Careers Gateway: Letter of application

When the employer receives a letter of application they must decide if they are to short list the applicant. You need to know how important this letter is. Will your letter give you a chance? Below is a list of things that should be included in a letter of application. This exercise will help you write a letter, remember it well, as you may have to write a number of such letters in the future!

• Your address in full.
• Date.
• Name and address of the person/company you are writing to.
• Greeting (if you don't know the person's name use Dear Sir / Madam)
• The work experience job applied for.
• Dates of the work experience.
• School attending.
• Subjects studying.
• Experience and interests.
• Personal qualities.
• Why should you be considered?
• A formal closing, if Sir / Madam then close with "Yours faithfully", if writing to a named person then it should be "Yours sincerely".
• Your signature.

• Your letter should be polite, clear and to the point.
• Use good quality paper and write in ink or type it.
• Your letter should be clean and neat.
• All words should be spelt correctly.
• Write out your letter in rough first.
• Keep a copy of the letter so that you can remember what you wrote.

The following letter is an example of how you could layout your application letter: