Identify a current political issue that affects you and your community.
Educate yourself about the issue by reading, using, and citing three articles from reputable news sources about the issue.
Identify a media outlet used in your community (this could be a news blog, a newspaper, or a radio station). Verify that the media outlet accepts letters to their editorial staff and find the parameters for such submissions. Take a screenshot of the submission guidelines.
Draft a letter to the editor in which you:
you identify yourself and your position;
identify the political issue about which you are concerned;
state why this issue needs to be addressed-what are the harms, negative impacts etc. of what is being (or not being) done now?;
clearly state what should be done;
Explain your position to persuade the readers to agree with you, set out facts, what are the benefits, why will harms be be reduced, etc.;
acknowledge opposing opinions / arguments, but meet and beat the opposition’s views with why yours should be preferred; and
conclude with solution. Keep your letter to minimum 200-250 words, 1 inch margins, 12 point font.
Say why you are writing and who you are.
Provide evidence, facts, arguments, data, and in general empirical support for your position.
Provide detail. Be factual not emotional. Provide specific rather than general information about how the topic affects you and others.
Close by requesting the action you want taken: something specific and implementable or a change in general policy.
All citations to original sources should be as footnotes to the letter and you may use
* the Chicago Manual of Style for the “Notes & Bibliography (Links to an external site.)” (quick reference here (Links to an external site.))
or
* MLA style (handy online resource here so you do not need to buy the book (Links to an external site.)).
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