How NOT to write an op-ed

As comment editor, I receive around 10-15 unsolicited op-ed submissions every 24 hours. That includes weekends. At peak periods, it can be 20 in one day. Even at slow times, e.g. Christmas or mid-August, it is never fewer than five.

At 800 words each, that is 10,000 to 15,000 words of cold-calling text daily to read and evaluate — about an Iliad's worth of text every week. And this is not including ones I proactively commission from academics, think tanks, NGOs, journalists, experts, e...