Tips for covering letters
Tips for Polishing Cover Letters
You might spend several days working on your resume, getting it “just right” and free of
errors. But if you send it with a cover letter that is written quickly and contains even one
conspicuous error, all of your good effort may be wasted. That error could be just the kind
of mistake the reader is looking for to screen you out.
You can prevent this kind of tragedy by polishing your cover letter so that it is free of all
errors. The following tips can help you avoid or eliminate common errors in cover letters.
If you become aware of these kinds of errors and know how to fix them, you can be more
confident about the cover letters you send with your resumes.
Using Good Strategies for Letters
1. Use the postal abbreviation for the state in your mailing address. .
2. Make certain that the letter is addressed to a specific person and that
you use this person’s name in the salutation. Avoid using such general
salutations as Dear Sir or Madam, To Whom It May Concern, Dear
Administrator, Dear Prospective Employer, or Dear Committee. In an active job
search, you should do everything possible to send your cover letter and resume
to a particular individual, preferably someone you’ve already talked with in
person or by phone, and with whom you have arranged an interview. If you
have not been able to make a personal contact, at least do everything possible
to find out the name of the person who will read your letter and resume. Then
address the letter to that person.
3. Adjust the margins for a short letter. If your cover letter is 300 words or
longer, use left, right, top, and bottom margins of one inch. If the letter is short[1]
er, you should increase the width of the margins. How much to increase them is
a matter of personal taste. One way to take care of the width of the top and bot[1]
tom margins is to center a shorter letter vertically on the page. A maximum
width for a short cover letter of 100 words or fewer might be two-inch left and
right margins. As the number of words increases by 50 words, you might
decrease the width of the left and right margins by two-tenths of an inch.
4. If you write your letter with word-processing or desktop-publishing
software, use left-justification to ensure that the lines of text are read[1]
able and have fixed spacing between words. The letter will have a
“ragged” look along the right margin, but the words will be evenly spaced hori[1]
zontally. Don’t use justification in an attempt to give a letter a printed look.
Unless you do other typesetting procedures, such as “kerning” and hyphenat[1]
ing words at the end of some lines, full justification can make your letter look
worse by giving it some extra-wide and extra-narrow spaces between words.
Using Pronouns Correctly
5. Use I and My sparingly. When most of the sentences in a cover letter begin
with I or My, the writer may appear self-absorbed, self-centered, or egotistical.
If the reader is turned off by this kind of impression (even if it is a false one),
you could be screened out without ever having an interview. Of course, you
will need to use these first-person pronouns because most of the information
you put in your cover letter will be personal. But try to avoid using I and My at
the beginnings of sentences and paragraphs.
6. Refer to a business, company, corporation, or organization as “it”
rather than “they.” Members of the Board may be referred to as “they,” but a
company is a singular subject that requires a singular verb. Note this example:
New Products, Inc., was established in 1980. It grossed more than a
million dollars in sales during its first year.
7. If you start a sentence with This, be sure that what This refers to is
clear. If the reference is not clear, insert some word or phrase to clarify what
This means. Compare the following lines:
My revised application for the new position will be faxed to you by noon
on Friday. This should be acceptable to you.
My revised application for the new position will be faxed to you by noon
on Friday. This method of sending the application should be acceptable
to you.
A reader of the first sentence wouldn’t know what This refers to. Friday? By
noon on Friday? The revised application for the new position? The insertion
after This in the second sentence, however, tells the reader that This refers to
the use of faxing.
8. Use as follows after a singular subject. Literally, as follows means as it fol[1]
lows, so the phrase is illogical after a plural subject. Compare the following
lines:
Incorrect: My plans for the day of the interview are as follows:
Fixed: My plans for the day of the interview are these:
Correct: My plan for the day of the interview is as follows:
Better: Here is my plan for the day of the interview:
In the second set, the improved version avoids a hidden reference problem—
the possible association of the silent “it” with interview. Whenever you want to
use as follows, check to see whether the subject that precedes as follows is plu[1]
ral. If it is, don’t use this phrase.
Using Verb Forms Correctly
9. Make certain that subjects and verbs agree in number. Plural subjects
require plural forms of verbs. Singular subjects require singular verb forms.
Most writers know these things, but problems arise when subject and verb
agreement gets tricky. Compare the following lines:
Incorrect: My education and experience has prepared me…
Correct: My education and experience have prepared me…
Incorrect: Making plans plus scheduling conferences were…
Correct: Making plans plus scheduling conferences was…
In the first set, education and experience are two things (you can have one
without the other) and require a plural verb. A hasty writer might lump them
together and use a singular verb. When you reread what you have written, look
out for this kind of improper agreement between a plural subject and a singu[1]
lar verb.
In the second set, making plans is the subject. It is singular, so the verb must be
singular. The misleading part of this sentence is the phrase plus scheduling con[1]
ferences. It may seem to make the subject plural, but it doesn’t. In English,
phrases that begin with such words as plus, together with, in addition to, along
with, and as well as usually don’t make a singular subject plural.
10. Whenever possible, use active forms of verbs rather than passive forms.
Compare these lines:
Passive: My report will be sent by my assistant tomorrow.
Active: My assistant will send my report tomorrow.
Passive: Your interest is appreciated.
Active: I appreciate your interest.
Passive: Your letter was received yesterday.
Active: I received your letter yesterday.
Sentences with passive verbs are usually longer and clumsier than sentences
with active verbs. Passive sentences often leave out the crucial information of
who is performing the action of the verb. Spot passive verbs by looking for
some form of the verb to be (such as be, will be, have been, is, was, and were) used
with another verb.
In solving the passive language problem, you might create another, such as
using the pronouns I and My too frequently (see Tip 5 in this list). The task
then becomes one of finding some other way to start a sentence while keeping
your language active.
11. Be sure that present and past participles are grammatically parallel in a
list. What is true about parallel forms in resumes is true
also in cover letters. Present participles are action words that end in -ing, such
as creating, testing, and implementing. Past participles are action words that
usually end in -ed, such as created, tested, and implemented. These types of
words are called verbals because they are derived from verbs but are not strong
enough to function as verbs in a sentence. When you use a string of verbals,
control them by keeping them parallel.