When working to revise my classmates and my own cover letter I learned things through the process that I would not have learned or noticed otherwise. Reading through others’ cover letters I enjoyed finding out what was important to them to include in their letters. This helped me pick out pieces of my experiences that I didn’t know would be considered valuable. It also brought me ideas on how to format my work. I had some formatting issues so their pieces helped me figure out where to put what information and tips on how to make my letter one page.
Whilst reworking my cover letter I will work on adding my own voice. In the desired section of a cover letter the employers want to hear about what you personally can bring to the table, not just a list of qualifications that you have. Bringing my voice into that piece will make it more personable. Something that I will also change within my cover letter is the little details. There were some capital letters where there shouldn’t be, run on sentences, and some minor format errors. Fixing these will ensure that the employer knows that I have attention to detail.
Following the cover letter peer review session, I believe my group did a great job of giving and taking feedback. Everyone shared both positive aspects and areas of improvement for each letter. Additionally, everyone graciously took their feedback, asked follow-up questions, and contributed. My group’s willingness to give and accept feedback was extremely helpful. We all took a deep dive into each other’s letters and were able to really get into the nitty gritty of language, grammar, etc. Following this conversation, I know that I need to be “less humble” about my accomplishments and elaborate on my experience. Specifically, I need to talk more about my time running The Bolt and working at the Press Herald. To include this additional information and keep my cover letter to one page, my group recommended that I adjust the line spacing of my text and the size of my heading.
I really appreciated having peer review for our cover letters in class, since I used my cover letter to apply for an internship. I found the peer review session with my group to be very helpful and effective. We pointed out the good things about each other’s cover letter and then talked about the “bad” things that we can improve on. I took notes on what I can do to improve my cover letter. First, I need to make sure I add my contact information at the top and bottom so that it cannot be missed. Also, I just need to reword some sentences to either explain an experience more that fits with the job position or fixing them, so they make sense. For the future, I have to work on not “selling myself short” and be more confident in telling my experiences to the employer. Lastly, I will look over the format and organize my cover letter, so it makes more sense to the reader.
I had a great time working with my assigned group on revising our cover letters. To be honest, I was feeling extremely confident going into the class with my cover letter. I soon realized that having multiple sets of eyes reading it was a great way to ween out minor mistakes. I think my letter came out pretty good, but it was small details to do with wording that needed revision. One revision my group had me make was changing the word “thrilling” to “happy”. Even though it’s such a small adjustment, the way the wording is interpreted by whom the letter is being received by is extremely important. A simple change in wording could make all the difference when applying for a job.
The group revisions were not only helpful for revising my own work, but I also felt like my critique of my peers letters will allow me to be more critical of my future work. It was refreshing to give and receive such knit picky criticism because I want my important documents to be as perfect as I can get them!
Much of the adjustment I intend to make to my final draft of the cover letter will be removing certain lines, and cutting down on clutter. Through the workshopping and peer review which we did in class, much of the constructive criticism that I recieved had to do with removing sentences that might be better kept in my back pocket for an interview in the future. Because of this much of the revision process for me became about which lines needed to be excised from the body of the letter.
To work on revising my cover letter much of what I need to focus on is fixing a few words here and there. I have a tendency to repeat words which should be changed. I am also applying to a law firm and use the word “food service” which may be looked down upon so I should instead change it to be customer service. My sentences also tend to be too long which makes it so the cover letter is not skimmable. I should also take out the fact that some of my experience is from a club. Simply taking out it being a club rather than a paid position would be helpful.
I got a lot of valuable feedback from my group during peer review. It was nice to get a perspective other than my own, and they caught a lot of things that I hadn’t thought of. The primary issues were format and fleshing out my paragraphs more. The tricky thing with writing this cover letter was ignoring a lot of what I learned from academic writing (indenting paragraphs, double spaced, etc.); it looks really odd to me. I added more contact information at the bottom and had my name and address on separate lines, as someone brought up I had too much white space in my cover letter. I also added some more concrete details like my specific work experience and my major. I had to rework some sentences to make it flow more smoothly. I thought our group was really respectful of each other and gave constructive feedback. Usually I get a bit nervous giving feedback as I don’t know if I’ll always have something to say, but I found it easy and comfortable in our small group. I’m also glad we opted for less but larger groups to be able to get a variety of feedback. I thought the feedback I gave and received were really helpful and I’m happy with how it went.
For me, what I want to spend the most time revising on my Cover Letter is the formatting, length and technicality of the letter. Many of my sentences are run-on sentences, and it can cause my letter to have some clarity and flowing issues, so I want to fix that. I want to make sure that whoever is reading this cover letter will be able to follow it, and understand what I am pitching. At the end of the day, this isn’t a letter about me and my needs, it is about the company and what they are looking for. Proper grammar and clarity is important in a cover letter because it is essentially a first impression of yourself to the employer. They will see you as somebody with strong clarity and a strong writer, which shows your education and skill level. Run-on sentences can work against you by making it seem like you do not know when to stop. Learning when to end something is a very underrated skill. Furthermore, the formatting is one that I am slightly worried about. I have the indents correct, but I want to perfect the signature location, the margins and the font size to make it look professional.
When I began revising with my group, one of the biggest critiques I received was about my format. The formatting is a bit plain, and the paragraphs are chunky. Many of my paragraphs can be broken down a lot more, as there is a lot of filler, which will make the letter look nicer.
Another piece that I received feedback on was the content of the experience that I included. I included a lot of my class experience, but my groupmates told me that some of my other experience, such as my time writing for The Bolt and my internship that I am currently in would be more valuable to employers, and would give them more concrete experience.
After reviewing my cover letter, I received valuable insight on how to strengthen my letter and further highlight my skills. Like me, the majority of my group used job applications which we plan to apply to in the future. It was nice to get realistic insight and use this as a stepping stone. For example, in my letter, I give some background to my life in the outdoors and recreation. I mentioned where I grew up and highlighted some of my travel opportunities, but I was reminded to include examples to highlight things like my hiking and camping experience. Since I have room in my letter, we talked about ‘adding glitter’ to our letters. For me, this means focusing on my past experiences and how they contribute to my people skills. Similar to our camp counselor demo, I don’t have direct experience with outdoor recreation programs but by explaining my skills and focusing on what I can contribute, I’m putting forth the best version of myself for the application.
When revising, I got some feedback on just being more specific to the job itself. The application was very broad and vague, so I needed to be more specific when pitching myself as why I’d be the best candidate. There was also some great feedback everyone gave each other on just little small things you as the writer wouldn’t catch, but could be critical that could mean a lot to someone who’s looking to hire
11 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 8”
When working to revise my classmates and my own cover letter I learned things through the process that I would not have learned or noticed otherwise. Reading through others’ cover letters I enjoyed finding out what was important to them to include in their letters. This helped me pick out pieces of my experiences that I didn’t know would be considered valuable. It also brought me ideas on how to format my work. I had some formatting issues so their pieces helped me figure out where to put what information and tips on how to make my letter one page.
Whilst reworking my cover letter I will work on adding my own voice. In the desired section of a cover letter the employers want to hear about what you personally can bring to the table, not just a list of qualifications that you have. Bringing my voice into that piece will make it more personable. Something that I will also change within my cover letter is the little details. There were some capital letters where there shouldn’t be, run on sentences, and some minor format errors. Fixing these will ensure that the employer knows that I have attention to detail.
Following the cover letter peer review session, I believe my group did a great job of giving and taking feedback. Everyone shared both positive aspects and areas of improvement for each letter. Additionally, everyone graciously took their feedback, asked follow-up questions, and contributed. My group’s willingness to give and accept feedback was extremely helpful. We all took a deep dive into each other’s letters and were able to really get into the nitty gritty of language, grammar, etc. Following this conversation, I know that I need to be “less humble” about my accomplishments and elaborate on my experience. Specifically, I need to talk more about my time running The Bolt and working at the Press Herald. To include this additional information and keep my cover letter to one page, my group recommended that I adjust the line spacing of my text and the size of my heading.
I really appreciated having peer review for our cover letters in class, since I used my cover letter to apply for an internship. I found the peer review session with my group to be very helpful and effective. We pointed out the good things about each other’s cover letter and then talked about the “bad” things that we can improve on. I took notes on what I can do to improve my cover letter. First, I need to make sure I add my contact information at the top and bottom so that it cannot be missed. Also, I just need to reword some sentences to either explain an experience more that fits with the job position or fixing them, so they make sense. For the future, I have to work on not “selling myself short” and be more confident in telling my experiences to the employer. Lastly, I will look over the format and organize my cover letter, so it makes more sense to the reader.
I had a great time working with my assigned group on revising our cover letters. To be honest, I was feeling extremely confident going into the class with my cover letter. I soon realized that having multiple sets of eyes reading it was a great way to ween out minor mistakes. I think my letter came out pretty good, but it was small details to do with wording that needed revision. One revision my group had me make was changing the word “thrilling” to “happy”. Even though it’s such a small adjustment, the way the wording is interpreted by whom the letter is being received by is extremely important. A simple change in wording could make all the difference when applying for a job.
The group revisions were not only helpful for revising my own work, but I also felt like my critique of my peers letters will allow me to be more critical of my future work. It was refreshing to give and receive such knit picky criticism because I want my important documents to be as perfect as I can get them!
Much of the adjustment I intend to make to my final draft of the cover letter will be removing certain lines, and cutting down on clutter. Through the workshopping and peer review which we did in class, much of the constructive criticism that I recieved had to do with removing sentences that might be better kept in my back pocket for an interview in the future. Because of this much of the revision process for me became about which lines needed to be excised from the body of the letter.
To work on revising my cover letter much of what I need to focus on is fixing a few words here and there. I have a tendency to repeat words which should be changed. I am also applying to a law firm and use the word “food service” which may be looked down upon so I should instead change it to be customer service. My sentences also tend to be too long which makes it so the cover letter is not skimmable. I should also take out the fact that some of my experience is from a club. Simply taking out it being a club rather than a paid position would be helpful.
I got a lot of valuable feedback from my group during peer review. It was nice to get a perspective other than my own, and they caught a lot of things that I hadn’t thought of. The primary issues were format and fleshing out my paragraphs more. The tricky thing with writing this cover letter was ignoring a lot of what I learned from academic writing (indenting paragraphs, double spaced, etc.); it looks really odd to me. I added more contact information at the bottom and had my name and address on separate lines, as someone brought up I had too much white space in my cover letter. I also added some more concrete details like my specific work experience and my major. I had to rework some sentences to make it flow more smoothly. I thought our group was really respectful of each other and gave constructive feedback. Usually I get a bit nervous giving feedback as I don’t know if I’ll always have something to say, but I found it easy and comfortable in our small group. I’m also glad we opted for less but larger groups to be able to get a variety of feedback. I thought the feedback I gave and received were really helpful and I’m happy with how it went.
For me, what I want to spend the most time revising on my Cover Letter is the formatting, length and technicality of the letter. Many of my sentences are run-on sentences, and it can cause my letter to have some clarity and flowing issues, so I want to fix that. I want to make sure that whoever is reading this cover letter will be able to follow it, and understand what I am pitching. At the end of the day, this isn’t a letter about me and my needs, it is about the company and what they are looking for. Proper grammar and clarity is important in a cover letter because it is essentially a first impression of yourself to the employer. They will see you as somebody with strong clarity and a strong writer, which shows your education and skill level. Run-on sentences can work against you by making it seem like you do not know when to stop. Learning when to end something is a very underrated skill. Furthermore, the formatting is one that I am slightly worried about. I have the indents correct, but I want to perfect the signature location, the margins and the font size to make it look professional.
When I began revising with my group, one of the biggest critiques I received was about my format. The formatting is a bit plain, and the paragraphs are chunky. Many of my paragraphs can be broken down a lot more, as there is a lot of filler, which will make the letter look nicer.
Another piece that I received feedback on was the content of the experience that I included. I included a lot of my class experience, but my groupmates told me that some of my other experience, such as my time writing for The Bolt and my internship that I am currently in would be more valuable to employers, and would give them more concrete experience.
After reviewing my cover letter, I received valuable insight on how to strengthen my letter and further highlight my skills. Like me, the majority of my group used job applications which we plan to apply to in the future. It was nice to get realistic insight and use this as a stepping stone. For example, in my letter, I give some background to my life in the outdoors and recreation. I mentioned where I grew up and highlighted some of my travel opportunities, but I was reminded to include examples to highlight things like my hiking and camping experience. Since I have room in my letter, we talked about ‘adding glitter’ to our letters. For me, this means focusing on my past experiences and how they contribute to my people skills. Similar to our camp counselor demo, I don’t have direct experience with outdoor recreation programs but by explaining my skills and focusing on what I can contribute, I’m putting forth the best version of myself for the application.
When revising, I got some feedback on just being more specific to the job itself. The application was very broad and vague, so I needed to be more specific when pitching myself as why I’d be the best candidate. There was also some great feedback everyone gave each other on just little small things you as the writer wouldn’t catch, but could be critical that could mean a lot to someone who’s looking to hire