{"id":2055,"date":"2021-01-11T17:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=2055"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:16:00","slug":"5-quick-fixes-for-your-cover-letter-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2021\/01\/11\/5-quick-fixes-for-your-cover-letter-language\/","title":{"rendered":"5 quick fixes for your cover letter language"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, you\u2019re in the final stages of writing your cover letter? Nice work! Here are some checks that you can make before you send it off.<\/p>\n

1. Uncertainty<\/strong>. Scan for phrases like \u201cI feel that\u201d, \u201cI think\u201d, \u201cI began to realise\u201d and consider if they make you sound unsure. Same goes for \u201cI was able to<\/u> take this module\u201d. Instead, how about \u201cI took this module\u201d? It sounds more direct and confident.<\/p>\n

2. Missing opportunities for results.<\/strong> You might have written \u201cI ran social media to<\/u> increase the target market\u201d or \u201cI developed my time management skills to<\/u> meet deadlines\u201d. However, did<\/em> you increase the target market? Did<\/em> you manage to meet your deadlines? If so, say that! Show them your skills were useful and you achieved your goals.<\/p>\n

3. Repetition<\/strong>. This is a really common one! Refrain from repeating skills. For instance, if you mention \u2018communication\u2019 a lot, try being more specific. For example, you could break it down into \u2018presenting\u2019 or \u2018liaising\u2019. Check that you haven\u2019t stated that you improved your communication over and over again. It sounds generic and doesn\u2019t say much about your capabilities.<\/p>\n

4. Over-describing<\/strong>. It\u2019s easy to slip into writing about the structure of your course or detailing an assignment brief. Instead, make it more about you so if you\u2019re saying things like \u201cthis module teaches us\u201d, say\u00a0\u201cI learnt\u201d. The added bonus here is that it cuts down on words!<\/p>\n

5. Paragraphs that trail off\u2026<\/strong> sometimes a quick concluding sentence is all it needs. You could restate your motivation or make a link between what you\u2019re telling them and how it will benefit them.<\/p>\n

\"\"I hope that these five fixes help you create\u00a0a final draft that you\u2019re happy with. Saying that, keep in mind that you don\u2019t have to be 100% satisfied with what you have written. Despite what your Google search will tell you, there is no \u201cperfect\u201d cover letter. Just do the best you can!<\/p>\n

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So, you\u2019re in the final stages of writing your cover letter? Nice work! Here are some checks that you can make before you send it off. 1. Uncertainty. Scan for phrases like \u201cI feel that\u201d, \u201cI think\u201d, \u201cI began to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[4,16,550,384,540,386,8,41,614,423,397,541],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-advice","tag-applications","tag-communication","tag-cover-letter","tag-editing","tag-language","tag-self-awareness","tag-skills","tag-tips","tag-transferable-skills","tag-writing","tag-writing-skills"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}