Who’s Really Writing these Questions?

I am curious if you are writing some of the questions in the mailbag?  For example the most recent one Which Careers Give you Work/Life Balance and I’m 30 and I’m worried I’ll never have a career?  The word choice and writing style in both of those questions sound very much like you.  I don’t see it an the other questions so I’m really curious if you wrote the mail bag questions that I referred to.

5 replies
  1. Penelope Trunk
    Penelope Trunk says:

    I write the headlines. Not the questions. Although I think about writing the questions, believe me.

    I wonder the same about Dan Saveage. Do you read him? He’s my favorite Q&A guy and I think he really heavily edits the questions.

    I started the Mailbag section because I’m answering so many questions each week anyway. It was supposed to be something on my site that would be fast to update. That would change if I started writing the questions myself, so that’s probalby the biggest reason why I won’t be writing the questions.

    Penelope

  2. Emily
    Emily says:

    Does he really edit the questions? I thought maybe people wrote the questions in the tone of the writer who answers to get more attention from the writer. Another example is Dear Sugar – on the Rumpus.

  3. A
    A says:

    I know Dan Savage will edit out personal information or images/videos. I assume for the column he has to sometimes cut for length, or to fix the occasional typo. I don’t *think* he edits content or tone, but I can’t promise.

  4. Amanda
    Amanda says:

    As a magazine editor, I’ve made up my fair share of reader questions and even written the touted expert’s response for him/her. Ditto for embarrassing stories, etc. Most of the real reader submissions we get are fairly bored/repetitive. You’d think they would pick up on the tone/topics of columns we run in every issue, but nope.

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