Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

37° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Letter from the Editor: Look down and read the print in the box

There’s a box underneath this column. It’s a staff box, and the font’s small so it’s fine if you’ve never read it. Still, it’s there every day and it says important things like what editorials are, the volume number, a couple of disclaimers and my name. Most importantly, it outlines how to send a Letter to the Editor.

The assistant editors, Dylan, Laily and Maddy, the deputy editor, Terri, and I, among other responsibilities, vet letters. It’s protocol to contact the writers to make sure they’re OK with having it print. The most common response to these emails or phone calls is a mix of gratitude and slight disbelief that we have deemed their voice important enough to be printed.

While all Forum content goes online, we are still fundamentally a printed page. As such, there is a page of physical space that requires content. Given the perennial college newspaper struggle for content, I’m always taken aback by the hesitant response of letter writers – of course we would print your letter.

We are an opinions page – dissent is welcome as long as it has a point. As willing as we are to print Letters to the Editor, they are sporadic at best. Getting one is akin to getting free food in Tech, ever exciting in its rarity. Considering the nature of our readership, this should not be the case. This is my fifth quarter working for this desk and I am just slightly embarrassed in saying that during my time here, I have read most if not all Daily comments. These comments, not only this past week but throughout the quarter, are a clear indication that at least some of you care about something.

Aside from editorials and thumbs, I have never written for The Daily nor am I in Medill. So like most students, I do not know what it means to report and write a story or write a column with my name attached as a byline. What I can attest to is the amount of time and effort it takes to produce a daily college newspaper. While I sit in the corner of the newsroom putzing around on Photoshop and muttering to myself about columnists, the rest of the staff is hard at work. I am still amazed at student willingness to give their time to written, edited, design, photograph and copyedited at a pace that fills eight to 16 pages each day. By no means does this time invested make any of us infallible – I doubt there’s a Forum page I’ve edited without a single error, and I’d say I spend enough time in this office.

Far from ensuring perfection, what our investment in this paper does warrant a similar investment in criticism. Online commenting has its obvious merits – it’s immediate, accessible and quick. It is an opportunity for anyone with an Internet connection to debate and discuss. These same merits could similarly serve as its shortcomings; the freedom allows for comments that can be trite.

What the medium of Letters to the Editor does is force thoughtfulness. Of course not all Letters are of the same quality just as not all comments are foolish, but attaching a name pushes accountability. What few letters we have received this past year have often provided insightful and varied points of views regarding NU issues and at times Daily coverage of these issues. Attaching a name to an opinion in print means investing in its validity enough to present it to the possibility of criticism. Your opinion should merit this 300-word investment. So I ask you, not only for the sake of my successor but because it’s good for you to synthesize your thoughts in a Letter to the Editor. At the very least you can cut it out and send it home to your mother.

Jeannette Moon is a Communication sophomore and Forum editor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Illustration by Morgan Krehbiel.

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Letter from the Editor: Look down and read the print in the box