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Written by: Tracy P. Miller
Editor, Publisher
TearTaylor's Career Corner
Need help creating a cover letter? Well, I'm going to share some useful tips in pulling together cover letters pretty quickly.
First, I want to start out by mentioning that there are two types of cover letters: solicited and unsolicited. Solicited cover letters are usually sent in response to job ads and unsolicited cover letters are usually sent by ingenious jobseekers sniffing for positions that are not yet posted with newspapers, magazines, and or other employment sources.
The first part to better understanding a cover letter is being able to dissect it. Please keep in mind that the letter itself consists of various parts, each with its own distinct purpose (see sample dissected cover letter), but for this discussion, we'll only focus on the following sections: declaration or opening paragraph, guts or background paragraph(s) and follow-up or closing paragraph.
The Declaration Paragraph
If you've ever examined solicited cover letters up close, meaning if you've had the chance to analyze their similarities and differences, you've probably observed that they share three common ingredients. The first ingredient or area that I'm going to cover is called the declaration paragraph. In this opening paragraph, the writer usually includes information of the following kind: 1) states interest in the company, 2) describes the position interested in, and 3) where or what source the position was announced or observed in.
By sticking to this simple building premise, you'll comfortably guarantee that your reader will know the main intent of your letter before even moving onto the second paragraph. Besides, it's always good practice to state your objective right in the first couple of lines of your letter. If you'll allow this simple building rule to govern your letter's creation process, you'll help to ensure your readers will be able to smoothly track the course of your documents and also aid readers, in this case specifically staffing directors, to quickly weed out misfiled or misdirected cover letters.
Now, to give you a small hand in developing your cover letter's introduction, I've included what I believe to be some useful illustrations below. I chose these examples especially, because I noticed them popping up, in one variation or another, quite regularly in different cover letter manuals, at career sites and also by students who had attended my past job letters workshops.
Introduction Paragraphs:
The Guts Paragraph(s)
The second area that most cover letters share is called the guts paragraph(s). This part of the letter is usually used to outline the job applicant's skills or capabilities. This is where most applicants describe their strengths/talents or what sets them apart from other applicants. For recent college graduates or those with few to no professional experiences, they can list experiences tallied through school affiliations and/or volunteer work experiences. For example, if the jobseeker was the editor of his or her school's newspaper or if they founded some business or club while in college, then they could conveniently list achievements/skills acquired working through these particular organizations.
Now, to help give you some small ideas on how to go about wording or rather developing your own guts section, I've provided examples below of paragraphs that were extracted from two different cover letters.
"Guts" or Background Paragraphs:
The Follow-up Paragraph
The next paragraph or the third area that cover letters share is known as the closing or follow-up paragraph. This paragraph is usually used to explain how the hiring person can contact the job applicant or how and when the applicant will contact the employer being considered. The closing paragraph is also frequently used to thank the hiring person for reviewing the resume and/or cover letter.
Similar to the other paragraph types already discussed, I've provided examples of possible closing paragraphs just below. In developing your final paragraph, please try to keep these examples in mind.
Summing Things Up
As you can see, cover letters are pretty much like combining pieces of a small puzzle. You just stack one piece on top of the next and another piece on top of that and wallah! You have your letter. Well, actually I'm oversimplifying things here a bit, but I think you get the gist at what I'm trying to get at, which is, there's always an unspoken order in the layout of information for cover letters.
Now, before closing this article, I'm going to recap what we've learned, which, again, is that solicited cover letters are constructed using: declaration, guts and follow-up paragraphs. Also, just because you might've fortunately counted three paragraph types here, in this lesson, doesn't necessarily mean that your cover letters will always consist of just three paragraphs. There are instances where cover letters will consist of four, five or even more paragraphs.
Some writers are just a lot more winded than others. They feel compelled to provide a lot more examples of their capabilities or accomplishments. Some even believe that more words on a page can help to better demonstrate their superior writing skills to potential new employers, but despite the number of paragraphs you ultimately end up with in your cover letter, you should routinely look to provide the following information:
1) Declare your interest in the position
2) Describe what special skills/talents you bring to the position
3) Explain when you plan to follow up with the employer
Well, that's it! This wraps up my tips on assembling cover letters. Again, it's kinda like stacking one piece on top of the next of a small puzzle or maybe even of a short Lego system.
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This article is © 2003-2005 by Tracy
Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author
and may not be reprinted for profit.