Allow Time To Return Calls

The other night when I came home, very late, there was a message asking me to call a Crimson reporter, Joe Mathews. This I did the next morning, by which time an article had already appeared, suggesting that I had helped "fix" the Expose essay-contest in Expository Writing, and that I had not returned phone calls about it. Please mention to Joe that this is cheap.

Writers submitting to Expose are entering a "contest" to about the same extent as writers submitting to, say, The New Yorker; and the magazine's editors, looking for what they think are the best essays and the best mix of types, "fix" the selecting to about the same extent as New Yorker editors do.

I know there are those in the Harvard community who don't return calls from the Crimson, who don't trust that their words will be used fairly. But it will help your reputation among those who do return calls (Joe's was my third in a week) if reporters allow them a reasonable time to do it, before implying evasion.

It's admirable that Crimson reporters pull all-nighters to get their stories out. It's not admirable that the stories somehow get compromised by the reporter's disorganization and hasty, lat-minute work habits. (I set aside the fact that the rush may be intellectually convenient.) Gordon Harvey   Senior Preceptor   in Expository Writing   Allston Burr Senior Tutor   in Leverett House