Do you have an opinion that could change how people think about an issue? A personal story or experience that can educate or help others?

CBC is looking for Saskatchewan people to write 500- to 700-word Opinion and Point-of-View pieces.

Anyone can pitch us by sending an email to sask-opinion-grp@cbc.ca. Successful pitchers will be paid for their work.

Pitching can be difficult. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to make yours stand out.

Focus (and have a headline in mind)

A good piece should focus on one thing and explore it in-depth, rather than giving us a broad overview of a subject.

For example:

"We need to get serious about climate change," is much too broad. It's also something you could read in many other places.

"Saskatchewan should greatly increase emissions requirements for vehicles," is a much more focused argument that you could explore thoroughly in a reasonable amount of space. It's also a clear position that someone could take the opposite side on.

One thing that can help with focus is to think of a headline that could go with your piece and also be in the subject line of your pitch email. If you can't sum it up in a headline it's probably too broad for 500 to 700 words.

Introduce yourself (and convince us you are the person for the job)

Pure passion, while important, is probably not enough. There needs to be some reason for people to want to hear your opinion.

This does not mean you need a PhD on the topic, but you should have some sort of authority or experience. For example, someone who has never set foot on a farm is probably not the best person to write about how farmers should run their businesses.

This also doesn't mean you have to have been published before. First-time contributors are always welcome and can often have new insight on a topic.

We do not accept pitches from politicians, people running for office or employees of political parties. We may work with someone who used to be one of those things, but would be very careful about the potential for conflict of interest.

Anyone chosen to write a piece will be asked to fill out a form detailing potential conflicts.

Why does your piece matter?

Our readers' time is valuable. If they read one of our pieces, we want them to feel like they spent that time well.

A good piece will spur conversation. Maybe you've got a unique take on the news of the day. Perhaps your personal story will inform how the reader thinks about the world.

Whatever your reasoning, your pitch should convince us that people — including us — should hear what you have to say.

Who will read this?

Your piece doesn't have to be for everyone on the planet, but it should be worth reading for people from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life.

It's OK to write about something people don't know much about, but that new knowledge should be relevant to that person, or at the very least entertaining to learn.

Some examples

For inspiration, here are a few past pieces that we feel were successful:

Opinion:

Point of View:

Click here for many more examples of both Opinion and Point of View pieces from CBC Saskatchewan.