{"id":115313,"date":"2020-11-05T10:05:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T15:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=115313"},"modified":"2020-11-05T10:05:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T15:05:57","slug":"4-things-to-know-when-writing-to-your-local-representatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/4-things-to-know-when-writing-to-your-local-representatives\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Things to Know When Writing to Your Local Representatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to speaking up on political and social issues, knowing how to effectively communicate is key to making sure you can make the best case of support for your cause. Writing letters, whether emails or posted mail, to your local officials is one of the most common ways to do so.<\/p>\n

Here writing and rhetoric instructor Vanessa Calkins \u201912MA<\/strong>, who teaches Writing for Social Change <\/em>and earned a master\u2019s in rhetoric and composition<\/a> from UCF, shares a few tips.<\/p>\n

Communicate in the Format That Works for You<\/h4>\n

VC: I don\u2019t have any actual data on this, so I don\u2019t have a sense that any type of contact \u2014 whether that\u2019s a phone call, email or auto-generated text \u2014 is viewed as more effective. From my perspective, the most effective medium is the one you\u2019re most likely to use. Even services, like Resistbot, work better than nothing if it gets you to actually reach out.<\/p>\n

Each correspondence is also tracked. For example, if there is a fax, email, phone call and letter all about the same issue, from different people, those are logged individually. This helps [representatives] to see the amplification of a particular issue. For example, if everyone is contacting them about issues around public health, that is a clear signal they need to address this with their constituents.<\/p>\n

Know Your Audience and Their Power<\/h3>\n

VC: Audience awareness is crucial. While it\u2019s typically a representative\u2019s staffers who actually read letters, you should aim to appeal to the official since it still goes through his or her office.<\/p>\n

Not knowing who to address, or how to address them holds [people] up from doing the social change writing they want to do. It is important to be aware of the rhetorical situations in which you\u2019re writing and to analyze power dynamics before crafting a message for social change.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re writing to a local or state official about something but don\u2019t know if they even have the power to make the kind of change your letter calls for, what policies that person has supported or where they stand on the issue you\u2019re addressing, then you\u2019re not giving yourself a fighting chance at being successful.<\/p>\n

Mapping out the power dynamics around the issues that matter can help you align your goal with the individual who can actually make that change \u2014 and it gives you insight into how to approach them in your writing.<\/p>\n

Figure Out the Best Method to Support Your Stance<\/h4>\n

VC: Sharing personal details or stories can be a rhetorically effective tool and might make a piece more likely to get passed along, but without knowing the official and their staffers, it\u2019s hard to know if they\u2019d be most persuaded by ethos (your credibility), pathos (emotional appeals, such as a personal story) or logos (logic, data, etc). The best way around this is to learn more about the official (your audience) and use that information to make the best decisions you can.<\/p>\n

Keep Your Writing Focused<\/h4>\n

VC: I think the best approach overall is to make sure each individual correspondence has a clear goal. When I do my own emails to officials, I try to stick to a single issue and I have been pleased to frequently get responses. Just like the rest of us, people in public office likely get a lot of email\/mail and having a clear focus in what you send makes it easier for them to know how to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A writing and rhetoric instructor discusses some basic information to keep in mind when reaching out to political officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":115381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[15992,6],"tags":[17023,202,35323,9312],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-115313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-community","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-alumni","tag-vanessa-calkins","tag-writing-and-rhetoric"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Things to Know When Writing to Your Local Representatives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A writing and rhetoric instructor discusses some basic information to keep in mind when reaching out to political 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