How to Write a Letter to the Editor

November 11, 2003 by Doug Groothuis

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Eleven Imperatives for Christians

My first letter to the editor was published when I was about ten years old. For reasons unknown to me now, I was eager for people to know about UFOs (despite the fact that I knew nothing about them, save what I saw on television). I wrote that “fling saucers” (they retained the misspelling for cuteness, thus ensuring my unending embarrassment) had been seen since biblical times . . . or something like that.

Despite this early ignominy, I have written letters to various editors fairly steadily for about the last twenty-five years. Constantly setting the world (and the church) straight can be a wearisome business, but I’d say about seventy percent of my letters have been published in such places as The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon), The New York Times Magazine, The Seattle Times, The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), Isthmus (a Madison, Wisconsin, weekly with New Age leanings), The Rocky Mountain News, Yoga Journal, Nexus: Colorado’s Holistic Journal, US News and World Report, The Reformed Journal, Christianity Today, The Other Side, and various college newspapers. Two of my letters were read on National Public Radio in 2003. My letters have also been rejected by Focus on the Family, The New York Times, Utne Reader, The American Spectator, The Denver Post, and other undiscerning publications. Over my years of writing and reading such letters, several literary imperatives have become evident to me.

1. Your ultimate aim should be to communicate truth for God’s glory (Matthew 6:33; 1 Cor. 10:31). The editorial page is a tremendous forum to plant seeds for the Kingdom. You can stimulate debate, present perspectives seldom seen in the publication, straighten out misconceptions of Christianity, criticize unbiblical thinking and actions, and make contacts with like-minded people.

2. You should choose a subject that you understand, feel strongly about, and concerning which you can express yourself clearly. If these three factors are absent, the letter will probably fail to command attention. Having to write a letter to the editor as an assignment is somewhat artificial, but still try to find a subject that engages your passion and your reason.

3. A letter to the editor should make one central point. It is not an article that carefully develops and elaborates on multiple themes. You want to make a key idea stick in people’s minds. Like a good sermon, it should be a bullet, not buckshot. This can be done in many ways. Several kinds of letters, though, should be avoided.

Excessively emotional letters chronicling one’s ire over an issue without giving any clarification, elaboration, or argumentation are less than edifying—although the use of emotion is not, of itself, illegitimate. Letters written to showcase the knowledge of the writer usually fail to impress the reader with more than the arrogance of the writer. Personal attacks against people’s character that are unrelated to the issues at hand or which are unsubstantiated should be avoided—although revealing a relevant character flaw in a public figure can be worthwhile if done with tact and civility. Overly sarcastic or whining letters (“Poor me, I’m a victim!”) win few converts but cause much contempt.

4. Make your letters pertinent to some recent issue that has been covered in the newspaper or magazine to which you are writing. This will increase your chances at having the letter published since publications will want to run items related to their esteemed efforts. Letters should be submitted as soon as possible to be timely.

5. Keep your letters under about 200 words, unless the editorial page stipulates otherwise. The Rocky Mountain News, for instance, prefers letters of only 100 words. If you exceed the word limit you risk literary evisceration by an editor who doesn’t have your writing career in mind. Therefore, edit yourself strictly. Don’t deceive yourself into thinking they will bend the rules for you. Unless you are some publicly esteemed luminary—such as the mayor, governor, senator, or a celebrity—they won’t do it.

6. If you are writing for a non-Christian publication (and I encourage this), remember that much of your audience is not familiar with Christian language or concepts. Therefore, translate your biblical understanding into common language for the common person. Instead of referring to sin, you may want to say “moral transgression” or “penchant for selfishness” or something of that order. Be creative; the truth is at stake. Since your culture is biblically illiterate, don’t presume that your readers will recognize biblical names, places, or concepts. Spell it out.

7. Write clearly and directly. Poor writing is no testimony to the God of truth and beauty, however, noble your intentions. Don’t expect the editor to clean everything up for you. He or she may enjoy displaying your dirt, especially when it is amusing (as in “fling saucers”). Have a good writer proofread and edit your letter. Take them out to lunch if the letter gets published.

Not all letters can be careful arguments, but write in a logically consistent manner. Avoid over-generalizations, unfounded conclusions, fuzzy concepts, flimsy opinions, and factual inaccuracies. On the other hand, the Spirit-led intellect is a thing of beauty and holy power. It deserves to be in print and to be read.

8. Use persuasion, not just proclamation. Some occasions warrant a direct presentation of the gospel message in a letter. However, Christian witness involves more than proclamation, essential though that is; it also involves persuasion at any number of levels. Many of my letters have been pre-evangelistic or apologetic in tone. I try to engage the non-Christian to take seriously some aspect of the Christian truth-claim. This may concern the uniqueness of human beings (against the naturalistic/reductionistic view that we are merely evolved animals), the implausibility of the materialist view of the mind (that there is no soul), the fact that all religions cannot be true, or the differences between Transcendental Meditation (as a modernized and camouflaged form of Hinduism) and Christianity. I had a letter published on the misuse of the term “monogamy,” which had been used in a review of a James Bond movie in which Bond only fornicated with one woman. All truth is God’s truth and all truth should be defended by Christians when it is maligned by the world—or by Christians, for that matter.

9. Ridicule and rhetorical sharpness are dangerous, but sometimes effective tools of writing; so use them cautiously. Scripture itself is not above using ridicule, when necessary. Think of what the Old Testament prophets proclaimed, as when Amos referred to the rich women of his day as “cows.” I attempted to use some ridicule in a letter on the 1987 New Age event called the Harmonic Convergence. I may have been too sharp, but I still endeavored to make a few key points to refute the nonsense, and not just denounce it.

10. Be realistic about your chances of publication. I like to think that a relevant, well-written, and logical letter has a better chance of seeing the light of print than lesser creations, but there are no guarantees that your darling dispatch will be read by anyone but you, your proofreader, the editor that rejects it, and selected friends and family on whom you foist it. Of course, your chances of getting it in The New York Times, Time, or Newsweek, are less than your chances of getting published in a local weekly paper simply because of the volume of letters involved. I usually don’t aim for the huge subscription magazines and newspapers, because my efforts will probably be a waste of time. However, some letters have to get through—and I have had two letters published in US News and World Report, a national weekly magazine.

11. Don’t forget to pray that if your letter would make a contribution to God’s kingdom it will be printed and well received by those who need to hear the truth.

Blessings on your epistolary endeavors!