Employment letters
Just like Internet resumes, generic form letters are ineffective. Letters that thoughtfully consider the audience’s needs and match them to your qualifications work best.
In any situation, follow these basics for good letter writing:
- Use business letter format. Write clearly, and precisely. Avoid clichés and trite phrases.
- Support assertions about your knowledge, skills and abilities with solid examples.
- Keep it to one page with three to five short paragraphs.
- Understand the need of your reader by researching or analyzing information like job descriptions, then focus your letter to those needs.
- Always include the name and title of the person receiving the letter (yes, that require research) and spell it correctly!
- Tailor your letter to each position.
- Take the time to produce an error free, clean and visually appealing letter.
- Finish with quality:
- Use quality bonded white or off-white paper.
- Always print on a laser printer (no handwritten letters).
- Use standard fonts like Times New Roman, Arial or Courier.
- Font size should be 10- or 12-point.
- Finished page should have one-inch margins, and the should be letter centered to the page.