AFTER DEADLINE
A few tips on getting your letter published

By Anne Harpham

If you want to know what makes a community mad, outraged or proud, turn to the letters page. That's where you find a measure of the pulse of Hawai'i.

Whether it's hot-button issues — say, traffic cameras — or musings on what makes Hawai'i unique, lots of you put pen to paper or zap us your thoughts by e-mail.

It was not too long ago that all letters to The Advertiser came by mail. We still get some letters that way, but faxes and e-mail have helped generate a huge influx of letters, far more than we can print on any given day.

On a typical day, The Advertiser will receive 60 to 70 letters, almost half of them by e-mail.

Of that total, we publish about a dozen each day.

How do we choose?

Editorial page editor Jerry Burris said there are no hard and fast rules, but a few elements help decide which letters make the cut:

• Letters that disagree with an editorial position taken by The Advertiser tend to get preference. The letters page is the reader's page, and Burris believes it is more important to hear from those who disagree with us than those who agree.
• Letters on a fresh topic, or with a fresh take to one. For instance, said Burris, while we are still running letters on the traffic camera debate, there are fewer and fewer that say anything new.

Still, it's hard to remember any other topic that has generated such a flood of letters.

• Letters on local topics always have a better shot than letters on national or international topics, said Burris. There are many places one can write to discuss President Bush or Congress, but there are few outlets for letters on what's happening in Hawai'i, so we prefer those.
• Short, to-the-point letters always have a better shot than long letters.

What doesn't make the cut?

• Personal attacks. Argue the issue, not the person.
• Anonymous letters, or even signed letters where the writer asks for a pseudonym.
• "Organized" letters, where someone has put together a letter-writing campaign. The first couple might get in, but Burris warns it is pretty easy to recognize a letter-writing campaign even if it is sophisticated.
• Bad taste, vulgarity or rudeness.
• Letters that are copies of letters sent elsewhere; "open letters" to public officials; or letters that already appeared in another publication.

We have several frequent writers and although we like hearing from them, we like to give as many people as possible a shot. Burris tries to limit frequent contributors to one letter a month.

We can't promise your letter will run, but we can promise our readers a lively forum. And that's a tribute to our letter writers.

Senior editor Anne Harpham is the reader representative. Reach her at aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8033.