Column Writing

I’ve been writing this column for six months and while a blank sheet of paper doesn’t frighten me as much as it once did, taking thoughts and putting them into words that others will read, understand and perhaps find interesting still challenges me.  When David Learn, editor of The Eagle, asked if I would be interested in writing a column – say 600 to 800 words – I had no idea what that meant.  Who, beside editors, think in word count?

I was flattered to be asked, but I’ve lived long enough to have bitten off more than I could chew a few too many times.  I took some time, thought about the offer and then entered into a negotiation.  I agreed to write if I wasn’t edited for content, that my material would appear on the editorial page or the page opposite (in op-ed, the op means opposite, not opinion) that I write every other week, that I name the column and finally that my picture appear with my column.  Learn agreed to all of this.  I was on a roll so I brought up the issue of compensation.  That’s when I found out that Learn was a tough negotiator.  I am not paid.

My editor has kept his side of the bargain.  I choose what I want to write about and he hasn’t edited me for content.  I have on occasion run afoul of his stylebook.  In a column I did on the Friends of the Library, I learned that this organization takes a singular pronoun, so instead of Friends being “they,” they became “it.”   He admitted that this was a nettlesome problem that plagued editors but that’s why there’s a stylebook.  In one column I used the word ‘reduced’, a transitive verb that requires a direct object, and then failed to provide one.  Ours is an interesting language, with distinctive characteristics and I’m pleased that Learn has a better understanding of the rules of grammar than I do. 

Learn regularly drops Mr. and Ms. from any of my submissions.  The first time I mention someone by name my courtesy title is allowed to stand.  After that Mr. Jones becomes Jones, unless the usage is in quotes.  I prefer the courtesy title because it is more respectful and somehow seems less familiar. 

A couple columns back I asked for a pull quote.  A pull quote is a quote from a column or an article that is set in larger type and is used to grab the attention of the reader.  I learned that his stylebook doesn’t permit pull quotes within columns.  Always the agitator, I asked for bold typeface to highlight a recent column.  That request was granted and italics are also available to me,  though both must be used sparingly.

I don’t write the headline for my column or choose its placement on the page.  Those are editorial privileges.  The column I wrote on why I was voting against the school budget appeared two weeks ago, not last week because The Eagle’s endorsements and editorial position on the budget appear on the Thursday before the election.  The editorials and endorsements are usually written by Learn, but they aren’t necessarily his own thoughts.  Rather, they reflect the collective view of the editorial board that includes Learn, other editors and the publisher. 

When I read these two pages I look for the quote that Tom Canavan, the managing editor, has chosen.  These thoughts center on our First Amendment and of the importance of the free flow of ideas and how this benefits our society.  Two weeks ago Vladimir Lenin was quoted, “Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed….. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns.”  I believe that the editorial board wants and encourages a free flow of ideas.  I know that the forum is provided, but it isn’t used to the extent that it could be.  The letters thanking this group or those individuals are nice, important even, but that’s not what I’m talking about.  There aren’t enough interesting or challenging letters from our readers.

When the readership of any newspaper is surveyed and asked what features are read, the answer that comes back more than any other is the letters to the editor.  We all want to know what others in our community are thinking, especially if they’re not associated with the paper.  We want to read letters that help us better understand previous articles, letters that present effective rebuttal to editorials or opinion pieces or letters that call our attention to something we should know, but might otherwise have missed.

A community grows stronger if there is a lively marketplace for thoughts and ideas.  This is especially so if the thoughts shed light rather than heat.  But if apathy is allowed to gain a foothold, ignorance soon follows.  That’s when a community begins to whither and die.

It’s not enough to think, you have to share the thought.  I’d wish our editor had to choose from an abundance of letters and was forced to select which were printed.  That would make The Eagle a better newspaper and Cranford a more vibrant community.