Plan: what is a cover letter How to write a cover letter

Information copy-pasted from your resume, such as bullet point sentences or skills lists. Instead, reference information from your resume in your cover letter naturally, and expand on it.

Photos, like a professional headshot. If you’re a US-based job seeker, headshots are not necessary for the vast majority of jobs.

Proofreading

Worried your cover letter might have a typo or grammar error? Here are two quick tricks professional editors use to catch sneaky mistakes and make good edits:

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  Read your writing out loud: Doing this will force you to consider every word, sentence, paragraph, and punctuation mark. Plus you’ll catch hard-to-read sentences, and can then adjust them as necessary.
  
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  Change the font: A new font forces your brain to grapple with something that seems new. Switching your cover letter to a different font can help you notice mistakes you’d otherwise skim over and miss.
  

After you’ve read your cover letter out loud, have someone else read it out loud too. They can provide helpful feedback like whether your letter is clear and well-argued, or vague and filled with cliches. They’ll also notice small grammar and spelling errors you missed.

Cover letter resources

Here are some of our best cover letter guides and resources from across the website:

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  Templates
  
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  How-to guides
  
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  Types of cover letters
  
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  By industry
  
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  FAQs
  

Cover letter templates

Over one million people have downloaded these three cover letter templates. Each one has a matching resume template.