Some Friendly Advice to Keep in Mind When Writing Letters to the Editor, Op-Ed Pieces or Stories

—Your article should be focused on the issues of New Castle, or, if regional, they should be issues that affect the New Castle community.

—We’re not a blog. We like pieces that have “voice,” but we’re not interested in stream-of-consciousness. We like beginning-middle-and-end.

— Your piece can have a “point of view,” but early on in your story tell what your interest is in the matter, and seek out others’ points of view before you consider the piece complete. Try to help your readers to see the “big picture.”

— In printing “Letters to the Editor,” NewCastleNOW.org will choose letters exhibiting a cross-section of the sentiments expressed on a particular issue, the best of each one. Not all letters will appear, and yours has a better chance of appearing if you’ve kept it brief and to-the-point (and polite).

— We want your piece to be accurate. Otherwise you and we will have to apologize.

— You can try to make us laugh, but humorous pieces are really hard to make work, so good luck!

Through autumn and winter, NewCastleNOW.net will present a series of writers and authors who’ll talk (in person) about how they write, how they find a story or choose a subject and develop it, about the state of traditional print journalism (it’s on all their minds), why journalism is essential to citizenship, and the strengths and pitfalls of citizen journalism.