Guest Post: Writing Social Commentary

Melissa Hart is the author of Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009), a memoir of growing up in the 1970’s separated from her mother, who lost custody of her children after she divorced their father and came out as a lesbian. (More about it in my 2009 Review of LGBTQ Family Books.) She also teaches writing, and was kind enough to pen this piece for Mombian readers.

Melissa’s own social commentary has appeared in The Advocate, Curve, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune. Her Web site is: www.melissahart.com.

As a journalism teacher at the University of Oregon, I ask my students to write a piece of social commentary and submit it to a newspaper or magazine. Usually, they complete the task without complaint. But last year, a talented young writer named Emily balked at my request.

“Why would anyone care what I have to say?” she demanded.

“You’ve got a unique perspective,” I explained. “Why shouldn’t you join the public discourse?”

Why shouldn’t we all? Short social commentary of the sort found on newspaper opinion pages and in magazines such as The Advocate and Newsweek can inspire debate, help to change public policy, and entertain readers even as it educates. You don’t have to be a professional wordsmith to get into print. You just have to write articulately and passionately about an issue.

Several years ago, I wrote my first piece of social commentary about a child forced to serve detention for explaining to another classmate that his mother is gay. As the daughter of two moms myself, I examined the power of words such as “gay” and “lesbian”—both when wielded by homophobes and reclaimed by the LGBTQA community.

The Oregonian published my piece, and I received several e-mails from readers. One note practically leapt off my screen for its implied irritation. “It’s biologically impossible to have two mothers,” the writer snapped.

Another wrote, “Thank you. I didn’t realize how hurtful the phrase ‘that’s so gay’ can be until I read your essay.”

That second note confirmed that I’d done my job—my opinion piece had inspired someone to rethink LGBTQA issues with new insight.

In the six years that I’ve been teaching journalism, dozens of my students have been published in newspapers and magazines. There’s no magic formula to entice editors, but I offer several guidelines to improve writers’ chances of getting published:

• Choose a current event or issue and think about how you’ll address it. I’ve had the most success when I’ve discussed how my own experiences inform my perspective, in anecdotal form and with humor. Here’s my essay about motherhood from The Chicago Tribune.
• Keep it short. Most editors won’t run a piece of social commentary longer than 900 words, and many want a tightly-constructed essay of just 700 words. Here’s the essay I had published in The Advocate about why my moms refuse to get married.
• Study the contributors’ guidelines. Editors also refer to these as submission guidelines or writers’ guidelines. They often post them as a link on their publication’s home page to let potential contributors know exactly what they’re looking for in a piece of social commentary. Here’s a link to the submission guidelines for The Gay & Lesbian Review, Worldwide.
• Preface your essay with a brief cover letter explaining who you are and why you’re qualified to write the piece. Make sure the editor has all your contact information—address, e-mail, phone numbers.
• Be prepared for feedback. If an editor runs your social commentary, and you’ve written a thought-provoking piece, readers will comment. You’ll likely get fan mail, and you may receive critical comments, as well. You’re under no obligation to reply to any feedback, but I always reply to positive e-mails with a thank you note.

Writing social commentary can be immensely gratifying. I recall with pride the day my student Emily appeared in our classroom, beaming. “You were right!” she told me. “I submitted my essay to a newspaper, and the editor wants to publish it!”

She’d learned, long before graduating from journalism school, that we have a right to join the public discourse.

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