How to start a Petition

So, you planned on writing a petition? Here are some steps you need to follow so that your petition would be a success. It’s sad to see your efforts go to waste just because you missed one important step in making your petition a success so you better make sure you’re doing the right things.

First, it is important that you know the purpose of the petition. If you are not absolutely sure about its purpose then you would find it difficult to answer the people’s questions and if they notice that you’re dumbfounded, they may choose not to sign.

Second, you must follow your local government’s regulation. May it be a petition against a government employee, a public servant or a company, it must still follow your government’s jurisdictions and your petition’s cause must be verified either in your locality or on a higher level, depending on your petitions cause.

Third, you must also ask your local government for a guide so you’ll know how much signatures you would need so that you could send the petition to the persons it must reach. If you fail to consider this step, you may end up starting all over again if you have not reached the minimum required signature and you already brought it to the persons who are the reasons why you started the petition.

Fourth, it’s time to write your petition. Make it brief and direct as people won’t want to waste their time just reading through pages of your petition. If you could iterate the petition’s purpose in one paragraph then so be it. Just make sure that it is straightforward and simple. Try to make it say to the people that they need to support the petition because it would benefit the majority. It must be captivating but not dramatic as no one wants that. The summary must be describing the situation and at the same time it must have the suggestion you have in mind as well as the reason why you think this suggestion is necessary.

Fifth, after you write the petition you must take time to reread what you have written and check for errors. You may be surprised but many people get easily irritated with wrong grammars or misspelling.

Sixth, create enough pages for the signatures.

Lastly, it’s time for you to gather as many signatures as you can. Go out and find the right location where most of the people that should sign your petition would be found. Make sure to post the summary or another version of it on your bench and with the use of signboards. You must get their attention so that you’ll get more signatures. This is the most tiring part of the entire process because it’s what makes your petition a success. It’s in the amount of signatures you gather that will determine whether or not your petition is successful.

That’s it! If you gathered enough signatures you must then forward it to the person or persons that needs to open their eyes and start acting in terms of what the majority had agreed on.

Once you’ve done all of this successfully, you must then wait for their decision while keeping your fingers crossed.

Good luck!

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