1.     II. Persuasive Letter to your Legislator 

From the list provided, you will select a bill related to health care that has been submitted to the California Legislature for their vote. Write a persuasive letter either in favor or in opposition to it based on your expertise as a nurse (and/or healthcare consumer if not working as an RN at this time). Assume the legislature is in the throes of debate about these bills and needs to hear from a nursing expert (and that would be you!).  

[Note that by the time you get to this assignment, the fate of all of these bills may have been decided.  So, we ask your indulgence in pretending that they are active and that your letters regarding them will make a difference.] Review all the information and the grading rubric before beginning your letter. 

 Before looking at the bills, keep reading and following the instructions below:

1.     Go to this website: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/   to find your representatives (see list on left) and their addresses and other information pertinent to this assignment. 

2.     Review the following websites to learn more about writing a letter to a legislator:

http://www.indiananurses.org/pdf_files/writing%20your%20legislators.pdf

http://www.cthealthpolicy.org/toolbox/legislative/writing_policymaker.htm

http://www.nea.org/home/19657.htm

Now that you have an idea of what a letter includes and you have the name, title, and address of your legislator, you are ready to select a bill to which to respond.

3.     The bills selected from http://www.legislature.ca.gov/bill_index.html are here by number and a brief description of the topic.

              SB 4            Health care coverage: Immigration status.

               SB 19         Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form: Statewide

                                              registry.

               AB 59  Mental health services: Assisted outpatient treatment.

 

4.     Either click on the title of the bill in the list above, or go to this website: http://www.legislature.ca.gov/port-bilinfo.html and set the date for the current session, then type in the actual number of the bill.  Note that Senate Bills start with SB and Assembly Bills start with AB.  Once you find the bill, there are many choices on the page. The easiest one is “chaptered” [which means that it has been passed and made into law]. The bills may not have been passed yet, so go to the one that has the most recent date.  Click on HTML or PDF to review the bill.  This is the latest version.  Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the information.  See if you can sort out the important aspects of the bill.  Think about why this bill is being introduced at this point in time and what will be the consequences and implications if it passes.

5.     You only need to write one letter to either your senator or your assembly-person.  If the bill you select is an Assembly Bill (AB), then write your letter to your representative in the Assembly.  For Senate Bills (SB) write to your senator.  Be sure to speak to your expertise or experience as a clinical professional, that is, a registered nurse. All letters are to demonstrate appropriate English sentence structure, grammar, spelling and punctuation (HINT: use Microsoft Word grammar and spell check features prior to submission).

Grading Rubric Detail for Persuasive Letter to a Legislator Assignment

	Levels of Achievement
Criteria	Novice	Competent	Proficient
Content	0-33% Message of letter is too long, ambiguous, unfocused, or disjointed.	34-66% Message of letter is a bit rambling or incoherent, difficult to follow, unfocused or too long.	67-100% Message of letter is short and to the point; focuses on a clear purpose.
Formatting	0-33% Format not in letter format and has major items missing.	34-66% Written in letter format with inside address, date, salutation, or signature incorrectly written.	67-100% Written in letter format with inside address, date, salutation, and signature correctly written.
Grammar	0-33% No attempt to have correct grammar and spelling.	34-66% Multiple grammar and/or spelling errors present.	67-100% Grammar and spelling are correct with only minor errors.
Organization	0-33% Purpose not stated in the letter’s introduction. Information not relevant, accurate, or appropriate.	34-66% Purpose vaguely stated in the letter’s introduction. Information marginally relevant, accurate, or appropriate.	67-100% Purpose clearly stated in the letter’s introduction. Information relevant, accurate, and appropriate.
Technical aspects	0-33% No attempt has been made to meet the assignment criteria as stated in the instructions. No attempt has been made to correctly list the Senator or Assemblyman’s names and affiliations are accurate. The title and citation of the article are incorrectly cited in the letter. Legislation very heavily repeated in the letter.	34-66% An attempt has been made to meet the assignment criteria as stated in the instructions. Some of the Senator or Assemblyman’s names and affiliations are accurate. The title and citation of the article are incorrectly cited in the letter. Legislation too heavily repeated in the letter.	67-100% The assignment criteria have been met as stated in the instructions. All the Senator or Assemblyman’s names and affiliations are accurate. The title and citation of the article are correctly cited in the letter. Legislation not repeated at length.

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