Business Education and Training

A cover letter shouldn’t be too elaborate. Use the same paper as you used for your resume (and plain white paper is perfectly fine, by the way). Remember that a cover letter should always be typewritten.

Just about any word processing program will have a business letter template which you can use as the basis for your cover letter. Make sure to align everything left (indent your salutation of course). These templates can take a lot of the worry over proper formatting out of the process, especially if you are still learning how to write a cover letter.

Address your cover letter to the recipient by name if possible, but don’t use titles like Mrs., etc unless you are certain of their marital status - it is considered offensive to be misaddressed in this way. Remember to include the date on every cover letter, as well as your phone number, which should be underneath your address at the top of the letter. Use a neutral exit greeting such as Sincerely to close your letter and use only black or blue ink to sign.