{"id":83,"date":"2019-05-24T17:19:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T21:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=83"},"modified":"2019-08-22T18:47:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T22:47:24","slug":"writing-a-cover-letter","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/chapter\/writing-a-cover-letter\/","title":{"raw":"Writing a cover letter","rendered":"Writing a cover letter"},"content":{"raw":"<h1>Suggested course level<\/h1>\r\nLower level undergraduate\r\n<h1>Activity purpose<\/h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Students will practice writing a cover letter using a real job advertisement and a fictional resume.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h1>Materials required<\/h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Copies of a fictional resume<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Copies of a job advertisement (to match the provided fictional resume, it's best to find a job advertisement relating to office management or administrative support)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h1>Activity instructions<\/h1>\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Review the parts of a cover letter with the class.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Distribute sample job advertisements and resumes to students.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Place students in small groups. (Steps 2 and 3 can be skipped if this activity is following the employment skills analysis activity.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Ask students to work with their group to write a cover letter for the person in the resume in application for the job in the advertisement. (NOTE: Try to pair students who have experience writing cover letters with those who do not.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Provide feedback as you circulate around the room.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Debrief the parts of the cover letter, such as the salutation, introduction, skills\/qualifications to highlight in the body of the letter, the conclusion, etc.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<h1>Debrief questions \/ activities<\/h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>How did you open your letter? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What did you say in your first paragraph? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What did you say in your middle paragraphs? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What qualifications did you highlight? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What did you say in your conclusion? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What are you taking away from this activity?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h1>Activity variations<\/h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>This activity can be done individually instead. If few students in the class have prior experience writing a cover letter, this activity can be done with the entire class (using the instructor as a scribe in a blank document).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h1>Additional resources \/ supplementary resources<\/h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>To be inserted<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Tags:\u00a0<\/strong>employment communications, writing mechanics, grammar, style, tone, concision, hands-on, small group, creating a product or document, writing practice, cover letter","rendered":"<h1>Suggested course level<\/h1>\n<p>Lower level undergraduate<\/p>\n<h1>Activity purpose<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Students will practice writing a cover letter using a real job advertisement and a fictional resume.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Materials required<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Copies of a fictional resume<\/li>\n<li>Copies of a job advertisement (to match the provided fictional resume, it&#8217;s best to find a job advertisement relating to office management or administrative support)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Activity instructions<\/h1>\n<ol>\n<li>Review the parts of a cover letter with the class.<\/li>\n<li>Distribute sample job advertisements and resumes to students.<\/li>\n<li>Place students in small groups. (Steps 2 and 3 can be skipped if this activity is following the employment skills analysis activity.)<\/li>\n<li>Ask students to work with their group to write a cover letter for the person in the resume in application for the job in the advertisement. (NOTE: Try to pair students who have experience writing cover letters with those who do not.)<\/li>\n<li>Provide feedback as you circulate around the room.<\/li>\n<li>Debrief the parts of the cover letter, such as the salutation, introduction, skills\/qualifications to highlight in the body of the letter, the conclusion, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h1>Debrief questions \/ activities<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>How did you open your letter? Why?<\/li>\n<li>What did you say in your first paragraph? Why?<\/li>\n<li>What did you say in your middle paragraphs? Why?<\/li>\n<li>What qualifications did you highlight? Why?<\/li>\n<li>What did you say in your conclusion? Why?<\/li>\n<li>What are you taking away from this activity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Activity variations<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>This activity can be done individually instead. If few students in the class have prior experience writing a cover letter, this activity can be done with the entire class (using the instructor as a scribe in a blank document).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Additional resources \/ supplementary resources<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>To be inserted<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tags:\u00a0<\/strong>employment communications, writing mechanics, grammar, style, tone, concision, hands-on, small group, creating a product or document, writing practice, cover letter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["m-ashman"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[59],"license":[],"class_list":["post-83","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-m-ashman"],"part":115,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/83\/revisions\/249"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/115"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/83\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesscomms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}