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For this assignment, you will draft a detailed letter to a representative in the U.S. House
of Representatives or one of your U.S. Senators, or the U.S. president on a national
public policy issue in the United States. In the letter, you will ask the official to adopt a
specific position and to take some kind of action, such as proposing a piece of
legislation. Your letter must be around 1200-1500 words long, including the endnotes;
that would be around four to five pages, typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point
font, Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. There is no maximum length.
The letter is to be based on research. To begin with, choose a policy issue and
study it, so you can develop a strong argument for the position you advocate and
address possible objections or counter-arguments to your position. Basically, you will
define a problem (see below for some possible issues), then propose a solution,
support that solution with facts, and also against counter-arguments.
What needs to be in the letter
Remember that you are trying to persuade the official to support your position by the
strength of your arguments!
– (1) Begin with an introduction in which you state in the first two sentences what
specifically you want the official to do. In the rest of the first paragraph, preview
the argument that makes up the body of your letter (around 150 words)
– (2) In most of the body of the letter, give your argument for why the official
should act as you suggest. This should also have several parts:
– a) sketch the public problem, as you see it (150 words);
– b) describe the inadequacy of the actions taken on it to date (150 words);
– c) then argue for a course of action (e.g., passing a law or amendment to a
law, or adopting or changing a regulation), including an explanation of the
consequences you expect the law to have, giving many facts (with
citations). While you may include personal experiences as part of the
argument, it must be based primarily on your research. Spend at least 1.5
pages (450 words) on this part of the letter
– (3) Present some of the main counter-arguments or objections to your position.
Every issue has at least two sides. Some people will disagree with you for moral,
practical, or political reasons. If there are numerous counter-arguments, pick
several of the most compelling ones and explain them carefully. Note that there
is a danger of reducing the opposing side to a caricature. To avoid this, it is
essential to choose strong, not weak counter-arguments, be careful how you
paraphrase them and cite sources for them.
– (4) Give your answer (called a rebuttal) to the counter-arguments. Show the
official why the objections to your position are not convincing. Spend at least
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one page (around 300-400 words) on # 3 and # 4, presenting and rebutting the
counter-arguments.
– (5) Finish with a brief conclusion, no more than one paragraph.
– Overall, be sure your letter is well organized, using topic sentences to link
specific evidence (mostly factual) to your main claim at the start of the letter.
Topics
You must either choose one of the national topics listed here or get my approval
for a different national topic. Suggested keywords are included:
– Economy: jobs, unemployment, economic growth, inflation, wages
– Higher education policy: student loans, student financial aid, Pell grants
– K-12 education policy: NCLB, No Child Left Behind
– Energy policy: clean energy, renewable energy, nuclear energy, biofuels,
offshore
drilling, oil drilling in Alaska, ANWR
– Climate change policy: climate policy, global warming, climate change,
greenhouse gas
emissions, carbon trading, cap and trade, carbon fees
– Health policy: Obamacare, Affordable Care Act, Medicare for all, health care
reform, Medicare, Medicaid, individual mandate, pre-existing conditions
– Immigration reform: immigration reform, guest workers, DREAM Act, the path
to citizenship, amnesty, immigration or border enforcement, comprehensive
immigration reform, deportations, birthright citizenship, the wall at the Mexican
border
– Foreign policy: Russia, China, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and nuclear weapons,
ISIS, Iraq, military aid (Israel or Ukraine)
– Civil liberties: Privacy, abortion policy
– Civil rights: criminal justice reform, Voting Rights Act
– Elections: election procedures, voter ID, early voting, automatic voter
registration, D.C.
voting rights, former felon voting rights, foreign interference, campaign
contributions or finance, dark money, Electoral College Reform
– Judicial appointments: federal judges,
– Impeachment of the president (current or former)
Doing the research
You will need to research several things for this letter. First, you need to focus on
a particular part of the issue you have already identified. To narrow it down, do some
background reading. You can check CQ Researcher, it is a very detailed resource.
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Both include pro and con arguments on most issues and often mention specific
legislation. To get to these sources, CQ, you need to go through the library’s website
and there find databases then select CQ researcher.
Second, you need to identify specific legislation or a specific regulation to be the
topic of your letter. This can be something that others have already proposed, or it can
be your own proposal that you sketch out. To find legislation that has already been
proposed, you can use www.govtrack.us or thomas.loc.gov. The purpose here is to
propose a solution to the problem you identified earlier.
Third, you will go back to the sources in the above steps as you develop your
argument, find counterarguments, and rebut them. You also need to find at least two
scholarly sources. Overall, you must use and cite at least five sources for this letter.
Sources include:
– CQ Researcher;
– Scholarly sources (scholarly journal articles or scholarly books);
– Other sources (e.g., news articles, government documents, etc.)
A scholarly source is one that is published by a university press or in a scholarly
journal and cites its sources, most of which are also scholarly sources; scholarly
journal articles must be at least 5 pages long. If in doubt about what qualifies, ask me.
To get access to electronic journals, go to the library website.
Use 12-point font with one-inch margins and page numbers centered at the
bottom of the page. Proper citations and references must be used following the
American Political Science Association Style Manual, which can be found at.
Proper citation is very important. Please make sure that you follow the guidelines!!
Note on plagiarism
If you are using sources from the Internet, be very careful to put the information
into your own words (paraphrase, do not copy). If you copy text from internet sources
into your letter, even if you change some of the words, turnitin.com will flag this in the
Originality Report and I will consider this plagiarism (unless it is a direct quote). Also,
do not reuse any text from your short assignments! This is a separate assignment, and
you need to write a fresh text, though you may use ideas from previous assignments.
Any plagiarism will result in a reduced grade (depending on severity of the plagiarism)
and in a report to the Office of Student Affairs. Final papers must be submitted to
Turnitin link on our class Blackboard page.
Although you must draw upon appropriate sources, your letter should consist of
analysis, argument, and/or interpretation in your own words. You may quote directly
not more than 10% of the entire letter, and when you quote, you must use quotation
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marks and cite the source.
