I’m talking about.

Let’s first define what an editorial is for anyone who isn’t too sure. The Babylon online dictionary defines it as “An article presenting the opinions of editors or publishers”. This isn’t such a closely followed rule as one might expect, because on most DBZ sites, you can submit your own editorials. Basically it is just your opinion, written in the form of a type of essay.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about writing the actual thing. Obviously the first and foremost thing required is a subject that you feel strongly on. Without one then your editorial will lack any sort of content, so this is very important, if a little obvious. If you can’t work out a subject for it, then write one of the FUNimation editing, as that seems to be quite a popular thing to write about, and most people feel very strongly about that.

The key to writing the editorial well is using intelligent language, and well-argued points. If you’re going to say something, back it up somehow, maybe with a quote, or evidence. For example, you could say that FUNimation ruins DBZ, then add that it cuts out a lot of the Japanese content which made DBZ so successful in the first place. You have to make sure you look at it from both sides though, don’t get carried away slagging something off without looking at it from the other sides point of view.

At the start of an editorial you could set a little question, introducing it in the opening paragraph, and follow it up by answering it in the final one, after weighing up all the points. This is a nice touch to any editorial, and one which I always try and use.

The final point in writing the actual content is that you shouldn’t leave any confusion amongst the readers, make sure you get your point across well. If you don’t then people will feel that it is a waste of time bothering to read it, and they will avoid any other pieces of work by you.

Ok, now onto the style. Make sure you write enough to fully say everything that you want to. Don’t leave things out due to laziness, that will ruin the whole article, and would mean you’ve wasted your valuable time writing something that you didn’t finish. Another thing in term of quantity is that you should write a fair bit too, as a couple of paragraphs are insufficient to say anything. I like to keep mine a page or so, somewhere below 2 pages, because by that time readers will begin losing interest.

Another thing in terms of style that either writing in capitals, or writing LiKe ThIs is stupid, and will make readers assume that you’re an idiot, and not bother reading your editorial. The second important thing that fits adequately into this category is not too swear too much. Maybe a couple of mild words would do, but people will think you to be an immature young kid who thinks it’s tough to swear every other word if you do so, and will therefore not care about your writing.

Spell check and grammar are too more essential points. People will enjoy your editorial more without typos, and if it is well written with high quality grammar. If English isn’t your strong point, then just use Microsoft word, which will fix your errors automatically. These things take a few seconds to do, but make a huge difference, and are overlooked by many.

Well, that’s all the pointers that I can give you for now, but you can use some of your own techniques, and implement ideas of your own too if you like. You have learn all there is to learn from me now, so go out and write your own opinion masterpieces, but don’t forget to submit them to a few sites, such as this one, to give it a place on the web.