How to Write an Application Letter

A cover letter is not a summary of your CV – it is the argument for why these two documents belong together.

An application letter accompanies a CV or application form and does something the CV cannot: it makes an argument. The CV lists what you have done; the letter explains why that history fits this particular role or programme. Letters that simply narrate the CV in prose waste the only opportunity to connect the two.

Read the criteria before writing anything

Job adverts and programme descriptions almost always contain an explicit list of requirements. That list is your outline. Work through it and note, for each item, the specific evidence you would offer. Where you cannot think of any, that gap is worth knowing before you write rather than after.

Many organisations shortlist against those criteria mechanically. A letter that addresses them in recognisable language is far more likely to survive the first pass than one that is better written but harder to score.

Use a four-paragraph structure

The conventional shape works because it matches how the letter is read.

• Opening — the role you are applying for and, in one line, the strongest reason you are a fit.
• Evidence — one or two paragraphs matching your experience to the main requirements.
• Motivation — why this organisation or programme specifically.
• Close — availability, thanks, and a clear next step.

One page is the norm. Two is acceptable for academic or senior applications, rarely otherwise.

Open with substance

“I am writing to apply for the position of X advertised on Y” is not wrong, but it spends the most valuable sentence in the letter on information already obvious from the application. A stronger opening names the role and immediately offers the reason to keep reading: “I am applying for the research assistant post; my dissertation used the same interview methodology your current project relies on.”

Evidence every claim

Claims without evidence are the defining weakness of weak letters. “I have excellent communication skills” appears in almost every application and persuades nobody. Replace each adjective with the thing that proves it — the presentation you gave, the number of people you trained, the complaint you resolved, the document you wrote for a non-specialist audience.

A useful discipline: after each sentence, ask whether a reader could challenge it. If they could only agree or disagree, it is an assertion. If they would have to argue with your evidence, it is a claim.

Show you know the organisation

The motivation paragraph is where generic letters are exposed. Referring to something specific — a project, a publication, a service, a stated value you can connect to your own experience — demonstrates that you chose this application rather than sending fifty. Avoid flattery; a factual observation about their work and why it interests you is more convincing than praise.

Address gaps briefly and without apology

If you lack a stated requirement or have an unexplained break in your history, a single honest sentence handles it better than silence. “I have not used that particular system, though I learned two comparable platforms quickly in my last role” is fine. Extended justification draws attention to the gap and reads as anxiety.

Get the details right

Address a named person where you can find one; “Dear Hiring Manager” is acceptable when you cannot, and “To Whom It May Concern” reads as dated. Match the closing to the greeting — “Yours sincerely” for a named person, “Yours faithfully” otherwise, in British convention. Keep the tone professional and plain: no exclamation marks, no contractions, no jokes.

Then check the obvious things that sink otherwise strong applications: the right organisation name throughout, the right role title, a consistent font with the CV, and a sensible filename. Reading it aloud catches the awkward sentences, and a second reader catches the wrong company name left in from the last application — which is the single most common fatal error in the genre.

Academic and research applications

Applications for research posts, doctoral places and academic programmes follow the same logic but weight it differently. The evidence section becomes an account of your research: the question you worked on, the methods you used, the result, and how it connects to what this group does. Naming a specific paper or project and explaining the connection to your own work is the single most effective thing you can do, because it demonstrates that you read before you applied.

Send it properly

Submit as PDF unless another format is requested, so your layout survives. Name the file with your own name and the role rather than “cover letter final”. If the application is by email, treat the email body as a short covering note and attach the letter, unless the advert asks for it inline. These are small things, but they are the first evidence a reader has of how you handle instructions.

Mirror the language of the advert

Where a job description names a competency, use its words rather than a synonym. Many organisations shortlist against the criteria mechanically, sometimes with software, and a letter that says “stakeholder management” when the advert did too is easier to score than one that says “working with lots of different people”.

This is not keyword stuffing. It is answering the question in the terms it was asked.

Use the STAR shape without announcing it

Evidence is most persuasive with a situation, the task, the action you took and the result. The result is where most letters stop short — a number, a timeframe or an outcome converts an anecdote into evidence.

• Situation — the context, in a clause.
• Task — what needed doing and why it was difficult.
• Action — specifically what you did.
• Result — what changed, ideally measured.

In a letter this should read as prose, not as labelled sections.

Say “I” rather than “we”

Describing team achievements in the first person plural leaves a reader unable to identify your contribution. Where the work was collaborative, say so and then be specific about your part: “the team rebuilt the intake process; I designed the triage criteria and trained the four staff who applied them”.

Keep the tone appropriate to the sector

Register varies more than students expect. Academic and public-sector applications tend to be formal and evidence-dense; startups and creative industries often expect something more direct. Read the organisation’s own published writing and pitch slightly more formally than it does.

Do not restate the CV

The letter and the CV are read together, and duplication wastes the letter. The CV lists what you did; the letter explains why that history fits this role, selects the two or three most relevant items, and supplies the context a bullet point cannot.

Check the details that sink applications

The most common fatal errors are avoidable: the previous employer’s name left in from the last application, the wrong role title, a mismatch between the letter and the CV in dates or job titles, and a filename that reads as careless. Read it aloud for tone, then check the factual details separately — the two passes catch different things, and doing them together catches neither reliably.