by Charles A. Sleath, Hamilton
I’m writing to complain about the amount of words you allow your readers in the Opinion section. I used to write letters to the editors of major newspapers in most of the major cities in Montana and Casper, Wyoming and all of these newspapers limited the narratives to 250 to 350 words. In your newspaper you allow the writer to fill most of the page and then some. Most of these people just ramble on, “blah, ba blah ba blah.” Do they do this to keep other people from giving their opinion? I believe they are “writing to impress and not to inform.” Please put a limit on the amount of words a person can use. Let someone else have a chance to give their opinion.
Gomez says
Agreed, but for a different reason. Letters to the editor are not the place to have mini versions of “War And Peace” published by aspiring authors. Also, when someone uses a Gish gallop (a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.) it sometimes gives undue weight and credibility to some points of view simply because they have flooded the zone with so much bullshit it’s impossible to fact check it all.
Yes, shorter letters.
Mike Miller says
Agreed. If it takes that long to get your idea or opinion across, it’s not getting across clearly, if at all.
Larry Campbell says
I’m a big fan of the Star’s opinion page(s) policy of open discussion. Short ‘bumper sticker’ comments are often too superficial to do justice to a subject. A reader of the Star can always choose to jump ahead. I do appreciate the attention to brevity required by word limits, but not at the cost of meaningful observations.
Helen Sabin says
Larry – I agree with you. I used to publish a magazine with an op ed section and found that readers who have decent, factual, and informative opinions need more space than most short superficial op eds usually allow. To put in one or two supporting details to a main idea takes at least 500-600 words. The Star does allow longer letters and while some are incoherent ramblings many have valid opinions that I am interested in reading. Thanks for writing in on this topic.