Cover letter writing tips

in an active job search, your cover letter and resume should complement one another. Both are tailored to a particular reader you have contacted or to a specific job target.

To help you create the “best” cover letters for your resumes, this part of the articles mentions and debunks some common myths about cover letters and presents tips for polishing

the letters you write.

Myths About Cover Letters

1. Resumes and cover letters are two separate documents that have little

relation to each other. The resume and cover letter work together in present

ing you effectively to a prospective employer. The cover letter should mention

the resume and call attention to some important aspect of it.

2. The main purpose of the cover letter is to establish a friendly rapport

with the reader. Resumes show that you can do the work required. The main

purpose of cover letters is to express that you want to do the work required.

But it doesn’t hurt to display enthusiasm in your resumes and refer to your

abilities in your cover letters.

3. You can use the same cover letter for each reader of your resume.

Modify your cover letter for each reader so that it sounds fresh rather than

canned. Chances are that in an active job search, you have already talked with

the person who will interview you. Your cover letter should reflect that conver

sation and build on it.

4. In a cover letter, you should mention any negative things about your

education, work experience, life experience, or health to prepare the

reader in advance of an interview. This is not the purpose of the cover let

ter. You might bring up these topics in the first or second interview, but only

after the interviewer has shown interest in you or offered you a job. Even then,

if you feel that you must mention something negative about your past, present

it in a positive way, perhaps by saying how that experience has strengthened

your will to work hard at any new job.

5. It is more important to remove errors from a resume than from a cover

letter because the resume is more important than the cover letter. Both

your resume and your cover letter should be free of errors. The cover letter is

usually the first document a prospective employer sees. The first impression is

often the most important one. If your cover letter has an embarrassing error in

it, the chances are good that the reader may not bother to read your resume or

may read it with less interest.

6. To make certain that your cover letter has no errors, all you need to do

is proofread it or ask a friend to “proof” it. Trying to proofread your

own cover letter is risky, even if you are good at grammar and writing. Once a

document is typewritten or printed, it has an aura about it that may make it

Best Cover Letter

Relying on someone else is risky, too. If your friend is not good at grammar

and writing, that person may not see any mistakes either. Try to find a proof

reader, a professional editor, an English teacher, a professional writer, or an

experienced secretary who can point out any errors you may have missed.

7. After someone has proofread your letter, you can make a few changes

to it and not have it looked at again. More errors creep into a document

this way than you would think possible. The reason is that such changes are

often done hastily, and haste can waste an error-free document. If you make

any change to a document, ask someone to proofread it a final time just to

make sure that you haven’t introduced an error during the last stage of compo

sition. If you can’t find someone to help you, the next section gives you

on how to eliminate common mistakes in cover letters.