The Cover Letter

The following is an example of an acceptable cover letter that will accompany a resume to a potential employer. Be absolutely sure your letter is as professional-looking as possible. Use a high quality printer to produce it, and be absolutely sure that it contains no spelling, grammatical, capitalization, or punctuation errors. These types of errors will doom your application process from the very beginning.

December 10, 1999

Mr. Gerald Harshman
Director of Personnel
Phillips Research Company
3756 Morehouse Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46224

Dear Mr. Harshman,

I am interested in applying for the research statistician position that was advertised in the December 8 issue of the Indianapolis Star.

As indicated by my resume, I will receive a B.A. degree in psychology from La Sierra University in May, 1995. I believe that my background and experience in statistics and research qualify me for this challenging type of work.

I would be most happy to meet with you at your convenience to further describe my qualifications for and interest in this position. Letters of recommendation are available from the references listed in my resume.

Please contact me at: (address and phone)

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

James Lee

How Not to Get a Good Letter of Recommendation

Following this set of rules (modified from a list compiled by Nish and cited in Bloomquist, 1981) will guarantee that you do not receive strong letters of recommendation from your faculty. Do not allow the sarcastic tone of these rules to interfere with your understanding of their basic message: You cannot expect your teachers and adviser to write you good letters of recommendation if you do not treat them with courtesy and respect.

	Treat your teachers and classes as though you are barely able to tolerate them. An attitude of superior aloofness will show everyone how important you are and how lucky they are to exist at the same time and on the same planet as you.
	Be consistently late to class and other appointments. This will show your teachers how much busier you are than they are.
	Be very casual about class attendance. When you see your teacher after you have missed his class, ask "Did you say anything important in class today?" Act as if she or he is responsible to give you a full recital of the information you missed.
	Never ask questions or contribute to class, even when urged to by your teachers. It's far safer to be silent than to risk being considered a teacher's pet.
	Complain when teachers provide extra learning opportunities. They don't really want you to learn more, they just want to make college miserable for you.
	Do not read assignments before class. You can waste a lot of class time by asking questions about things that are explained in the textbook. Assume a look of pained confusion whenever the teacher refers to a point made in the text.
	Always ask teachers for references when you are given a library assignment. It is especially important that this be done before you look for the references yourself, or you will be putting yourself in the dangerous position of having to learn to use the library.
	Always try to be an exception to the rule. Avoid taking tests with the rest of the class. Assume that teachers will give you make-up tests or accept late papers, regardless of your reasons for missing the original tests or deadlines.
	Disagree with teachers in a haughty and condescending manner. This will show your fellow students that you are actually smarter than your teachers.
	Call assignments you do not understand "boring, irrelevant, or busy work." This a great way to insult your teachers and will also allow you to judge academic material before you comprehend it.
	Be a classroom lawyer. Always try to get what you want by twisting rules to your own advantage. "You never told us we had to capitalize the first words of the sentences in our papers!" "You said that we could miss a test if we had an emergency. Don't you think the death of my gerbil was an emergency?"
	Never do any more than is minimally required in a class. Only geeks and brown-nosers do more than they absolutely have to in order to pass a course.
	Never help to plan or participate in departmental or campus activities. Make it very clear that, for you, college consists of simply accumulating enough credit hours to graduate as quickly as possible with the minimum effort.
	Avoid using a teacher's office hours or making appointments. Show up when she or he is frantically finishing a lecture and explain that you must see him immediately.
	Wait until the last minute to register. Always expect your adviser to be available at your convenience and complain when the classes you want to take are closed. Try to find your adviser in her or his office during lunch or when you know she or he is in class; then tell the Dean or Registrar that you have been unable to register because you have been looking for your adviser for three weeks and she or he is never in the office. When you meet with your adviser, be sure you have no idea of what classes you need or want to take. Put a pained expression on your face whenever a class is suggested that will help you overcome one of your academic weaknesses (e.g., math, writing, or speech).

How to Get a Good Letter of Recommendation

Most graduate programs and potential employers require a minimum of three letters of recommendation as part of their application process. Many provide applicants with forms for recommenders to complete, although a few simply request letters. Choosing those who will recommend you is a crucial process that you should base on the following criteria.

How well do they know you? Almost every recommendation form begins by asking how long and in what capacity the recommender has known the applicant. You will want to choose recommenders who have known you for at least two years and from whom you have taken several classes or worked with on research or departmental projects. Admissions committees and personnel directors are not impressed with recommendations from persons who do not know you well. They make the assumption that either you have done nothing to allow your teachers/adviser to know you well or that those who know you well do not think highly enough of you to write you a letter of recommendation. Do not allow them to make these assumptions about you!

How positively can they recommend you? Do not simply ask faculty members if they will write you letters of recommendation. Ask them if they will write strong letters of recommendation for you. A mediocre letter of recommendation is a death sentence to job or graduate school application. You may have good grades, strong GRE scores, and a creative personal statement, but if one of your carefully selected recommenders writes a letter that paints a weak picture of your potential for success, no graduate school or potential employer will want to take a chance on you. Work hard to give faculty reasons to write you strong letters; then do everything in your power to help them do just that. It can be intimidating to ask faculty if they will write you good letters; it is easier to slip the form under their doors and hope for the best. But it is by far safer to ask if they would feel comfortable writing a strong letter of recommendation than to assume wrongly, and get a kiss of death letter ("Dear admissions committee: Regarding X; don't waste your time."

How impressed will a graduate admissions committee or potential employer be with your recommenders? For most positions it is inappropriate to ask for letters of recommendation from your family members, high school counselor, physician, or priest/minister/rabbi. It is almost always inappropriate to get more than one of your recommendations from these categories of recommenders. They may be able to describe many of your strong personal qualities (e.g., loving, concerned, healthy, and devout), but these qualities are not those about which a graduate admissions committee or potential employer is primarily concerned. Graduate faculty are evaluated by the quality and quantity of their research publications and employers' success is measured by their productivity; they will be looking for students who will help them in their efforts to achieve success. Choose recommenders with whom you have been involved in research, who have instructed research-oriented courses you have taken (e.g., Statistics and Methods of Research), or who can vouch for your initiative, persistence, and creativity. These are the people who can write positively about what you have done or about your potential as a successful future scholar/researcher or employee.

_{Portions of this page were adapted with permission of Herbert Friedman, College of William and Mary.}

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