How To Write An Effective Manifesto

o Writing a winning manifesto can capture the imagination, and more importantly, the vote of your fellow students! 

o Your manifesto is your chance to let the electorate know more about you and what you stand for. Your manifesto, and photo, will be the only things many voters will know about you when they are in the process of voting.

What is a manifesto?• ‘A public declaration of policy and aims.’• The key document used to publicise yourself

throughout your campaign.• Somewhere to succinctly highlight your key plans.

Why is it necessary?

• You need to know why you want to be elected.• You need to be able to tell students why they

should vote for you.• 200 key words not only allows the Manifestos to

fit in the Courier, but also helps you remember your main points, and helps you share them effectively (500 words for the website submission).

What should it say?• The main point of a manifesto is to earn you

votes.• Therefore, yours needs to state what you want to

achieve if you are to win the election.• Make sure you keep the student voters in mind

whilst writing your manifesto. • Your manifesto should be based on evidence from

students on what they want or what their issues are – if you are campaigning on a list of things that only you want, nobody will vote for you

Top tips• Speak to students – find out what they want. • Look at recent research into student opinion – see the

resources in the Candidates pages for some summaries of surveys that might be useful

• Create a list of aims, but pick no more than 3 or 4 key points to concentrate on in your manifesto.

• Remember to keep the position you are standing for in mind, as well as what will be involved in that role.

• Explain why your aims will have an impact, not just what you want to change.

• Avoid writing your manifesto as one long paragraph.

• Don’t write anything that isn’t true. • Think about why YOU would vote for someone

and keep that in mind when writing to get others to vote for you.

• Say something different. • Don’t use jargon or acronyms that only a minority

of students will understand.• Make sure you aren’t making empty promises.

Your aims should be achievable.• Create snappy titles for your aims and be concise

with the description.

• Make sure you tell people a bit about yourself, i.e. what course are you doing? Have you been involved with the Students’ Union before?

• Make sure people know which position you are running for.

• Don’t forget to tell people to vote for you!

Your manifesto will help with..

• Candidates Question Time. There will be an opportunity to give a 20 second pitch outlining your aims.

• Lecture shout outs.• Emailing students.• ‘GOATING’ (Go out and talking). • Your manifesto speeches. They work best when

tailored to target your audience.

Task • Write a list of ideas• Pick 3 key aims from your list that you would like

to be in your manifesto• Describe why these are important and how they

will improve your representatives’ student experience

• Is there something unique on your list?• Are they achievable? • Can you write them in a few words?• Tell us about yourself – relate to your voters

Key info• You MUST submit your manifesto to

generaloffice.union@ncl.ac.uk before 10am on Friday 5th February 2016

• Your manifesto should be no longer than 200 words, but also not much shorter.

• It should be a Microsoft Word document, in Times New Roman font, size 12.

• Make the subject of your email, and save the document, as your name, the position you are running for and the word MANIFESTO.

• You can use bullet points, capitals, bold font and italics.• Submit a passport sized photo, hi-res and on a white

background, alongside your manifesto to go in The Courier.