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EDITORIAL January 9, 1999 VNN2813 Writing Etiquette For Vaishnavas BY RACHAEL HAID EDITORIAL, Jan 9 (VNN) — Please accept my humble obeisance, all glories to Srila Prahbupada. In reading editorials and responses on various vaishnava web sites, it occurred to me that perhaps a few suggestions might help devotees write articles that better follow Vaishnava Etiquette, even when angry. 1) When responding negatively to an editorial: a) Refer to the devotee who wrote the editorial only in the opening paragraph, as follows: "This editorial is in response to the article "____" written by Prabhu "____." b) In your editorial, refer only to the editorial you are responding to, not the devotee who wrote it. For example instead of saying "Prabhu ____ said" one could use "as stated in paragraph 3 of (article name)". 2) Do not enumerate devotees past problems. If reference must be made to the past to make a point, use a simple phrase like "Prabhu ____ has had some problems." The specifics are unnecessary. 3) Do not make assumptions that a particular devotee might fall down in the future. 4) Use an exclamation point "!" only when praising someone or something. 5) Do not be sarcastic. 6) Do not be superior in your humility. 7) Avoid blanket statements, i.e., "all _______ are ______." Krishna is the only "all." 8) Avoid inflammatory statements such as, "______ is trying to destroy (control, manipulate,É) ______." 9) Do not make conclusions in print about what people think based on an editorial or letter. Do not even use a phrase like "they seem to be saying", say instead "this is how I understand what was written, please correct me if this was not as you intended." Words do not have exactly the same meaning to everyone and sometimes for brevity, the writer will leave out something he thought was universally understood which was not. 10) If your editorial or response was written while you were angry, wait a day and reread it-edit if necessary; let someone else read it-edit if necessary, then send it. 11) Do not write how humble and unworthy you are to give an opinion and then trash another vaishnava's character. A person can not stab another in the back humbly. 12) Write as if every editorial were a letter to Srila Prabhupada. Would he think that you had written very nicely? Yours in service, Rachael Haid Rhaid@corus.jnj.com Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9901/ET09-2813.html
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