Writing an opinion piece: Dare to speak when others remain silent

Writing an opEd has always been a nightmare for me. Unlike hard news where you just place information in context, there is much more to writing an opEd than merely sharing information.  It is crucial to support your opinion with factual information. OpEd pieces demand a genuine issue, clear stance / opinion on the issue, relevant evidence to support the issue, all tied up in the form of an engaging story. 

CHOOSE A TOPIC YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT
Unquestionably you must be passionate about the issue. It should also be topical and current. If you are a jerk like me who have diversified interests, you will get lost easily. Avoid the temptation of working on multiple topics that interest you and focus on one or two topics.

LET YOUR OPINION BE KNOWN
It's your opinion so state without any apology or defense. Come to the point as early as possible and be prepared to defend it instead of boring the readers with long opening sentences.

BACKUP YOUR ARGUMENTS BY RELEVANT AND REQUIRED RESEARCH
We should have the a solid understanding of the topic and a thorough analysis of the phenomenon, and this needs research. A good opinion piece must be based on factual information. Add data to support your argument.  I will suggest just do the relevant research keeping in view the scope of your story. Don't prepare for a research paper.

PERSUADE IN AN OBJECTIVE AND SIMPLE WAY
Provide the background and insight to the readers.  The evidence and facts mentioned must be authentic and accurate. Provide both sides of a story. Use relevant analogies from daily life to illustrate the complicated technical point to make them understandable to the readers. Engage readers by asking rhetorical questions. Embellish with your personal observations and experiences to add authenticity.

SUGGEST SOLUTIONS AND SPARK THE READER FOR ACTION
Don't just raise an issue, provide potential solutions. Spark the reaction in the reader so that they agree or disagree, change their point of view. Aim to inspire your reader for action. It must be focused around the issue and must acknowledge and address the opposite argument.

CHECK THE ARGUMENT AND STRUCTURE AGAIN
Finally check, do your arguments make sense. Readers are very smart in picking up errors and gaps in the arguments.

Finally keep in mind, a good opinion piece illustrates well constructed arguments, with supporting evidences, express a position and influence a reader to change their perception of the subject or react emotionally, on a timely issue.

Knitting History From Cultural and Environmental Debris (Unpublished)

Tazeen Hasan looks into the life and work of Dr. Joseph Greene, Curator and Assistant Director, Harvard Semitic Museum.

A Coincidence led him to the field of archeology

In the year 1972, a young philosophy student from Louisiana volunteering for a Catholic School near West Bank, Palestine was intrigued by an opportunity to work at the newly opened biblical excavation site at Tel Aphek.  This experience changed his life forever.  “It set me on the path to a career in archeology,” recount Dr. Joseph Greene. Today with a massive experience of more than 40 years in the Middle East and the Mediterranean as an archeologist, Dr. Greene is still working tirelessly as the Curator and Assistant Director at the Harvard Semitic Museum.

On further probing into his earlier childhood connection with history or archeology, he recalls, “it was hardly a childhood obsession, just a happy accident.”  After this stimulating experience as a teenager at the ancient site, he ended up at the distinguished Oriental Institute, at the University of Chicago founded by renowned American Egyptologist of the time James Henry Breasted.      

Dressed in a buttoned down casual shirt, blessed with a towering height an impressionable face, he moves about briskly through the calm and serene corridors of the Harvard Semitic Museum.  “He is direct in what he wants to be accomplished,” says Adam Middleton, a co-worker at the Harvard Semitic Museum.

One of his intense intellectual pleasures lies in knitting together the disparate pieces of available archeological data into an intelligible picture of an ancient landscape. His philosophy of ‘context focused reconstruction of the past’ rather than merely displaying random artifacts on glass shelves is revealed in the ‘House of Israel’ exhibition on the ground floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Here, life in early agricultural settlements of the Fertile Crescent has been modeled carefully with microscopic details using some original artifacts. “His knowledge of the working of Museums based on his years of experience is second to none,” Dr. Greene’s colleagues rightly say about him.

Recent trends in Museum organization are also visible in “the Nile to the Euphrates” and “Mesopotamia” exhibitions on the second and third floors. Carefully chosen exquisite collections are displayed,  still retaining numerous marvelous gems in the basement mainly because of space deficit and to protect these from continued exposure to bright light. Dr. Greene commented,  “ Contemporary museum practice is to display some small portion of the collection and keep the rest in reserve.”

In the last four decades, he has been involved in extensive excavations at various sites in Tunisia, Jordan, and Cyprus. His research interests focus on the archeology of the first-millennium B.C./A.D., and on museums and the history of museums.

*A hidden and undisplayed treasure from
Islamic periods in storage of
Harvard Semitic Museum

One of his most unforgettable projects was an Urn Burial Cemetery claimed to contain the remains of Phoenician children sacrificed to the principle Phoenician deities, Baal Hammon and his consort, Tanit. “Our excavations verified the accuracy of this claim.”

Working all day in a museum surrounded by relics of the distant past can be very exhausting. No wonder after a busy day at the museum, the workaholic curator can be seen at home cuddling the family pet, Sheba named after the biblical Queen of Sheba from Southern Arabia.  

His wife of 40 years, Eileen, calls herself an “archeologist by marriage”, but she is certainly not fascinated by, “big holes in the ground.” She describes  Dr. Greene as “Conscientious, thoughtful and habitual who eats almost the same thing every day (at least at every evening meal).”  

He has his unique interpretation of his field of work. “Archeological layers contain cultural debris to trace cultural change through very long periods of time. The same layers contain environmental debris; i.e. plant, animals, seeds, charcoal and molecular remains as ancient DNA found in bones as well as long-term evidence for incremental climate change.” He further explains,  “This allows an archeologist to reconstruct the ways humans have affected nature (and vice-versa) over long time scales,” says Dr. Greene. He views archeology as a way to study human interaction with nature.

*Picture Curtesy @Harvard Semitic Museum