Here at takepart we often urge you to takepart and contact your representatives in the House and Senate to make your voice heard.   However, it turns out there’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to actually tell your representatives in Congress how you feel.   The Consumerist has compiled a handy guide to writing the facypantses in Washington, and it’s quite good.   So let’s take a gander!

First off, we are reminded not to just find form letters and fill in the blanks.   It turns out members of Congress are pretty smart people, and tend to notice if people aren’t really taking the time to individually express their opinions.

Form letters are not an expression of values; they are a show of organizational strength. If the NRA convinces five million people to send letters opposing gun control, it shows that the NRA can muster five million people to action, not that five million people necessarily care about gun laws. Congressional offices know this and generally disregard form letters…Members treat each type of letter differently, but most look for individual letters as a barometer of their district’s concerns.

So you actually may need to take fifteen minutes to write a personal letter to your representative.   Sigh. From here, The Consumerist tells you what goes into, and how to write, your letter, including guidelines to be succinct, polite, and have your facts together.   After you’ve done these things, send your letter ONLY to your three representatives - you’ve got one in the House and two in the Senate (but you knew that already).   Why not carpetbomb all 100 Senators and 435 Members of the House?

Congressional courtesy compels the 434 Members who do not represent the zealot to forward his letter to the one lucky Member who does. This angers the Member’s staff greatly at the expense of any point you are trying to make.

So that’s no good.   There are more guidelines, as well.   Try and address your letter (yes, letter!   No email when writing Congress…show you care enough to pen your grievances, and spend the money to mail it) to the correct staffer that covers the issue, for example.   All and all, this handy guide will help you to get your point across to someone that can actually do something about it.

So takepart and bookmark this handy how-to for next time you want to tell your reps that they’re wasting your tax money.   It can only help.