An Urgent Message from Fr. Owen Kearns LC, Publisher
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August 5-11, 2007 Issue |
Posted 7/31/07 at 11:05 AM
Recently, after a talk I gave about the Register, a reader
asked a question I have heard often from others: How can I get my letter
published in the Register?
It’s an excellent question. There are certain
characteristics that automatically disqualify letters, and certain qualities
that virtually guarantee that we will publish them.
My advice:
1. Always write with
charity and respect. We love letters that tackle serious issues; we reject
letters that attack persons. Often, letters arrive that have an excellent
point, but surround that point with personal attacks on men and women who hold
opposing views. If you want your letter published, make certain that it is
about the value of an argument someone made, not about the value of the person
who made the argument.
2. Make one point.
Letter writers often have many things they would like to say about a topic. But
even if you can make more than one point in the word count we have allotted
you, the truly effective letters are those that make one point clearly and
succinctly. Speaking of which …
3. Pay attention to
the word count. Our guidelines call for letters to be no more than 300
words long.
4. Refer to an
article. This advice is also part of our letter writing guidelines. Our
letters page is a place for discussion about Register stories, not a place for
sounding off.
5. Use e-mail. If
you have access to e-mail or know someone who does, use that as the method by
which you send in your letter. We often use letters that were mailed to us, but
with our small staff it is much easier to use letters that are already
available to us in electronic form and don’t need to be re-typed.
6. Give your name,
city and state. It is always sad to see the excellent letters we would love
to run — but cannot, because we have no city and state and no way to verify if
writers are who they say they are.
Write on!
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