Under Cover

I write and edit a lot of business cover letters – you know, those missives that accompany new business proposals and other documents. And I can be especially tetchy when I read those written by others because it so often seems they wrote it while walking to the mail room to drop off the document – in other words, as if it was an afterthought despite it being the first thing that will be read. Remember what they say about first impressions… Begin with something interesting to catch your reader’s attention (hey, procurement employees are people, too!). You may be able to start with something about your industry (or theirs), something about your location (or theirs), a comment about an article you read recently that’s relevant to their business, or to an already-established relationship you have with them. Thanks, but no thanks – avoid starting with a thank you for letting you submit your proposal or document. It is, in one word, obsequious (and just kind of lazy). Keep it simple – use everyday language and avoid fancy words like “tetchy” (it’s a good word, isn’t it?). Whomever you’re writing may be receiving numerous such letters and the easier you can make it for them the better. Keep it to one page – I beg of you, if you take away one thing from this tip, it’s that you keep your letter to one page. Recently I edited a two-page letter down to one by deleting the initial thank you, expunging extraneous information, obliterating the bloviating, tightening the language overall, losing a bunch of needless adjectives and, yes, making the font smaller (though not too small). Lots of white space is more appealing than large blocks of dense type. Use bullets – it’s perfectly acceptable and an easy way to present important points without having to make complete sentences out of them. Plus, if people are merely scanning the letter their eyes are apt to rest on bullet points; if nothing else gets through, at least the information there will. P.S. Speaking of writing for readers who scan, consider adding a postscript at the end of your letter – again, the eyes will rest there when scanning. Include an extra bit of interesting information about your company, your proposal, or something you learned from research you may have done. Get your facts right. Sounds obvious, but if you’re reeling off a bunch of info  about your company it can be easy to exaggerate or just get them plain wrong. Make sure you don’t say you have 86 offices worldwide when you have 84, for example. Spell the recipient's name correctly! 'Nuff said. Include contact information in the letter even if the information is in the attached document.  You don’t want your reader to have to hunt for it later if the letter and the document it’s accompanying get separated. Lastly, PROOFREAD. It’s small things like misspellings, grammatical mistakes, and poor word choice that can really create a memorable – though not positive – impression.