In an increasingly competitive media environment, especially as President Biden’s legislative agenda kicks into gear around infrastructure negotiations, op-eds are becoming more and more challenging to land.

As you’re thinking of writing and submitting an op-ed, ask yourself if your piece is meeting the mark of the below advice from an editorial page editor reviewing daily submissions at a prominent national outlet:

• Make it timely. Are you pegging your piece to the news so the editor has a timely reason to run it?
• Make it persuasive. How are you convincing a new audience to understand the issue? 
• Make it new. Are you making a novel argument? Are there revelatory insights?
• Make it personal. Are you telling your position or story through a first-person experience? Are you expressing passion without partisanship?
• Make it a traffic generator. Is there original reporting or content that makes news? Expert knowledge that is clickable?

By submitting a simple but engaging op-ed that follows the above guidance, you’ll improve your chances of publication.