Contact the law-making or decision-making body to which you intend to submit your petition. Find out if it has any specific format or procedures for the submission of petitions. You may have to use a certain signature form, have a minimum number of original signers, or turn in the petition to a particular office by a particular date before the committee you want to review your petition meets.
State the request you have at the top of the first page. Include the request at the top of each page of signatures. Briefly describe the situation and what action you want to be taken.
Include facts, incidents and statistics to bolster any claims you make. Cite your references as well. This will lend credence to the arguments you make in your petition and make it more likely that your petition will be seriously considered by those it is meant to influence.
Draw a line under your background and request statement. Design a chart that includes four columns and as many rows as will fit on a page. Label the columns from left to right: Full Name, Address, Signature and Date. You may also want to include a column for phone number and email address. As your signatures and other information will be handwritten, it is important that you make the rows and columns big enough for all of the information to fit in them easily.
Copy several pages of your petition so that you have plenty of room for all of the signatures you can get. Keep your statement at the top of the page short and to the point so that signers can review it in as short an amount of time as possible.