On November 4, 2008, voters in the U.S. will elect a new president, as well as 470 members of Congress. Whichever candidates are elected, they will face an array of pressing issues at home and abroad, all demanding attention and action. Where do we start? Voters can express their priorities in the voting booth—but young people also deserve to be heard. It’s your future too. What do you believe is the most urgent issue for the new President to tackle? What would you say to the candidates for the 470 seats open in Congress? What would you want the voting public to think about as they go to the polls? Your letter will be published for the candidates and the voting public to read. Can you convince them of the importance of the issue you care about? Can you move them to action on November 4…and after?

This is your template for writing the letter or persuasive essay you will be submitting to Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future. Please complete all the areas in white. You may complete these sections in any order, and you may change or edit the information at any time up to the point where you submit your letter or essay. The information entered will be displayed on the Writing Our Future website to help readers find your essay and become interested in reading it.


Information needed for the website before you submit your persuasive piece:


Title or headline:
Readers are attracted by sharp, focused titles -- like newspaper headlines. Give your piece a short, attention-getting title that conveys your main point.		 cough cough cough America help me!
Keywords:
Choose up to three keywords for your piece to help readers find your piece by topic. Write your words here, separated by commas.		 issues, homeless, go, people

Summary lead:
As readers scan the website, they will get the main idea of your piece from the summary lead.  Write a lead of no more than 75 words to summarize your main point and catch your readers' interest.
Hi I'm Laura Leggiero from New Jersey. I do watch the debate but very rarely. Only this year did I start to really to watch it. I actually get into it sometimes and even scream at the TV for it! I think that I've become into my grandmother! I watch almost every debate before I go to bed. But from what I watch I like it! When you read my paragraph you'll read about what I feel strongly about and why I feel this way. Here are the three main ideas in my letter contains the homeless, debt issues, and pollution. Why does she care about these issues? you're asking yourself, well you'll have to find out when you read my letter!


 

Writer's name or pen name:
Your piece will be published under your first name and last initial, or you can use a pen name.  What first name and last initial will you use?		 Laura L.

Instructions for composing your persuasive piece:


Please use the white space below to respond to the Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future prompt. You do not need to repeat the title and name that you have entered in the table above. You also do not need to begin with a greeting such as "Dear Future President" or sign your name at the end. Simply begin with the first sentence of the body of the letter and continue to the end, double-spacing between paragraphs. There is no minimum or maximum length.


As you compose your piece, remember that you can edit, change, and correct your letter until it is ready for publication and your teacher submits it. You can invite other students or adults to read your draft and to collaborate with you or give you advice about your draft. You can also use the editing tools to help you with final editing including spell-check.

Grade: 95 Excellent work. You have some great ideas to solve these problems -Erica Hartman 11/13/08 7:17 PM 

Dear future president,

    Hi I'm Laura Leggiero from New Jersey. I'm writing to address issues throughout the world. Some problems are the homeless, debt issues, and pollution. These issues are important to me because I care what happens to the environment around me. I also care for the less fortunate. Also for people who are in trouble from debt issues I pray that you can get through it with out getting hurt! Please consider these issues.

    One of the problems as you read above is the homeless. I feel very strongly about this issue, although not as strongly as the other two subjects. I think that more people should join groups that make food for the homeless. They should serve the food at what I call them " soup kitchens,". They should also build " money funds," for the homeless. People should do this so that maybe that the homeless can buy stable homes for their families. Or maybe they can get jobs and figure out what their pure talent is!

    The second issue that I'm worried about is debt issues. debt issues are a big problem right now.So to help this problem what should you do? OH! I KNOW! You should lower taxes a teeny bit and even though they are already going down but not by much! Gas Prices need to go down. If these things don't go down soon my middle class family might not be able to pay for my sisters and my college! Then if they go up we are trying to save money for my freshman sisters college bill and we might not be able to go on any family trips in the summer time! That's not gonna be fun at all! All that I can do is stay in my hometown? And maybe go on the occasional trip to New Hampshire?( to go see my family) Well if you want to cut off my fun life then go ahead. The choice is yours.

    My third issue, and the most important on my list. That issue is the big P word! Yes POLLUTION! I know that most people say forget it you'll get the whole world to stop polluting! But, I'm not most people. My friends and I here in New Jersey believe that polluters these days are outrageous! I don't want to stop the world at once! It will take one believer at a time.

    So, as you were reading were you interested? Ask your self this over and over again. Was I interested with this letter? Will I try and consider theses issues as president? If your answer is yes then my work here is done. Thank you for your time.

                                        Your " young in"
                                                Laura Leggiero
Hey Laura what did you mean by " young in"?
and do taxes and the gas prices go together in the same paragraph?