Opinion Essays: Overview

Opinions matter. To you, obviously, since your opinions define your personal philosophies. But our opinions also matter to others. Whenever we interact with others, aren’t we sharing our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs? Most conversations we have in our lives will be based on opinions, both our own and the opinions of those around us.

In college, our opinions allow us to take a stand in academic conversations by saying this is what I think, and this is why I think it. In order be taken seriously in college, as well as everywhere else, we must carefully shape the thoughtfulness and delivery of our opinions. Rants may be fun to read or watch on social media, but ranting rarely works well when trying to convince others to recognize, understand, and value our opinions.

Unlike an Argument Essay, an Opinion Essay most often relies on a writer’s own ideas and thoughts rather than on sources found through research. You and your ideas, essentially, are the supporting evidence. Writing an Opinion Essay will push you to formalize and finalize thoughts based on your own experiences.

Key Features

Be Brave, Make a Stand, and Take Up a Clear Position

This is not the time to be wishy-washy or to equivocate. If your essay is filled with qualifiers and hedges, if you never take a definitive stance on your topic, and if you keep presenting your topic from multiple perspectives, then readers will wonder what’s the point? Remember, readers want to learn about your opinion and why it matters. Make sure you take the time to decide on a clear opinion, and then your job becomes to thoughtfully develop that opinion throughout your essay.

An Intriguing Title that Hints at Your Opinion

Imagine your opinion essay is published by a major newspaper’s website. Would anyone click on an article titled, “My Opinions About Cancel Culture”? Probably not. Mostly because that title is boring and doesn’t establish the writer’s opinion. On the other hand, a title like “Cancel Culture Signals the Apocalypse of American Values” would probably get way more attention. Remember, your title is your first chance to grab a reader and convince them to start reading your essay. Don’t be boring, generic, or vague in your title. Be clear, specific, and intriguing.

Capture Audience’s Interest & Define Your Opinion

As writers, we must always keep our audience in mind. Your title might be the first way to hook a reader, but what else can we do at the beginning of an essay to keep that reader interested? And in an Opinion Essay, how can we clearly establish our opinion so readers know where we stand on the topic? Answering these two questions is a vital step to crafting an effective introduction for an Opinion Essay. Remember, if readers aren’t interested and are uncertain what we think by the end of the first paragraph, then it’s too late: we’ve already lost them and won’t get them back.

Identify and Develop Reasons to Support Your Opinion

Keep in mind that Opinion Essays you write in college will likely not use research as supporting evidence. Instead, you are the evidence. What does that mean? The reasons that support your opinion should be based around your own knowledge, ideas, and experiences. Remember, readers want to know what has led to you form your opinion, which means they’re interested in what you know about your topic and how your experiences have influenced your perspectives on that topic. This means you must take the time to consider which reasons support your opinion and how to effectively develop those reasons in your writing.

When structuring your Opinion Essay, it’s probably useful to build individual paragraphs around different reasons. This will help you ensure that each reason is thoughtfully developed. In other words: fully developed opinions equal fully developed paragraphs.

Develop a Credible Tone & Maintain a Professional, Formal Writing Style

Remember: you are writing a college essay, not a post on some dark corner of social media. An Opinion Essay is about your honest opinions, yes, but it should not become an angry, emotional rant. In fact, your opinions will be taken more seriously if you present them with a tone that is credible, professional, and, as a result, trustworthy.

Use Rhetoric to Shape Your Opinions

Rhetoric is the art of persuading others to do, believe, or feel something. In an Opinion Essay, your goal is to persuade readers to recognize, understand, and respect your opinions. An essay absent effective usage of rhetoric won’t accomplish that goal. Therefore, it’s vital that you carefully consider how to use rhetoric at each step of your writing.

For more information about rhetoric, check out these chapters:

• The Rhetorical Situation
• The Rhetorical Appeals
• Logical, Emotional, and Ethical Fallacies

Conclude by Asserting Why Your Opinion Matters

What do you want readers to take away from your Opinion Essay? Why does your opinion matter right now? What effects will your opinion have going forward, and who will be affected? At the end of your essay, these are the kinds of questions readers will want you to answer.

Your conclusion should not be a restatement of your main points; your reader just finished reading the body of your essay, so they already know those main points. What your reader wants is for you to confidently express how your opinions on your topic should shape their own understanding of the now and of the future.

Drafting Checklists

These questions should help guide you through the stages of drafting your research essay.