For Project 2, my group decided to work on cover letters for our genre. Cover letters typically interact with resumes, portfolios, and professional profiles such as LinkedIn; they are meant to either supplement or bolster the aforementioned genres by expressing the owner’s skills and desire to work somewhere. Cover letters are meant for relatively specific consumption but can be narrowed down to fit the particular needs of an individual application. For example, an engineering student applying for coop at a list of biotech companies could create a cover letter framework that contains 90% of the information about him and why he would be a good fit for the job. The remaining 10% would then be tailored to the specific needs of each company and position he was applying for.
Cover letters can be found in the hiring process of almost all major professional jobs. Those writing cover letters typically posses certain skill sets and drives that they want to make evident to those reading them, such as company supervisors and HR staff. Their goal is to promote and differentiate themselves when compared to other applicants in a more personable way than the straight facts of a resume.
The content of cover letters is usually formatted around the specific needs of the job in question; applicants will view the position and company background before tailoring their cover letter to fit the particular job. They will take into consideration what the hiring party values and then do their best to explain how they meet or exceed those exact criteria. They are effectively summing together all of their major traits and explaining how they could be put towards bettering the company.
The Spinuzzi reading helped me to think about how independent vs. overlapping cover letters are with other documents of similar genres. It will guide our research in deciphering which end of the spectrum, employer vs. employee, has more influence in shaping the format of cover letters.
