1. Letters Be empowered!

2. Letters Before, letters were  Written or typed on paper  Sent in the mail  Took days to travel Now  Typed online  Sent through e-mail or internal system  Arrive immediately

3. This is one format for a formal letter.

5. What Stays the Same? Good Writing!  Strong opening sentence  State your ideas clearly  Give specific examples to support your ideas  Correct grammar, spelling, sentence structure  Clear conclusion

6. Contact an Elected Official  For elected officials in NJ http://www.njleg.st ate.nj.us/RepEmail. asp http://www.njleg.st ate.nj.us/RepEmail. asp  For the Governor http://www.state.nj.us/governor/conta ct/ http://www.state.nj.us/governor/conta ct/  You can still write a formal letter and mail it. http://www.njleg.st ate.nj.us/legislative pub/contact.asp http://www.njleg.st ate.nj.us/legislative pub/contact.asp

7. Have a Complaint? Before you would look up the company address from the package and write a letter to explain why you were dissatisfied with the product.

8. Today You look up a company online http://us.coca- cola.com/ http://us.coca- cola.com/ And then look for the Contact Us link http://www.coca- colacompany.com/co ntact-us/ Contact Us Overview FAQs Ask Coca-Cola Our Virtual Agent Ask Coca-Cola, our virtual agent Coca-Cola: Hi, I'm your virtual agent. What can I do for you?

9. Your Assignment Pick a topic that  you feel strongly about  Know something about  And can be changed or influenced by your elected official Research  Find a website that gives you facts about your topic  Evaluate the website  Take notes to use in your letter

10. Need some help to start? Try Ebsco http://search.epnet.com/userlogin.asphttp://search.epnet.com/userlogin.asp Username: S8695502 Password: password Both Points of View and Student Reference Center have good ideas. If you search Google, try different search terms to find what you want.