Cover Letter guide

A request is a letter asking the recipient to do something he or she does not have to do, may not have time to do, or may not want to do. Therefore, pay particular attention to the structure given for each letter; these are time-tested formulas for persuasive writing that have been proven to work. A letter is an ideal medium for requesting a favor. Making the request in writing allows the other person to think it over in the privacy of her own home or office, without the pressure of you standing there waiting for an answer, or the potential for embarrassment (for both of you) if you are turned down. Tips for Requesting a Favor • Ask politely. Do not demand or threaten. • Show the reader what’s in it for her. Prove your case. • Say exactly what you hope she will do for you. Sample Request Letter Ms. Helen Cornell, CAE, CMP Executive Director CFCE Education Foundation Senior Vice President, Education CFCE 1300 East Eight Mile, Suite 110 Pontiac, MI 43320 Dear Helen

Wherever you are today as a letter writer — good, bad, or indifferent — you can take your level of skill to the next level in a relatively short time. The benefit of doing so is that you will write more effective letters : Letters that get your message across without the reader calling you for clarification. Letters that persuade your readers to accept your point of view, or take the actions you want them totake. Letters that get you the results — business and personal — you desire. In this part, we cover some rules and tools for effective letter writing . They may seem like a lot of work right now — and maybe they will be, for now. But soon they will become a reflexive part of your letter-writing process. You won’t have to think about most of them; you will just use them to make your letters sharper, clearer, and more convincing than ever. Prewriting Planning: You would not start building an addition onto your home until you had an architect make a drawing to show you what

Don’t start writing until you finish your research. Know the title, all the job requirements, education, and years of experience you must have to qualify for the job. You don’t have to be a wordsmith to produce a one page cover letter. Glittering generalities will get you nowhere. Compare your qualifications to the requirements. If there are 9 requirements and your qualifications match only 4 or 5 of the 9, think again. Think you qualify? Then let’s go. Start with a table. Set it up one quarter of the way down the page a two column, 9 or 10 row chart and head left hand column “Requirements” and head right hand column “Qualifications.” Number every row twice and consecutively. Once in the left hand column under “Requirements” and once in the right hand column under “Qualifications”. Key: You want the reader’s eye to read left to right only. Become a “slave” to words found in job posting or job description to describe job requirements If it says “Bachelor’s Degree Required,” us