[Music] welcome to tips for writing effective cover letters by Joshua Pais brought to you in
cooperation with the Purdue online Writing Lab in this vidcast we will offer you a condensed
view of the purpose of a cover letter things you should keep in mind as you draft your
cover letters the functions of various parts of standard cover letters and some advice for what
to do once you finish drafting let's begin by looking at the purpose of cover letters
a cover letter occasionally called an application letter serves as your introduction to a company or
organization its key purpose is to express your interest in and perhaps even more importantly
your qualifications for a particular company or organization it should go above and beyond your
resume meaning that your cover letter should not be your resume in letter form rather it
should extend certain key points in your resume by using concrete examples and linking those
examples to the target company or organization remember you're looking for the company to want
to hire you and a well-crafted cover letter is a great way to sell yourself to that end there are
a couple of things that you'll want to consider before you begin drafting your cover letter first
off the tone that you take is vital you need to sound confident without sounding cocky personal
and personable while still maintaining an air of professionalism to help shape the tone of your
cover letter you should ask yourself a couple of questions before you begin writing first why am
I writing this letter the answer to this one may appear simple you want a job but a cover
letter really does more than that second Who am I writing for and what do I want them to understand
and finally based on your answer to the above you should ask yourself what tone should I use
the tone that you decide to use in your cover letter is an important consideration because it
shapes the way your audience views you to that end you'll want to take on a confident tone
but you'll want to appear courteous and sincere this often means avoiding sounding bureaucratic
or using too many business cliches for example don't say that you're the kind of person that
likes to think outside of the box it sounds trite and contrived besides using a cliche like I like
to think outside of the box shows that you don't really think outside of the box at least not in
your writing you should also place appropriate emphasis on your skills and abilities so if your
strength is in your education then talk about your education first let's say that you've only
had one job perhaps it's not directly related to the job that you're applying for but you're set to
graduate summa [ __ ] laude you've successfully completed advanced coursework in a particular
area and you're also highly involved in your degree programs professional organization it
may be best to put this information first in your cover letter that way to use a cliche you
can put your best foot forward also be sure to use non-discriminatory language so instead of using
words like chairman use chairperson finally be sure that you're writing at an appropriate level
of difficulty you don't want to sound trite and condescending to the person that you're writing
to let's say for example you were applying for a job as an assistant network administrator and
you're writing a cover letter that the senior network administrator or the chief technical
officer will read these individuals are highly educated and most likely are also specialists
in your field you may not want to say something like I also hold a CCSP certification which in
case you're unsure is the Cisco Certified security professional certificate from Cisco Systems this
certificate is the gold standard of certification for a network security specialist your audience
who may have this exact same certification or at the very least be aware of this certification may
find this language to be condescending you could end up alienating your audience and especially
when you're applying for jobs alienating your reader could mean that you'll have to settle in
for a longer job search and finally this one is of particular importance be sure to stress the
value for your reader to be frank they don't care if the position is a good match for you
they care about how you'll benefit them and their company or organization for example if I'm an HR
manager for widgets incorporated and I post a job listing saying that I'm looking for a person that
has experience conducting negotiations with other international companies I don't want to read the
statement I really love to travel and working with people from all over the globe what I want
to hear is I've completed advanced coursework on international business management and the
principles that I've learned in this course work has prepared me to handle the unique environment
that I may encounter when conducting negotiations with your companies or organizations business
partners now all of this means that you need to keep your audience in mind keeping your audience
in mind means two closely related things first don't use boilerplate cover letters you'll most
likely be applying for numerous similar positions but with different companies or organizations
you shouldn't use the exact same cover letter for each application packet that you send out
each cover letter should be carefully crafted and personalized to the company or organization that
you're applying to so you should do your homework on the company or organization that you're
applying to you should at the very least research their website and look for their mission statement
and their core values if you can try talking to someone that works for the company or organization
to see what their corporate culture is like using terms the company or organization is familiar with
may help you to personalize the cover letter even more with this background in place let's
look at a sample cover letter to see how it works the first thing that you should notice now that
we're looking at a sample cover letter is that this cover letter has been written in a block
format that is everything a single spaced except for an extra space between paragraphs you should
also notice that everything is left justified that is everything is flush with this left margin
you'll notice that this cover letter begins by giving the sender's contact information in
this case the contact information includes the person's name mailing address phone number and
email well this may also appear on your resume and other application documents you need to
include it here as well after the sender's contact information we see the date the letter was written
and the receivers contact information notice here that this does not include the receivers
phone number or email address it's important that you start your cover letter off with an
appropriate salutation use something professional for our purposes dear followed by the person's
name and a colon will do don't attempt to get too flashy here were you risk alienating your
reader from here let's look at the letters first paragraph the introduction here you'll want to
get your reader's attention and introduce yourself you'll notice that this person makes a connection
with their reader by mentioning that they talked with someone who has already participated in the
program that they want to be a part of the writer then explicitly says that they're interested in a
particular position they say after speaking with Emily Richards about her past summer in
the internship program I'm very interested in your human resources summer internship
position the writer goes on to show why they are interested in the position what's special about
the position that drew them to it I worked with employee benefits this past summer and became
very interested in the human resources aspect you'll notice that this introduction ends with
the writer mentioning how they will help the company or organization they say I've obtained
many leadership opportunities while working as a business writing consultant assistant
coordinator at Purdue's Writing Lab that would be valuable in a career at widgets incorporated
after the introduction you'll notice that this writer goes on to talk about the skills that
they possess and how these skills will benefit the target company or organization throughout
the body of this letter the writer provides concrete examples of their skills like when
they say my position as a boiler Gold Rush team member also challenged me to use my
enthusiastic personality to motivate incoming freshmen to be involved in campus activities
it's important here to use concrete specific examples not generalizations
this person also continues to show their own interest in the company this strategy
is a particularly good one because it shows that even if you're applying to other places
this particular company or organization is the place that you want to make home
to wrap up this letter this individual mentions what they want the next step to be and provides
their contact information again these are both effective strategies to show your dedication
to the application process and to reinforce the idea that you have and to show that you'll bring
a certain energy with you should they choose to hire you to formally close the letter you'll
notice that the writer chooses the relatively standard yet professional ending sincerely this
closing is often the safest bet since you want to maintain a polite and professional tone this ripe
event signs their name please note that after the signature block you have some options you
could always repeat your contact information but that's up to you you could just sign your name
and finish by referencing the other documents that you're sending along now just because
you've written a letter doesn't mean that you're finished be sure to proofread edit and revise the
document very carefully your cover letter may be the only way that you have to establish an
identity with and to leave a lasting impression on the person that will be reading the cover
letter the last thing that you want to do is to have them think that you're the kind of person
that doesn't pay attention to details also go through and make sure that you've maintained
an appropriate tone throughout and that you've appealed to the company or organization's core
values another thing to consider doing is to put it down for a few days and to come back
later and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes along those lines if you can get someone else
to look over it for you you may be able to get even more feedback if you need further assistance
you should visit the Purdue online Writing Lab and examine the information and examine
best of luck with your applications this has been a presentation of tips for writing effective