Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

Practical tips for op-eds
- Humanize your topic. Begin by illustrating how the issue affects an individual or
group of people.
- Take a point of view and support it with facts and examples.
- Tie the op-ed to a holiday, anniversary, election, report, vote, or some pending action
by the government.
- Keep it short—the average length of an op-ed is 750 words. If it is too long, it won’t
get published.
- Write clearly and concentrate on just one issue—many readers may not be familiar
with the topic. Incorporate your main message points.
- If you have a fact sheet on the issue, you can use the main points from that
document.
- See if you can reduce your point to a single sentence, for example, “reproductive
rights are human rights.”
- Raise the opposition’s best arguments and disprove them with countervailing facts,
or irony, if appropriate. Support your side with facts and numbers.
- Be positive – provide solution, not just problem.
- Include a suggested headline, byline and one-sentence description of the author and
his/her expertise.
To get the op-ed published, find out the names of the editor or editors of the op-ed
section at each media outlet. When you get someone on the phone, quickly tell them
who you are, what organization you represent, about your issue, and why the proposed
op-ed is timely or newsworthy. Then tell them you have an expert—yourself, the head of
your organization or a well-known personality—who would like to get your side of the
issue across to the media’s audience. Be prepared either to get rejected or to be asked
to send the editorial immediately for consideration. Once one media outlet has agreed to
look at it, do not send your op-ed to other outlets until your initial pitch is rejected or
accepted.
Source: Centre for Reproductive Rights, Advocacy Guide, 2003.
6.6 PRINTED MATERIALS
OVERVIEW
Printed or “print” materials are items such as campaign leaflets, bulletins, posters and
cards. They also include banners and other campaign materials which carry the
campaign message or logo. Virtually all campaigns use print materials, in different
combinations, for various, sometimes multiple, purposes including:
� advertisements in newspapers, in magazines, on billboards and other public
displays to spread the message
� handouts and posters, which may also announce precise campaign events
� updates and newsletters to keep activists informed
� research reports, e.g. to present evidence that demonstrates the urgency of the
action required
� urgent action appeals, e.g. to mobilize large numbers of supporters to come to a
court trial who demonstrate to the judges that the case is in the public limelight
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Campaigns December 2011