Years ago, I did research for a journalism class on how letters to the 
REGISTER were edited before being published.  I was given access to both the 
original letters and the published versions. 

My major finding was that supportive facts and evidence were likely to get 
edited out of letters, especially longer letters, leaving only the writer's own 
assertions.  (Not surprising.)

Making letters fairly short, as Laurie suggested, can remove the temptation 
to edit.   It might also help to combine any supportive evidence with the major 
assertion, if you want both to get printed.   

Cindy Hildebrand
[log in to unmask]
Ames, IA  50010

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it."   (Ralph Waldo 
Emerson)

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