A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Petition
- Create a petition
- Share your petition
- Act to reinforce or boost the result of your petition
- What do I want to achieve? Is it possible? This is your petition.
- Who can make the change that I am requesting? That individual is your petition target.
- Why should people care about this issue? Tell an interesting story. Your petition is important to you, but who else cares? Enough people to support and spread your petition?
- Write a brief text addressed to your petition target in which you clearly describe the subject matter of your petition and what exactly you are asking him or her to do. Be brief and descriptive.
- Addressee: Do I have the email address of the target of my petition? This will contribute to the success of your petition.
- Data: Do I have enough data and information about the subject matter and the petition target?
This will add consistency and thoroughness to your petition. Keep in mind that you know about the problem, but that others may not.
Read more about gathering and preparing the information
With these two steps taken care of, you can now create your petition.
- Name: Who is this petition addressed to?
- Addressee: An individual with the capacity to make the decision.
- What is it that you ask for? | This is the title of your petition. This is the very first thing people are going to read. Be precise and concrete, and at the same time sufficiently clear and descriptive. As much as possible, do not use more than 100 characters for your petition title.
- Why is this important? Remember that you are looking for support, without which you will not achieve your goal. Tell people why this is so important to you and why they should care about it too. Put your heart and emotions into it.
Double-check it all and click the button to publish your petition.
Now, please sign it and share it! (see the Step-by-Step Guide to Share Your Petition)
Gather and prepare your information, further guidance:
- Explain. Be direct in your explanation of the subject matter. Be clear and objective, and use data as much as possible.
- Ask. Be specific and give details. What is it that you ask him to do ( the addressee)?
- Highlight advantages. Explain the benefits, for all, of your petition being attended to. “All” includes the addressee.
- Highlight inconveniences/disadvantages. If your petition is not attended to, it will be detrimental for everybody. Follow the same argument as in the previous item (advantages), but making reference to the disadvantages of not following through with the petition.
- Urge. Emphasize how urgent your petition is. Ask the addressee to act now, even suggest a deadline.
When possible, use less than 100 characters.
Do not forget about these other suggestions:
- Tell a story!
- Be brief, but also clear and passionate.
- Explain to potential signers why this should also be important to them.
- Ask them to sign your petition now, because it is an urgent issue that cannot wait.
- Highlight the advantages (for all) of your petition being attended to by the addressee.
- Highlight the possible negative consequences of your petition being neglected.
Once you click on the "Create my Petition" button, you must fill in a form with your personal data: First Name, Last Name, Email (your email address), and Password. If you are already a member of CitizenGO.org, you will only need to sign in with your username (email address) and your password.
You have created a petition. You may start sharing it now.
You may also access your petition at any time and edit it.
To access your petition, go to your petition page when you are signed in to your account. You will see in grey a number of tabs at the top of the petition page. Click on the Edit tab to access your petition and make any changes.
Include the text that you wrote to send to your petition’s addressee.
Make sure that: 1) you clearly state the problem and 2) you ask the addressee to act and attend to your petition.
You must already have your text written up (Step 2). Now, you only have to copy and paste it into the section of the Form to which you have gained access through the "Edit" tab.
Double-check your text and make sure that: you have kept it brief, you have used short sentences, and you have used emotions and adjectives (without abusing them).