written task idea- Letter to russian president putin

[jessicalovay]

So, i need advice on how to write an open letter.

my written task is to write an open letter to Russian president putin regarding the violence in Russia against the gay community, and to ask him to remove these laws. it is an open letter, so it means it is written to the specific person but also intended for publication. it is cultural because it refers to the traditional values clashing with the more liberal values about gay people. it is supposed to be persuasive, however it must also be diplomatic.

could you please help me in terms of knowing what type of language to use, and some key points for my body paragraphs?

[anselmina]

Hello,

I am assuming this written task is in fact the the lang lit IA and not some casual work?

In that case I think you have chosen (or have been given) a good, current topic. However I would strongly advise you to develop it further a bit.

Who has written the letter? A certain organisation or an individual person? What is the perspective of the writer of the letter to the issue? All this will influence the tone and diction of your letter, as well as the arguments used. As you must understand for instance an official statement from a human rights organisation would have a totally different style in than an ironic, mocking "letter" to Putin, never intended to be sent to him.

The second question is where you'd want this open letter to be published. In a certain newspaper? Online, and if so on which website or in what kind of blog? This should also influence the style and especially the underlying values. For instance the Daily Mail would work for a letter with more simplified, popular angle, whereas The Guardian is suited a well-informed, liberal message that analyses the social and human rights issues. As the WA is a media assignment, it is crucial that it is actually supposedly from an actual media source and that you make it very clear what that source is.

If you manage to narrow down your topic by being aware of these two important prerequisites, you should already be well set for the actual letter. Here are some arguments I think you could use:

1. Discrimination of gays is an infringement of basic human rights

2. By allowing discrimination to take place, Putin is destroying the little modernisation that has taken place in the Russian society

3. It will injure Russia's relations with other countries, which haven't been that great to begin with

As to how the arguments of the letter should be organised, I'll leave you to figure that out by yourself. It will be good practice for every single IB exam you'll write

I hope this helped,

cheers from Finland,

Anna

[jessicalovay]

Thank you so much! i feel like you have given me some guidance for my written task. the idea of the letter being from the UN human rights organization is great. i will definitely use that. also, i think ill make it an open letter that would be intended for publication in the daily mail. thank you for the suggested points to talk about, i deeply appreciate your help.