An editorial is an opinion piece that is published in newspapers, magazines and online. It can be written by the editorial staff of a newspaper or magazine, or it can be written by a non-staff writer, such as an expert in a field who is invited to write an editorial on a topic. An editorial is usually accompanied by one or more graphics. It is often a shorter length than a news story.
The term op-ed is short for “opposite the editorial page.” It used to be called an editorial but that changed when the term was expanded to mean a piece that appears on any page of a newspaper and is not in the main body of the paper.
A good editorial should be well argued and contain a call to action. In the past, the editors of a newspaper would often invite experts to write an editorial, but today many online journals no longer publish them.
If your aim is to persuade readers, your op-ed should include at least one controversial argument and be clear and concise. You should also consider how your reader will respond to your article, which is important if you want to influence public debate and change opinion.
It is important to track the news and jump on the chance to discuss an issue that is dominating headlines, because that is what readers are interested in. If a celebrity has died or there is a new crisis in a war, you should talk about it in an op-ed. But it is not necessary to write an entire op-ed on something that is already dominating the news, especially if it has been covered recently by other op-ed writers or even in the main body of the newspaper.