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New Jersey
New Jersey
145 W. Hanover St.
Trenton, NJ 08618
609-393-3752
Trenton, NJ 08618
609-393-3752
How to Get Your Letter Printed Some Basic Tips |
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- Your letter must carry three pieces of personal information to make it from the starting line: your full name, your hometown address and a voice telephone number at which the newspaper can reach you. This includes e-mail letters, of course. Including your work phone number, if you can take calls there, speeds things up. Usually, editors don't even read anonymous letters.
- Keep it short. We suggest an upper limit of 250 words (no more than 400 words for an op-ed), but shorter is better, and newspapers try to condense every letter. In fact, you should keep in mind that they do edit all letters for length, clarity and taste.
- Help verify your factual information. A letter that says, "According to the January issue of Scientific American, little green people live on Mars," will get printed before one that just says, "Little green people live on Mars."
- It's OK to comment about news stories, editorials, columns, photographs and all kinds of news decisions. You also can respond to other letters, but make it about the issues instead of a personal attack on another letter writer or the newspaper. Be aware that some newspapers do not accept op-eds (longer opinion pieces) that are a response to one of their columnists; however, they will accept a letter to the editor instead.
- Newspapers usually don't consider more than one letter from a writer every 30 days, and they do keep track.
- Remember, there are usually three ways to submit letters: by fax, e-mail, or by snail-mailing your letter to the editor. In this day and age, we recommend hunting down the newspaper's editorial page e-mail address and using it as your vehicle for transmission.