Strategies for Studying Writing

The writer of the cover letter spent a seemingly great deal of time revising her cover letter using different tools and steps in order to complete it to the standards of what a good cover letter should look like. The purpose of the assignment given to this student was to examine and essentially apply for a position in an area they feel their skills learned in various classes would be useful for. Beginning with an example cover letter and a criterie list for what good cover letters should contain, the writer offered a freewrite of their own skills, and information about each company they wished to apply for. The writer's cover letter from start to finish improved greatly and to get to the end result they used several tools to accomplish a perfect cover letter. Once the initial draft was written, the writer had to opportunity to be critiqued by their peers. The writer used the list of criteria as well as the example cover letter to format their own assignment. The writer's letter matches the format of the example exaclty. With the imput of their fellow peers, the writer was able to see their mistakes and make several corrections, such as adding information, deleting unneccessary information, and making certain points much stronger. The writer also had an opportunity for the teacher of the class to revise the first draft, which added even more insight into what could be done to improve the letter. With these available tools, the writer's first draft changed significantly from their final draft. The strongest difference being word choice and placement. The first cover letter was mundane, and slightly unsophisticated in it's setup, however, by the end, the writier really focused their thoughts and put together a well formatted, well spoken cover letter.