A good opinion article is enjoyable to read, informative and may even change someone’s mind. Opinion pieces can be fun to write but also challenging, so we wanted to offer some advice. Most of it is relevant for other writing, too.

The key to clear writing is clear thinking. Before you start, ask yourself what your goal is, whether that’s to highlight the importance of a research development, promote a change in academic culture or share a solution to a societal problem. Ask yourself also what you are saying that’s unique. Maybe you’re discussing something readers haven’t thought about before, or you’re writing from a perspective they may not have heard from. Finally, ask who your audience is: professors? Administrators? Early-career researchers?

“The key to clear writing is clear thinking”

Answering these questions will help you be selective about what you cover. A 1–2 page article is only long enough to argue one main point well, and the word limit isn’t a challenge to cram in information as densely as possible. If you’re running out of space or your argument only fits if you cut away every illustrative example, it might indicate you need to narrow your focus. (For example, an earlier draft of this Editorial included information about article formats that we realized was only distracting from the main point, so we removed it.)

Readers are busy and the start of the article is vital to attract their attention. The clearer you are on your aims, uniqueness and audience, the easier it is to write a good beginning. Our opinion articles, like this Editorial, don’t have a full abstract. Rather, they have a standfirst, which is 1–2 sentences that work with the title to help readers know why to click through to the main text. The title and standfirst should intrigue, but not set up expectations that won’t be fulfilled.

The first paragraph isn’t the place for loads of background information. If background is needed, it can usually go later in the text. Unlike in traditional academic writing, you don’t need to give a full motivation before you get to the point: often a single sentence suffices. This sentence shouldn’t be too broad. For example, if you’re writing a Comment about making labs greener by saving electricity, you don’t need to open by saying the climate crisis is bad (readers know that), you can jump straight into telling them how much electricity is wasted by physicists each year.

By the end of the first paragraph, you should establish why the article is relevant right now, or why it is timeless. A good time hook is realistic, concrete and directly related to your article. Maybe it’s a well-known research development from the past year or a major facility that’s about to open.

From a short introduction section — and usually from the first paragraph — it should be clear what question you will answer or what point you will make. You’ll develop the argument over the rest of the piece, but you’re not writing a mystery novel, and you don’t need to keep readers in suspense.

If we’ve invited you to write an opinion piece it’s because we believe your opinions are interesting and we’d like you to share them. Don’t court controversy for its own sake, but if your ideas are expressed so blandly or abstractly that no-one can disagree with you, it’s unlikely readers will engage. ‘It would be good if more politicians understood physics’ won’t garner much response; ‘every government minister should be required to audit a Physics 101 course and here’s why’ is something that adds to the conversation.

Note that we are not a newspaper and we don’t publish pieces that simply highlight a problem or share an experience. Instead, we want to know what you want your intended audience to do. ‘Interdisciplinary researchers struggle to attract grants’ is a starting point, but it should lead into something like ‘here’s a suggestion for how funder panels can be restructured’.

If all this sounds challenging, never fear. As editors, we’re always happy to look at an early draft and give advice. Before publication, we edit all our articles1, often heavily, to ensure they convey the authors’ message as clearly as possible and serve our readers well. If you’re not confident expressing yourself in English, we help with that too, so that our readership hears from worldwide experts.

We are proud of Nature Reviews Physics’s opinion articles, and we hope these tips help you get the most out of writing one.