Description
We have covered a lot of material over the past six weeks in this class, and we've written in different modalities: exploratory essay, critical reflection, pro-con debate, advice pamplet. I want to add one more, the formal letter.
There are norms to formal letters. The introduction and closing is highly routinized; yes, there are different styles of formal letters, but within those styles the rules are pretty specific. The writing style within the formal letter is also important; the structure of the letter's body must be clear and well-ordered so that the reader very easily comprehends the writer's message. So, for this week's exercise, we're going to have a little practice with the formal letter.
Assignment. Your letter should be addressed to an elected office-holder in America and should urge the official to take some action (or urge non-action) on some issue related to gender equality.
Your targeted audience is the elected official. You can choose anyone from a local official, state official, or national official. You can write to your member of Congress or to the President, to your state legislator or the state governor, to your mayor or a member of your city council or the school board – any elected official at any level. For those of you who are international students, I'd like for you also to select an American official, and keep in mind that you can provide that official with a transnational perspective on gender that might be important to her or his actions or decisions.
The purpose of the letter should be to advocate for some policy position and urge either action or inaction on an issue. Be specific in what you want your official to do – specific requests are more powerful than general statements of principle in getting elected officials to take the action you desire. The topic can be anything related to gender equality or gender relations. We've covered many topics in this class, and so you can choose one of those (like the bathroom bills and transgender issues, equal pay, the Equal Rights Amendment, sex ed in schools, gender policing, policies that promote certain family types, protection of certain industries on gendered grounds, Title IX in sports, and so many more). you can also choose a topic that we haven't covered in class but that is related to the course material; for example, we haven't discussed the changes to the American healthcare policy and how those might have a gendered effect, but the issue has been central to our political debates over the past few months and would be quite appropriate as a topic for this letter. In whatever topic you choose, I encourage you take a position on something about which you are passionate – I think the letter will have a better sense of conviction if that is the case.
The tone should be formal. Slang and informal sentence structures should be avoided, and the letter should be edited for proper grammar and punctuation. But formal does not mean impersonal. Keep in mind that personal anecdotes can lend weight to an argument (lend weight but not carry the letter – there should be a strong logical argument that could then be augmented with personal stories), so if you wish to incorporate your personal and intersectional experiences as a constituent of the elected official, please do.
Your goal, then, is to reasonably and convincingly (and respectfully) argue your point and urge your elected official to agree with the line of action that you support. This may require a little research on your part so that you can better educate yourself on the issue and on the elected official's position (if she or he has publicly taken one).
Not that it should be a concern: I'm not going to mail these letters off on your behalf. If you wish to do so after you submit this assignment, that is fine, but I will grade and comment on your letter and take no further action with the material you submit.
Resources. You might want to look at some material on writing a formal letter, and I've included a few different sources for you:
Purdue OWL's "the Basic Business Letter" (Links to an external site.), a thorough discussion
SVSU Writing Center's "Basic Business Letter Format", a modest summary
University of Wisconsin Writing Center's "Business Letters," (Links to an external site.) examples of the block and indented styles
Parameters. Please adhere to the following guidelines. Before turning in your work, please edit your paper for proper punctuation, grammar, spelling and usage.
| . | length | 1300 words minimum (please list the word count at the end of the letter) |
| . | text format | single-spaced block format (unless you are choosing a letter format that requires a different paragraph style) |
| file format | PDF format |
Saving your work as a PDF is easy. For Microsoft Word users, just select "save as" and then change the format type to PDF; for Apple Pages users, select "export to" and then choose PDF.
Please don't use any references, just write it by your own words!
Explanation & Answer
Progress Update:This paper is in progress and will be submitted before the time is due.
Below is the response to the prompt above. Let me know if you need it edited.Thanks!
..
Surname 1
Student’s Name
Address number and street
State
June 16, 2017
President Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
RE: ELEVATING THE EPA 1963 AS A MEASURE OF PROTECTING WOMEN
I am writing to request your administration to look into the need for developing policies
that will guide in dealing with the problem of gender pay disparities in this country. It is
unfortunate that Americans have had to deal with this problem for too long without amicable
solutions. After reading this letter, you will see that one problem is solved to give way to
another, more especially in suits between female employees and their bosses. After a suit that
requires a woman to be compensated an equal amount to male workers in the same position, the
woman is threaten to lose their job. Otherwise, their duties and responsibilities are reduced, and
the organization can demote them to suit them to their earlier salaries. In addition, some are
compensated under the minimum wage requirement. In this case, it is about compensations, and
companies that do anything to enhance profitability even threaten their employees not to report
any cases to the judicial systems in cases of violation. Woman are quit their jobs because they
are underappreciated, and their gender affiliation is constantly abused. A man carrying the same
duties and responsibilities as a woman gets higher wages an...
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