DISQUS

John McClelland · 5 months ago

Well done, Nick and readers. I followed the National Conference of Editorial Writers discussion on this and recall a consensus that 300 words has been considered a generous guideline, shrinking many places for printed letters. "Do-as-I-say" might not fully apply to "as I do." Paid staff (or syndicated) columns presume professional expertise and reportorial effort. Nationally they tend to be about 700-900 words, though there is pressure for less. If one has one point to make, 250 is fine; full story 500-up, well, yes... This blurb is 100.
--John McClelland
associate professor of journalism emeritus
(semi-retired) Roosevelt University, Chicago.

PurpleTypewriter · 5 months ago

While it is refreshing to find someone whose blog entries are nearly as far apart as my own, I am afraid I have to agree with the critics who say you should follow your own rules. When you come right down to it, all you said in these 780 words was that you were going to reduce the "soft" 350-word limit to a "hard" 250-word limit. Since I never have been able to keep anything I say to such a low number of words, that won't really affect me, because I do not write letters to the editor, for just that reason. However, I want to raise a different complaint. I cannot comprehend why you print letters from people who live far upstate or even in another state, far far away--especially when the topic is a complaint about what "the government" or some other nebulous entity is doing or has not done. I might be interested in what some local resident thinks about something that can affect both him/her and me, particularly if he or she has some idea(s) that can make things better, but why should I care what someone in Laconia or Vermont has to say about things that are mostly irrelevant and which certainly are not going to be changed as a result of his/her letter?