Assignment Prompt & Instructions
Letter 900 Words
– a year ago
**files (1)**
– ## FinalProjectInstructionsandRubricFall.pdf
**## FinalProjectInstructionsandRubricFall.pdf**
Instructions and Rubric for (Letter to a US Political Representative)
In this project, you will be writing a letter to an elected representative to request them to take
action on a specific policy. You are welcome to mail this letter to your selected representative,
but this is not required as part of this project.
Submit completed letter. DUE MAY 3
a. LENGTH: 900-1200 words (12-point font, single-spaced)
You must first determine the specific action you want taken and then determine which elected
representative (federal, state, or local *Texas*) to send the letter to. The aim in your letter is to
present an argument to persuade the representative to endorse and carry out the policy you
desire. You are welcome to use prompts and posts from past forum discussions in selecting
your policy and making your argument. Make sure that the desired policy is one that falls within
the jurisdiction of the representative you select (asking the Mayor of Austin Texas to repeal
Obamacare, for example, would not work). You also want to pick a policy that is specific and
feasible. Avoid vague or unattainable policies (asking the President of the United States to
establish world peace would be both overly vague and also not within the sole power of the
United States to do). Specific, feasible policies are easier to argue for and easier to find
evidence for than vague, unattainable policies.
The letter should take the form of a formal letter, so include the name and mailing address of
the representative you are writing (formal letters often include the mailing address of the
sender but, for your privacy, I do not require this. If you like, you can make up a fake address to
include, for example “123 Anywhere St., Austin TX”). The letter should open with a salutation
and have an appropriate closing (“Sincerely” or something equivalent). Purdue University
provides more guidance on what to include in a business letter here. The paper should open
(that is, have at least in the first paragraph) a clear statement of the policy action you are
arguing for.
As part of the argument for your request, you will be required to provide supporting evidence.
However, since this is a letter, and not a research paper, weigh the number of citations
accordingly. You will have to present facts and back them up (with, say, references to news
articles), but a representative would not want to read a letter with 50 footnotes. For example,
when you provide a particular statistic from a newspaper article, you should note in the text in
a parenthetical reference (footnotes are not required, though you can use them instead if you
prefer) the name of the publication and the date of publication. For example: “Crime in DC
went up 10% in the first three months of 2021 (Washington Post of Oct. 1, 2020). Provide a
hyperlink or URL if possible. Providing one or two references per page would be adequate.
Since this is a letter, a bibliography is not necessary. It should be possible to identify your
source from your citation, however.
All submissions will be submitted to TurnItIn for plagiarism detection. Do not copy and paste
[https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html)
from other sources into your paper unless you are providing a direct quotations (with quotation
marks). These will get flagged, even if you change a word or two. When you are quoting or
using information from a source, be sure to cite. Citations are needed for both direct
quotations and paraphrases (for an assignment like this, I expect direct quotations will be rare
and paraphrases will be much more common). Instructions on how to cite in an informal
context like this are given above.
Submission will be made through Canvas. Submissions must be in Microsoft Word or PDF
format.
Rubric:
Item Description Points
Submission of Outline Submission of an adequate version of an outline 1
Item Description Points
Statement of Policy
Request
What are you asking your representative to do? Does the
letter make an explicit and actionable policy request of the
representative? Is this the correct representative to be
asking for the request?
2
Effectiveness and
Organization
Does the letter present a clear argument for why the
representative should grant its request? Is this argument
well-organized, with a clear structure and the space
dedicated to issues proportionate to their importance to
the request?
12
Supporting citations Are claims about what the reading says backed up by
reference to external sources (e.g., newspaper articles or
public reports)? Are there an adequate number of
supporting citations?
4
Spelling and Grammar Are there so many spelling/grammatical mistakes in the
paper that they obstruct understanding?
2
TOTAL 20 points
**## FinalProjectInstructionsandRubricFall.pdf**
Instructions and Rubric for (Letter to a US Political Representative)
In this project, you will be writing a letter to an elected representative to request them to take
action on a specific policy. You are welcome to mail this letter to your selected representative,
but this is not required as part of this project.
Submit completed letter. DUE MAY 3
a. LENGTH: 900-1200 words (12-point font, single-spaced)
You must first determine the specific action you want taken and then determine which elected
representative (federal, state, or local *Texas*) to send the letter to. The aim in your letter is to
present an argument to persuade the representative to endorse and carry out the policy you
desire. You are welcome to use prompts and posts from past forum discussions in selecting
your policy and making your argument. Make sure that the desired policy is one that falls within
the jurisdiction of the representative you select (asking the Mayor of Austin Texas to repeal
Obamacare, for example, would not work). You also want to pick a policy that is specific and
feasible. Avoid vague or unattainable policies (asking the President of the United States to
establish world peace would be both overly vague and also not within the sole power of the
United States to do). Specific, feasible policies are easier to argue for and easier to find
evidence for than vague, unattainable policies.
The letter should take the form of a formal letter, so include the name and mailing address of
the representative you are writing (formal letters often include the mailing address of the
sender but, for your privacy, I do not require this. If you like, you can make up a fake address to
include, for example “123 Anywhere St., Austin TX”). The letter should open with a salutation
and have an appropriate closing (“Sincerely” or something equivalent). Purdue University
provides more guidance on what to include in a business letter here. The paper should open
(that is, have at least in the first paragraph) a clear statement of the policy action you are
arguing for.
As part of the argument for your request, you will be required to provide supporting evidence.
However, since this is a letter, and not a research paper, weigh the number of citations
accordingly. You will have to present facts and back them up (with, say, references to news
articles), but a representative would not want to read a letter with 50 footnotes. For example,
when you provide a particular statistic from a newspaper article, you should note in the text in
a parenthetical reference (footnotes are not required, though you can use them instead if you
prefer) the name of the publication and the date of publication. For example: “Crime in DC
went up 10% in the first three months of 2021 (Washington Post of Oct. 1, 2020). Provide a
hyperlink or URL if possible. Providing one or two references per page would be adequate.
Since this is a letter, a bibliography is not necessary. It should be possible to identify your
source from your citation, however.
All submissions will be submitted to TurnItIn for plagiarism detection. Do not copy and paste
[https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html)
from other sources into your paper unless you are providing a direct quotations (with quotation
marks). These will get flagged, even if you change a word or two. When you are quoting or
using information from a source, be sure to cite. Citations are needed for both direct
quotations and paraphrases (for an assignment like this, I expect direct quotations will be rare
and paraphrases will be much more common). Instructions on how to cite in an informal
context like this are given above.
Submission will be made through Canvas. Submissions must be in Microsoft Word or PDF
format.
Rubric:
Item Description Points
Submission of Outline Submission of an adequate version of an outline 1
Item Description Points
Statement of Policy
Request
What are you asking your representative to do? Does the
letter make an explicit and actionable policy request of the
representative? Is this the correct representative to be
asking for the request?
2
Effectiveness and
Organization
Does the letter present a clear argument for why the
representative should grant its request? Is this argument
well-organized, with a clear structure and the space
dedicated to issues proportionate to their importance to
the request?
12
Supporting citations Are claims about what the reading says backed up by
reference to external sources (e.g., newspaper articles or
public reports)? Are there an adequate number of
supporting citations?
4
Spelling and Grammar Are there so many spelling/grammatical mistakes in the
paper that they obstruct understanding?
2
TOTAL 20 points