The Cornell Daily Sun is devoted to publishing a diverse and broad set of content from the Cornell and greater Ithaca community, including guest opinion essays and Letters to the Editor.
Guest Submission and Letter to The Editor Guidelines
The Cornell Daily Sun welcomes any and all submissions of guest columns and letters to the editor for review. Guest columns will typically be no more than 900 words. Letters to the Editor will run no more than 300-600 words. All submissions must be sent to [email protected] as a Google document or Microsoft word document, along with a brief Curriculum Vitae. Please find below guidelines for guest columns and letters to the editor.
We encourage all to write a guest column or letter to the editor, but preference is given to submissions that have ties to the Cornell and/or greater Ithaca community. Guest submissions ought to discuss an idea or issue that pertains to the Cornell-Ithaca community, or a topic/event which the author calls for discussion within the Cornell-Ithaca community. Guest submissions should make a sound, eloquent and defensible argument that uses credible sources and evidence, where appropriate. The choice to move forward with publishing guest submissions and letters to the editor is up to the discretion of the associate and opinion editor, and they are not required to provide explanations for their decisions. Due to a large volume of submissions, the editor’s are not required to personally acknowledge each submission unless choosing to move forward with publishing the submission.
The editors will refuse to move forward with publishing articles that lack coherence and/or are blatantly discriminatory. Submissions that target individuals will not be published. Submissions that lack factual support and rely on hypotheticals and speculation will not be published. Submissions from individuals or parties known to be discriminatory or prejudiced will not be published. Guest submissions are reviewed on a conditional basis and are subject to revisions from the associate and opinion editor. Individuals or parties unwilling to cooperate with revisions suggested by the associate and opinion editors will not be published.
Every submission is read. Due to the large volume of submissions, the editors at the opinion desk may not, and are not required to, personally acknowledge each submission unless choosing to move forward with publishing the submission.
All guest content submitted for review must be previously unpublished. Organizations seeking to republish Opinion content should contact [email protected].
How to get published:
- Choose a topic that is relevant. We encourage guest writers to explore their ideas on all topics, from politics to culture, but we prioritize columns that speak on behalf on life and conflicts at Cornell/ Ithaca.
- Research whether this topic has already been discussed. If other members from the Cornell/Ithaca community have already approached the topic, attempt to discuss the topic from a different perspective. Do not regurgitate previous arguments others have already made.
- Pitch your draft. Ask yourself whether your idea is one worth discussing on our platform. Please note that the editors will not make a decision on whether or not to publish your submission until after they have read a draft.
- Write independently. We strongly discourage submissions by more than two writers unless absolutely necessary. Signatories are allowed, but we will restrict authorship to one or two writers while acknowledging other’s contribution to the submission. Anonymous submissions will not be published unless the editors deem that the content of the submission warrants anonymous publishing if absolutely necessary.
- Read the opinion section to get a sense of the type of content and style that we publish.
- Adhere to the word limit to the best of your ability.