The Cover Letter
Regardless of what you call it, this document is meant to answer the questions all potential employers will ask of you:
- Why do you want to work for my company?
- What skills can you bring to the job?
- Why should I hire you rather than someone else?
- How can you make my company even more successful?
To be persuasive, the job application letter must do more than rehash or repeat the information on your resume. It is meant to add dimension to the information you can only list on the accompanying document. It serves to explain, expand upon, discuss, give examples of everything your resume can only touch upon.
According to Anderson, a good application letter has three basic parts:
- An Introduction
- A Qualifications Section
- A Conclusion
To ensure that your letter is as impressive as it can be, follow Anderson's advice about how to handle each section.
Cover Letter Introduction
The best way to begin every application letter is to say
| I would like to apply for the position of __________. I am a senior at _____________________ majoring in ________________. |
Wrong!!!
Although this sort of introduction is easy to remember, it's also weak, boring, and overused--not to mention slightly robotic in tone!
Instead, opt for an introduction that will show you know something about the company to which you are applying and about the kind of job you can perform for them:
- Applaud some "accomplishment, project, or activity" with which you know the company has been involved (Anderson 44). This doesn't mean you should exaggerate or sound insincere--I was thrilled to learn of your company's advancements with the Techni-Bond application process!--but rather that you should show interest in and awareness of the company's primary activities.
- Apply for the job by indicating your desire to help assist the company in future accomplishments like the one you just mentioned. This can be done in a single sentence or a couple.
- And just in case you missed it the first time, APPLY FOR THE JOB. Sometimes writers get so busy praising the company's accomplishments and figuring out how they can link themselves to similar activities that they forget to actually apply for a job.
Here's an example of a solid introduction that does all 3 things:
| While reading the August issue of Automotive Week, I learned that you needed to shut down your assembly line for only 45 minutes when switching from making last year's car model to this year's model. This 500 percent reduction in shutdown time over last year is a remarkable accomplishment. As a senior in manufacturing engineering at Western University, I would welcome a chance to contribute to further improvements in the production processes at your plant. Please consider me for the opening in the Production Design Group that you advertised through the University's Career Services Center. |
(Anderson 45)
Remember: the key is to make your letter more impressive than the 45 (or 450) other letters that will also cross that employer's desk.
Why is the introduction so crucial to that goal? Think about the last video you rented. Either the first scene of the film impressed you and you continued watching it--or it didn't, and you stopped.
That's the same function the introduction of your letter will perform: either it will impress, or it won't.
Cover Letter Qualifications Section
Aha--you think you don't have anything to put here, right? Well, if you do a little more thinking, you'll probably realize that you have far more qualifications--abilities, special projects, and the like--than you initially realize
In this section you want to avoid simply rehashing in paragraph form the information presented on your resume (this implies that your reader can't understand it by himself or herself!).
Instead, there are several basic organizational approaches you can take to this section:
Organization 1 Experience + Education |
Organization 2 Job Experiences |
Organization 3 Education |
Organization 4 Specific Skills |
Focus a paragraph on educational experiences that define/explain your skills. Focus another paragraph on experiences that define/explain your skills. |
Spend a paragraph or 2 on specific job-related experiences. | Spend a paragraph or 2 on your educational experiences. | Spend a paragraph or 2 on 1 specific skill. Spend another paragraph on a 2nd skill. Add a 3rd paragraph on a 3rd skill if you want. |
No matter which organizational pattern you choose, you should always plan to be concrete: give specific details and explanations. You have to provide proof to support your assertions regarding your having x skills. Why? Well, your mother might be confident that you're the most trustworthy, conscientious child she ever saw, but if you tell a potential employer that "I am conscientious and trustworthy," you'd better be able to prove it! What evidence can you provide? What examples would indicate your conscientiousness? Your trustworthiness? Beyond that, employers are more impressed with concrete and applicable skills: writing, organizational, editing, managerial, technological, and the like.
These are easily proven skills:
| My two years of experience as a newspaper reporter not only honed my writing skills (meeting deadlines with near-perfect prose was a must!), but built my abilities to edit the work of others, to design documents in a manner that would be pleasing to readers, and to keep my composure under pressure. |
More smart advice: Be confident in tone but not cocky. Especially when you're talking about your abilities, there's a fine line between the two, so you have to ensure that you're not crossing it. Aim for a level of diction between formal and informal. "Formal" diction like longer, more complex words that sound formal and businesslike and "intelligent" are far less likely to impress than you might think (sure, they'll prove you own a thesaurus, but what's the use in that?). And informal diction--using slang terms or being overly familiar in your addressing of the reader--will suggest that you don't know how to adapt to a businesslike environment.
For example, compare these "qualifications" sections:
| I am more than certain you will be able to ascertain from my resume, which you will find herewith enclosed, that my impressive academic and employment records indicate the value I can have to your company if I am hired as a public relations writer. |
| I think I have the brains, the background, and chutzpah to make your public relations staff the best in the business--hands down! Give me a topic, any topic, and I can get to work on that sucker like a dog takes to water. |
| What skills can I bring to your public relations department? First and foremost, I can bring to you the writing experience gained through five productive years as a Public Relations Assistant at Southwest Community College. While there, I produced nearly every kind of business document you can imagine, from traditional "hard copy" press releases to on-line news articles for our college web site. What's more, the college's 1998 annual report--which I researched, wrote, and designed--won first place in that year's Eastern Community College's Annual Publication Competition. |
The bottom lines: don't rehash the resume. Be specific. Provide proof. Be confident but not cocky. And don't rehash the resume.
Cover Letter Conclusion
Remember writing that essay in ENGL 1105 or 1106? You wrote that fantastic introduction (hey, it even had a thesis!), and the body of the paper itself--well, it was a wonder of concrete evidence. But then you got down to the conclusion, and you . . . simply had . . . nothing more . . . to say . . . So you wrapped that sucker up in a hurry and hoped the teacher would be so tired of reading that stackers of papers that a weak conclusion wouldn't impact your grade.
Unfortunately, it probably did.
And a weak conclusion could likewise impact the way that potential employer reads your cover letter. Make sure that in your conclusion you do things like:
- Thank the reader for his or her consideration,
- Reiterate your key skills,
- Request future contact (interview, telephone call, etc.)
- Provide complete contact information (including email address + best times to call so you two don't play phone tag!)
Should you do all of these things? That's up to you, but some of them--like the "thank you"--indicate common courtesy, so do think about including them. And some are logical and helpful to the reader, like the contact info and request for further contact, so they seem to fit. Beyond that, it's up to you, but make sure that your conclusion is as impressive and confident as the rest of your letter:
| I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you in person about what contributions I can make to your public relations team. I can be reached at (333) 333-3333 Monday through Friday from 1-6 p.m. Thank you for your consideration of my application. |
Listed below are links to good & bad cover letters: