Gosz's work, from what I've read, doesn't serve anyone but herself. In her April 7 column, "'Harry's' plight a life lesson in unprofessional media shenanigans," she admits that "It's actually a story that you shouldn't give a rat's ass about, but since I have an outlet in which to tell it, I'm going to make you care about it." That's not the kind of attitude a member of the Fourth Estate should have, especially after two years of experience.

If you know your column isn't worth reading, then why write it instead of writing one that is? Why should money be spent printing something that doesn't provide any useful service to readers? If your goal is to have people care about your personal stories, make them relevant.

In "Viewpoint opinion won't change minds, especially not Zabrowski's," she says, "Sadly I have learned that the Viewpoints section doesn't really accomplish much. I have seen little change in the behavior which I sought to change." After reading some of her previous work, it's no wonder why. Simply sharing your opinion on an issue isn't going to change anyone's mind.

The problem I've seen in Viewpoint and opinions sections is they tend to act more as a service to writers than readers when the opposite should be the case. Writers and editors treat it like a forum for anyone to use rather than a source of disciplined analysis for their audience. Voicing opinions and viewpoints is all well and good; but newspapers and their staff have an obligation to readers. "Viewpoint" writing isn't license for anyone to disregard that obligation.

I'm the Features Editor at Ka Leo O Hawai`i, the University of Hawaii's daily paper. We have a word for work that doesn't fulfill our obligation to readers: "blogworthy." With the unfortunate exception of our Opinions desk, if something is "blogworthy" we don't print it until it is made appropriate for newspaper publication. I've never needed to run a U-Wire in the 11 months I've served at my current position while at the same time being a full-time student. So I know that being reader-minded isn't prohibitive to student editors or writers.

While a lot of Gosz's columns should have been left on the production room floor, some of them could have easily been adapted to be more reader-minded. Her "Skank-o-licious" article, for example, amounted to nothing more than complaining. But she could've made it more informative, relevant and useful by doing and incorporating hard research into impression management and what a person's outfit choices, tend to say about their personality, or at the very least made well reasoned arguments or appeals to the Catholic and/or self-respecting sensibilities those scantily-clad women might or should have. It might be obvious to Gosz and a lot of other people why dressing this way may not be appropriate at an institution of higher learning, but there appears to be an intellectual disparity with the "skank-o-licious" women she targets that wasn't addressed but should've been.

If you want to change people's minds, give them a reason to change it. Don't just rant about what bothers you and leave it at that. A person's opinions don't deserve publication by mere virtue of being submitted, but by virtue of fulfilling its responsibility to readers. There are appropriate outlets for viewpoints that don't; a newspaper isn't one of them.

Marlo Ting is a senior political science major at the University of Hawaii.

This viewpoint appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 26 2005.