Getting personal: How first-hand testimony can bring opinion articles to life

We’re a broad church on the comment desk. Our job is to deliver op-eds from a diverse range of writers and on pretty much any topic under the sun. This means that on a given day you might see everything from detailed analysis of Brexit, to revelations about events in the Middle East, to senior voices on racism in sport.

We use in-house commentators who can steep themselves in the detail of political events, as well as external journalists who can bring deep expertise to a topic.

But some of the most satisfying articles we publish are those which reach into an author’s personal experience. These columns have something extra. And sometimes they come from the news front line.

In late March, keen Washington watchers will have noticed the confirmation hearing for David Bernhardt, an oil industry lobbyist who has been made US secretary of interior. They will also have noticed the protester who donned a “swamp monster” mask directly behind him, and stole the show.

That protester was Irene Kim. She was trying to draw attention to the painful juxtaposition of someone who has sued the department on behalf of his former clients, now being given the reins. She even ended up on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. She then told her story on our pages.

Often the stories we hear are deeply personal. The comedian Shappi Khorsandi writes a hugely entertaining column for us, but one of her most compelling recent pieces dealt with the jokey response on social media to the release of Adam Johnson, convicted in 2016 of sexual activity with a child and grooming.

She told readers: “I was groomed by an adult man when I was 15. I cannot overstate the lasting effect that it has: how badly it distorts your view of yourself and how it can wreck your self-worth to the point where you can resort to all kinds of self-harm.”

We can also commission people who find themselves at the heart of a story, whether they meant to be there or not.

Margaret Georgiadou is not a household name but she found herself suddenly thrust into the limelight when her Article 50 petition became a rallying point for Brexit frustrations.

“I didn’t expect much when I first created the petition,” she told Independent readers. “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll reach 10,000 signatures, I thought. But at least I would have tried.”

Six million signatures later, and with the revocation of Article 50 now a mainstream part of the Brexit debate, I think we can agree she’s probably glad she did.

Yours,

Joel Dimmock

Voices deputy editor