Below is a sample
cover letter. This letter helped a Chico State student land a job
at the St. Petersburg Times, one of the top newspapers in the United
States. The
editor who hired the student said this was the best cover letter
she had ever received. As you read the letter, imagine the editor
and what she thought.
This letter
followed an initial telephone conversation. The editor sent the
student an editing test as a follow-up.
Note how the
student starts with a clever way of showing that she knows the type
of things a copy editor needs to know. She transitions into a descriptive
way of showing that she is a well-rounded person who knows a little
about a lot of things. This approach also tells the editor what
the student will bring to the copy desk if hired. Further, the student
shows she has done her homework by researching the newspaper. Too
many cover letters are generic, and they tend to find their ways
to the generic waste basket.
Finally the
student points out a few things from her resume to make sure they
are put into context. The ending is probably the most intriguing
part of the letter: It shows that the student is a wordsmith who
enjoys reading about words. What better way to say, "I'm a
copy editor you should hire"?
Name Withheld
Assistant Managing
Editor/Copy Desks
St. Petersburg Times
490 First Ave. S.
St.
Petersburg, FL 33071
Dear Ms. Withheld,
Sure, I know that the
main drag in my town of 47,000 is The Esplanade, and not the Esplanade.
The gazebo and tree-lined paths that span one downtown city block
are Plaza Park and not simply ''the downtown park.'' Portions of
Bidwell Park, a 3,600-acre city treasure, are appropriately called
Upper Park and Lower Park, and not upper or lower Bidwell Park.
But there are other things about Chico, Calif., I'm more proud I
know.
Books in my bedroom
chronicle the rise and demise of the city's small black population
between the Civil War and the Great Depression, and the long-distance
romance captured in dozens of letters between Chico's 19th century
founder and his future wife. Sense of place--I've worked to achieve
it during my 12 years here. And a storehouse of knowledge about
my environment, about what makes Chico different from Sacramento,
Calif., or from St. Petersburg, Fla., serves me well as a copy editor.
I've begun to study
St. Petersburg: its beaches that attract tourists to buoy the state's
sales tax revenue, the manatees that prompt boating regulations.
I learned the St. Petersburg Times is one of the few large dailies
still protected from Wall Street through private ownership. I've
set my sights on a newspaper I'd be proud to work for.
My resume illustrates
that my love for local trivia is matched by my addiction to journalism.
It doesn't mention, however, that I edited my high school newspaper,
tried out radio and television news as a teen-ager, and landed my
first job at a daily newspaper at 18.
I own too many reference
books, and idolize Barbara Wallraff--''Ms. Grammar'' of The Atlantic
Monthly--and Bryan A. Garner, editor of ''A Dictionary of Modern
American Usage.'' I've still got plenty to learn, but I hope you'll
consider letting me learn it under fire, on the copy desk of the
St. Petersburg Times. If there's one thing I can do, it's learn,
and quickly. I enjoyed the challenge of your copy-editing test,
and I look forward to discussing my work with you.
Sincerely,
Student name withheld
