As an online article author, I feel it is my duty to help article authors create quality content online. Indeed, I've written over a 1000 articles on political topics, and I've learned the hard way how to do it right, and which mistakes are easily made. Writing about political topics is serious business, it's easy to make a mistake and look foolish, and you can't rely on everything you hear in the media, most of the news stations are jaded towards a conservative slant, or a more neo-liberal motif. Okay so, let's talk about this for a moment if we might.
First, I would recommend that you don't write any political articles based on what you see on TV and take their exact perspective. Sure, you might have an opinion on something, but you need to make sure it is your own opinion, and you can back it up with facts, not the sound bites that you viewed on TV the night before. Secondly, I wouldn't recommend writing an article because you saw something which you either agreed with, or disagreed with, because it emotionally sent you into a writing mode. You need to stop and think about what you're writing, and explore the different angles.
Another issue, and this is something that really burns me up when I see other authors do this - you should never take a political article that you read somewhere else, and rewrite it in your own words. A unique perspective and opinion is important. If you have one, and additional personal experience which you can relate to, share that with your reader. Another thing, if you make blanket statements make sure you back them up by citing where you got the information. Perhaps you read something in Foreign Affairs Magazine, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, a research paper, book, or watched a video from the Council on Foreign Relations, say so.
Also, you should never cite something you saw on Facebook, or a tweet that you received, and be wary of citing Wikipedia, even if you did check your facts on that site. Another thing, you must remember is who your audience is, if you're going to be preaching to the choir, you need to write a certain way for your audience. However, if you are writing to persuade people of the opposite position, or from a different political party, then you must handle yourself properly, and not hit them too hard until you've made your points. Indeed I hope you will take this information and use it to write quality content online, we need more of the good stuff, and we need less of the debris. So please consider all this and think on it.
