In the past week or so I have read through about a million Ed-ops researching the writing style and becoming familiar with the genre in an effort to prepare my own for this class. The topics have varied from government and politics to health and fitness. Some of them were really interesting reads and some of them were a bit of a struggle to get through. I started thinking “why is it that some of these articles are so interesting to me?” What is it that makes an article appeal to specific audiences and not to others?

One of the first things I looked at in preparation for the assignment was an article by Allena Tapia called What is an Op-EdArticle and how to write one. This answered a few of my questions and I gained a few critical pieces of information. An Op-Ed, according to Tapia, is an article that is written in response to a piece of news or another opinion that has been expressed and its sole purpose is to express an opinion.The genre of writing has been perfected over the years and what has been produced is a winning formula of necessary ingredientes for a great op-ed. 

The first and perhaps the most important piece of the op-ed is the title. The title needs to call attention to itself and convey a lot of information, including the issue at hand and the authors position in regards to it. This is the first item that will filter the audience. Depending on what the title is, some people will read the article and some people will not. What attracts some people may push others away. For example,  what appeals to single mother is the suburbs will not necessarily appeal to the wealthy newlyweds that would rather focus on her career. 

Another thing that I learned to consider when reading an op-ed was the language and overall tone used through-out. In his article Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers, Bret Stephens says that the easiest decision for a reader to make is to stop reading. That means that the identity that the author creates for the work and the tone used plays a critical role for the audience. For example, someone may be completely agree with the author's opinion or argument. However, if the terminology is super complicated and hard to follow, I may not be interesting in reading that article.

My final thought on why articles may appeal to certain audiences and not to others has to do with the fact that we are human and we are all unique. As we grow and mature we develop our own unique preferences, tastes and palettes. As we go through life things become suddenly relevant. The importance of such things and our preference fades away with time. We are all quite dynamic and some things simply resonate with us because of our past experiences or where we may be in life and there are something that we will never understand.