Being a columnist, syndicated or otherwise, is in some ways easier than straight journalism. You don’t have to strive to keep the mask of non-bias between you and the audience. If you have an opinion, you can let it all hang out. As a news reporter, you would have to stay as invisible as possible, using as little narrative as possible to convey “just the facts” to the newspaper’s readership. But a columnist’s personality is a great part of his or her stock in trade, whether the column itself is political, social, or technical. You don’t have to pretend to be an unemotional android spitting out data and quotations; you can be you.

But it’s not quite that simple. Jeremy Wagstaff, technology columnist for various Dow Jones publications, cautions columnists against getting too free-for-all.

“Columns are about opinion and style. In some ways they’re the opposite of old fashioned journalism, which is free of bias and adheres to the house style… but a columnist still needs to understand those conventions to function. If you have an opinion, you should be aware that it is an opinion and not the truth as everyone sees it. Similarly, to cultivate a style you should be aware of how to write without a style–straight factual reporting.”

But isn’t the atmosphere growing more relaxed in the digital age of chatty blogs and abbreviation-rich text-messaging? Well, yes and no.

“With blogging, etc., these rules are changing–the blogosphere is full of great writers who don’t have formal training or journalistic experience–but gradually everyone is beginning to realize that you can’t ‘defy the laws of gravity.’ Bloggers are finding that they still need to understand balance, accuracy, conflicts of interest, etc., and that these principles evolved for a reason. A columnist just chooses to emphasise some facts over others.”

This is important, and growing more so as the political climate here in the United States heats up as we enter the 2008 election season. Editorials, opinions, and political columns can be stuffed to the gills with opinion, and opinion is manifestly not fact, true–but what they cannot ethically contain are lies. The columnist can, as Wagstaff says, focus more on some facts than others, but actually endeavoring to deceive–or, less maliciously but no more ethically, endeavoring simply to cling to a comfortable ignorance–should be taboo. Opinion should be educated, that is, based on fact.

“The other part of it,” Wagstaff says, “is that someone who has actually been out there in the world is likely to have more factually based opinions than someone who goes straight into writing a column.”

Which is not to say that, for the sake of holding an educated opinion, you shouldn’t start writing a column until you’re 40 years old and have completed your journeyman training in whatever technical field you’re writing about, or have traveled the world and lived for ten years inside the culture you are passionate about documenting. However, you should never be satisfied with your current level of skill, knowledge, and experience.

Whatever your passions are, if they’re compelling enough for you to write a column about them, you should be eager –anxious, even, to continue your education in that field. If your column is about the Israel-Palestine conflict, don’t sit on your laurels; interview people who have been in the middle of it.

Go there yourself, if possible. Seek out new perspectives on the subject. Similarly, if you write a knitting doctor column, don’t just wait for the questions to roll in and then research them if they’re beyond your level. Always learn more. Pursue the title of Master Knitter. Learn all you can about the craft’s history, being careful to separate fact from false assumption. Visit an alpaca farm and learn where your yarn is coming from.

In any field of expertise or deep abiding passion, challenge yourself and the assumptions you hold. Never be satisfied with what’s already in your head. Go out seeking more. Your column’s quality and usefulness to its readers will grow by leaps and bounds.

Read more about how to become a syndicated columnist here.