Writing:Issues sections for Congress

Main article: Congress Project writing guidelines

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United States Congress News desk • Guidelines

This page is a content-and-style guide about how to write an Issues section for articles about Congress.

The Issues section may include a variety of information. Because of this, it is usually best to break the section down into subheadings.

Subheadings

Common "Issues" subsections include:

Political positions

This subsection may cover political philosophy and ideological perspective in addition to more specific issues the candidate focuses on.

Campaign themes

This subsection includes a candidate's campaign themes.

• Campaign themes are usually listed on his or her campaign website, sometimes under an "Issues" or "Platform" tab. In addition, news articles will sometimes list one or two campaign themes for a candidate. Be sure to reference the source or sources.
• Use bullet points for each issue.
• Summarize the candidate's stance in unbiased language. Be as brief and specific as possible, given the information available.
• You may use direct quotes from the politician's website, but be sure to use quotation marks and references.
• You do not have to include every issue listed on a politician's website. Instead, you may choose some of the issues and introduce the bullet points with "According to (politician's) website, his/her campaign themes include:"

Sponsored legislation

This subsection includes important legislation a politician has sponsored.

• You can search the Library of Congress's THOMAS for legislative information, including a search of bills sponsored by each member of congress.
• You do not need to include every bill sponsored by an individual.

Presidential preference

This subsection lists the politician's endorsement for president.

Note: Percentage vote with party used to be included in the Issues section but now belongs in the Analysis section.

Usage

Here is some basic text to use in some Issues subsections: ==Issues==

===Political positions===

NAME's political philosophy is BLANK.<ref>[INSERT LINK ''NAME campaign website'' "TITLE," Accessed DATE]</ref>

===Campaign themes===

According to his/her website, NAME's campaign platform includes <ref>[INSERT LINK ''NAME campaign website'' "TITLE," Accessed DATE]</ref>

Examples

For example "Issues" sections:

• Michael Capuano#Issues
• Deb Fischer#Issues
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers#Issues

See also

Suggest a link

• Congress Project writing guidelines
• Overall congress project