Veterans Affairs Project

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien: Follow up Activity

Persuasive letter: Veterans Affairs

Go tohttp://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/mission/meet-a-warrior.aspx.  Read and summarize at least three of the stories.  Record the name of the soldier and any other identifying information and summarize his/her story in at least a paragraph each.  Use your own words or put quotations around phrases or sentences that you copied.

Then, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/ and click on “Issues.”  Click on “Veterans,” and read about what the government has been doing for vets recently.  You may also want to find more information about veteran services on other reliable websites, like http://www.va.gov/   Write paragraph summaries about at least two different programs.

Find a quotation in The Things They Carried that stands out to you about veterans and/or soldiers.  Copy and cite it correctly.  Then, explain its context to the book and what this means to you in a complete paragraph.

Use this information to write a letter to President Obama about caring for wounded vets.  This letter should include information from the soldiers’ testimonies that you read, information that you learned from the White House website, and reference The Things They Carried in a clear way.  This letter should be a minimum of 250 words, and should contain facts as well as your opinion about what the president should be doing for veterans.  Once you have edited your letter so that it is formatted correctly and free of errors, please send it to President Obama by clicking on the “Contact us” button on the upper right hand corner of the White House website.

Checklist:

• Summaries of vet stories
• Notes about veteran programs from White House website and/or va.gov
• Quote and response from The Things They Carried
• Letter that includes:
• Facts from vet stories & from government websites (at least three facts stated and cited correctly
• Your opinion(s) (well-expressed & make sense)
• Clear and relevant reference to O’Brien (cited correctly)
• Facts and opinions correspond and transition in a way that makes sense
• Correct letter format and editing: spelling, capitalization, grammar, etc.
• Persuasiveness and relevance
• Sent to the President