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Cover Letters

Cover Letters and the Job Search Process

A cover letter tailored to the specific job you are applying for gives you the chance to explain your most relevant skills and experiences. In addition, an effective composition strategy can help you demonstrate your attention to detail and your preparedness to recruiters and hiring managers.

 

Basic Formatting

Your cover letter and your resume should share basic formatting. A clean and simple format gives each document ‘curb appeal’ at a glance. Visual cues like font, margin size, and spacing can make an immediate aesthetic impression on your reader, for better or for worse, even before they read a word. For this reason, job search experts recommend showing your mastery of norms and conventions, taking an accessible ‘less is more’ approach to document format, and letting your originality come from your written content.

Here are some formatting tips shared between both your resume and cover letter:

Set Up Well-Balanced Margins

1-inch margins are fairly standard, on top and bottom. However, some guides allow for 0.75 inch margins, or even 0.5 inch margins if it helps your overall document. Make sure left and right margins are the same size, even if you make the top and bottom share a little smaller size, keeping within the ranges suggested above.

Select Left Alignment

The lines of text on your resume should typically be justified using the ‘left justification’ or ‘align left’ setting so that the left edge of the content is flush with the left margin of the document, while the right end varies. Allowing the right end of each line to vary helps with readability compared to, for example, ‘full’ justification.

Balance Your Use of White Space

Filling the page with too much text, on too many lines, that are too close together, with too small margins – all of this can make your resume seem cluttered. On the other hand, too much white space can make it feel sparce. Find the balance.

Header with Contact Information

Your contact information should be located in a ‘header’ field, formatted identically at the top of your resume and cover letter documents, so that it appears on every page. Use the header tool of your word processing program for this. Your name should appear in an enlarged font in this header, with the rest of your contact information in a standard font.

Cover-Letter-Specific Formatting

Your cover letter should be a simple document with few visual flourishes. As with the resume, following convention in visual style is strongly recommended.

Here are some formatting tips specific to your cover letter:

Use Paragraphs and Avoid Bullets

Compose paragraphs based on full sentences in your cover letter, articulating your skills and experiences clearly and grammatically. Avoid point form or bullet points in your cover letter.

Single Space Your Paragraphs

Make your paragraphs single-spaced. As an advanced tip, consider increasing digital accessibility by using the paragraph > ‘after’ settings to add some white space instead of adding it manual.

Font

Your choice of font and font size on your cover letter should exactly match your choices on your resume. The guidelines are therefore the same. Here are some tips for selecting and managing your font:

Choose Your Font Carefully

Choose an easy to read, professional looking font without ‘serifs’ or decorative curls. Common recommendations include Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, etc.

Make Your Font an Appropriate Size

Experts tend to suggest using 10.5-12 point font for readability. Any smaller is likely to feel too cluttered, and any larger risks the impression of trying to pad for length. Your header cans and should be larger, in the 13-14 point font range. No matter what you choose, be consistent.

Avoid Using Colour

Resist the urge to use colour for style, for meaning or to make an impression. Simple black font on a white background is strongly recommended. Using colour or decoration to stand out is considered an immature and distracting strategy. Colour and contrast also present accessibility issues for many readers. The best strategy is to use a subdued visual style and to distinguish yourself with your content.

Keep Your Font Consistent

Demonstrate attention by making sure you have strict consistency across sections when it comes to exact font size, colour, and style.

Layout

Here are some tips for setting up your layout of your cover letter:

Include a Salutation

A ‘salutation’ is the traditional line of a letter or email where you offer a greeting and then address your intended reader by name (e.g. “Attn: Dr. Emily Jones”). Address the salutation to a specific person using their full name where you’re confident they are the right recipient. Where the addressee is not clear from context, you can use ‘Hiring Manager’ or ‘Recruitment Team’.

Keep It Brief

Limit your cover letter to one (1) page maximum. Avoid spillover to a second page.

Order Your Paragraphs

Follow cover letter norms and principles when choosing the ordering, content, and messaging of your sections, as described below.

Paragraphs

1

Introductory Paragraph

Develop a powerful and unique opening sentence. The first paragraph should be the strongest. Mention the company name and job title and explain how you heard about the position (e.g. online, OSCARplus etc.).

Make the ‘opening statement’ about your suitability and fit for this specific role.

2

Skills and Achievement Paragraph

Explicitly identify approximately three (3) applicable skills directly related to job in a ‘topic’ sentence that serves as a setup for the skills-focused sentences to follow. The following sentences in this paragraph should give tangible and concrete examples of how you have demonstrated the relevant skill(s).

The recommended framing for these sentences is the Situation/Task Action Result (STAR or SAR) method, which is also recommended for use in interview answers. Avoid passive statements (e.g., “I was responsible for…”) in favour of the active and specific language of the STAR or SAR method. It is sometimes acceptable to format this particular section unusually, using a two-column layout if you are comfortable to do so. Consult exemplars online to see how this is done well.

3

Knowledge and Interest Paragraph

In this paragraph, demonstrate knowledge of the organization or team to which you are applying, and make a case for how you will fit and contribute. Show that you’ve been attentive and interested in your preparatory research by referring to information from the company’s website in your own words.

Demonstrate your suitability by making explicit connections to the most concrete and relevant examples you can think of that demonstrate your personal interests, values, or experiences. Be sure to focus is what you can do for the employer’s organization, not what the organization can do for you.

4

Concluding Paragraph

Compose a brief concluding paragraph that leaves the employer with a positive impression of you as a capable, confident applicant.

Resist the temptation to reiterate your contact information, which should already be in your header.

Writing and Style

Mirror Language and Values

Incorporate key words used in the position description or job posting, and tailor your own word choice to mirror back the values, priorities, and criteria that are communicated there by the employer. This demonstrates practical attention to detail, shows interest in the specific role in question, and speaks to the criteria that may be used to select candidates.

Avoid Repetition

Avoid repeating words and phrases, especially at the start of your sentences, and avoid repeated use of the same verbs in your skills and experience statements.

Limit your use of the word ‘I’ (i.e. limit yourself to 10 or fewer) by varying your wording.

Write Authentically

Use your own authentic voice and do not copy language from AI, examples or templates. The language you use should be business professional with a friendly tone, and you want to avoid words or phrases that are more academic or robotic in nature (e.g. ‘furthermore’, ‘honed’, ‘acumen’, etc.)

Avoid using too many buzzwords or clichéd phrases (e.g. “I am eager/excited”, “excellent communication skills”, “team-player”, “hard worker” etc.).

Breaking the Rules

The norms on this page are generally tried, tested, and true. In your career course(s) you should demonstrate mastery of the ability to follow these conventions. However, in some rare cases there might be good reason to deviate when applying to an actual job. For example, if the job is a graphic design or artistic position, it might be appropriate to be more creative and to deviate from the traditional rules above.

Related Pages

Summarizing Your Experiences

Resumés

Get Work Experience