The Morning Call has different ways for readers to express their viewpoints in their own words. They are published online at mcall.com/opinion and in the Town Square pages in the print edition and e-Edition.

Here are some guides on how to do that:

A guide to letters to the editor

The Morning Call welcomes letters from its readers as part of its mission to serve as a voice for the community and to foster discussion on matters of public interest. We publish letters from all viewpoints.

You can submit your letter using our form, or email letters@mcall.com (type/paste the letter into the body of your email).

Letters submitted to The Morning Call become the property of the paper; permission to publish them includes publication both in print and online.

Below are some frequently asked questions (and answers!) about letters to the editor:

How long can my letter be?

Letters can be a maximum of 200 words. We don’t make exceptions to this rule, as that wouldn’t be fair to everyone. This word limit doesn’t apply to a title/headline, your name and address.

The Morning Call may occasionally add to a letter — for example, a person’s title or full name, a source for a fact or statistic, or spelling out an acronym. These words also do not count against your limit.

What happens when I submit a letter?

Letters are initially checked to make sure they comply with our guidelines in terms of length, submission frequency, and other factors (for some of these, see Why wasn’t my letter printed? below). An editor then takes an initial look at the letter to approve or reject it for publication (again, see Why wasn’t my letter printed?). After that, it is put into the system for editing (see Will you edit my letter?). Once that process is finished, letters are collated into a single file, typically around 1,000 words (the exact number of letters can vary based on their length), and scheduled for publication.

Will you let me know if my letter is being published, and when?

The Morning Call receives thousands of letters every year, which means we don’t have time to reply to every one. Unfortunately we can’t tell you when your letter will run (that’s determined by how many letters we’re receiving and how long they are).

Will you edit my letter?

Letters may be lightly edited to remove spelling or grammatical errors, or to make sure it is clear (such as adding a person’s name or title). An editor may also remove a factual error, insults directed at another member of the community, a swear or other demeaning language if possible without changing the overall point of the letter (if that’s not possible, the letter will not be published). You may be contacted to approve of any substantial changes to a letter. You may also be contacted to give a source for information in your letter if needed to verify it.

We may or may not use a title/headline you include. Oftentimes suggested headlines don’t fit for the space we have or don’t follow The Morning Call’s headline conventions, so an editor will write one that works.

How long will it take before my letter is published?

Letters are usually published within a week of when we receive them (though it can take longer if we are receiving an unusually large amount of letters, such as during election seasons). Letters are generally published in the order they are received.

Letters are published online and in print almost every Saturday and Sunday, and often Thursdays. When there are enough, they may also be published Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

How often can I have a letter published?

Letter writers can have one letter published every month.

What personal information is published with my letter?

We print your first and last name, and the city, township or borough you live in (we use the specific municipality you live in, not your mailing address). If you have some special connection to the issue you are writing about or prominence in the community (such as an elected role, or a relevant employment), we list that as well. (This tagline information does not count against your maximum words.)

Why wasn’t my letter printed?

While our goal is to print as many letters as we can, not every letter we receive is suitable for publication. Letters to the editor are intended to comment on the news, not create news. We do not print letters that contain obvious inaccuracies or misinformation. Similarly, if a letter is attacking a specific person or a class of people, it will not be published (criticism may be published, but should not cross the line into an attack).

Here are some other reasons we would not publish a letter:

• If it is unsigned/anonymous.
• If the writer is from outside the Lehigh Valley region; exceptions may be made for past/part-time residents who are writing about an issue concerning the region or in response to an item in The Morning Call or members of statewide organizations.
• It contains information that we cannot verify.
• It raises legal concerns.
• It is about a personal dispute, including complaints about a specific business or agency.
• It contains swears, calls someone names or uses insults
• It seems to be part of an organized letter-writing campaign or is very similar to previously published letters.
• If it’s signed by an organization or lengthy list of signers. Letters should come from a single person or small group of people.
• It is a news release (such as if it’s announcing an event or providing a report about an event) or is a list of thanks for numerous people who helped at an event.
• It primarily promotes the writer or their organization, or appears designed to personally benefit them.
• It is a poem.
• It merely quotes another source, without adding a significant amount of additional opinion.
• It is election-related but after the deadline for such letters (deadlines for election-related letters will be published well ahead of time).
• The Morning Call determines that a debate among letter writers is getting too contentious and isn’t adding to the public discussion.
• The Morning Call receives too many letters on the same topic without significant differences in the responses.

If you have questions about why your letter wasn’t published, please email opinion@mcall.com.

Your Views

Your Views are longer opinion pieces submitted directly to The Morning Call. Similar to letters, Your Views address topics of local importance. Typically, these are an issue specific to the Lehigh Valley region, or something broader-based (political issues and elections are a common example) that shares a perspective of someone from the Lehigh Valley region.

Because Your Views are longer, these pieces should be more in depth than a letter to the editor. They should add to conversations that are ongoing in the region, by providing a new viewpoint or exploring a different facet of the topic. Importantly, they generally have a central and specific argument that the writer builds the column around — they typically advocate for or against something that our readers can act on, or try to persuade them of something. While Your Views may contain facts from news stories in The Morning Call or other media, historic quotes or anecdotes, a piece that does not contain a clear opinion may not be a good fit for the Town Square section.

While many Your Views are related to politics, we will not run a piece that is a purely partisan political attack on a specific person. We also do not usually run pieces from a politician solely touting themselves for an election, though we may, around election time, solicit pieces from candidates about their views so our readers have a better understanding of their choices (we will inform readers if we do this).

As with letters to the editor, Your View writers should have a connection to Pennsylvania and ideally the Lehigh Valley region. These submissions should be intended only for publication in The Morning Call, though exceptions may be made to this policy. Writers should identify any conflicts of interest they have on a topic, such as if they are paid to write the piece, or have a financial stake in the subject, so readers may be aware of that aspect of their viewpoint.

Your Views are typically 700-800 words, and the writers are not paid by The Morning Call. Your View writers are limited to one piece per month.

How do we pick Your Views?

We consider some of the following questions when we determine whether we will run a Your View:

• Is the topic of interest to our readers? Is it about something being discussed in the Lehigh Valley area?
• Does the submission offer a clear point of view/an obvious opinion?
• Does the piece add something to the discussion or is it repeating arguments that have already appeared one or more times in publication? What’s new/unique about it?
• Does the author have some connection to the field they are writing about, such as experience or education related to the topic? (This is not mandatory — others may have interesting ideas that are worth sharing — but it can weigh into the decision making.) Is the author from the Lehigh Valley region or Pennsylvania?
• Is the writing clear and understandable?
• Is the argument logically sound in its presentation and conclusion(s)? Does it avoid hyperbole, exaggerations, red herrings and ad hominem attacks?
• Is it clear where any numbers or other facts are coming from? (Links and URLs are helpful, and we may reach out to get sources for facts if they aren’t clear/obvious/easily found.)

Your Views are subject to editing for clarity, inappropriate language, and spelling, grammatical and factual errors. These changes may or may not be shown to the writer. More substantial writing changes may be discussed with the writer, who may also be asked to lengthen or shorten a piece or otherwise address a problem.

Commentaries

In addition to Your Views, The Morning Call publishes columns provided by syndicated sources that The Morning Call pays for. These include Tribune News Service, The New York Times and Bloomberg. These writers may or may not be paid by the syndication company or another newspaper, though they do not directly receive any payment from The Morning Call. The Morning Call can only print these columns if they are provided by the syndicated services, and cannot print a column that appears in another publication without permission.

These columns frequently run only in print, though may be published at themorningcall.com/opinion as well.

The Morning Call also publishes biweekly guest columns from Bill White, a former Morning Call columnist, who is paid to write these columns.

Transparency

We know there is a lot of concern about the media, its role in public discourse and its trustworthiness. To help make sure the type of content is clear, pieces in The Morning Call’s Town Square section will be clearly marked:

Headlines of opinion pieces will begin with “Opinion,” column headlines will begin with the name of the column or columnist (for example, “Bill White:” or “Retail Watch:”), and letters to the editor headlines will begin with “Letters to the editor:”

An additional disclaimer will be placed at the end of each opinion piece, indicating that the views expressed are those of its individual author(s) and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of The Morning Call. For example:

• “This is a syndicated commentary. Sam Pull is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com/opinions.”