Global Village Space welcomes diversity of opinions!  Global Village Space (GVS) can take your voice far and wide. In the last 30 months, we were read almost 60 million times. Currently, each month, we are being being read around 3-5 million times. Almost 50% of GVS readership is in North America, UK, Australia, South Africa, India and Middle East. Within Pakistan we are read by policy makers and those who shape opinions.

GVS welcomes all well written opinions. We are however sad that we have to turn down many opinions – because they fail to meet the minimum criteria. In view of this we have decided to explain what constitutes a good “Opinion Piece” or Op-Ed as it is sometimes called. We have also placed various online resources to help potential writers.

Opinion Piece: What GVS is looking for?

Writer submission guidelines: 

Expertise & Knowledge

Write on subjects you have expertise or sufficient knowledge because of direct exposure. And where readers have reason to believe in your competence. For instance if you are a doctor, scientist, lawyer, engineer, army officer, civil servant, diplomat or a faculty member in a university and your role can be succinctly described in your 2-3 line byline then write on the strength of your expertise or professional knowledge.

Opinions backed with facts & Evidences

Op-Eds are opinions, but even strong opinions and arguments need to be advanced and defended with facts, statistics, evidences and quotes from relevant authorities. Opinions can not exist in a vacuum. Opinions can not be whims or delusions. You believe in something, but why? you want our readers to consider it important, why? Why must they spend time to read you and believe you? To help you understand this concept of an Op-Ed we are providing certain links you will find helpful. First link is from New York Time where a writer, an Editor and columnist, explains what constitutes a good Op-Ed.

Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers , New York Times

Next link we provide will take you to “The Op-Ed Project” an initiative of Public Voices at several universities including Yale, Stanford and Princeton. You will find it very helpful!

Op-Ed Writing: Tips and Tricks – The OpEd Project (Public Voices)

The link to Harvard University Guidelines will further provide you links to more online resources that can guide you.

HOW TO WRITE AN OP-ED OR COLUMN – Harvard Univ

Writings that fulfil the GVS criteria – While there can be huge diversity in styles of writing but to help you understand our criteria we can provide a short list. We think the writings of the following (published by GVS) may help you understand the criteria we have defined: Dr. James Dorsey, Dr. Kamal Monnno, Hassan Aslam Shad, Fahd Husain,  Javed Hassan, Michael Kugelman, Shibli Murtaza, David Cameron and many others. This is just a small sample but a review can help.

Correct Use of Language & Grammar

Most submissions we receive from across South Asia have issues of language and grammar – significantly increasing our editing work. We want our writers to be able to write clearly. This demands understanding of relationship between subject and verb and correct use of tense and voice. We recommend that you carefully read, review and edit before sending your piece. It will be best if you check through an App like Grammarly – several more are available on online.

While GVS can not teach how to write effectively or run courses on English writing, we can nevertheless recommend online sources that you may find helpful. Cambridge Assessment English Tests may help you to find out your weak areas. Here are these links:

6 Powerful Tips to Improve Your English Writing Skills

11 Best Websites to Improve Writing Skills in English

Cambridge Assessment English Tests

In addition we recommend you to keep the following in mind as you submit your piece to GVS:

1. Op-Eds should be between 700-850 words in length. You may provide relevant links and tweets with the piece that bolster your argument.
2. All submissions should be accompanied by full contact information (mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address) and a brief note describing the author’s current positions and relevant experience.
3. Provide a 2-3 line (max length) byline that describes your professional background and expertise and mentions your email or twitter.
4. GVS editorial team will choose the title if needed to ensure the widest dissemination of the article.
5. Please send us your article in the email body as we do not open attachments.
6. An online published article may be published in our monthly magazine. No honararium is paid for a published piece unless it was sourced by us and this will be confirmed from outset.
7. After your article has been published, we encourage you to join in the debate that follows.
8. Please email all submissions to:Editor@GlobalVillageSpace.com and copy GVSsubeditor@gmail.com.