Completing a Cover Letter
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. Some examples are, the me-approach, the Rhetorical question approach, I-know-what-you-need approach, and the in-your-face approach. These approaches focus on how you want to come off to your employer and at the same time have the attention grabbing factor. In a cover letter when expressing your interest in a job it is important that your employer believes you are capable as well as have the right attitude.
Like resumes, cover letters should differentiate according to the job you are applying for. In "Junk Cover Letters Kill Good Resumes" the author is an advocate for quality cover letters and believes that one reason employers might not read cover letters is that there is so many junk ones out there. In this article the author asks questions that one should think about when producing a cover letter such as, Does your cover letter include specifics?, Does your cover letter use select key terms and phrases?, etc. These are questions you should ask to improve your cover letter.
Remember, Cover letters should not repeat what is said in a resume, but expand on it.
Evan White
Umm...
I think that you might need to reread Kairos because I think you misinterpreted the styles. The reading presented those styles as ways not to write your cover letter. It urged that you make an effort to not waste your time trying to perfect one of these approaches. You should tailor your style and tone to the tone of the job ad. While the examples of what not to do that where given in the Kairos reading are overly exaggerated it is important to remember that you have to make sure you are writing your letter to suit the companies needs and not your own.
I understood
I understand when you say that the styles presented in Kairos are incorrect, but I think what you should say is that the examples are incorrect. The styles present are ways that one can go about in formatting a cover letter. I do agree that Kairos does over exaggerate these styles and in doing so makes them ineffective ways to present your resume; however, the styles are seen present in the correct examples at the top of the page, they are just a bit more subtle. Like you said, change your cover letter to suit the company you are applying for. Different styles allow you to express the same information, it is just presented differently. Just don't go over the top like the incorrect examples.
cover letter styles
I think that many of the styles presented in the reading "Kairos and the Cover Letter" were exaggerated examples of what recruiters don't want. I don't think they want a cover letter that points out how special you are, instead I think according to the readings this week you should try and make sure your cover letter shows more about what you have to offer the company instead of what the company can do for you. By showing how you can help the company and including information about the company, I think it will give your cover letter and resume a much better chance at standing out from the rest.
Patrick Griffin
pgriffin@purdue.edu
Yay Future
The styles presented in “Kairos and the Cover Letter” were exaggerated, but one could not help to think that someone out there has actually submitted that to a company as their cover letter. They were there to help us realize the basic potholes involved with writing our cover letter. I thought that section spoke to me as I could imagine others saying that. It made me laugh and will prepare me for the workplace in the next couple of years. Hopefully my fellow classmates will never write that way as I feel they are all educated individuals. When reviewing their cover letters I hope they do not let me down.
Jeff
Approaches
I think part of the approach that you take with your cover letter comes from your personality. I know there are some of us who wouldn’t use one or the other type of approach because it just isn’t us. It wouldn’t seem right to just take that approach. I think the fact that you chose one approach over another gives a description of you more than you realize. Sure you may use different approaches depending on the position that you are applying for but I think a lot is said about how you feel about the position from your approach.
-Chris