How To Write Effective Letters to the Editor

Congressional offices pay close attention to letters to the editor, because it helps them keep their fingers on the “pulse” of their constituents, districts, and states. This training explains why writing letters to the Editor (LTEs) can be a powerful form of advocacy and how you can get started.

/topics/media-relations

Why write letters to the editor (LTEs)?

• Members of Congress, and their staff, pay attention to local media — especially when it mentions them by name.
• Published LTEs validate climate-related topics as important to constituents. The newspaper prints letters it considers “newsworthy" and they are a great way to let our elected leaders know the things we’re concerned about and the action we want them to take.
• Having opinion content published also give us a platform for getting issues and information we care about to our wider communities. Separately, the volume of letters submitted indicates the communities’ level of interest. Therefore, just by submitting a letter, even if it’s not your best effort, it signals the newspaper that this is an important topic in the community. If you can, encourage other CCL volunteers to submit letters as well.

Where to start

• Newspapers print letters responding to their news stories or about local issues that interest readers.Look through your local newspaper – or scroll through the online version – to find a recent story relating to climate extremes, storm risks, energy, or relevant Congressional action. 
• If there isn’t one, you can start your LTE with why tonight’s topic(s) is newsworthy or relevant to your communilty.
• Plan to write 150-250 words or the word count requirement set by your newspaper.

The LTE formula

• Reference a climate change, extreme weather or energy story in your local paper, or detail what you’ve experienced in your own community.
• Explain why your topic is an important issue that can’t be ignored. State what’s at stake if we don’t solve it. Share your concerns and talk about why this topic is important to you. 
• Make a call to action: e.g. urge your member of Congress to act to protect constituents from wildfires, climate extremes, and soaring energy costs and to advocate for clean energy.
• Close the circle. Circle back to the beginning of the letter and what it is you started writing about. 

If you need some ideas of what to write about in your letters, you can reference our resource of suggested LTE topics. 

Important tips

• CCL’s approach is nonpartisan and respectful. We encourage our elected officials to do more on climate. Refrain from demonizing others and keep in mind that you’re responding to a story as a way of introducing a different point of view. Try not to lecture.
• We can be urgent (later is too late) but also highlight how climate solutions are benefiting us, our community, and state. 
• Climate change is human-caused and can be human-solved. We can choose a future free of pollution; a stable climate with clean air, better health, good jobs, and a thriving economy. Ensure that your message will ultimately bring hope, not dread. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot says the human brain is built to associate forward action with reward, not with avoiding harm.
• Our desired audience for LTEs are our members of Congress, but they’ll also be read by the general population.  Some tips for good messaging:
  • Explain simply what causes climate change, for example: “Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels stays in the atmosphere, causing the planet to overheat dangerously and exacerbating extreme weather.” 
  • Communicate that the science is settled on climate change: “Scientists agree it’s real, it’s us, it’s serious—but we can do something about it.”  
  • Do say: Pollution, overheating, extreme weather, costing people too much, the hottest year on record.
  • Avoid jargon: Decarbonization, net zero, anthropogenic, greenhouse gasses,  carbon footprint, 1.5 degrees, 100 year storm.
• Timing is important. The sooner you submit a letter in response to a story or opinion piece, the more likely it will be published. With daily newspapers, for example, an LTE received within a day or two stands a far better chance of appearing than one submitted later.
• Mentioning your member of Congress by name is important as is, espousing the values that resonate with that particular office or his/her constituents (e.g., for conservatives: free-enterprise, market distortions, accountability, liberty, purity and job creation; for liberals: environment, social justice, fairness)

Submitting your LTE

• Check the submission requirements for your local newspaper.
  • What’s the word count?
  • Is there an email address or a form for you to submit it?
  • Feel free to send your LTE to more than one local newspaper (unless they state that they will not publish submissions that have been submitted to other publications).
• If you have time, submit directly to your newspaper, especially if you already have a personal relationship with your local editor. You can also use CCL’s online LTE tool to email your letter to the editor to multiple papers in your region. Once you enter your address and zip code, the system will give you a choice of local papers (we encourage you to write to one at a time unless you know the same article you are responding to appeared in multiple papers). Letters will be sent via email to the public email address for letters to the editor for that paper. 

Group support

• CCL Communications hosts a monthly workshop to support CCL volunteers with writing letters to the Editor (LTEs). The workshop takes place on the second Wednesday of every month at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.  It includes a 5-minute training to get you started, a 20-minute period of focused time off-camera to start writing your letter, and then a chance to discuss your draft or ask questions.
  • Register at this Zoom link for this month’s workshop:  https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0rfuuqpzsqHdMFm9orxjmFq2P7xiQd3Pc9#/registration
  • We host this workshop every month on Zoom. 
  • The call features our successes, a quick training, focused time to write, and lots of moral support! Participants have a great success rate and are often published  🎉
• If you would like feedback, editing or proofreading support, the Writers Circle Action Team offers a place to get feedback and support from other CCL writers, no matter where you’re located! You are invited to: 
  • Share drafts of pieces you are working on
  • Ask for constructive feedback on your work
  • Offer constructive feedback on others’ pieces
  • Swap writing tips, inspiration, or other general writing advice
  • Share writing opportunities with other writers
  • Celebrate successes of published pieces

Elevate your success!

When you get an LTE published:

• Promote your success on social media! Share the link or a photo on your chapter’s social media as well as your own.
•  Tag your members of Congress. 
• Ask other people to share and amplify it!
• Log your action in the Action Tracker. 
• Consider sending a thank you email to the opinion page editor.
• Send a copy of the letter with the link to your district’s CCL liaison so they can forward the letter to your member of Congress.

Questions? Please reach out to CCL's Communications & Media Manager, Charlotte Ward, at charlotte.ward@citizensclimate.org

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Instructions for printing this page on CCL Community.

• LTE Topics Resource
• Google Alerts for CCL LTEs Tutorial
• Write Letters to the Editor Action Tool
• Writers Circle Action Team
• CCL’s Published Media (LTE list)
• Log Your Action In CCL’s Action Tracker