How closely they followed the format provided in the “How to Write Letters to Elected Officials” guidelines.

Learning Goal: I’m working on a other discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Introduction

In this class we have looked at numerous data and statistics related to health disparities, and have evaluated the different types of social justice and health disparities issues. We have also looked at ways in which we can be advocates for change. Now it is time to apply these new advocacy skills on an issue of your choice!

Your Tasks

TASK 1- DECISIONS, DECISIONS

DECIDE YOUR TOPIC

You will need to pick a topic related to anything that we have gone over in the course.

Here are some ideas to help guide your decision:

• Explore trending events/topics in the news
  • What are news reporters currently focusing on? Oftentimes politicians are also focusing on these issues.
  • Examples of news sources: CalMatters, NPR, CNN, Fox, BBC, MSNBC, and etc.
• Research proposed/recently passed bills
  • What are some issues that legislatures have recently voted on or will be voting on soon?
  • Examples of where to find this information: CalMatters Links to an external site., CA LegiScanLinks to an external site.

DECIDE WHO YOU WILL WRITE TO

Next, you will need to decide who to write your letter to. It is recommended that you:

1. Write to the legislator that represents your district and/or
2. Write to a legislator who works on the topic you’re writing about.

CalMatters has a new tool that allows you to find your legislator, as well as identify legislators who work on key topics. You can access this information on their page, Glass House: California Legislator Tracker Links to an external site..

Please see the Directory of Public Officials Links to an external site.for their contact information.

TASK 2- ROUGH DRAFT

Next you will create a rough draft of your letter. Your letter can express one of the following:

• You are angry about something, and want others to know it
• You think that an issue is so important that you have to speak out
• Part of your group’s strategy is to persuade others to take a specific action

Or you want to:

• Suggest an idea to others
• Influence public opinion
• Educate the general public on a specific matter
• Influence policy-makers or elected officials directly or indirectly
• Publicize the work of your group and attract volunteers or program participants

Please refer to the guidelines found in “How to Write Letters to Elected Officials”, which can be found on the next page. General guidelines can also be found in the powerpoint presentation preceding this assignment.

Once you have completed and submitted your draft to the Project Rough Draft assignment page, you will complete 2 anonymous peer responses. You will provide the following feedback to your assigned peers:

• How closely they followed the format provided in the “How to Write Letters to Elected Officials” guidelines.
• Strengths of their letter
• Areas that need to be improved in their letter
• Spelling/grammatical errors

TASK 3- FINAL DRAFT

You can work on your final draft once you…

1. Submit your rough draft.
2. Complete your peer responses.
3. Review the comments left by your peers and DP regarding your letter.

TASK 4- REFLECTION

Finally, you will write a brief (50-150 words), open-ended reflection of the project. Here are some ideas for what you can talk about:

• Something new that you learned about the topic that you wrote about
• Overall impression of the letter writing process (Was it easy, difficult, manageable?)
• Something else that you would like to mention

Grading and Submission

SUBMISSION AND DUE DATES

You may submit this assignment as a Text Entry or external file (Word or PDF). Please make sure to submit the rough draft to the Project Rough Draft assignment page, and the final draft to this assignment page.

The following are the due dates for the different aspects of the project:

1. Project Rough Draft- Sunday, November 27th
2. Project Peer Response- Sunday, December 4th
3. Final Draft of Project and Reflection- Saturday, December 10th

Don’t worry, I will remind you of these due dates in the announcements. ?

GRADING

This project is worth 100 points. Point values are indicated above. More specific criteria can be found in the rubric attached to this assignment.

Writing Resources

Cuyamaca has several writing services available for students. The first is the Writing, Reading, and ESL Center Links to an external site.. Students have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a tutor in order to receive writing assistance. Appointments are required for this service. Another option is to utilize Cuyamaca’s online writing assistance. This is for students who have already written their letter and would like a tutor to proofread their work. Students may fill out the Online Writing Assistance form  Links to an external site.in order to schedule an online proofreading. Finally, I am available to assist you via Zoom. Please contact me with your availability so that I can schedule a meeting day/time that works for both of us.