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Tips Beasiswa
How to Write a Motivation Letter
By Eastchance.com
The Cover Letter (CL) is the document that accompanies
your CV when youare applying for a job. For academic
purposes, the document used istypically called statement
of purpose, and is laid out after somewhatdifferent
rules. The CL is short (200-250 words), with a quite
rigidstructure and has the layout of a letter. Its goal
is to introduce theCV, to bring to attention aspects of
your activity that can help yourapplication and are not
listed or not presented in the proper light inthe CV. In
short, its goal is to answer the recruiter's question:
"Whyshould I hire this person?".
Layout. The layout is that of a formal business letter:
your addressand contact details come under your name, in
the upper right corner ofthe page. Underneath, aligned
left, write the name, function,organisation and address
of the person you are writing to. It is a lotbetter to
know the name of the person who is going to read your
letter.You should address the letter directly to him or
her. In the case youdo not know the name, an email, a
little digging in the net or a phonecall should help you
get that name, in case it is not mentioned in
theofficial announcement. Under the receiver's address,
but aligned right,write the date of the day when you are
writing the letter. You shouldspell the name of the
month and use four digits for the year. You canput in
front of the date the location, like Sofia, 2nd December
2000.
If you do know the name of the addressee, start with
Dear Mr (Mister),Ms (Miss), Mrs (Mistress), Dr (Doctor),
without the full stop that youmight expect to follow the
abbreviation, and the surname of theaddressee, followed
by comma (Dear Dr Smith,). In this case, you shouldend
the letter with the salutation Yours sincerely. If you
do not knowthe name, start with Dear Sirs, or Dear Sir
or Madam and close withYours faithfully. In American
business correspondence, Yours truly isacceptable in
both cases. Do not start the body of the mail with
acapital letter, since it follows a comma.
Structure. Ideally, a cover letter has no more than four
paragraphs.The goal of the first is to specify what you
are applying for and howdid you find out about that
opportunity. The last one outlines youravailability for
an interview, suggesting in this way a concretefollow-up
for your application.
The second paragraph should list your skills and
qualifications thatmake you the right person for the
position you are applying for. Readcarefully the
announcement, identify the requirements and see how
yourskills match those required. Do not simply state you
have them, proveit. Ideally, you should start from your
experience and show how youhave developed those
qualifications by doing what you have
beendoing/learning. Same as in the case of your CV, the
result shouldportrait you as an independent, creative
person that can takeinitiative and deal with
responsibilities, apart from the specificskills needed
for the job. In short, the second paragraph should
showwhy you are good for the job.
The third should point out why you want it. You should
outline yourinterest for the skills you are going to
learn if you get the job. Theimpression left should be
that you can make a genuine contribution tothe company's
operations, while simultaneously deriving
satisfactionfrom your work.
After the fourth paragraph leave a blank space, same as
you should doin the beginning, after the salutation
(Dear). Write the properclosing, as described above and
your name. Do not forget to leave ablank space between
the closing and your name and to sign the letter inthat
space.
Enclosure. It is customary for formal letters to mention
whether youhave enclosed any documents accompanying the
letter. Simply mentionenclosure, or write curriculum
vitae under the heading enclosure at theend of the
letter.
Print the letter on A4 white paper same as that on which
your CV wasprinted, and put both documents in an A4
envelope of matching color. Ifyou are emailing it
request a notification that your documents havebeen
received. Wait at least two weeks since the day you sent
yourapplication or after the deadline before writing
again in the case youdid not get any answer.
Source: http://www.eastchance.com/howto/mot_let.asp
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