English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Since I have never really needed to write a cover letter before, I found this weeks readings very helpful. I know I probably would have ended up doing some of the things that the reading said not to do. The most important aspect about writing your cover letter, in my opinion, would be to make sure that you tailor your cover letter to the company you are applying to. If you know something about how the company works and the business ethic within the company than you can write your cover letter to accommodate these factors.

Although some believe cover letters are unimportant waists of paper in the hiring process, they can be used to work to your advantage as a person looking for employment. A resume that woos the employer should be accompanied by a cover letter that does the same. The readings express the importance of a legitimate cover letters as well as what to do in writing your cover letter. "Kairos and Cover Letter" focused on the approach you choose in your cover letter.

While applying to many companies, I have never produced a letter to send with my resume. There are not too many people I know who have written cover letters while applying for a job. The readings were very useful with providing information on creating a good cover letter to accompany your resume.

Before if an ad asked for a cover letter I wouldn’t have applied. I thought a cover letter was just a useless piece of paper required by companies. Besides who a why write one when no one was going to read it. However after reading these articles, for the first time I see the cover letter as a useful enhancement instead of something useless required by a job.

Based on the tone of the instructor blog on cover letters and a thread on the home page, the issue on how to formulate a resume and/or cover letter seems to be at least partially resolved. That is to say, focus your documents with regard to your situation and the primary reader with a certain level of empathy towards that primary reader.

In the reading “Kairos and the Cover Letter” I learned how important it is to craft a cover letter that is very specific toward the employer and the specific job position. I also leaned from this reading the different styles in which a cover letter can be written. I personally feel that I would be most comfortable using the “Me Approach” in my cover letter. I will describe my skills and my eagerness for the job all using the “Me Approach”.

The biggest thing I took from this week’s readings on writing your cover letter really taught me how situational factors can affect writing your resume. I will admit, I haven’t reached that 50 resume count, nor have I surpassed one. So sitting somewhere in cyberspace on my computer is your average generic cover letter that will work for almost any company, in the most negative way that is! So after reading these articles, I found it absolutely to approach this with a new mindset. First and foremost, do your research.

Just like other people, I also do not have very much experience when it comes down to writing cover letters. After reading through all the material provided I have a much better understanding about what it takes to create a well written and well composed cover letter. One interesting aspect that I stumbled upon while reading the instructors blog was, using the same header that was used in the resume as the header for the cover letter.

Having never written a cover letter before, I really spent some time pouring over this week’s readings, finding some useful tips and some disappointments. For a change, I actually found some of the questions posed really helpful. The two I found the most helpful from the Thompson handbook were “Why am I interested?”, and “How am I qualified?”. Being a little in the dark about cover letters up to this point, answering these two questions really helped me to see where I needed to go.

After reading the selected reading on tailoring your cover letter, I found it to be informative and helpful. The selected readings proved strategies in detailing ways to direct your cover letters to fit them appropriately towards a job ad. In the reading from “Kairos and the Cover Letter”, it discusses different approach methods to consider when writing a cover letter. One example in this reading stresses the importance of tailoring to the specific position described in the ad. This example provided insightful tools on tone and direction to consider in the “clincher” or opening paragraph.