English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Note: Remember that the deadline for final drafts is Friday, February 20, at midnight.

In addition to the specific feedback about your cover letter that was emailed to you by your instructor, Nathaniel and I would like you to be aware of these general points.

1. Use Instructor Blog #3: Cover Letters as your main guide. It provides an explicit structure that will help your cover letter meet standard conventions.
2. Make sure your first sentence states the cover letter's purpose. Many students began by stating that they were Purdue students. This is possibly important information, but consider your document from a reader's standpoint: is this the most important thing to say right at the beginning? Commonly, cover letters begin with a clear statement that you are applying for a specific position that you encountered in a particular location. For example: "I am writing to you to apply for [position] at [company] in response to your advertisement posted on [place you found the job ad]."
3. As Instructor Blog #3 states, your opening paragraph should establish a clear structure for the paragraphs that are to follow. A good practice is to identify a few specific skills (based upon the needs identified in the job ad) that will control the sequence of the rest of the letter. (Three is a common number.) For each specific skill you identify, you should have a corresponding paragraph that demonstrates through concrete examples that you posses this skill and that it will benefit your prospective employer.
4. Also as Instructor Blog #3 states, you want to clarify in your opening why you are interested in this particular job and company and not just any job and company. Avoid generic language in your opening, because it is so crucial to the document. (It is, in essence, your first impression.)
5. It is important to frame your employment in terms of benefit to the company rather than need. That is to say, discuss what you can bring to the company, but not how you will be able to fix their glaring flaws. (This is the "I-Know-What-You-Need" approach warned against in the "Kairos and the Cover Letter" reading.) This is often done unintentionally, but it creates a more aggressive tone than you probably want. (Again, put yourself in your reader's place. Do you want someone telling you how flawed you are and how only he or she can fix you?)
6. Similarly, make sure that your focus is on your benefit to the company, not on their benefit to you. (This is the "Me" approach warned against in the "Kairos and the Cover Letter" reading.) Don't end your opening with a statement such as: "I am interested in joining your company because I believe it will give me the opportunity to hone my skills as I work my way toward becoming a [whatever]." Remember that your audience isn't that interested in what they can do for you; they want to know what you can do for them. This is less true when applying for internships, where you will want to also demonstrate how the internship fits into your development or education.
7. Make sure that you directly ask for an interview in your closing. You want to prompt a specific action in your reader.
8. Also in your closing, as Instructor Blog #3 states, you want to reiterate your suitability for the position using language that is similar to that used in the opening. Don't introduce anything new in the closing; recap your case. Think of this as your closing argument in a trial (we've all see movies and television). You're not introducing new material—you're demonstrating what you've proved.
9. Formally, we strongly encourage you to use the same header on your resume and cover letter. This is called branding, and, as Instructor Blog #3 points out, it "makes documents look uniform and professional, and makes contact info easy to find." This means that it would be a good idea for you to revise your header such that it works well on both documents. Part of the way you brand yourself is through visuals, and your content is also a key component (so that you become "the airplane engine person" or "the guy who worked on the Hoover Dam" or "the woman who got her college newspaper on CNN"). You have to establish a specific identity or brand for yourself, and this should manifest in form and content.
10. Also, don't justify your text. This makes it difficult to read. Use left alignment on your text. (Some people may have been confused because the peer review form mentions "block format." Block format actually doesn't have to do with text alignment; it means breaking your content into separate but related blocks.)
11. The last bit of advice is to read your draft as the most ungenerous reader you can imagine (or ask someone to read it with this same mindset). Don't assume that your reader is going to give you the benefit of the doubt. This will help make your document bulletproof.

We have attached to this post a few cover letter samples from the class with our comments about them (minus the prospective grade, of course). These drafts have problems and are not perfect, but they do give us some ideas of what we are looking for in the cover letter.