LETTER WRITING GUIDE

Other than personal and business letters, the sending of an “opinion letter” to the media or to a political office holder involves three steps:
 
(1) preparing the letter (which may be all or in part a form letter, quotations, various facts or something entirely personal),
(2) finding the name, address, e-mail address, fax number etc. of the person or organization to whom you want to write,
(3) sending the message.

LETTER TEXT

Sources – Form Letters
If available you can use a prepared text from a source acceptable to you. This might be a letter from the web site of your local union or other organization. While someone in Washington or Augusta will probably know it is a form letter, it still registers as representing your position/feelings on a given issue. It is equivalent to signing a petition in support of some position on a given issue.

No Form Letters to Newspapers
HOWEVER, do not send form letters to newspaper “letters to the editor.” And do not send the same letter you personally write to more than one newspaper. They do not like to and knowingly will not use the same letter sent to more than one newspaper. If you do this they may not accept any future letters from you.

Keep It Short - Usually
Don’t underestimate the power of a short one or two sentence letter. During the second Iraq war when “empty war heads” were found in the Iraq desert a man wrote and the Portland Press Herald printed, a letter that read, “The empty warheads in Iraq don’t worry me half as much as the empty war head in the White House.” The letter can of course be longer, however, most newspapers want a letter of 200 words or less which is usually about six or eight sentences. Naturally, if your letter is to a media official or office holder and is not for publication, you can make it as long as you like.

Include Some Facts

If possible, it is a good idea along with your feelings/opinion to state one or two facts from a reputable source such as “…and the New York Times said that this overtime rule change has the potential to harm eight million workers in more than 259 occupations.” You can also (for accuracy) highlight a quote on a newspaper web page and copy/paste it into your letter. However, this should be a very small part of your letter. The media does not like letters that are largely quotations. This limitation does not apply to letters to officials or legislators where you may wish to copy/paste an entire news item into your letter.

Save In Text Only – Copy & Paste
If you prepare your message in your word processor do the following: (1) click on save (2) at the bottom of the table indicating where you are saving the letter you will see a box “save as” with a down/arrow. Click and save the letter as “text only” which avoids technical problems with the e-mail, (3) select all the text in your letter and go to the top of your word processor – and click on edit>copy. When you get on the internet to the person/organization you want to e-mail put your cursor in the blank message box and click on edit>paste.

Identify Yourself
You need to identify yourself – full name and address, e-mail and a telephone number where you can be reached. Most newspapers insist on confirming that you actually wrote the letter before they will print it.

FINDING THE PERSON/ORGANIZATION
If you go to this web page:
http://congress.org/congressorg/officials/state/?lvl=C&state=me

You will find:

 

Clicking on the above either here or on the web site above brings up a list of (or access to) all the persons/organizations/issues in that area including full mailing address, telephone, e-mail. The access to local officials is not as complete as it is for national and state officials but it is still helpful. On each page for individual state and national officials you can also click on “send a message” and the software will open up a form where you can fill out who you are and also from your word processor write or paste in (see above on copy & paste) your message. You can also choose to have a copy of your message e-mailed back to you for reference.