Over the past month I have been writing about various bills that I feel are worthy of note. Some of these have been positive, others negitave, but all of my posts have included a way for you to contact the legislator or legislators who are sponcering the bill.

Now for me, contacting legislators is a very easy task and one I am not intimidated by – but yesterday I had it reaffirmed that some people simply don’t know how to do this while sounding legitimate. It is for this reason that I have decided to throw this short guide together.

As a concerned citizen, as an intern who has had to sift through all sorts of messages, I have come to understand what works and what doesn’t:

1) Always use formal titles – Always refer to the person you are writing to with their formal title, and do it throughout the message. Even if you know the person personally, I would still strongly recommend calling them Representative or Senator.

2) Be sure to reference the specific bill you are interested in by bill number and name. The proper format is H.B. (for “house bill” as an example) 1 – the name of the bill here. If you are writing someone other than the bills sponsor, also be sure to include the name of the person proposing the bill.

3) Always mention why your opinion matters – more specifically, state that you live in the legislators district, city, county, or are a citizen of Utah. If you involved with an organization relating to an issue, mention that as well – if this is the case be sure to point out that you are acting as an individual.

4) Keep messages short, generally less than three or four paragraphs.

5) Avoid using arguments that are based on ideology – quoting scripture, party rhetoric, and/or sources that are less than reputable will make legislators ignore you and your message quick. This is especially true if you disagree with bill. If you agree, this still harms your argument and may cause a legislator to reevaluate their positions. Similarly, do use logic whenever possible; oftentimes when legislators write bills, they do not know about potential consequences to groups if the bill were to pass.

6) If possible, be sure to include personal stories that explain how this bill would help or hurt you, your family, your friends, your organizations, etc.

7) Be sure you have read the bill, or at the very least, read a summation of the bill from a reliable source, before writing – if you make inferences and logical leaps that are just not there, the legislator may ignore future correspondence from you.

8) Always sign your name to any message, it adds legitimacy and show you believe in your cause.

And that is about it. Remember that there is strength in numbers and that if you are able to get your friends to write as well, it only adds to the weight of your opinion. Don’t forget that if you are passionate about some issue, there are probably people on the other side fighting to be successful as well – you don’t want to screw it up for your side!