My sister, after reading my weekend post, suggested that instead of just venting my outrage over the limited sphere of my blog, I should go ahead and send my post (or a modified version) to the Montreal Gazette, which had reprinted the Charlotte Allen piece.
And guess what?
The published it!
Read the modified article here. It’s actually a pretty good example of taking a blog post (where you’re allowed to go on tangents and hit on pretty much any subject you feel like) and hunting for a theme, bringing it out, and organizing your ideas around it in a succinct way. If I had just sent in my blog post as is, I doubt it would have been printed.
NB - That headline is NOT mine… just goes to show the kind of sensationalism it takes to make the paper. But hey, if a little bit of sensationalism is what gets my article read then I certainly don’t mind!
March 12th, 2008 at 8:59 am
CONGRATS NADINE!!! that’s soooo awesome!! how does it feel to be printed locally? who did you contact or did you just send it in as a letter to the editor?
March 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Nadine, I’m so proud of you for submitting this! What a great way to get your opinion out there and share your much-needed insight with a larger audience. Way to go!
March 18th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Thanks for your well-wishes guys! I’m so sorry I couldn’t respond earlier, but something pretty nuts happened with the day job this week and it was all I could think about. It’s a good sort of “nuts” don’t worry, and I wish I could be more specific, but I gave myself a no-blogging-about-work rule so as to maintain professionalism. I can certainly tell you offline though!
March 18th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Paris - Since it was such a long article (for a letter-to-the-editor anyway), I looked up the editor in chief online and just sent him an email introducing myself, saying why I felt compelled to respond, and the length of the submission. I tried to keep it brief and professional, and I pasted the article in the body of the email so I wouldn’t have to submit an attachment (never a good idea). I also went the letters-to-the-editor route just in case they wouldn’t accept an unsolicited opinion piece. I got an answer back withing an hour or two, so I was really impressed!