Political Letter

GUIDELINES FOR POLITICAL ADVOCACY LETTER

1.  Locate a current legislative action in process (either State or Federal level) of interest to you. Be sure to include the bill number and details.

2.    The ANA website at www.nursingworld.org is also helpful to find bills. Based on your bill of interest, this will determine whether you will plan to write the letter to a local town legislator or a federal state legislator where you live. Make sure you choose a bill that has not passed into becoming a law before writing your letter.

3.    Identify your audience. You can obtain your legislator’s name Joseph P. Kennedy III and address 304 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC, 20515 from the congressional directory listing at http://thomas.loc.gov/

4.    Decide upon your stance on the proposed legislation and rationale. Support for proposed bill

5.    Develop a professional (language, grammar and approach) letter to your legislator:

A.   State your purpose in the first paragraph. Identify the specific piece of legislation you are referring to (e.g., House bill: H.R. 7859____, Senate bill: S. ____).

B.   Be courteous and to the point. Include key information, using examples to support your position (elementary school nurse). Organize your main points into separate paragraphs and proceed in a logical manner.

C.   Address only one issue in your letter, and if possible keep the letter to one page.

D.  Your closing and opening sentences are especially important as they are the most likely to be remembered.

E.   Make sure to edit your letter carefully.

6.    Provide a copy of this letter along with a copy of the bill you are writing about to your Instructor on the due date assigned.

7.    Send to your legislator

1. You may or may not receive a response back from your letter. If you do receive a response, plan to return a copy to your instructor.
   1. This assignment does NOT have to be submitted through Safe Assign. Please send electronically to your instructor on the due date.

Grading Rubric – Political Advocacy Assignment

Political Advocacy Letter Grading Rubric:

Scoring Criteria	Points
Legislative action information	25 points
Rationale for personal stance	25 points
Appropriate legislator	25 points
Professional writing (appearance of letter/spelling/grammar)	25 points
Total	100 points

SAMPLE LETTER

Name

Address

The Honorable xxxxx

304 Cannon House Office Building

Washington DC, 20515.

Dear Representative Kennedy, I am an RN-BSN level student in nursing at a local State University in Massachusetts. I am writing to respectfully request your support for the proposed House Bill: H.R. 7859 Strengthening Behavioural Health Supports for Schools Act of 2020. This bill aims at establishing a Center for School Behavioural Health Technical Assistance that will provide technical support and assistance to schools and school systems concerning