Mission Statement & Background Information
Swing Writers is a project to promote opinion articles and letters to the editors in newspapers and other print media in swing states to remove President Bush from office, and push for a Democratic-controlled Senate in 2004. With so much at stake in this election and beyond, this is an effort to create of community for civic engagement-- basically, if you're a writer, editor, or an ordinary person looking to influence this election, this site is here to help you learn the basics, get editing help, etc. Moreover, you don't need to be confined to supporting the Kerry campaign; personally, I'm from the ABB camp and think that people in non-swing states like New York and California should cast protest votes for left-leaning candidates and more generally that the Democratic Party is just now starting to emerge from being in shambles. The point, though, is that you should be able to use this website and the swingwriting@yahoogroups list and website to get tools and constructive support for pushing forward a progressive agenda through writing.
For the purposes of the Presidential Election component of this project, swing states are defined as: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. There are very competitive Senate races in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, South Dakota. And finally, there are very competitive House races from Texas to Connecticut. For more and more up-to-date information on all these, visit: http://www.mydd.com/outlook/senate, http://www.mydd.com/outlook/house for Congressional election information and http://www.electoral-vote.com and http://www.race2004.net/ for Presidential election electoral college maps and projections (based on current polling). For discussion, analysis, etc., http://www.swingstateproject.com, and http://www.dailykos.com are good websites.
The initial project is focused on getting maximum impact while working on the idea that people who are connected to the place or community they are trying to influence will have the most effect. So, if you happen to be a freelance writer originally from Colorado, recently moved to San Francisco, and have contacts to get an article in to the Denver Post, by all means go for it and we'll help you with editing your pitch letter, article, and what not if you want. If you happen to be a schoolteacher who lives in a small city in Iowa and is interested in writing a letter to the editor to your community newspaper, we'll help with that too. The point is to use the resources and tools available to you and to speak to your own community. As an example of what to try to avoid (although not always avoidable): if you're a born-and-raised New Yorker, pitching an article to a large newspaper in Oregon when you're totally unfamiliar with the issues there is probably a bad idea-- not because it would be impossible to get it in, but because said article would be more effective coming from someone who actually knows what matters to people in Eugene, Portland, etc. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to do something like that-- for instance, I (as said New Yorker) might write some articles for local community papers in Pennsylvania after doing some research on what issues are most important in those communities because there likely isn't going to be anyone else writing. In short, there's something for everyone to do.
In any case, we hope to have sample pitch letters (the letters/e-mails you send to editors to try and get an article in a newspaper/magazine), articles, and other things as we develop. Those will be located at the Yahoogroups page, so if you haven't signed up for that yet, by all means do so (link above). You can subscribe to the list by sending an e-mail to swingwriting-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Last of all, the basic rule: If you're editing, writing, whatever, be nice! This means, be constructive, be patient with people who have less experience than you, and above all, frame your message in a way that doesn't demean your audience.
Happy writing!
For the purposes of the Presidential Election component of this project, swing states are defined as: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. There are very competitive Senate races in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, South Dakota. And finally, there are very competitive House races from Texas to Connecticut. For more and more up-to-date information on all these, visit: http://www.mydd.com/outlook/senate, http://www.mydd.com/outlook/house for Congressional election information and http://www.electoral-vote.com and http://www.race2004.net/ for Presidential election electoral college maps and projections (based on current polling). For discussion, analysis, etc., http://www.swingstateproject.com, and http://www.dailykos.com are good websites.
The initial project is focused on getting maximum impact while working on the idea that people who are connected to the place or community they are trying to influence will have the most effect. So, if you happen to be a freelance writer originally from Colorado, recently moved to San Francisco, and have contacts to get an article in to the Denver Post, by all means go for it and we'll help you with editing your pitch letter, article, and what not if you want. If you happen to be a schoolteacher who lives in a small city in Iowa and is interested in writing a letter to the editor to your community newspaper, we'll help with that too. The point is to use the resources and tools available to you and to speak to your own community. As an example of what to try to avoid (although not always avoidable): if you're a born-and-raised New Yorker, pitching an article to a large newspaper in Oregon when you're totally unfamiliar with the issues there is probably a bad idea-- not because it would be impossible to get it in, but because said article would be more effective coming from someone who actually knows what matters to people in Eugene, Portland, etc. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to do something like that-- for instance, I (as said New Yorker) might write some articles for local community papers in Pennsylvania after doing some research on what issues are most important in those communities because there likely isn't going to be anyone else writing. In short, there's something for everyone to do.
In any case, we hope to have sample pitch letters (the letters/e-mails you send to editors to try and get an article in a newspaper/magazine), articles, and other things as we develop. Those will be located at the Yahoogroups page, so if you haven't signed up for that yet, by all means do so (link above). You can subscribe to the list by sending an e-mail to swingwriting-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Last of all, the basic rule: If you're editing, writing, whatever, be nice! This means, be constructive, be patient with people who have less experience than you, and above all, frame your message in a way that doesn't demean your audience.
Happy writing!
posted by someone else at 8:27 AM
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