Practical application : Writing your own cover-letter.(2)

(4) Organize each section into a “section plan”, for cover-letter (Parts 1 to 8).  Remember, the above section (#3) was written on many scraps of paper.  Now, you must organize your wide and scattered ideas into something more concise and sequential.  For this part, a computer is useful.  However, do not just copy out what you wrote!  You now need to act as an editor.  Think about what is important : cut out some pieces of information; add some new ideas; alter others.  If you want, ask your friend to do this with you as well.  Remember, you are building the framework (structure) of your future paragraphs; you are not creating sentences “out of your head”.  Do not be afraid to cut out certain parts, even if they look good, for the sake of the whole; there will be some textual sacrifices.  Throughout this stage, remember the overall, general plan you wrote earlier (#2).  This will remind you of the general path you must follow.  Each paragraph will be later “developed” to its full potential, but it will be part of a previously-arranged, well-organized whole.  For those of you who wish, use (other) small pieces of scrap paper (5 cm. x 5 cm.), to organize and re-organize your ideas; then, when everything is arranged on the table-top as you like it, copy it out onto your computer (or on paper), to make a traditional “paragraph plan”.  You may think this is a waste of time, effort and scrap paper, but this cover-letter must be well-structured and planned out!  (By the way, for this whole book, I expect to have used over 550 pieces of small, 5 cm. x 5 cm. paper. 
     Remember, you are trying to demonstrate the following to the Human Resource people in the company you wish to join : (a) organized, coherent thinking, and (b) that your life, over the past few years, has been planned, and that there is a “thematic purpose” to your ambitions, choices, and work / life experiences (i.e., that you were not “drifting”). 
     You will notice that the section brainstorming in (#3) has more information than appears in the final letter itself.  You, as a thinking writer, and as an individual person, need to edit out certain parts.  What you keep, and what you cut out, and what you alter is up to you.  Please, try not to follow other people’s editing methods (i.e., copy what they did), or your individual writing “flavor” (your “feng wei”) will surely suffer.  A good Human Resources person will “smell” this at once, and you may have your cover-letter thrown away.  What then is the goal of your editing process here?  It is to “prune out” the unnecessary ideas from the brainstorming, and make a coherent paragraph (which itself fits into the general plan (#2). 
     Do not begin to write the actual text of the cover-letter, until you are satisfied with this plan (#4), it makes good sense to you, you can understand it well, and a friend has done a careful “peer-review” of it.  Let a few days go by, to let the ideas in the plan “ferment” in your mind.  Here, “fermenting” is a good thing! 
     (5) 1st Draft, of the cover-letter.  Write your cover-letter, following your plan, but allow your ideas to come out and develop freely.  Do not worry about spelling or grammar issues.  Keep your sentence structure simple; it is more important to get all the ideas down, on paper, and to communicate clearly, than to use “fancy language”.  Again, take your time, doing this over a few days (rather than late at night, the day before the trip, and under pressure), so that your “writing product” will be better.  Above all, think for yourself!  Do not copy out whatever your own classmates are writing (as many do, with homework), or from the Internet web-sites that share “writing samples”.  Write originally! 
     In short, the general structure of a cover-letter (Parts 1 to 8) you can follow (if you like it), but the life content, and the language must be your own! 
     Write down all your ideas, and then set aside this project for a day or two, before editing it. 
 
     (6) Peer-review of the 1st Draft, for cover-letter.  Share your 1st Draft with a friend, or a few.  They should focus on (a) structure, and (b) content.  These people should agree (with you) to take enough time to review the 1st Draft carefully, and not do it in a hurry.  (I say this, because many “friends” do a terrible job, even though they have good “relationship” with their classmate.  Remember : here, “results” are more important than “face”.)  The friends should take as long as they reasonably need. 
     After the peer-review, you should have a group conference with your friends, to discuss the 1st Draft.  Open talk is to be encouraged.  Discuss the text carefully.  If you happen to have some friends who work in the Human Resources department of some company, then show it to them, for some feedback.  (Here, you are not trying to get a job from them–either “directly”, or “indirectly”.) 
 
     (7) 2nd Draft, of the cover-letter.  Once you have received the peer-review back from your friend, look at it.  Synthesize any comments, edit the text as necessary, and re-write it.  Put it away for a day, and do something else.  Look at it again, the next day, and make any changes, as you see fit.  (Letting some time go by is sometimes helpful to “ripening” a text, as you can think about it, and “mull it over”.)  Print it out, and give it back to your friends. 
 
     (8) Peer-review of the 2nd Draft, for cover-letter.  Have your friends look over the cover-letter, again.  This time, they will focus on (a) grammar, (b) spelling, and (c) “mechanics” (like punctuation).  At least two or three people should review the cover-letter.  At this point, other comments are welcome. 
 
     (9) Final Draft, of the cover-letter.  Make final corrections, and then (a) print out the cover-letter for your files, (b) save it on your own computer, and (c) save in the “storage space” of your Internet account.  You should be able to send it out quickly, if an interesting job-situation comes up in your life.  If some Human Resource people in some company are interested in you, then you can answer them quickly.