To help professors share their academic research in public forums, English professor Colleen Boggs and government professor Jennifer Lind have collaborated to bring The Op-Ed Project, a national initiative provides training in writing opinion columns to academics and professionals at Dartmouth.
Working with corporations, foundations, nonprofit organizations, think tanks, universities and community organizations throughout the United States, The Op-Ed Project seeks to incorporate more individuals' voices into public forums of discussion by teaching them to present their research in a format that will appeal to a broader audience. The pilot program at Dartmouth will target professors who can contribute research to a collective discussion, according to Boggs. "Professors at Dartmouth are all engaged in a very public enterprise to begin with, but that public enterprise is often in very specialized contexts," she said. "There is this whole other area of interaction and communication that is open to a larger public, and we want to see what the opportunities would be like to tap into this network on a wider institutional scale."
Writing op-ed articles requires skills that differ from those used in academia, according to Tuck School of Business professor Eric Johnson, who has been published in U.S. News and World Report.
"For me, coming from a background in technology, it requires a very different style to be able to write for large publications, and the audience is quite different," Johnson said. "I think the real value in one of these programs is to help faculty think about how to position their work for the audience of the particular publication."
Working individually with mentors in various seminars, workshops and meetings throughout the 2012-2013 academic year, professors will learn the proper skills and techniques used in writing op-eds.
Among the obstacles faced by scholars writing op-eds is the translation of extended research projects into concise stories accessible to a general public, according to Boggs.
"As academics, we are usually trained to write in great detail, and we do not get much practice in writing shorter pieces," Boggs said. "Writing op-eds, which are only around 800 words, forces us to relay our very detailed information in such a way that communicates the conclusions of our studies while also making that information accessible."
A program like The Op-Ed Project can benefit professors by encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, Boggs said. A trial workshop attended by Dartmouth professors last spring proved productive and engaging, promoting communication across departments that can lead to collaboration on future projects, she said.
In addition, efforts like the pilot program benefit the public by encouraging academics to share their knowledge and expertise, producing more informed citizens, according to Boggs. The spread of ideas opens the door to discussion, in turn promoting the development and advancement of ideas.
"With a project like this, it's not just about professors taking something they know and telling people," Boggs said. "It's about broadening perspectives and then seeing how conversations change and understanding how we think about knowledge. By putting people in dialogue with one another, we could generate ideas and initiatives that could lead to entirely new areas of scholarship."
Lind first thought to develop the initiative after learning of the national program at a conference, according to Boggs. In designing the pilot program, Boggs and Lind have tried to emphasize inclusivity, engaging professors from all departments in order to create a diversity of voices. Following the success of the initial workshop, the professors felt compelled to extend the effort to a year-long program, Boggs said.
"We knew how great this project could turn out," Boggs said. "Oddly enough, my only concern is how overwhelmingly positive the response has been. We have had such an incredible response but are still in one of the preliminary stages of development for the program."
Although a specific timeline for the program has not yet been established, the College's supportive nature should help foster the initiative's future growth, according to Boggs. The pilot program's developers also hope to turn to peer institutions running The Op-Ed Project including Stanford University, Yale University and New York University to acquire ideas for implementation.
Boggs said she plans for the pilot program to consist of four op-ed workshops over the course of the year, with supplemental monthly conference calls and various networking sessions.
Because many of the participating professors are still in the process of determining what they want to gain from the program, the initiative is still in the planning stages, Boggs said. Much of the program's content will depend on the types of publications and audiences established by professors.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael Mastanduno did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Lind could not be reached for comment by press time.
