Editing The Pen Addict 416/transcript (section)

== Ink Color Advice ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' He says, as you both hypothesize, avoid those bright inks, like orange, red, or green, or anything too light to scan. He says he would avoid black because it can look like a robo letter, but it's probably fine. Dark blue would be perfect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, and he says, just from a reading perspective, with controversial issues, public offices historically gauge constituent views by creating one stack of letters in favor and one stack against. And this is done virtually these days. And the stack, which is largest, usually gets the most attention. So he's saying, be clear up front with your issue because it's going to get sorted into the pros and cons stack or the for and against stack. And the stack, which is the greatest, will receive the most attention. He says cursive or printing, whichever is super easy to read, and personalize it as much as possible. So, you know, it's be sure to make it sound personal, like it's coming from a person and not like a robo printed type of thing. So that was most of John's feedback. Oh, right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like not like a form letter.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So it's good. Like, so it sounds to me like, you know, one side, dark blue ink, start off with I'm writing because of this serious issue. And then at some point, maybe say, you know, I appreciate what you did at X event, right? So you can have a little bit of personalization into it as opposed to just robo type of letter stuff. So that was very cool. So that was John's feedback. This is Eric's feedback. And I really enjoyed this one because Eric has been a legislative staffer. He said, and he didn't say if this was at the DC level or at the state level or city level exactly. But he's saying, I've been in my legislative offices of staff. Any handwritten piece went to the member's desk. One page, two page tops stick with letter size or executive. I had one member that got a 20 page handwritten letter letter, but that guy is probably the only one I've worked for that would ever actually read it. Stick with white or cream paper. Though cream kind of pops in the office since most paper is basic, your basic white copy paper. I know you and Myke like colors, but stick with black, blue or blue black. So I think that's pretty much a given at this point. We're using probably blue.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel vindicated in that. Yeah. I said blue or black.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think we totally agreed on that. Yeah. And then obviously avoiding, you know, shimmers and smells and all that stuff. And he would lean towards a document archival type of ink, just in case the mail gets wet. Stylistically, this is from Eric, and this kind of goes with what John says. Keep the arguments tight. Don't meander. There's a lot going on in the office. So concise with a little pith may help keep things fresh in the member staff memories. If your handwriting is small, you know, make sure it's legible. And, you know, it's just, you know, most of the stuff we have already mentioned. He says, because of my profession, folks also often talk about contacting elected officials around me. And I always recommend a handwritten letter. I've deleted and shredded lots of form emails and letters. I have never not placed a handwritten item on the member's desk or in their read immediately stack. So that's a good point to take, right? Like the handwriting part really does stand out against the C, but you also have to take the handwriting part correctly. All right. Next one. And, oh, no, I forgot their name. They're going to kill me. I didn't copy it correctly. This one, Myke says, greetings from Washington. So this was another one to take into account writing like the big officials in D.C. If you're going to write a handwritten letter, you should be seeking to replicate a typed letter as much as possible. Organized, well-spaced, legible, professional language. Concise text with a specific ask. Like vote against this bill. Prioritize this issue. Dark non-shading, non-shading inks are perfectly acceptable. So this is the same type of idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And they are also talking about how there's downsides of sending physical mail because they don't necessarily receive it. It'll usually get scanned, put into digital forms. So they made the point that the lower down the political ladder you get, the less sophisticated mail operations are. And the more likely it is that your representative is dealing with mail manually. So keep writing to your state and local officials. So I appreciate that. And whoever sent that, I apologize. This one's got a link, Myke, that I did not put in the show notes yet, but I will because this one comes from a current submarine sailor in the United States Navy. I'm wondering if it's our friend that we met out in San Francisco.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He's linked to the Department of Navy Correspondence Manual, which I will put into the show notes. It has some good tips that I've used in the past to write state reps, though it seems that the concern was to write the federal government. So this is a good form. I will add it into the show notes here momentarily. So look in our show notes for if you want to check this out. And last one on this topic. Thank you for everyone who sent in this stuff. And I think we're kind of all working on the same page. This one is from Catherine. I just want to point out that Catherine says, and a lot of people said, thank you for another fabulous podcast. You notice how I don't edit out those parts in these emails, Myke. I just, you know, we got to lift ourselves up sometimes. So she was glad to hear the question about writing to government officials. And let's see. She says, Emily Post is a great resource on how to address various public figures. The Corporation for National and Community Service has a handy PDF checklist for a traditional letter. Alternatively, the craftivist philosophy, which I hadn't heard before Catherine mentioned this, is to infuse a letter with care and personality in an effort to truly connect with the recipient. So everyone who has given us feedback is saying, you have to be personal. You have to be direct. And you have to be, make your ask. And you have to do it quickly, right? These are short notes that you really need to be sending, not long diatribes. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, and this is a good point that she put in here. Regardless of stylistic choices, it's a good idea to share an image of your letter on social media to amplify the message and encourage others. So she sent me a link that she wrote to Mayor de Blasio in New York City, put it on, not only sent the handwritten letter, took a picture of that handwritten letter, posted it on social media and then tagged the office as well. So I thought that was a pretty neat idea. So what's your take on all these? I think we got, I think we have a pretty solid grasp of what we need to do based on all this feedback, wouldn't you say?