State Legislative Wrap-Ups

As each state’s legislative session ends, we will be “wrapping up” the session in a brief, 1-2 page article that will be posted on our blog. Unlike our bill summaries, these wrap-ups will be more creative in nature and you may utilize your own personal writing style. They will not contain bulleted highlights but instead will be written in paragraph format in the same manner as a news article. Keep this in mind as you write.

Each wrap-up should contain the following sections:

1. An introductory paragraph, which identifies major themes or key issues that were addressed by the legislature during their session (i.e. legalizing gay marriage, addressing certain federal regulations, trimming the budget).
2. A paragraph with basic session information: how many state representatives and senators are there, what is the party breakdown, how long was the session (from start date to end date), how many bills were introduced/passed/signed by the Governor (if you can find this information easily), and any other information that you think might be interesting or relevant.
3. 2-3 paragraphs containing brief descriptions of bills that were introduced during the session to address the key issues that you identified in the introduction. You need not limit yourself to our Key Votes that we’ve selected and summarized, but you should try to include these whenever possible and link to the summaries. You may also include ballot initiatives, if any. These can be found on our website here: http://www.votesmart.org/elections/ballot-measures. Finally, don’t forget to check the Public Statements section of our website: if any elected officials have talked about bills or issues publicly, you may quote them and link to their statement on our website. You can also link to that official’s biographical page so that our readers will easily be able to access that person’s information if they don’t know who he or she is.
4. A concluding paragraph that summarizes major actions. In addition to bills that that passed, were signed by the Governor, and will go into effect after adjournment, you may also want to mention major bills that died and will be taken up next time, or bills that were vetoed.

You are free to use any sources that you like to find information including, but not limited to, the PVS website, the state legislature’s website, our press files, and any other relevant news articles that you can find. Try to use sources of information that may reasonably be considered accurate and legitimate, even if they are not strictly non-partisan. For example, using an article from Fox News or Huffington Post would be acceptable; using the comments to news articles, personal blogs, and social networking pages is not.

A few other guidelines:
• Link to other areas of our website as much as possible. To add links, select the bill number (or other appropriate text), right-click, and select “Hyperlink...” from the menu. We’d prefer that you do this rather than muddying the text with a long link, or adding footnotes/endnotes.
• If you choose to draw upon the press file or other news sources, you MUST cite your source using a hyperlink. This must be done in the case of direct quotations AND when you are using information that has been paraphrased from the press. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule, unless the information is clearly common knowledge (e.g. “Rick Perry is currently the Governor of Texas”).
• Before you get started, review our general blogging guidelines on the Wiki, here: http://smokey.votesmart.org:9999/Guidetospeakeasyblog.
• Include your name at the top of the entry and a brief bio of yourself at the end. For example: “Jane Doe is a student at Harvard University majoring in Ceramics and a current intern with Project Vote Smart. For more information on internship opportunities with Project Vote Smart, contact us at intern@votesmart.org or by calling 1-888-VOTE-SMART.”

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