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Introduction: Begin your letter with a brief introduction in which you clearly and explicitly state your position on the issue, i.e. your thesis. What you want the official to do should be immediately clear
Arguments: You should then proceed to the main body of your argument. Carefully lay out the different arguments that you are using to support your overall argument/position. These arguments can be practical and/or moral arguments. That is, you can argue both that the selected policy is either ethical/unethical, moral/immoral, but you can also argue that the policy is either short-sighted/well- planned, effective/ineffective. These are just examples; feel free to make whatever arguments you feel make your case the strongest. Note! An effective paper will clearly articulate more than one argument on a number of different grounds.
Evidence: For each argument you make you must make sure to back it up with facts. It is not enough to state your position, you need to convince the reader that you are right, and the way you do this is by demonstrating the validity of your position with evidence. In other words, you need to prove your point. If you think a certain policy is the right policy, why do you think it is right? Show the evidence on which your arguments are based. Your paper does not need to be overly burdened with evidence, but without evidence, your opinion is just one opinion among many, and not necessarily any better than anyone elses.
Counter-arguments: At the end of your letter, you should briefly state, and refute, the strongest counter-arguments against your position. Do make sure to choose the strongest ones, and make sure to come up with effective refutations, as they will likely occur to your reader anyways, and this gives you a chance to argue against them. The bulk of your paper will be arguing your own position, but a small portion of it requires you to explain and argue against your opponents position.
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