Our Readers First!

John Diaz, the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial page editor stopped by my opinion writing class at San Francisco State on Sept. 24 and gave his thoughts and suggestions when it comes to write Op-Ed pieces or first-person pieces.

Although Diaz counts with a long journalism career, I liked his humbleness. When he got to the class he explained why he was some minutes late. He said he was at a meeting with Mayor Gavin Newsom. Diaz also read us parts of some of his writings to show us the importance of putting our personality and voices in our pieces.

Picking the right topic, think of ourselves as readers and doing enough research prevailed among the thoughts of Diaz. However, one suggestion that really got my attention because it is something I deal with a lot when I write first-person pieces is to avoid foreign language terms unless really necessary. He said he deals with writers who do this all the time and some of them drive him “crazy.”

I really like to write pieces that have to do with my culture--immigration, cultural events (Day of the Dead, Cinco de Mayo, Latino Heritage Month), about my country, profiles of Latinos and so on. Some times when I write first-person pieces I tend to write things in Spanish or throw terms that only the Latino community or people who understand Spanish would relate to. I am sure I am not the only one!

When I asked Diaz about his thoughts on a piece I am working on for this same class, which is about the terms Hispanic and Latinos; he said in this case it’s fine to throw some words in Spanish, but he emphasized that if we do use cultural terms in our pieces we have to explain them so they can reach out to a larger audience. However, he said that it also has to do with the publication one is writing the piece for. For example, if we are writing a piece for newspapers like La Opinión, then it’s fine because its readers are mostly Latinos.

The overall point here is that even when we write a piece in which we bring our own experiences we have to think beyond that. At the end of the day, it’s not about us, but who will read our piece.

I just want to thank John Diaz for taking the time to come to my class and share his expertise and experiences as a column writer as well as providing his thoughts on first-person pieces. We will definitely have them in mind, at least I will.