Tips for Boostworthy Essays on Medium

A 9x boosted writer shows you how to write on politics, society, and other non-fiction topics

Now that you know some of the basics in titles and paragraph formatting (see below for link), let’s get down to the real deal: writing the actual story!

Here, I want to focus on the opinion essay— whether it focuses on politics, society, arts, or sports. What’s the best way to tackle such essays?

Know your stance!

By far, the most important element for writing your essay is determining the point you want to make. What do you want to prove?

This will help you decide how you want to back up your central idea. You will not be convincing if you don’t have the research and stats to support that idea.

One and done: stick to one subject!

As you form your central idea, you may want to narrow it further so as not to produce an overly long or cumbersome story. Let me add that this idea also applies to memoir-type writing.

For instance, if you read the story on Suzy that I mentioned last week, you will notice that although the story focuses on grief, there are two subjects:

1. the grief I felt after she was given away
2. the grief that results from moving

What I was trying to do was to show how grief can be triggered by the loss of someone, something, or some place. And at the time I was writing it, I felt pretty proud of myself for making that connection.

However, it wasn’t until I’d been on Medium for a few months that I realized that despite the validity of my insight, it didn’t work as well as I would have hoped. Why?

Probably because many readers on Medium expect brevity rather than complexity. Although my idea could easily have worked in a magazine like, say, The Atlantic or The New Yorker, where a good portion of articles require at least 5 minutes of reading, the same is not true on Medium.

Readers want something that is easily digestible when reading on a phone. They want sandwiches, not salad, steak, and potatoes.

In fact, I even helped one writer get her article boosted by suggesting that she split a long Christmas story with two different subjects into two separate ones. I knew it had great potential because it was poignant and well-written. So I was thrilled — but not surprised — to learn that one of the stories was ultimately boosted!

The art of being neat and discrete

Yes, I mean discrete — not discreet!

Sometimes certain stories can and do benefit from complexity — especially when they are more topical or controversial: for instance, politics, society, culture, etc. That’s because it is usually helpful to address various sides or facets of an argument in order to convince the reader.

Here, it pays to be neat and discrete — meaning that if you are crafting a chronological narrative or an argument, you should divide it into different sections.

Take, for instance, my boosted article, “Racism in the Ivory Tower,” published on October 5, 2023 in An Injustice and boosted early next morning.

Notice that unlike the Suzy article above, there are separate sections: personal experiences, assumptions on liberal attitudes towards race, research on academic racism, and finally, a conclusion that recommends measures for making academe more equitable.

The structure is as follows:

1. My assumptions on academe and my experiences in college
2. My experiences in graduate school
3. Are the educated necessarily more liberal on matters of race?
4. American academics are racist

4a. Instances of overt racism

4b. Discrimination against prospective non-white graduate students

4c. Discrimination against non-white professors

5. The academic publishing industry is racist

5a. Discrimination against non-white academics on editorial boards

5b. Minority scholars are less likely to be cited

5c. Their materials take longer to review

These sections help the reader navigate through your essay with greater ease.

Or take another boosted article, “The Skinny on Skinny-Shaming,” where there are also separate sections on experiences and real-life prejudice against the overweight and obese.

1. Experiences as a skinny teenager
2. The experiences of an overweight friend
3. Discrimination against the fat and obese in academe, workplace, and health care.

Even short stories can benefit from sections. Granted, this 3-minute story was not boosted (nor did I hope for one), but I found it practical to divide it into two sections.

Facts, facts, and nothing but the facts

If you are writing on anything the least bit controversial, you need to back up your ideas with facts: this should be common sense even if you are not a 20+ year academic like me! Here, you do indeed need to bear in mind everything you’ve learned from grade school through grad school.

Let’s take a closer look at the articles on race and weight.

I knew that in order to write on racism in academia, my own experiences would not be sufficient — even if I could write a book based on these experiences alone. I knew it would be all too easy for others to ask, “How do we know these experiences are not unique to you?” Because, believe me, I’ve gotten these questions when I’ve discussed them online!

So I researched several facts relating to this topic. To what extent is it true that the educated are more liberal when it comes to matters of race? Is surname-based discrimination a real thing?

I also looked up research on discrimination against non-white and women graduate school applicants and stats on minority faculty hiring and promotion.

And not least, I researched the stats on minority citations and representation on editorial boards.

Armed with these facts, I was able to put together a convincing argument on racism in academia.

As for my article on skinny-shaming, I was well aware that in order to push back against the narcissistic focus on skinny-shaming (sorry, skinny-shaming is NOT the worst problem to have!), I had to have my facts in order. Even if I felt that my personal experiences as a slim girl and woman and those of a plus-sized friend were already persuasive on their own, I knew they would not be enough.

That’s why I incorporated a section on the ways in which plus-sized women are discriminated against much more pervasively than thin women in academe, the corporate world, and healthcare. These provide ample proof that skinny-shaming, while unfortunate, is by no means as unjust as fat-shaming.

Let me add too that you shouldn’t worry too much if your story winds up running longer than an average story of approximately 4 to 6 minutes. So far, my boosted articles have run between 6 and 13 minutes, with many running around 10 minutes. That’s because a solid, meaningful story or article requires some degree of proof and explanation. It’s difficult to incorporate such detail in a brief story — especially if it’s centered on a complex or highly controversial issue!

Finding the right sources

Here, I prefer sources that have links to original research. The most reliable ones tend to be The New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN, The Nation, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New Yorker. Just be careful if you are quoting sources: you may have to obtain copyright permission!

And always be aware of biases. Know how to tease out opinions and be careful to distinguish interpretations from facts. Understand that percentages mean more than absolute numbers. Also, know that certain facts are not always available at the time that an article is written.

A strong introduction

Sometimes introductions are difficult to write, especially if you’re not sure which direction your article is going to take. That’s why I recommend saving them for last — along with conclusions.

If you want to lure the reader into your story, start with a brief but compelling statement or a fact that will draw them in. This will be your opening hook.

For instance, the first sentence of my story on skinny-shaming started with:

No one ever wants to be late to a pity party.

And the one for “Help! Help! Help!” (an essay on Peter Medak’s film, The Changeling) starts with:

When Stephen King tells us that any horror film “scared the daylights out of me,” you’d better believe it.

That’s because strong statements lead the reader to know the “whys”: why does the writer feel so strongly about these ideas?

Summary

All told, here are some takeaways:

1. Stick to one topic.
2. Divide your story into several sections — even if it runs less than 3 minutes.
3. Back up your opinions with facts — and appropriate links.
4. Write a compelling hook to draw your reader in.

I’ll have more to say on non-fiction in coming weeks with further tips and analyses, so stay tuned!

From last week:

© Frances A. Chiu, January 19, 2024. All Rights Reserved.