Use our tips, tools, contacts and examples below to get your story into your local paper next week!
Most daily and weekly newspapers accept outside submissions for publication on their opinion pages, generally 500 and 700 words. Click here for guidelines for the top 100 papers in the US.

Here are tips on writing an op-ed:

• Use short, simple sentences.
• Avoid jargon.
• Explicitly support or oppose something.
• Personalize the op-ed with an anecdote.
• Link the op-ed to a current news story but keep the focus local.
• Follow the particular paper's guidelines for submission closely.
  

Try the following outline for your op-ed:

   1. Start with a personal anecdote.
   2. Make your main point in the first or second paragraph.
   3. Begin to elaborate two, maximum three, supporting points in the following paragraphs. Make sure your paragraphs are short and contain one main idea.
   4. Use facts, statistics and studies to support your arguments. Do not, however, be overly legal. Use metaphors (sports, movies and music work best) to relate complex ideas.
   5. Conclude with a paragraph that draws the piece together and links to your opening anecdote.

Use the awesome contacts at the Op-Ed Project for more tips on pitching and actual contacts for placing an Op-Ed or Letter in the Top 100 US Newspapers! Click here!

EXAMPLE:

My neighbor is a young Afghani who moved here for college.  Today’s events in Afghanistan are troubling to her, and we have been discussing the ways that American military work around the world can affect hundreds of thousands of lives in ways that we don’t even take into account.  She’s been unable to explain to her family “back home,” and no wonder!

Afghanistan is among the bottom five economies in the world, and they are dominated by the world’s premiere economic and military power.  Many Afghanis don’t understand why we aren’t doing more to help the development of the country’s economy, quality of life, health care systems, and schools.  They need us, but not as a military power.

Instead of spending billions on weapons, war and drones, the U.S. should focus on increased support for regional diplomacy and economic aid, the development of local markets, the creation of job and job-assistance programs, and rebuilding of infrastructure. It must create an overall foreign policy based on building real security through international cooperation and human rights. And then we must turn our attention, and spending, back home.

At a time of economic crisis and multiplying domestic needs, continued billions for war – another $84 billion was approved this summer and an additional $130 billion is in the Defense Spending Bill – is an appalling waste of taxpayer money.  And Americans are not any safer today than they were 8 years ago.

Congress and the Administration should adopt an exit strategy from Afghanistan based on all-party talks, regional diplomacy, unconditional humanitarian aid, and timelines for the near-term withdrawal of American and NATO combat troops. We must end a war that has no end in sight and continues to drain the U.S. economy, destroy lives and destabilize the Middle East and South Asia.

These are the ways of a 21st century superpower:  negotiation, strength through purpose, and a view of the long horizon.  By showing the world a more humane way, we can accomplish our goals, and lead by example, which will encourage more international cooperation.  These methods would make my young Afghani neighbor proud to write home.

Good luck!