LEO: Literacy Education Online Cover Letter Style

The presentation of your cover letter is as important as the information. Because readers hope to get a sense of you as an individual, you should work to make your letter sound professional, confident, and concerned with the prospective employer's needs.

• Writing like a professional assumes that your letter contains no grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors. Job applicants are frequently "deselected" because of such mistakes: prospective employers want employees who write well; they also assume that if you make careless errors when applying for jobs, you'll make them on the job.

• Adapt a formal tone to promote yourself as a professional.

• Use technical terminology appropriate for the position you seek. Frequently, you can use the job listing or advertisement to determine the terminology that is appropriate.

• Try to downplay "I" and "me" and emphasize "you" instead. When possible, bury "I's," "me's," and "my's"in the center of your sentences. Make your accomplishments, skills, and background the subjects of your sentences, and emphasize what these can contribute to your reader's organization, as the following paragraph shows:

  Another experience which could be readily adapted to the Resource Center is my work as counselor during the past two summers for boys and girls ages 11 to 14 at a United Methodist junior high camp. This rewarding experience involved skills such as creativity, leadership, listening, and one-to-one and group communication. Although children in this age level are quite different from those in the nursery school group, I found once again that treating the campers with respect and care fostered cooperation and growth.

  This strategy is challenging -- particularly if you're trying to vary your sentence structure so it's not repetitive. But letters in which most sentences start with "I" or "My" sound very self-centered, not exactly the image of self most job applicants want to portray.

• Use concrete, specific language so that readers get a good sense of what you've done and who you are. This means using strong, active verbs to describe what you've accomplished. Some active verbs commonly used in resumes and cover letters appear in this list:

  adapted administered advertised advised aided analyzed answered applied arranged assessed assigned audited collaborated completed communicated compiled conducted coordinated corrected counseled created delegated designed

  determined developed directed edited employed established evaluated expanded guided headed hired identified implemented improved increased initiated introduced led managed negotiated operated ordered organized

  originated oversaw planned prepared produced programmed raised rated recruited regulated researched revised scheduled served settled sold solved started supervised systematized taught trained wrote

• When you have finished writing, reread your letter to check for tone. Make sure that you sound confident rather than cocky or unsure of yourself. Also, as you read, try to imagine what sort of personality readers will see in your letter, and revise until your language matches the image you want to project.

More general information -- General Resume Tips -- offers an overview of resume writing, including explanations of the major areas on a resume, writing tips, and sample resumes.

For questions and suggestions, please e-mail us at leolink@stcloudstate.edu.