Learn who your legislators and local officials are:

1. US Senators (2); name of state and names of Senators

2. US Representative; name and US House district #

3. State Senator; name and GA Senate district #

4. State Representative; name and GA House district #

5. County commissioners; name of county and names of commissioners

6. If you live in a city, mayor and city commissioners; name of city and names

7. Local school board; name of school board and names of members

These will be based on where you live. You can google these or use ballotpedia.org or

openstates.org. On ballotpedia, click “engage,” which is on the left side of the webpage, then

click “who represents me,” then type your address and zip code. For county commissioners,

you need to figure out what county you live in and google the county webpage. The same for

cities.

3. Learn something about three of the above persons.

Find the webpages for 3 of the above

persons or google their names and titles. What experience did each have before getting

elected? What issues do they consider important? If you google their names, you might find a

news article about them. Do not copy text from the websites. Use your own words.

4.( I have attached the letter) Write to or email one of the above persons about an issue that concerns you and that is relevant to their level of government.

Think about an issue that concerns you, such as a

specific issue concerning the environment, guns, the economy, immigration, education,

agriculture, welfare, net neutrality, civil rights, civil liberties, trade, foreign policy, etc. (If you

need help, google these general topics and see if something more specific appears that

interests you.) Ask yourself, which level of government would likely address this issue (national,

state or local?), choose one of the relevant officials, find their mailing or email address and

write them a letter or email telling them that you live in their district or state and that you are

concerned about this issue. If you want them to do something, tell them. If you want to know

their position on the issue, ask them. If you agree or disagree with their position, tell them.

5. Write a 3-5 page typed paper about 1-4 above.

the first paragraph should list all the legislators and local representatives in step 1. Make sure you also

list the state, district or county as well as the names. In the second paragraph, write about the 3 persons you chose. In the third paragraph, write about your experience writing to one of the

officials. Write about what issue you picked and why and which official you wrote to and why.

At the end of the paper, list the sources you used for step 3.

Format:

12-point type, double spacing. Print out a hard copy and hand in in class.

Basis of grade:

you will be graded based on how well you complete the assignment. You also

need to write clearly and to proofread your paper.

90-100

1. Completes assignment:

Your paper contains all of steps 1-4. Don’t skip steps

or names of officials.

2. Adds something extra:

Your paper is a smooth narrative that goes beyond

simply answering the questions by giving additional thoughts and opinions about

the persons you researched and your thoughts about registering, your issue and

writing one of the officials.

3. Proofreading, style:

There are no spelling or grammatical errors. The

sentences are written clearly.

80-89:

1. Completes the assignment as above.

2. Adds only a few thoughts or opinions.

3. Proofreading, style: few spelling or grammatical errors. Sentences are written

clearly.

70-79:

1. Partial assignment: leaves out steps or officials

2. Minimal or no thoughts or opinions.

3. Proofreading; style: little to no proofreading; spelling or grammatical errors.

Sentences are poorly written.

69 or less:

1. Partial assignment

2. No thoughts or opinions

3. No proofreading; bad writing