The genre we are analyzing is a cover letter. Cover letters are typically preceded by job postings, as they are a method of expressing interest and representing your strengths as related to a job you are applying for. Cover letters tend to be tailored to the values and description used in the job posting since the author/applicant wants to represent themselves as a good fit for a particular job. Genre’s preceding a cover letter can include conversations or posters at job fairs, online ads posted on hiring websites, ads on university resources such as NUCareers, etc. A cover letter may be ignored if it is not well received; however the hope is that the uptake would be interest in you as an addition to a manager’s company. The hope is that you get a response in the form of an interview request following your cover letter.
When putting together our genre model, we considered how easily the reader will be able to find the important information in the cover letter, how much time and energy the reader would have to commit to reading the letter, and how to encourage professionalism and courtesy in the assembly of the letter. For these reasons, we included a fairly rigid structure for how to organize and assemble the content in the letter. We made introductory and closing paragraphs mandatory, and we built in a greeting and signature. That way it would be easy for the reader to pick up the letter, get a good sense of the purpose of the letter and the goals of the applicant from the first couple sentences and then find all the applicant’s qualifications immediately afterwards. We also made sure that the closing paragraph would include an invitation for further communication (an interview) and the header would include sufficient contact information for the reader. The assumption being that if its an easy and pleasant experience for the reader to read through your cover letter and reach out to you, then you’ll be more likely to get an interview.
Unfortunately there are a lot of things that can influence the uptake of a cover letter that could not be controlled by a genre model. Strategically, an applicant should include action verbs in their cover letter, use easy to read and professional language, describe accomplishments they have made in their professional experience, express goals that align with the company’s values, or anything else that makes them sound like the best fit for the position they are applying.
