Writing About Issues
Issues are topics that concern people, and they often come into play in politics. When a politician says, “I’m going to focus on the issues,” she means she wants to talk about important things that people are concerned about. Issues may be anything from war and peace to crime prevention and education.
When you write an article about an issue, be sure that you can explain it in a way that will make readers care about it. Unless your reader is a subject expert on the topic, you must be able to give a compelling description of what’s happening so your readers understand why it’s an important issue.
You also must show how your opinion about the issue can benefit the reader. If your opinion is that the problem is a real one and that there are ways to solve it, you should be able to provide practical suggestions for doing so. If the problem is a personal one, you must be careful not to demean the person behind it.
If you are writing about a hot-button topic, be prepared to get lots of hate mail and antagonistic comments. But if you can stick to your guns and write about the issue, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped make a difference.
When you write an article about a specific issue, think of it in terms of two levels. The louder level is the actual problem (war, poverty, pollution). The deeper, quieter level is your opinion about the problem and how you feel that it can be resolved.