25 Cover Letters
Note: This chapter is an excerpt from Technical and Professional Writing Genres, by Michael Beilfuss, Staci Bettes, and Ketrina Peterson. Some edits made for consistency.
In the era of social media, the idea of writing an application letter to introduce your résumé may seem outdated. However, the application letter still serves several crucial functions. If the résumé is characterized by breadth (giving a broad overview of your qualifications), the application letter is characterized by depth (choosing a few most significant qualifications to cover in detail).
Written in paragraphs rather than bullet points, this letter is the first writing sample your employer will see from you. It offers an opportunity to market your unique qualifications and to show how you will fit with the culture of the company. An effective application letter will create a picture of you as a potential employee and inspire a potential employer to learn more about you.
Keep the following tips in mind as you write your cover letter:
- Your letter is essentially an argument for why you should be granted an interview. Make sure to support the claim that you are qualified for the position with evidence. Don’t just tell the employer how you are qualified, show them with clear, descriptive examples.
- Demonstrate your authority by speaking in detail about your qualifications. It is best to share a specific process or project you were involved in that demonstrates your skills. For example, “As a publication supervisor, I was responsible for print scheduling, assigning designs, and facilitating the overall workflow to produce a bi-monthly consumer magazine.”
- Show the reader you have the skills and abilities necessary to do the job. The more detail you offer and the more precise your language is, the more the reader can picture you doing the job. Do your best to connect your qualifications with the needs of the potential employer.
- Consider your audience carefully as you craft your letter. What is the job listing asking for? What do you know about the values of the hiring individual or organization? Knowing what is important to an organization is not only a good way of connecting, it is helpful to determine whether or not you will be a good fit.
- Conduct additional research to help you connect with the company and to choose the appropriate tone, level of formality, and level of technicality. Browing a company’s website and social media accounts is an excellent way to gain insights into its values.
At some point, you may ask yourself, “Is it worth writing an application letter knowing it might never be read?” The short answer is yes. Some recruiters go straight to the résumé and make an initial decision, while others carefully weigh the information in the letter. There is no way of knowing which will be the case, so you are better off putting your best foot forward every time. A well-written application letter is an opportunity to present yourself well and influence a recruiter, so always take full advantage of that opportunity. It can also be viewed as your first conversation with a future employer, so its quality should be exceptional.
Stand Out From the Competition
When writing an application letter, remember that you have competition. Your audience is a professional who screens and hires job applicants—someone who may look through dozens or even hundreds of other applications on the day yours is received. The immediate objective of your application letter and accompanying résumé is to attract this person’s attention. The ultimate goal is to obtain an interview. As you write your application letter, strive to complete three tasks:
- Catch the reader’s attention favorably,
- Convince the reader that you are a qualified candidate for the job, and
- Leave a lasting impression
Deciphering the Job Description
Sample Job Description
Entry-Level Sales
- Develop recruiting strategies designed to identify qualified candidates through various recruiting tools.
- Evaluate candidates’ strengths compared with clients’ requirements by evaluating, screening, and interviewing the candidate.
- Negotiate wage rates and other terms and conditions of employment with candidates and gain commitment from candidates for current and future job requirements.
- Complete necessary pre-employment processes, including reference and background checks and drug tests.
- Work with account executives to identify top accounts, client skill sets, and key market segments, and to assess clients’ staffing requirements.
- Interact effectively with others to create a productive team environment.
- Communicate with peers by sharing recruiting best practices and providing accurate, thorough documentation on contract employees in our applicant-tracking system.
- Maintain relationships with industry contacts to provide customer service, gain industry knowledge, and get referrals and sales leads.
- Have a bachelor’s degree or related sales or recruiting experience.
- Be available to work before and after typical office hours as work may demand.
- Possess strong written and oral English communication skills.
- Be familiar with Microsoft Word and MS Outlook (or similar e-mail applications).
- Have work experience in a service-oriented business.
- Reflect a desire to learn and advance in a fast-paced sales environment, and be capable of regularly using good judgment and discretion to accomplish goals.
- Be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer.
Sample Deciphering Process
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree
- Able to work flexible, long hours
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Computer literate
- Desire to learn in a fast-paced sales environment
- Good judgment
- Discretion
- Authorized to work in the U.S.
As you compare your abilities and credentials to your list(s), ask yourself how closely your qualifications match the items listed. Do your skills match all of these requirements or the vast majority of them? Highlight the skills that match and consider where you might reference them directly in your job letter. Your next step might involve identifying and writing down any requirements that are NOT stated directly. For example, the job ad seems to imply: that individuals must be motivated, they must have the ability to master the work, and they must have a desire to be a part of the sales team in order to be promoted.
Do not rule yourself out if every requirement does not match. Instead, think of something somewhat related. For example, if you have never worked in a fast-paced sales environment, focus on your desire to learn. Highlight the fact that you have observed fast-paced sales environments and those situations appeal to you. At the very least, you could use the fact that you have always been very proactive in completing tasks as efficiently as possible. Or maybe you have taken a course or two in economics or marketing that might have provided relevant knowledge. In contrast, if you are a strong match for most requirements, generate specific, results-oriented examples to demonstrate these skills.
Oftentimes, you will not have a clear indication as to which skills are more important than others in the job ad, so use your best judgment call. Treat each skill as if it is the most important. For instance, when considering communication skills, have a specific, results-oriented example of your verbal and written skills. At some point, however, you will want to select the three skills you think are most important, match them to your strongest skills, and then write your cover letter. These three skills, if positioned properly, will make the case for why you should be hired.
Cover Letter Format
Format and Structure
- Heading and greeting/salutation
- Introductory paragraph
- Middle paragraphs
- Closing paragraph
- Complimentary close
The heading contains the writer’s address and the date of the letter. The writer’s name is not included; only a date is needed in headings on letterhead stationery. Next comes the inside address, which shows the name and address of the recipient of the letter. This information can help prevent confusion at the recipient’s offices. Also, if the recipient has moved, the inside address helps to determine what to do with the letter. In the inside address, include the appropriate title of respect of the recipient, and copy the company’s name exactly as that company writes it. When you have the names of individuals, remember to address them appropriately: Mrs., Ms., Mr., Dr., etc. If you are not sure what is correct for an individual, do some extra online research and/or consider using the title that the individual prefers. Another standard rule of thumb is to use Ms. if unsure of a woman’s marital status.
The greeting or salutation directly addresses the recipient of the letter and is followed by a colon. If you do not know the recipient’s gender, you may use the full name. Again, the best solution is to do some extra research or make a quick, anonymous phone call to the organization and ask for a name. In some cases, you may address the salutation to a department name, committee name, or position name: Dear Personnel Department, Dear Recruitment Committee, or Dear Hiring Committee.
In the introductory paragraph, you introduce yourself to the hiring manager or recruiter. The paragraph should include these general items:
- Why you are contacting them (to apply for X position—give its specific name).
- How you heard about the position (for example, give the name of the website where you found the ad).
- The date of the ad if applicable.
- What the minimum requirements for the job are, and how you meet them (for example, if the job requires a degree and three years of experience, you will want to mention right away that you meet these requirements).
- Something specific about the company or the job itself that has made you interested in the position (for example, does the company have a good environmental track record? Do they mention on their website that they like to promote from within? Have they won awards? Are they working on any projects that pique your interests?).
| When the Job ad requires… | You might write… |
| Introductory lab experience | During the summer of 2016, I interned for Johnson & Johnson, where I acted as the assistant laboratory supervisor. I was tasked with performing gram stain testing, assessing bacterial antibiotic resistance, and completing routine safety checks. |
| Strong writing skills | During fall of 2019, I took Technical Writing at OSU, where I created documents in the following professional writing genres: emails, business letters, technical instructions, internal proposals, and external analytical reports. |
The middle paragraphs of the cover letter should make the case for why you would be an exceptional hire. Select two to four strengths necessary to excel and assign each strength to a bulleted section or brief paragraph. Boldly indicate your strengths and include your best examples of how you excel at each strength. For a one-page application letter, some candidates have two paragraphs, while others have three. Oftentimes, one of these paragraphs will focus on education and the ways it has prepared the candidate for the position, while another discusses work experience and applies skills learned to the position. Anything listed as a strength in the résumé needs to include visible proof of that strength. For example, if you mention having strong interpersonal skills, be sure to give a concrete example, like writing about a course that required group work to finish a large project. Again, be specific. Show exactly how the event built or showcased the skill you reference.
The closing paragraph should reiterate any major points or takeaways that you want readers to remember. It will likely do the following:
- Re-state your interest.
- Highlight how your strengths mesh well with the required skills.
- If applicable, inform them when you will contact them within a certain time period.
- Invite them to contact you (and include contact information, typically your professional email address).
- Refer them to your enclosed résumé.
- Thank them for their time and consideration.
Concluding Thoughts
- Make a list of your top ten strengths.
- List your top five weaknesses (areas you would like to strengthen).
- Decipher the job description to identify each separate skill and qualification
- Compare the two lists to see if they are in alignment. Also identify the gaps—does the job description list something that you haven’t done?
- Highlight your top skills that align with the job description as you will use them in Other strengths and skills could include (in alphabetical order).
