A Guide to Letters to the Editor

As a student newspaper, The Spectator welcomes any and all voices of the Stuyvesant community—including students, teachers, staff members, administrators, parents, and alumni—to respond to any of the articles, content, or ideas set forth, through a letter to the editor. A letter to the editor is a letter can reflect your thoughts, opinions, or responses to a published article. Our goal is to promote discussion and discourse within The Spectator and for everyone to share their unique perspectives on matters that are relevant to them. Letters sent to The Spectator are published in the editorial section in the next issue.

Tips on Writing a Letter to the Editor:

1. Read The Spectator. It is imperative to read over articles fully to understand the ideas or arguments presented in a piece.

2. Before starting your piece, introduce yourself with your name, grade/title/graduation year, and any other contextual information relevant to the piece. This introduction should be one sentence long and will be italicized at the start of the letter.

Ex. “Kerry Garfinkel is an English teacher at Stuyvesant.”

3. Start off with the article that you are addressing, including title, volume and issue numbers, and author’s name.

4. Share your perspective. Do you have an anecdote to share? A contradicting argument to set forth? Explain why the issue is important, and set forth your idea.

5. Proofread the letter before sending it. Use full sentences and grammatically correct punctuation.

Should you decide to submit a letter to the editor, please e-mail it to eics@stuyspec.com. We reserve the right to choose which letters to publish and edit for grammar and clarity. We will not publish letters responding to an article that has been published more than two issues ago.