cover letter

The cover letter will be used to introduce yourself and your work to your reader (see “Audience” below). This item will be read and evaluated first, and because of this, it will set the tone for the portfolio reading. An annotated template has been provided for formatting a professional business letter, and this should be read carefully before you begin drafting your letter. 

 

THE RHETORICAL SITUATION:

This semester we learned about rhetorical situations and the way context shapes the development of a piece of writing. Here are the contexts surrounding this task:

· Subject: Your reading, writing, researching, and critical thinking skills, specifically as they pertain to the course SLOs. 

· Purpose: To convince your reader that you have worked hard to achieve the skills set forth for this course and are ready for the writing tasks that will be required of you in the future. 

· Audience: You are writing to a person who is interested in your proficiency as a writer. Think of your reader as a future employer or as the professor of a future course that requires proficient writing skills. 

· The Writer (You): The care you put into polishing this letter is a means of establishing ethos. Take pride in your work! So much effort has been put into developing these portfolio pieces that they deserve to be presented in the best possible way. 

 

LENGTH:

The cover letter should be 1½ to 2 pages in length, single spaced.

 

THE LETTER CONTENTS:

 

PARAGRAPH 1: THE INTRODUCTION

In the first paragraph you will introduce yourself and the purpose of your letter to the readers. Although letters do not have what we would typically think of as a thesis, the first paragraph should introduce the main ideas that will follow. When writing this paragraph, think of the theme your evidence establishes. (This is why many writers, as they do with essay introductions, like to save this for last. They need to see where things are going first.)

 

PARAGRAPHS 2 AND 3: INTRODUCING THE PIECES

In this section, you are introducing the items included in the portfolio:

· The final product of your “Short Paper Revision Project”

· An annotated revision of the Research Essay

Your goal in these paragraphs is to provide readers with guidance for reviewing the pieces. New readers will need some translation to make sense of what is to follow. For each piece, you will:

· Describe the piece. Assume that your readers will be unfamiliar with the requirements of the assignments you are presenting and establish the context they will need to understand the work in the way you intend. 

· For example, with your “Short Paper Revision Project,” will they be reviewing multiple versions of the draft over several pages? Are they looking for end notes? Notes in the margins? etc. 

· Highlight specific aspects of the piece you want readers to pay particular attention to.

· Provide examples that illustrate the way elements of the pieces serve as evidence of your proficiency with specific course SLOs

 

PARAGRAPH 4: REFLECTING ON YOUR GROWTH

In this paragraph you will narrate your experience over the semester. (If it makes logical sense to break this section into more than one paragraph, do so only if it keeps your letter under two pages.) This section will include:

· Ties between your experiences and specific course SLOs

· Analysis of the growth you have made over the semester

· Examples of challenges – both ones you have overcome and ones you continue to work on

· Examples of ways the skills practiced in this course will be used in your future (as a student and/or in your future career). 

 

PARAGRAPH 5: CLOSING

When tying the previous topics together in your closing paragraph, think about the impression you want to leave readers with. You also want to end the letter politely, thanking the reader for taking the time to read your work.  

 

TIPS FOR WRITING A SUCCESSFUL COVER LETTER:

· Revisit and reference your former self: While drafting the letter, use the “Writing Self-Assessment” and reflective freewriting you did after revisiting as tools for gathering specific examples. 

· Be specific: Include as many specific details as are needed for clarity. For example:

· Vague: After this class I will continue to improve my skills. I will use these skills to write in future classes.

· Better: I am aware that I still sometimes struggle with [these specific skills] and I am committed to [do these specific things] to continue improving. I will soon begin taking classes in my [name of major] and to be successful in these classes, I will be expected to do [these specific things]. To do those things, I need to…

· Be honest: When describing your experience with this course, it is okay to talk about struggles you overcame as well as struggles you continue to work on. Doing so shows self-awareness and commitment to improving independently after the semester. I find that this type of honesty in a cover letter better prepares me as a reader. I also find I tend to be more forgiving of flaws in portfolio items when I learned in the cover letter that the writer is aware of the issue and dedicated to improving in that area. 

 

NEXT STEP: 

Review the “Cover Letter Template” carefully and begin drafting your letter. Not all of the items will be complete at this point, and that is okay. Leave a placeholder for these and then finish these sections once you are ready.