apocalypsecow
April 14, 2004, 08:24 AM
Hello. I've just had my first letter printed in the local paper, and my future mother in law is in a bit of a tizzy over it. never really liked her, anyway... :boohoo:
Anyway, when they printed it, they chopped off the last paragraph of it:
To tear down the wall between church and state would eliminate one of the most precious principles that makes up the bedrock of our nation. I know of at least one nation that doesn’t have separation of church and state. Perhaps “under God� supporters can visit it sometime. It’s called Iran. One nation under Allah.
so it ended on the sentence:
Would the supporters of the phrase still support it if it said “one nation under no particular god�, or “one nation under lots of gods?� I think not.
and put it at the end of their block of letters.
And something came back to me, from my journalism class in highschool: the pyramid arrangement. Standard news stories are written from the most important information down, from the specific to the general. Headlines are taken, largely, from the lead of the story. This format is largely used to capture a reader's attention, to get to the point quickly, and to allow the editor to cut the story down to a necessary size from the bottom up without any rearrangement
And it makes sense for people that write in letters to the editor to construct their letters the same way, From the very specific to the general, and to make sure that you end every paragraph on as good a note as possible, so that you don't sound like a complete idiot if the opinion editor falls asleep at the wheel.
Just a thought that I hoped might be of interest and help to everyone.
Anyway, when they printed it, they chopped off the last paragraph of it:
To tear down the wall between church and state would eliminate one of the most precious principles that makes up the bedrock of our nation. I know of at least one nation that doesn’t have separation of church and state. Perhaps “under God� supporters can visit it sometime. It’s called Iran. One nation under Allah.
so it ended on the sentence:
Would the supporters of the phrase still support it if it said “one nation under no particular god�, or “one nation under lots of gods?� I think not.
and put it at the end of their block of letters.
And something came back to me, from my journalism class in highschool: the pyramid arrangement. Standard news stories are written from the most important information down, from the specific to the general. Headlines are taken, largely, from the lead of the story. This format is largely used to capture a reader's attention, to get to the point quickly, and to allow the editor to cut the story down to a necessary size from the bottom up without any rearrangement
And it makes sense for people that write in letters to the editor to construct their letters the same way, From the very specific to the general, and to make sure that you end every paragraph on as good a note as possible, so that you don't sound like a complete idiot if the opinion editor falls asleep at the wheel.
Just a thought that I hoped might be of interest and help to everyone.