Dear _____,

Writing an effective manifesto isn’t easy, but it is do-able with some tips and a little bit of hard work. You need to remember to write about something you are actually interested in, write descriptively, and add factual information that doesn’t take away from the personal tone of the manifesto. Be sure to have some kind of unique story or interaction in your writing. You want the audience to remember what you wrote.

The most important part of the manifesto is to write about a topic you are interested in, it will make the writing a lot easier and as a result, stronger. The topic has to be something you can write about in a way that can convince your reader to want to take an action, or try something new because they read your manifesto. If you write about something that your passionate about or have experience with, your readers will be more likely to want to take some sort of action by the end of the manifesto.

A good manifesto doesn’t just stop at writing about something you are passionate about, you need to remember to write in scene and not summary. Summary’s are boring, and don’t provide any incite about the topic the reader is learning about. Scene is what you are after. Scene is more descriptive, and the reader can picture what you are writing about, or even picture themselves in the situation they are reading if you write with scene in mind instead of summary.

Perhaps the hardest part of this Food Manifesto is supplementing your information with cold hard facts from the World Wide Web. You need to remember that the sources you use need to be primary sources. Legal documents, statistics or any original writing are all examples of the primary sources that you need to work on adding to the manifesto.

Not only do you need to find the primary sources, but you also need to weave them into the manifesto in a buttery smooth manner. Don’t just throw in the primary source facts anywhere you please into the manifesto. You want to maintain the personal feel of the manifesto as you tell your own real life examples in addition to adding these primary source facts. Finding the perfect balance of the primary sources and the personal examples is tough, but the right balance will make a good manifesto great, especially when it is backed up with solid factual information. The movie, King Corn, did an awesome job of this by telling the personal side of story of two buddies who decided to grow corn for a year, while still containing tons of factual information about corn and the food that we are buying in the stores that are almost all made from corn. That film did an excellent example of bringing the two elements of the personal stories and the factual evidence together in one medium.

Finally, the end of your manifesto has a lot of room for creativity. You want to leave the reader with a question, an idea, something to do after they read the manifesto, anything that leaves the reader with something to do or think about once they are done actually reading. For example, you are talking about taking time to slow down and enjoy your three meals of the day. Leave the reader with a challenge to take 15-20 extra minutes with each meal that they have. Challenge them to sit down and enjoy. Good Luck young grasshopper.