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.
It is mentioned in all of the readings that the name of the potential employer or HR worker be mentioned. Although, overdoing this would probably sound slightly cheesy, as are some of the “Approaches” outlined in the Kairos article. I doubt I'll be using the Rhetorical Question Approach and probably not the I-Know-What-You-Need Approach. The Me-Approach seems like it is more generic and somewhat conservative compared to the others. I would use this style of cover letter if I were applying to a back-up company or one that I didn't exactly have all of the necessary credentials for. Of course, my default would be the In-Your-Face style or combo it with the other one-I'm usually quite confident in my abilities to be able to pull this one off.
The body section can be a great way to expand on certain experiences listed on the resume. This is a great way to introduce plenty of key words and add lots of detail. However, I'm still slightly disgruntled at the seemingly over-emphasis on the intro and conclusion paragraphs. Once again, the issue is brought up (although much more subtle for cover letters than for resumes) that readers simply scan the document. Alas, this ties back to the idea of 'giving the reader what they want', but it may be possible to construct the intro in such a way that makes the body paragraphs completely irresistible.
Body Section of a Cover Letter
The body of my cover letter was what I most looked forward to while I was drafting it. All the resume tips tell you not to include too much detail in your experiences but the body of the cover letter was a way to expand and hopefully pique the recruiter's interest in your as a potential candidate. I'm not sure if I agree with the reading saying that a lot of times the cover letter is just scanned like the resume. Personally, I believe that the cover letter is actually read and taken into more account than the resume because you can tell a lot more about a person from their cover letter(i.e. writing tone, grammatical errors, etc) than from a resume. People generally spend so much time on their resume and very little on the cover letter. More of a person's true self is likely to come through in a cover letter.
RE: Body Section of a Cover Letter
In a sense, the cover letter often does get more concentrated attention than the resume, but the catch is that usually the cover letter isn't read at all until the resume has survived one or two cuts. You have identified precisely why: it takes more time and focus to read a cover letter than it does to scan a resume. We did the Resume Extravaganza activity and were able to filter about 40 resumes in 10 minutes. Imagine trying to do that with 40 cover letters in the same time frame. So the curious thing is that despite its name, the cover letter is rarely read first, and sometimes not at all unless the resume does its job.
Scanning the Cover Letter
Yes, I would think the cover letter would take more time and focus to read them, but one could scan them just as easily. As students, many of us can scan books and documents looking for the juicy bits that will help us on a test or help us write a paper. (Of course I am not saying we do that for this class) Why not scan a cover letter looking for the good parts? In fact we sometimes have to make scanable resumes for the computer to read, why not do the same for cover letters? It could detect bad grammar, poor spelling, and look for key words.
Jeff
Re: Body Section of a Cover Letter
I have quite a different outlook on cover letters. It is my understanding that cover letters often go unread and, as covered by jtirrell above, they are usually only read if the applicant’s resume survives the preliminary scans. Actually, in “Junk Cover Letters Kill Good Resumes,” Teena Rose suggests that “the rumor is that approximately 40% of cover letters aren’t read. Furthermore, although you might be able to provide extensive detail in the cover letter, you should not rely on any of that to help your application as it will often go unseen. If nothing else, I strongly disagree that the “cover letter is taken into more account than the resume.” To me, the resume is one of the most important aspects of applying, second only to the interview.
Maybe go without
I think a cover letter could also be a double edged sword. If you have a good strong resume without a cover letter, yours may be thrown out as the only one without one. Another scenario could be that you have a great resume and a poor cover letter. They employer might have called you for an interview had it not been for the cover letter. This could be a situation that would hurt you. I know it goes without saying that if you do include a cover letter, it needs to good, because that’s a whole page of stuff that a potential employer can find he doesn’t like. I think if you can not make a strong, convincing cover letter, it would be better to do without.