By Avon Grove Sun Editor Chris Barber

The flood of letters the The Avon Grove Sun concerning this week's municipal elections was heartening. They reflected citizens' concern for their local government and their understanding of some major issues.

Ordinarily, the paper doesn't print letters relating to the election in the week prior to voting day. However, there were leftover letters that didn't make it due to space constraints the previous week, and there were some rebuttals that deserved to have space in response to letters that had previously been printed.

In trying to keep some order, we edited out any attacks or criticism of candidates, printing only statements of support. We also omitted any highly emotional or sarcastic messages.

Even so, we found that letter-writers are pushing the boundaries of acceptability, and forcing the paper to edit or even omit some of the material.

In the spirit of maintaining some structure and civility in publishing your letters -- on any subject, we need to remind you of the guidelines.

-Keep the letters brief and punchy and stick to issues. Three-hundred words is the limit, beyond which we and your intended readers begin to get board and lose track of what you are talking about.

If you have a point to make, do it economically with effective words.

Don't wander all over the place saying why you are writing the letter or what process you went through to compose it. Just say what you believe and get on with it.

-Don't make sarcastic statements, affected phrases or vainglory attempts at flowery writing. For example, interjections like "uh" "hmm" or "wow" are not effective in making your point, and they aren't funny. They just take up space.

-Don't call your enemies names or say nasty things about them. Not only does it set you and us up for slander, but it also invites rebuttals that include the same or more severe insults.

In the same spirit, don't rail on about things that you have heard secondhand. Unless you saw or heard something yourself, don't be a letter writer who engages in passing on unfounded rumors.

-Sign your name, address and telephone number. That's so we can verify that you wrote the letter. We will not publish your street address or your phone number; we merely need it for verification.

Also, don't even think about sending an anonymous letter, because we will not publish it. In fact, even if we are informed of some juicy piece of scandal, we don't give it much credibility if there is no signature.

-Don't get involved in writing letters for some political group and sending them through that group. It immediately raises a red flag here when letter after letter comes in from different people but all from the same e-mail. It suggests that the letters are actually coming from one person who has solicited friends to help make his or her point with merely a different autograph.

-Finally, stick to one point. We know you are smart and involved with your community. You know a lot of things that need to be addressed. Still, the most effective letters talk about one subject, your opinion of it, and your suggested solution.

Keep writing. Keep you focus on specifics. Keep the letters positive.

We love to hear from you.