Note to readers: As the editor of the Voices page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, I sometimes need to do a column like this (what our designer referred to as taking out my fifth-grade-teacher voice) to remind letter- and column-writers of the rules of the page. While a lot of it is specific to our paper, there are some tips in here for anyone who wants to be published in a newspaper or magazine (not for pay; that’s a whole other animal). But yeah, I fully understand if you want to give this a pass.

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We’re closing in on a month of Trump 2.0, and in that time, letters have picked up dramatically, taking us out of the winter doldrums. After weeks spent begging for letters and columns, especially right after I broke my arm, I now have a surplus of copy and not really enough space for it. It doesn’t hurt that a regular session of the Arkansas Legislature started (why must my birthday so often mark the beginning of that mess?).

What does hurt, however, is an over-reliance on political talking points, if for no other reason than they so often are blatantly false or are at minimum missing valuable context. There’s also the fact that they make everything sound the same, especially when they’re taken from the same astro-turf or hyperpartisan websites. I mean, even some of the trolls on the newspaper’s website are phoning it in on comments, cutting and pasting without attribution bits they think make their case (i.e., “Elon is a Nazi but the Jews support him. Elon is terrible at business but operates several multi-billion dollar companies …” which was found in exactly the same form on multiple X/Twitter pages and other social-media posts; this from the troll who accused me of not doing my homework because I didn’t interview Elon, as if that were possible).

Is it any wonder my eyes seem to be constantly rolling lately?

I’ve had to toss several letters from both sides of the aisle that don’t follow the rules listed every day on this page in that big box at the bottom (obviously hiding in plain sight; how dare!). Letters have called specific letter-writers idiots or the equivalent, libeled people, wished death on someone (to be safe, don’t even say it would be a pleasure to read their obit), stated as fact things that are not reality, have used obscenity/profanity/sexual innuendo not suitable for a family newspaper, and more. I’ve also had more than a few people sending in multiple letters a week (sometimes a day) when each person gets only one letter or guest column published per 30 days, and a couple of people who try bullying their way onto the page.

This is no way to get on the good side of someone from whom you want help. With that in mind, let’s talk about letters and guest columns for the Voices page.

The best advice I can offer to any writer is to be yourself. Facts and figures are fine, but what makes for a great letter or guest column is being authentic. It’s much easier for readers to connect with and care about what you’re writing if you make the effort to make it personal. Some of the best-read pieces on the Voices page have been those told from a personal and vulnerable state, whether it’s about dresses made for foster kids (one of my all-time favorites; I wish I could have found it to link here), the last gifts given to you by your grandparents, or how you feel as a political outlier where you live. It’s that little something that makes for a good read, and a personal anecdote can liven up even dry topics (former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, who until his recent retirement was with Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, could provide a master class in this, with the many medical guest pieces he wrote for me).

Of course, even though what goes on the Voices page (and editorial and Perspective, for that matter) is classified as opinion, facts are important as well, which is why one of the first things I did when I became Voices editor 12 years ago was to insist on fact-checking (some letters that got in prior to 2013 that attributed quotes to people who hadn’t said them were part of the impetus for that; Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and more have better things to do with their afterlives than supplying us with new quotations). If you include your sources (either in the text as attribution or as an addendum just for me), that makes it a lot easier for me to fact-check your letters or columns and get them in quicker since it’s just me wrangling all the copy for this page (unless I happen to spectacularly break a limb, that is; then it may be everyone for themselves until I can return).

There are times that you may want to state something as fact that isn’t necessarily so (but you want it to be, and someone, probably a pundit, influencer, social-media warrior or president, told you it was), which would mean it would get cut out and/or your letter tossed, but if you attribute that statement to the proper source, you have a better chance (like saying, “Donald Trump said Joe Biden’s whole family is corrupt and Sleepy Joe is a mob boss”; Hunter has been found guilty of crimes, but no one else in the family I can think of off the top of my head has even been charged with a crime … without them being adjudicated as such, you can’t call them criminals and convict them in print without risking libel suits … and how was Joe supposed to be a mob boss when all this time people have been talking about how he can barely stand up or say two words???). While technically you’d still be relying on something evidence shows is false, attributing it to who actually said it makes it more likely to be accepted.

As for fact-checking itself, I would remind you that the best fact-checkers (I prefer PolitiFact and FactCheck.org) link to their primary sources on each fact-check on their websites so that you can read those sources to see why they made the judgments they did. Those that link only to themselves are not so trustworthy (I could name a couple, but I won’t; don’t want to get their operators harassing me again).

When the only proof they can offer is their own reporting, it should make you wonder why.

Another thing to keep in mind for the Voices page is that there is a limit to how much copy we can use since we do a digital replica edition, which I think is a much better way to read the paper (and more like the traditional experience, minus ink stains and curling paper) than just walls of text. That means we still use the concept of news holes and plan the page accordingly.

For letters, that means try to keep them under about 300 words. I say “about” because sometimes a 275-word letter ends up being about the same size as a 350-word letter; 300 is about the average number of words that fits in roughly 7 column inches on our page, so if you use a lot of $10 words, you’ll hit the 7-inch limit much quicker. Sometimes, like now, I have a surplus of long letters, and not enough midsize and short letters, so putting the page together can be a challenge. Which is why you might often hear growling coming from somewhere near the Rose City area.

Guest columns are generally between 500 and 800 words, and unlike letters, can be from current or former Arkansas residents.

Whatever you send, please make sure you proofread it (preferably get another pair of eyes on it before sending it in; if you can’t do that, then at least put it away for a minimum of four or so hours before you read it again with fresher eyes) and follow the rules.

And please, please, be polite. It’s not hard to do, and it will go a long way in repairing our fractured nation that’s been torn apart by hyperpartisan politics, falsehoods and hatred for “the other.”

While you may be emboldened to be an ass by so many getting away with it on the national stage, it’s not going to win you any fans among local people who are just trying to get through the day without dealing with entitled people and those who enable them.

Don’t make my Mama and/or my cat Luke come back from the dead and smack you. Pretty sure they’ve been watching all this and are itching to smack the snot out of some people.