Progressive Wednesday

How to Write a Letter to the Editor (Brief)

February 3rd, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

How to Write a Letter to the Editor

Problem:

You’ve got big ideas, frustrations, and suggestions to help your area. You want your words to matter beyond your brain, your friends, your blog.

Make Progress:

Penning a letter to the editor is a potent way to aid progressivism. There are several values in writing letters to the editor.

• You can reach thousands of readers, readers who crave the opinions of others.
• The opinion pages of newspapers are read by politicians and the leaders of nonprofit organizations.
• Even if your letter isn’t published, your letter can contribute to a tipping point on a topic. If editors receive enough letters on a particular issue, they’ll feel compelled to publish one or more letters on the position, because an interest has been demonstrated by active readers.
• Progress starts at the local level, and newspapers are a great forum to alter community ideas and ideals.

So, without further ado, here are five keys to writing a successful letter to the editor:

1. Be enthusiastic about your subject matter, but avoid sounding livid or illogical or didactic (let’s save that for the repressive dinosaurs out there).

2. Keep it pithy. Every newspaper has its own specific maximum word count. My two hometown newspapers have 200- and 400-word limits. If I were you, I wouldn’t assume that my letter was so exquisite that the editors will ignore the word count rule just because their so awed by my words. In my experience, newspaper editors are a passionate but surly bunch. They receive far more letters than they can use, and they’re looking for reasons to throw letters out. You can even write just one paragraph as long as you get your point across clearly. Often, less isn’t just more, it’s more exact.

3. Revise and revise (and revise). Show the letter to at least one other person to help with your proofreading and clarity of content. Your first draft can’t be the final draft. I often recommend that folks write double the amount they’re shooting for. So, if your newspaper, let’s call it the King of Prussia Picayune, has a 150 word limit, write 300. Then trim, baby. Shape your letter they way a sculptor hacks away at a slab of marble. Adhere to any other guidelines like including contact information.

4. Keep it local and timely. If the issue is national or global, make it local first. Explain the impact of the problem in your community, if possible. You can also tell a brief personal narrative, when appropriate, to enter into the topic. Folks dig on story. That’s part of why they’re reading newspapers in the first place. And if you’re writing about the commercialization of Christmas, then you probably don’t want to write the letter mid-March. If you’re responding to recent events, you need to write promptly.

5. Have sources to back up your claims. You know that expression, “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion”? Well, I think that’s nonsense: Hitler had an opinion. Your opinion is only as good as your support; it’s fine to believe something is true, but that alone, of course, doesn’t make it true. If you’re an authority on a subject (say you’re writing a letter about the recycling of wood and you’re a carpenter) then say so; it’ll increase your street cred. If you’ve lived in an areas for a long time, mention this. If you’re not an authority, then reference people and organizations that are. For example: “According to Martha Smith, a sociology professor at the University of Nebraska, gun crime continues to rise at an alarming rate in rural communities.” When you use others as authorities, the weight of their knowledge, in essence, becomes your own.

If you’d like more help writing your letter, check out our expanded letter writing tool here.

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