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This guide has many suggestions for using written literature in your campaign. This section is designed to show you the different kinds of literature you may want to use and tell you how to prepare them. At the end it gives a few suggestions about how to use literature effectively.
Try to get professional writers and designers to help you with all of your literature. The greatest message in the world is no help if your audience doesn't read it. Attractive design and clear direct writing are essentials, not luxuries.
Most campaign literature is designed to serve one or more of three purposes:
- getting your messages out;
- telling people about your support; and
- informing and mobilizing your supporters.
There are a few pieces which virtually every campaign needs.
First, you should have a piece which makes the case for the policy: a sheet or brochure which explains your main argument and your most important secondary arguments about why the board should adopt the policy.
You need this piece for people who don't know about the issue and who haven't taken a stand. However, it is just as important for supporters and endorsers. They need to know what your basic argument for the policy is, especially so that they can explain it (and their support) to others.
It should be easy to draw this piece out of your case statement.
Second, you'll need a piece which answers most of the arguments being made against the policy. This kind of piece can often be done as a "question/answer" or "myth/truth" piece, in which you quickly summarize the objection in a "question" or "myth" and then respond to it. One of the advantages of the question and answer format is that it doesn't really restate the opposition's position.
You need this piece for the same reasons you need a basic case piece. You may be able to combine these two pieces, depending on how long your arguments are. On the other hand, it may be a better idea to keep them short and separate. You want to keep the pieces short.
Third, you'll want to have a list of all the organizations and important individuals who support your proposal. You'll have to update it often; don't make too many copies of any single version.
Fourth, if the board you are working on represents constituents (for example the way a city council represents voters), you probably want to do a constituent contact piece. This tells people how to figure out who their representative is, how to make contact, and what to say. If the board governs a geographical area, the easiest way to tell people who their representatives are may be with a map.
Consider updating the constituent contact piece regularly with information about who needs to be contacted most, and where the members of the board stand on the proposal.
If an issue becomes particularly important in the campaign, you may want to do a piece devoted to it alone. The advantage of this kind of piece is that you can explain your argument in greater detail, and use your expert sources. Special issue pieces can be particularly helpful for your allies, who may not know how to respond to some arguments from the opposition.
Special issue pieces don't have to be structured as conventional arguments. For example, if you want to do something on why you need a nondiscrimination law, you could do short summaries of strong witness testimony under the headline "We Need an LGBT Civil Rights Policy."
You may want to do special pieces that respond to particular opposition tactics. If you do, remember not to attack, and to keep the emphasis on your arguments.
If you think the board you are working on is worried about one particular group of constituents,
or if some members of your board respond more strongly to some groups, do a special list of
supporters. For example, if board members whose votes you need are small business advocates,
do a list of small businesses and business associations which support the policy. You can also
do special lists of local or national organizations which have endorsed either your policy, or
civil rights in general.
If you are working on a political board, you could do a piece on polls which show that most voters support civil rights for LGBT people. You could also do a piece on the fact that legislators who vote for LGBT civil rights don't suffer politically for doing that.
There are two very important guidelines.
First, make your point in the first sentence; provide context, background, explanations later. You simply can not count on most people to read all of anything, even a half page flyer. Your only chance to get to many readers will be with that first sentence. Even if you think a word of explanation is essential to make your point, make the point first and give the explanation right after it. Try it, it works.
Second, write short sentences (average about 17 words, no more), use basic English, and avoid jargon. Sentences which go on much longer, or which contain hard to read words, usually have to be read twice. You can't count on people to read campaign literature twice.
Follow the guidelines for dealing with the media: don't lie, exaggerate or attack your opposition. Don't say anything in writing you aren't willing to have the whole world see.
Try to put everything on a single sheet. It's much cheaper and the likelihood that anyone will read a handout goes way down if it is more than a page. But don't use tiny type, tiny margins, or get rid of spaces between paragraphs. If your sheet is a massive block of print, no one will read it. Edit. Remember that printing on both sides of a sheet is fine as long as you don't want to tack the piece up anywhere. If you want to post, you'll have to stick to one side.
If you are working on a website, make sure it is easy to navigate, and that the vital information on any main page is displayed without requiring the viewer scroll down.
When you start putting a piece together, think about all the different ways you might be able to use it. See if you can write one piece to fill multiple needs.
>> Next: 13. Working with the Media
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