Community voices: submitting letters, columns and more

One of the most interesting, thought-provoking and heartening aspects of my job as editor of this paper is putting together the opinion page. Each week, The Press receives letters, musings, stories and more from thoughtful readers. I want to thank those readers for sharing their feelings and creativity with us, and I want to encourage those who have never sent in a letter to give it a try.

I’ve heard from several community members that they’ve floated the idea of sending a letter to The Press, but ultimately talked themselves out of it. I completely understand. It can be intimidating sending a letter to the editor. There’s a level of vulnerability to putting your hope, anger, joys and disappointments on paper and sending them off in hopes of publication. At The Press, as with most papers, we strive to provide an open space for the expression of opinions on page A10. Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee the publication of every letter, but we can offer some guidelines that might help demystify the process.

To start, a well-crafted letter will always catch our eye at The Press. You don’t need to be a professional writer, but letters that are clear and relatively concise are much appreciated. Often, when a letter has many mistakes, or is difficult to parse, we simply don’t have the time to work with the writer to the extent needed. Letters are typically edited for length, clarity, style and more, but the need for extensive editing makes publication harder. We also ask that you do your best to cite your sources on any claims made in a letter.

Formatting is also important. Letters should follow a narrative, paragraph-based structure. This makes them easy to follow, and they translate better into print. Letters that come with bulleted lists or that rely on a creative form on the page simply don’t print as well, and we often can’t preserve the original structure. This doesn’t apply to poems written in verse, however, which we publish occasionally.

It’s worth noting that letters don’t need to be long. If the idea of churning out paragraph after paragraph has been a barrier to any would-be letter writers, fear not. Just get your thoughts down on paper, in as many words as it takes you to express them. As a general rule, due to space constraints, letters under about 350 words are preferred. Sometimes though, we publish longer columns, or Points of View. These can stretch to about 750 words.

Lastly, we encourage all writers to keep their letters respectful and constructive. That isn’t to say letters can’t be critical, or express controversial opinions. The opinion page is a great place to express criticism — of current affairs, past coverage, politics, other letters and much more. It’s even perfectly fine to be angry — just as there’s plenty to be happy about, there’s plenty to be angry about. But at the end of the day, an opinion page is a community forum, and we strive to maintain a sense of decorum.

To anyone who has ever sent this paper a letter, published or not: Thank you. Please continue to do so. We love hearing your thoughts, and your engagement truly makes this a community paper. To anyone who has thought about sending one but hasn’t: This is your sign to go for it. We are eager to hear from you.

Alexa Lewis is editor-in-chief of The Riverdale Press.