So you’ve decided you want to write Congress. That’s great, because writing Congress is one of the most effective and under-appreciated ways of making your voice heard.

Because so few people actually bother to write to Congress, staffers understand that one letter represents the views of many others who didn’t bother to write a letter. Some studies have shown that as few as a dozen letters to a lawmaker about a specific issue can cause them to take action. This tutorial is to help you get the most bang for your letter-writing buck.

What medium should I use?

When it comes to contacting your Senators and Representative, actual dead tree letters are always more effective than writing them an email through the far-too-complicated contact form they probably have on their website.

Real letters still carry a lot more weight than electronic correspondence, and if a physical letter is worth ten emails, then why bother email them? (By the way, those online petitions with generic pre-written letters are the least effective method of contacting Congress. Don’t even bother with them and write your own real letter instead: it’s worth the time.)

Hand-written letters are generally said to be the most effective type of letter, but since not everybody has the best handwriting ever, typewritten is just fine too. Don’t forget to sign your name at the bottom, preferably with blue or some type of non-black ink.

Who should I send my letter to?

At first you may have the impulse to write one letter and send copies of it to all 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate. That’s a bad idea, and not just because the postage will hurt your wallet: Congressional staff offices routinely forward such letters to the Senator or Congressman whose district or state the letter originates from so it’s just a waste of time, and you risk annoying your own representatives.

For most matters that don’t deal with a particular member (i.e. complaining to your Senator for voting the wrong way on such and such a bill), you should send one copy of your letter to your House Representative and one letter each to both of your Senators. Don’t forget to change the names before you print out each letter itself.

Where do I send it?

For non-local issues (such as, we need a traffic light at such and such a street), sending your Congressman and two Senators a letter to their office in Washington DC rather than their state office is most effective. You can find out the appropriate address for both your Senators and your Representative by entering your zip code here.

How should my letter be structured?

A one-page three-paragraph letter is the most effective and standard way to write to Congress.

The first paragraph should introduce who you are, mention that you are a constituent, and any other personal connection you have to the issue you are writing them about (i.e. maybe you’re writing them about Iraq and have a family member who is in the service).

The second paragraph should introduce the issue you are writing them about and provide any facts or statistics you feel are relevant to your point of view. The third and final paragraph should politely but firmly request specific action on your issue, such as “Please vote against H.R. 2405, the Killing Fuzzy Bunnies Act of 2008.” Remember to be polite: Congressional staffers who read angry letters don’t tend to pass them on to their bosses, they tend to pass them around to their fellow aides, laughing.

You can download a letter template in .doc format here (or here in .pdf or here in .rtf) to make sure you get the standard letter-writing structure right.

Any last advice?

Remember the politeness rule- a passionate but polite letter will always get further than a passionate and angry letter. Read your letter to yourself out loud before printing it out to check for grammatical errors.

And above all, don’t give up, even if you don’t get any response. Keep writing!