Setting up a writing system is learning how to write general messages that can be sent to multiple politicians and then establishing a place on your computer where you store the text. Here’s how it works:

  • Set up a directory on your computer where you will store the “Word” files containing the text that you will send to your politicians.
  • Create a word file for the e-mail that you want to write. The reason why you do this is because you can use the same text to every politician that you write to on a given issue at a given time. To do this, you must write it generally enough that it will be “one size fits all”.
  • If you want to send an e-mail, log onto the website for each congressman, fill out the “contact form”, and paste your text into the message window. In the next module, you will be creating favorites for all your important congressmen.
  • If you want to write a letter that goes through the mail, take your text and cut and paste it into a form letter that you have created for each politician. More on creating the letter formats later.

    • When we ask you to contact your congressman, our e-mail will contain text that you can cut and paste into your e-mail or letter. However, it is always better if you can amend ours or write your own. That way, the congressman will think it is an independent e-mail and it will be more effective.

    Below is an example of some text that is written generally enough for use in your e-mails or letters. We shall use “Government Spending” as the subject for this example.



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    Subject: In Support of Reducing Government Spending

    I am writing to express my support for reducing spending. I know that many politicians want to raise taxes to balance the budget, but I do not believe that is a good idea. I believe that the government should play a smaller role in the economy and reducing spending is the primary way to make that happen.

    Please note that I am aware that entitlement spending (Social Security, Medicare, welfare, etc) are more than half of the budget and must be cut as well as other parts of the budget. I would also support cuts in these programs.

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    Please note the following about the example message:

  • It has a subject. This will not always be needed for all congressman’s contact form. If your congressman’s form doesn’t have it, you can omit it.
  • It is short. There is no reason to put a lot of time into this. This is a ONE-WAY communication. You are not trying to start a dialog or convince your congressman of anything. That would be a waste of your time. You are letting the congressman how YOU feel. You won’t have to ask for a response. Your congressman will automatically send one. This is a chance for your congressman to contact a constituent directly and he / she will not pass it up. They will usually respond in kind. If you send an e-mail, an e-mail will be returned. If you send a letter, a letter will be returned. You can save these over time and see if your congressman is changing his / her opinion. It’s also nice to have a collection of physical letters. They are very official-looking and make for good conversation pieces.
  • There are a lot of “I’s” in this message. That is because you can only speak for yourself. You will never convince your congressman that you speak for a larger group. By expressing your views along with the rest of us, you are demonstrating how large your group is.
  • There are only two points brought up in support of your view. This is a good number. It lets the congressman know that you are up on the subject and it doesn’t take too long for you to come up with two things to say.
  • It is extremely clear how you feel about the subject. There are key words such as “support” which make it very clear. Don’t try to be even-handed. It will simply muddy the water. You can even tell from the subject line that you support cutting the budget. This may save some time for the staffer. He / she will get the message without even reading the e-mail.
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    Now, do the following:

  • Create a place on your computer for your messages. It can be a directory on a drive somewhere or just put them on your desktop.
  • Create some text in a Word file. You can cut and paste the above example (This subject will always be good. The government will always be spending too much money.) or you can create your own on a subject that interests you.
  • Make sure the file has a name that will help you remember what it is. Often you will be creating multiple e-mails on the same subject. (Politicians have to be told again and again.) If you anticipate that, name them something like: Spending 01, Spending 02, etc. That way you will know the order and the general subject.

    • This is the end of this module. Click “Back” on your browser to return to the training screen. Click on the box beside “Setting Up a Writing System (Extra Credit)” and click on the button at the bottom of the page to save your change.