Every election year, we see a jump in the number of letters to the editor, endorsing particular candidates or ballot measures.

It’s great to see people taking a stance on something important to them, but it also sparks some questions in my mind: How many people read these letters, and how many find them useful? How many will skip that letter because they’ve already made up their minds? How can we, as a newspaper striving for objectivity, make sure we are being fair to all the sides on an issue? How many people might write a letter to the editor, if they knew the process?

The answer to most of those questions is just to try — try to be fair and objective, try to run all the letters received each week, try to give both sides of the issue, or in the case of some races on the Aug. 4 primary all of the candidates, equal time.

That last question, though, I can help do something about and I would like to encourage people to write more letters to the editor.

It’s not as intimidating as it might seem. All you need is an opinion, some time and an e-mail account or paper and an envelope. Even stamps are optional, since you can hand-deliver letters to our office in Snoqualmie.

First, the rules.

Letters must be signed.

A signature includes your first name, last name and the city you live in — the city on your address for unincorporated residents. There are no exceptions. Publishing anonymous commentary, even in a small-town weekly newspaper, is irresponsible. Include your phone number, too, just for verification; we won’t publish phone numbers.

Letters should be a maximum of 250 words.

It’s a limit we got away from in the past year or so, but we are slowly returning to it, because space is at a premium in the paper each week. Maybe it sounds too small, but consider that this column is not quite twice that length, and a typical story in the paper ranges from 200 to 300 words. It’s very possible to express a complete thought within that limit.

Letters may be edited.

Edits are for space limitations, as well as libelous statements. Now, you may struggle with that, but so do we. It is never our intent to change the meaning of any letter we publish. Every change we make is made out of necessity, and it can be a challenge to fit the round letter into the square page. We do it, though, because it’s a 150-year tradition, and because these opinion letters can expand the community conversation in ways that we can’t do through the news.

If your letter is too long, we can send it back to you for shortening, or, we can do it. It requires some trust on the writers’ parts, but we work hard to deserve that trust.

Letters are published as space is available.

We don’t have letters every week, sometimes because we didn’t receive any, sometimes because there’s no space. We try to get all letters published while they are still timely, for example, before the primary election, but we can’t guarantee publication. Letters are published in the general order they are received.

Next, what to do with your letter. It doesn’t need to be addressed to me, personally, but it should be identified as a letter to the editor. If you like, you can write your own headline, too. Send letters to Snoqualmie Valley Record, at P.O. Box 300, Snoqualmie, WA 98065, or e-mail them to editor@valleyrecord.com.

Our website also has a form that you can use to submit letters, if you prefer.

Finally, when your letter is published, enjoy your 15 seconds of fame.

Then, start having the conversation that you launched with your letter.

On the subject of conversations, the question of the week has been on hiatus for a few weeks now, and I’m surprised to see that no one has asked about it. As privacy concerns increase, it seems people have become wary of answering a “man on the street” poll.

So another question I have is: Has  the Valley outgrown the question of the week? What do you, the people who answer it, think? Tell me in an e-mail, on the street, or in a postcard. As long as it doesn’t say “letter to the editor” on it, it won’t get published.