Referring to yourself in an op/ed piece?

Question

Where I go to school, we are required to pass a senior project to graduate. I chose to do mine on journalism. For part of my project, I must write an op/ed piece and submit it to the local newspaper for possible publication. Now, on a news piece that I wrote, my mentor told me not to use words like "I" or "me" in a news piece. I was wondering, does the same rule apply to op/ed pieces?

Answer 1

It's not exactly a rule but it is considered bad form to refer to yourself even in a feature, unless you're a columnist writing specifically about your own life. There are lots of ways of getting around using the first person - instead of "I think it's true that ...", try "it is often claimed that ..." or "it's generally believed that ..." and so on.

Edit: in the UK and Australia, IT IS perfectly acceptable to begin a phrase with "it is"/"it was" etc. I've never once heard that IT IS not the case! Perhaps in the US the accepted idiom is different. Certainly the form of English in common currency there has diverged widely from its origins!

Anyway, that's not what the lad asked so perhaps IT IS best not to confuse him.

Answer 2

I don't know which country you are in but in Canada it is a given that the opinions stated on an opinion page are those of the author (unless they are attributed to someone else).  

A newspaper will state, somewhere, that articles on its opinion pages (op/ed and letters, for example) do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper, which publishes its own opinions and positions in the editorials.  

Your job as writer is to state your opinions without having to resort to "I think..."  It is already accepted that the article is not news or it would be in the news section.

As to the suggestions by the previous answerers, I am not saying they are bad. . .  I  would not use them.  A good writer should be able to construct an article without resorting to those phrases.

Answer 3

I agree with Helen above.  Keep yourself out of news articles, but an op-ed piece is different, yet probably more credible if you can remove yourself from the article.

One is a convenient word...as in "One might be forgiven for thinking the governor is..."  or "Voters appalled by the governor's decision may..." or other constructs which can put forth your opinion (the gist of op-ed pages) without plugging your own person into the piece like a letter-to-the-editor.

I agree with Helen's advice, except on the use of IT.  Never use IT in journalism unless in a quote.  Always replace IT with a noun which will add more detail to the article.

Hope this answer helps you.