Choose a current (past 6 weeks) public policy issue involving
technology,
an issue you care about strongly, and one about which you have some
information
or knowledge. It's much easier to write with conviction if you really
have
that conviction; it requires real talent to fake it. On the other hand,
you must approach your topic with enough objectivity to understand the
opposing point of view and deal with those arguments in a reasoned way.
Your topic should be one that you as a computer scientist have some
particular reason to address. Some current policy issues that relate to
computing are objectionable material on the Web, email "spam," illegal
file sharing, and privacy issues.
You
should choose a specific recipient, a policy maker who is an
appropriate
audience for your opinion, such as President Bush, Senator Boxer,
Senator
Feinstein, or the editors of the Los Angeles Times or the New York
Times.
If you have a specialized issue, we can suggest other appropriate
policy
makers.
As a first step, write a five- to ten-line outline of your argument,
listing the supporting points and the conclusion like a syllogism; turn
this in with each revision of your letter. You may find useful the
entries
in Writing from A to Z on argument, logic, and thesis. You
might
also think back on what you know about symbolic logic.
Your conclusion should recommend some action on someone's part;
don't
simply raise the issue and complain about the status quo. Moreover, be
sure that the recipient of your letter is someone who has the power to
take the action you recommend. Broadly, here are some guidelines: If
you
want a new law introduced (or if you want to support or oppose
currently
proposed legislation), write to a legislator (Senators Feinstein or
Boxer,
your local member of Congress, or the chair of the relevant House or
Senate
committee). If you want some action by the Executive Branch (e.g., for
the Justice Department to resume the antitrust case against Microsoft),
write to the person in charge of that branch (the Attorney General in
the
case of the Justice Department). The most effective thing the President
can do is move public opinion; you should write to the President if you
want him to take a public stand on some issue (or if you want him to
sign
or veto a particular piece of legislation that has passed out of
Congress).
The President doesn't officially originate or introduce legislation,
and
he won't even have his staff propose legislation for a legislator to
introduce
except on the biggest public policy issues (like health care or tax
reform),
which don't include anything relating to technology these days.
If you took Writing 39C at UCI and wrote a research paper on a
technical
policy issue, you may write about the same issue here. Note, however,
that
a letter to a policy maker is different than a research paper. This
letter
is shorter, it won't cite research sources as completely and
meticulously,
and it will recommend to the recipient a particular course of action
and
address explicitly the reasons why the recipient should take that
action.
In particular, you need to say what you want, right up front, and then
give the reasons. It's an unfortunate and brutal fact that high-profile
officials receive hundreds or thousands of letters a day; they have
staff
who screen them, perhaps just reading the first paragraph and tallying
the letter as "pro" or "con" on an particular issue. It's the rare
letter
that's so well written that the staff person will read the whole thing,
and even rarer still that the letter will be passed along to the
official
him- or herself. Of course, it's that kind of gemlike letter that
you're
aiming for, but for it to pass the first threshold, it has to state up
front what it wants the official to do.
Finally, make sure you address your letter properly; you don't say
"Dear
Mr. Bush" when addressing the President. (Search for "forms of address"
on Google for more information.)
Due Dates: