2026 - Fall

Methods and Practice: Opinion Writing for Journalists

Course Number: JOUR-UA 202.001

Day & Time: Thu | 12:00 PM – 3:40 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, Room 743

Prerequisites: Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word JOUR-UA 101

Opinion writing has much less to do with stating how you feel and more with how you can wrangle everything you know, report and research, into a coherent argument. Much as they would with newswriting, journalists can use the tools of the trade — observing, reporting, research and storycraft — in writing their opinions, even when they come from lived experience.

In today’s marketplace, a journalist who knows how to report and write about their own opinions and experiences, in order to interpret the news, is an essential skill. In this class, we will follow the weekly news cycle closely — politics, culture, sports, and more — and, rather than reporting on the story firsthand, we will attempt to further local, national and international stories through opinion writing. We will learn when to jump into a situation and offer context, when not to intervene and how to build a cogent argument step by step.

This class will include writing shorter op-eds and “think pieces,” and will be informed by video essays, blogs, Substacks, Tik Tok, personal narratives and more. Students will walk away with knowledge on how to structure their arguments and how to write in lively prose. The syllabus will likely include essayists such as Montaigne and James Baldwin, as well as contemporaries such as Roxane Gay, Jia Tolentino, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, and Lindy West.

Notes: Counts as an elective for the journalism major and both journalism minors.

Questions? Email undergraduate.journalism@nyu.edu.