The New York Times and It's Opinion Pieces

Opinion writing. We read the words of fellow thinkers and great minds on their own thoughts about a topic they are an expertise. We also read because we want to compare our ideas with those of others, whether they’re the professor at Oxford University or a movie director. It doesn’t necessarily matter who writes it, though if it is about medicine a doctor’s opinion is best. It’s how it’s written. “Hypochondria: An Inside Look” by Woody Allen published in The New York Times, is comically taken under the wing of Woody Allen and how he is not a hypochondriac himself. He is an alarmist. The two are completely different things, he explains. When writing an article of the paper, there are rules to follow that Op-Ed piece tend to break. The lead to this column is longer than the average 25 words in a typical news story. Allen’s lead is no means constructed in that type of format. In fact, many opinion piece published don’t follow that format. The New York Times prefers you fit their criteria of submitting your own piece. Allen’s piece is not only evergreen, never has a “time” element, but also it suggests his argument in a humorous way, which The New York Times enjoys. For this type of opinion piece, Allen’s lead takes you in with a casual conversation. That is what a lead does, but for this opinion, it’s personal. The following lines and paragraphs keep you reading with that humor element. It was a well-constructed opinion about one point verses another in the opinion of someone who is seen as the other. “The Moment for Action on Guns” was also published in The New York Times and the author was not published. It would add a level of acceptance of the piece if the person was attributed and was a specialist in the general content of the argument. The column is conducted following the several proceedings and arguments dealing with the actions on guns after the shooting at the elementary school in Connecticut. It fits with what is going on, which is an important element to being published. The story has suggestions of the regulation of the trafficking of the guns and those registered. The author suggested that people should be screened for mental stability for those registering in the system, but to also follow the trafficking of guns because not everyone is in that system. The idea is great, but the credibility is not there with out knowing the author. The entirety of the piece follows the timely and newsworthiness it must contain in order to be published, but who is this person suggestion this idea. It is a difficult to suggest an opinion like this without getting some kind of backlash in a dilemma such as what the government should do in improving the regulation of guns in the country. Not everyone will agree and that is why it was published. That is how many opinion pieces are published. They entertain the reader, challenge their thinking, and make them mad. If it causes some kind of emotion, people will read it. That is what The New York Times want to publish.