Writing recently about sending articles to magazines 20 years ago, I was reminded of an assignment I gave some students back then. This was in the days when I was teaching a Feature Writing course at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
The assignment was to go through the part of the process where you decide what magazine you want to write for. So I had them send off for writers’ guidelines, wherein the editors specify things like topics, word count, and pay rate. (These days, you can find them online) Along with the request, standard operating procedure was to include a self-addressed stamped envelope for the guidelines.
One student got his back a week or so later, but his return envelope from Playboy Magazine had been taped instead of sealed. An otherwise intelligent guy, this student’s idea of an SASE was a self-addressed sealed envelope.
I was surprised they had taken the trouble. Apparently, they’d felt sorry for him.
