For my first experiment, I have decided to draft an open letter to President Joe Biden about the deepening national debt crisis. The U.S. national debt has grown significantly in the past two decades, and has especially picked up during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The crisis has become even worse in the past twelve months as the U.S. contends with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current public health crisis has necessitated the passage of stimulus bills to help struggling Americans, which has pushed the federal debt even higher.

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I have discovered some useful information about the open letter through my research. I started out by checking out the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which informed me an open letter is “a published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual but intended for the general public.” This definition helped me determine the aims of my open letter. I plan to write a cordial letter to Biden offering constructive criticism on the issue of the federal debt. I hope this letter will raise the awareness of both my intended recipient as well as the general public about this problem.

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After reading this definition, I proceeded to find more specific information about the open letter. A website called “Letter Expert” offered a lot of good tips. This source distinguished between addressed and unaddressed open letters. I think the former works better for this experiment, since it is more directly intended for a particular recipient. I want my recipient to know that I would like them to read what I wrote. Another thing this source taught me is the importance of avoiding certain “common pitfalls” when composing the open letter, like coming off as too aggressive. These are certainly good things to keep in mind.

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The final part of my research was attempting to determine the length of an effective open letter. I didn’t get a concrete number of pages, but I learned it is very important to be concise (Mind my Business). I will strive to state my points in as few words as possible.