Thinking about Cover Letters

There are genuine debates, in this age of computer-scanned resumes, about how much longer prospective employers will continue to ask for cover letters as part of the standard application package. One thing is sure — many job postings today still require this specialized document. The cover letter provides information to link the applicant’s skills and experiences to the job ad in a more narrative (storytelling) fashion than is possible with a resume.

For this assignment, you’ll write your own Recommended Cover Letter Resources Guide, providing a brief summary of what each resource on your guide offers that you find potentially useful to people who need to write a cover letter template to use in the future.

You’ll need to research cover-letter-writing advice, using resources from the class LibGuide (Links to an external site.) page, FIU Handshake (Links to an external site.), and any other source you personally find helpful, finding the three items that make up your Recommended Cover Letter Resources Guide.

For each source on your list, provide a brief but specific summary of what that resource offers that you find potentially useful to people who need to write a cover letter template to use in the future. 

Example:

And finally, be sure that for each item on your Recommended Cover Letter Resource Guide that you provide the URL to that source –the URL (web address) that you provide will let your readers instantly connect to any source you list that they are curious to investigate themselves. 

Checklist for your Recommended Cover Letter Resources Guide submission: 

1. List three Cover-letter-advice related sources, 
2. Provide a useful summary for each listed source, (This is where people often sacrifice points because their summary isn’t usefully specific.)
3. Provide the URL (web address) for each, and
4. Be at least 200 words long.

Here’s how you’ll be graded

Weekly Assignment Specifications Checklist

To earn all available points for the week’s assignment,  your submission must include all elements listed below. If your goal for this course is to earn an A, be sure to check off your completion of each element.

Content

• Answers all parts of the assignment prompt and expresses ideas clearly and in your own words
• Demonstrates careful attention to the assigned reading (or viewing) and/or research
• Includes at least one quote from the reading (or viewing) and/or research.
• Entry must meet the word count minimum specified in the instructions.

Document Specs

• Follows standard professional document formatting (1" margins on all sides, double spacing, a professional font such as Times New Roman or Calibri, 12pt font)
• Submitted by the Due Date

Proofreading

• Demonstrates sufficient self-review to avoid careless errors like typos, misspellings, missing words, sentences without standard capitalization or punctuation.