[header] How to write an opinion piece [title] Be timely. [step] Your op-ed should discuss a topic that relates to current events, trends, or opinions of others. Timeliness is absolutely essential when it comes to submitting op-eds to newspapers. 
Newsroom editors are going to be much more interested in a piece that relates to an ongoing debate, or discusses an event that just happened, rather than a piece that focuses on something that happened a few months ago. [substeps] Scour the paper for compelling topics to respond to.