The Think Tank Initiative’s Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) Programme is hosting a Virtual Write Shop on “Writing letters to the editor that get published” during the week of 22 September 2014.

Costantine Shirati of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organization of Tanzania, has had some success in getting his letters published in the Tanzanian media. “The secret behind getting letters published is through a personal relationship with the editor,” he says. “In case you haven’t built that relationship, you could ask someone who has such relationship with the editor, if he/she can forward the letter to the editor or introduce you to the editor so that your work gets published.” Here’s an example of a Letter to the Editor from STIPRO that Costantine got published (translated from the original Kiswahili).

That’s great advice from Costantine but if you don’t have such relationships, all is not lost. Lacking a personal relationship, you need a strong, opinionated and concise letter that pushes the debate in a new direction, as opposed to droning on with the same arguments that have already been presented. All of the resources below assume no pre-existing relationships with the editor.

Image Courtesy of ohiocitizen.org