Letters to the editor about the issues on your monthly 2020 Action postcards can be a powerful way to educate the general public and to influence policymakers. Your elected representatives and/or their staff read the letters to the editor in their regional papers and pay attention to the issues raised, especially if the policymaker’s name is mentioned.
It won’t take much to turn the information on your 2020 Postcard, or a letter you have written to a policymaker, into a letter to the editor of a newspaper or magazine. Here are a few suggestions for how to write a letter to the editor and get it published. (See below for an example of a letter to the editor written from 2020’s September 2010 postcard about the Alberta tar sands proposed pipeline.)
- Use plain white paper, or letterhead for added authority.
- You can email your letter to many papers & magazines. Check out their guidelines on their websites. Or, print your letter and send it in the post. If you handwrite it, make sure it is legible.
- Include the date and your return address at the top.
- Address the letter to the editor, whose name can be copied from the masthead. If you can’t find his/her name, just write “Dear Editor” as the salutation.
- Keep the letter short, 200 words or less, and your message clear. Your letter will be edited if it’s too long.
- If possible, relate the topic of your letter to an issue that has been in the news lately. If there’s been a recent piece about the issue in the newspaper or magazine you are writing to, refer specifically to it.
- Be polite. No insults, name-calling and heresay.
- Sign your letter with your full name and add your phone number(s). The editorial staff will usually call you to confirm that you actually wrote the letter.
- Send your letter promptly, for relevance.
- You can send the same letter to several newspapers and/or magazines. Just remember to change the editor’s name.
Example of a letter to the editor written from the information on 2020 Action’s September 2010 postcard about the Alberta tar sands proposed pipeline. It has 182 words in the body of the letter.
(your address)
(date)
Dear Editor,
Recent articles in the Boston Globe have focused on the need for our country to be energy independent. I urge your readers to write to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has an upcoming decision to make that will directly affect our energy independence and also have a big impact on global warming.
Clinton should reject the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that is planned to bring oil from the Albert tar sands in northern Canada all the way to Texas. This oil is produced at huge environmental expense. Wetlands and forests are destroyed to get at the tar sands, followed by massive quantities of clean water that are then discarded in an oil-contaminated state. Then lots of CO2 is spewed into the atmosphere to heat and separate out the oil. Once the pipeline is built we will be stuck with using this toxic mess for many decades to come.
The Keystone XL project is a pipeline to global warming, and we’ll be hooked on foreign oil in yet another way. Readers can leave a message for Clinton at: www.state.gov, or 202 647-4000.
Sincerely,
(your name, phone number(s))