Impressing the editor
Rolling Stone letter writers and their rhetorical strategies for getting published

"Authors of letters to the editor face several challenges in their work, among these being published in the first place and trying to persuade editors and others in just a few sentences. Getting past the gatekeeper/editor requires a sophisticated use of language, plus knowledge of the primary audience (editors) and secondary audience (readers). Using rhetorical analysis of 51 letters published in Rolling Stone magazine about its sexualized covers, this study considers the “audience addressed” and “audience invoked” (Ede & Lunsford, 1985/1999). Patterns in published letters show that the audience is both real and imagined, from the editor who selects the letter for publication to the larger unknowable audience that will ultimately read it." [Information des Anbieters]