Making Washington Listen

1
Making Washington Listen

• A Guide to Writing Smart Advocacy Letters
• Summer, 2006

2
Note

• This presentation was prepared for a group of
  college students who wanted to write letters to
  their senators and representatives about
  providing more funds for Research Experiences for
  Undergraduates, or REUs. The abbreviation REU is
  used several times in this file.

3
How Individuals Influence Congress

• By adding their voice to the pool of
  constituents opinions
• By lobbying through an organization or political
  action committee
• By writing strategically to officials open to
  persuasion and who have the power to act
• By not being intimidated

4
Suppose Youre from Texas

• Who will read your e-mail or letter?
• What do you want them to do?
• What affects how they read and react?

5
Find Elected Officials Addresses and E-mails

• Congress.org
• House of representatives
• US Senate
• Web sites for Cornyn and Hutchinson (TX)

• http//www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
• http//www.house.gov/
• http//www.senate.gov/
• http//thomas.loc.gov/
• http//www.cornyn.senate.gov
• http//www.hutchison.senate.gov

6
What Your Representative or Senator Can Do

• Transmit your request to others
• Contact a committee member, agency
• Influence the HR Science Committee
• Collect unusual or urgent requests into separate
  file
• Ask upper-level staff to prepare responses
• Show unusual items to other officials
• Distribute info into organizations processes
• Respond through his or her work on committees,
  support for resolutions, co-sponsorships of bills

7
Speak through a Group

• Write to a citizens organization that lobbies for
  particular actions (Earthwatch, Sierra Club)
• Check Congress.org to keep up to date
• Contact professional organizations
• Engineering societies have student chapters
• Write to powerful companies or industry
  organizations

8
Find Bills to Support or Comment on

• Go to Congress.org and use search function
• Go to committee sites, check legislation

• Check Senate website headings
• Check THOMAS
• In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative
  information from the Library of Congress
• Look up those bills that match your keywords
• Example - REU

9
Choose Audience Strategically

• Whom should you write?
• Your own representatives
• Committee members who draft legislation
• Subcommittees who review bills
• Sponsors and co-sponsors of relevant legislation

10
Analyze Audiences Possible Arguments

• Old demographics approach to audience analysis is
  rarely strategic learn more about specific
  senators and representatives.
• What arguments have they already used in their
  speeches, press releases, or actions? What can
  you agree with?
• What new evidence or alternative argument agrees
  with their values?

11
Find the Best Impact Point Toulmin Argument Model
Wheres the place you and your audience agree?
Disagree?
Reasons
Claim
Warrants Assumptions Beliefs
Evidence
Limits
12
Letter Format Is Simple. Writing Successfully Is
Complex.

• Format conventions respond to a recurring
  situation with standard features
• Use letter conventions for address, greeting, and
  close.

• Success depends on
• Analyzing the situation and audience
• Setting precise goals
• Supplying exactly the right information and
  motivation

13
Your Purpose?

• Add to the statistics of those who favor oppose
  an action by saying I support . . . .
• Prompt specific action
• Example House Committee on Science
• Provide evidence for representatives use

14
What argument or evidence could you use for the
following?

• Committees
• Senators and representatives who want to look
  good to their votes, want re-election

• Organizations
• National Academy of Engineers
• Bill Sponsor
• Bill Co-sponsors

Do research on each audience before you choose
your evidence.
15
What role can you play?

• Voter?
• Non-voting REU student?
• Person who benefits?
• One who contributes through science or
  engineering?

(Research experience for undergraduates)
16
Letter structure

• Whos writing to whom for what purpose
• Reasons the reader should respond plus info in
  support
• Looking forward to benefits of action plus details

• Paragraph one
• Body paragraphs
• Closing paragraph

17
Opening Paragraphs

• NOT
• My name is Sue Brown and I live in Houston.
• Point delayed to the end

• YES
• Your support for HR 4734 is crucial to the nearly
  2 million college students in Texas and their
  parents.
• Please advise the Research subcommittee to triple
  the allocation for Research Experiences for
  Undergraduates.

EXPLICIT REQUEST
18
Convey Character with Appropriate Style

• YOU ARE
• Reasonable
• Knowledgeable
• Clear-thinking
• Determined
• Action-oriented
• No slang or threatening language

• YOU WRITE CLEARLY
• Although many items deserve funding, REUs
  provide an enormous long-term benefit . . . .
• I have analyzed the proposed bill . . .
• Students need to experience research to choose a
  science major confidently.
• Members of my organization will volunteer to
  support candidates who understand the importance
  of REUs.

19
Letters Workshop Links
http//www.congress.org/ http//www.house.gov/ h
ttp//thomas.loc.gov/ http//www.senate.gov/ htt
p//www.house.gov/science/press/109/109-249.htm