General guidelines for preparing a cover letter
Following are some guidelines to assist you to write cover letters that make a positive impact on employers:
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Ideally keep the length of your letter to a single A4 page, and no more than a page and a half. Keep your message clear and succinct.
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Address your letter to a person, not a position. The job advertisement might say to address your letter to the "The Human Resources Manager" or other job title. Contact the organisation to find out the name of the person to whom the letter should be addressed. In this way you can differentiate yourself from other candidates, and increase the chances that your application will get noticed.
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Ensure your name, address, phone number/s and email address are at the very top of the letter and aligned to the right hand margin.
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Also at the top of the letter, on the next line after the greeting "Dear Ms ...", quote any employer reference information and/or number appearing in the job advertisement.
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Set out your letter so that it is easy to read, and that essential information about you can be seen at a glance. The reader will probably spend no more than 30 seconds or so reading your letter before deciding if you qualify for further consideration.
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It is quite acceptable to use bold or underlined sub-headings in the main body of your letter with information relevant to the sub heading in dot point form.
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Make the tone of your letter lively by commencing bullet point sentences with action words such as 'led', 'designed', 'planned and organised', 'implemented' etc as appropriate.
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Close the letter with "Yours sincerely" if you know the person to whom you are writing, otherwise close with "Yours faithfully".
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Sign the letter in your own hand writing, and type your name underneath the signature.
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Always proof read your letter. Spelling and grammar must be correct. Having a friend or colleague proof read your letter is also helpful.
The next topic provides suggestions about the content of specific types of cover letters.