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Writing an Effective Cover Letter
When you put together a resume, you can work with just phrases, clauses, and lists. The common writing dangers are misspellings, errors with capital letters, wordy phrases.When, however, you write a cover letter, you are somewhat obligated to write sentences than hang together in several paragraphs in a meaningful sequence. To write sentences and paragraphs is to enter a minefield filled with all of the potential errors and stylistic weaknesses that an individual with good communication skills can make. And many people who try to write a cover letter do make such errors - often unknowingly.
To write well, you need to know why you are writing, the reader(s) to whom you are writing, what you want to say, how you want to organize what you say, and how you want to say it. Similarly, to write a good cover letter, you should know clearly its purpose, content, organization, and style. The following tips, or strategies, should help you consider these aspects of cover letter writing. Consider using some of these strategies to ensure that your letters are impressive, even outstanding - and thus get the attention you deserve.
Purpose Strategies
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1. |
Put a subject line
near the beginning of the letter to indicate the target
position you are seeking. |
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2. |
Consider writing
the cover letter so that you can use it also as a
marketing letter in which you make your job interests
and availability known. |
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3. |
Consider marketing
your services aggressively in your letter. |
Content Strategies
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1. |
If your name
is unfamiliar or difficult to pronounce, consider
putting an aid to pronunciation in parentheses
after it. |
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2. |
When you
are short on professional work experience to
qualify for a position, consider related personal
and voluntary experiences that may qualify you
for the job. |
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3. |
If you are
responding to a job that has been posted online,
include the reference number. |
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4. |
If the intended
reader of your resume suggested that you send it,
or if you have recently spoken with the person, say
this in the first sentence of the cover letter. |
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5. |
At the end of
the letter, consider keeping control of the follow-up
by indicating that you will phone later. |
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6. |
If you have an
impressive success story to tell about previous work
experience, consider telling the story in your cover
letter. |
Organization Strategies
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1. |
Consider restating
important themes at the end of the letter. |
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2. |
Try a change in
format for a change of pace within a letter. |
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3. |
For a change,
try presenting the information in your cover letter
in ascending order of importance to give the impression
that the information gets better and better as one
reads the letter. |
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4. |
Consider expressing
interest in an interview in one paragraph and saying
thank you in another. |
Style Strategies
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1. |
Strive to make
your cover letter hard to ignore. |
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2. |
If you want to
speed the tempo of reading a cover letter, try using
a series of short paragraphs. |
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3. |
Use a combination
of bullets and boldfacing for information you think
the reader must see. |
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4. |
Try to make each
paragraph fresh and free of well-worn expressions
commonly found in cover letters. |
From Gallery of Best Cover Letters, by David F. Noble, Ph.D., © 1999. Used with permission of JIST Publishing, Inc.
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