How to write an advice column, and label the letters you invent

To write an advice column, choose a narrow beat, pick letters that stand for a problem many readers share, give each one a short sign-off, and answer with one clear recommendation and a reason. If a letter is invented, as the letters in TechTwitter IO's satirical Dear Senior Engineer are, say so in plain words. That last rule matters more now that an AI model can draft a believable reader letter in seconds.

Step 1: pick a beat

A column with a clear subject is easier to write and easier to find. Slate's advice section shows the idea well: instead of one catch-all column, it runs separate ones for life and manners (Dear Prudence), parenting (Care and Feeding), money (Pay Dirt), the workplace (Good Job) and sex (How to Do It). Miss Manners has kept to etiquette since 1978, even as readers bring it questions about work and family.

Satire picks a beat too. Dear Senior Engineer covers software jobs and the AI news cycle, which tells readers exactly whose problems they are about to laugh at.

Step 2: choose and trim the letters

Ask for questions in one place, such as a form or an email address; Slate links a separate question form for every column it runs. Then choose letters where the specific case points to something general: a family fight over a holiday, a manager with a bad idea, a purchase made one day too early.

Trim each letter to the facts the answer needs, and remove anything that could identify the writer or the people around them.

Step 3: write the sign-off

The sign-off hides the writer and often names the problem in a few words. Parody makes the most of it: TechTwitter IO's column signs letters with labels like Idle in Idaho, a mood plus a place, so the joke starts before the answer does. A serious column can use the same pattern with less wordplay.

Step 4: answer in a fixed shape

Readers come back for a voice they can predict. A simple structure helps:

Here is an example written for this guide. The letter is invented.

My team moved standup to async notes to save time. Now people write long updates all day and nobody reads them. Should we go back? Signed, Unread in Utica

Dear Unread: Keep the async notes, but cap them at three lines and agree on one time to read them. The goal was less meeting, not more writing.

Step 5: use AI carefully, and label what you invent

AI chat tools are useful for sorting a mailbag, grouping similar questions and checking whether an answer sounds harsh. They are a poor source of letters. A model will happily produce a moving letter from a reader who does not exist, and if you print it as real mail you have misled your readers.

Follow satire's example instead. TechTwitter IO's footer states that the paper is satire and that, unless a post links to its source, its people, posts and quotes are parody or invented. A real column that uses composite or invented letters should say so just as clearly. Never put an invented letter or quote in a real person's name. And for health, legal or money problems, point readers to qualified help as well as giving your view.

Learn from the parody

Reading a good parody is a quick way to learn the form, because a parody exaggerates every rule it borrows. TechTwitter IO, a free satirical daily paper of tech Twitter, prints Dear Senior Engineer on its Fun & Games page, and its back issues are in the Morgue. Read it for the craft and the joke, and do not take its replies as real advice.