Write an Open Letter to a specific individual or group designed to advocate for change or reform
Open Letter. For this option, you will write an Open Letter—i.e., an extended appeal to a specific individual or group, designed to advocate for change or reform.
The writers we have encountered in this class often have a mission or political agenda driving their work. Part of that mission is to speak up on behalf of those without a voice in society (e.g., marginalized or vulnerable populations; people who have been discriminated against, or who have had to endure a certain form of injustice or abuse; people living in poverty; unprotected animal species; etc.).
But beyond just exposing various crises or conflicts in their work, these writers advance the need for various reforms in society. That is, their work is a “call-to-action.” It challenges the status quo. It seeks to uproot social and cultural norms.
Put simply, this is literature as advocacy.
What is an “Open Letter”?
For this assignment, you are asked to write an open letter.
Unlike private letters, open letters are written for widespread consumption, and so tend to be published either in newspapers or on the Internet.
Open letters are typically addressed to famous people, such as politicians (e.g., “An Open
Letter to Justin Trudeau”), or to well-known business leaders (e.g., “An Open Letter to Bill Gates, or, …to Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg”). Alternatively, one might write an open letter to a specific corporation (e.g., Coke, Nike, Fox News); to an industry (e.g., Hollywood, Tourism); or to a certain group or organization (e.g., doctors, law enforcement, educators/teachers, etc.).
Open letters—just like the genre of literary protest, in general—have a mission or direct political intent. They are a strategic act—i.e., designed to accomplish a certain end. In other words, the writer uses their work to make a public appeal to a certain individual or group, calling for reforms, calling for change.
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