On this episode, we bring you a story by our own Andrea Askowitz. A version of this essay was published April 2023 on CNN and titled What Justine Bateman Gets Exactly Right About Beauty. You’ll hear tips on how to bring in outside evidence for a more effective opinion piece and how to use the news stories, popular in the media, to create a personal essay.

Andrea Askowitz has been published in The New York Times, Salon, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, Glamour, AEON, The Writer, Manifest-Station, Mutha, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, PBS, and the anthologies, Looking Queer, All that Glitters, and forthcoming, Stained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation. She is the author of the memoir My Miserable, Lonely, Lesbian Pregnancy and the Editor of Badass: True Stories, The Double Album. Andrea is the Executive Producer and Host of Writing Class Radio, a podcast that airs true, personal stories and gives tips on how to write stories. 

Writing Class Radio is hosted by Allison Langer and Andrea Askowitz. Audio production by Matt Cundill, Evan Surminski, Chloe Emond-Lane, and Aiden Glassey at the Sound Off Media Company. Theme music is by Justina Shandler

A transcription of this episode is available here.

There’s more writing class on our website including stories we study, editing resources, video classes, writing retreats, and live online classes. Join our writing community by following us on Patreon. 

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Join the community that comes together for instruction, an excuse to write, and the support from other writers. To learn more, go to www.Patreon.com/writingclassradio. Or sign up HERE for First Draft for a FREE Zoom link.

A new episode will drop every other WEDNESDAY. 

There’s no better way to understand ourselves and each other, than by writing and sharing our stories. Everyone has a story. What’s yours?