I have noticed that lately the letters in this “Readers’ Voice” column are getting too long and exceed the 250 words limit which was previously set by the editorial board. Too long letters put me off and I stop reading them halfway. They also occupy too much space at the expense of other writers’ contributions.
The editorial board needs to set a realistic word limit and then adhere to that. Any longer letter may be cut to size or omitted. I appreciate that there could be times when an exception could be made but as a general rule, the limit on words would enable the AV editorial board to publish a variety of letters on various subjects.
Our letters should focus on issues which concern us here in our country of residence and should be interesting and informative and contained within the words limit imposed by the editorial board. They should normally focus on issues which concern us here in our country of residence, rather than placing too much emphasis on matters relating to our mother land.
Be original rather than latching on to other contributors’ ideas. Long winded letters become boring and make me skim through them instead of digesting the contents.
There is a tool called “word count” on most computers and I would urge the compulsive long letter writers to make use of that and save us time in going through material which may be of little interest to many.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
