What Is the Purpose of a Cover Letter?
The main purpose of a cover letter is to showcase your qualifications, personality, and enthusiasm for the role.
When you apply for a job, you submit a 1-page cover letter and your resume to convince recruiters that your skills and background are well-aligned with the job requirements. Employers use cover letters and resumes to decide which candidates they want to interview.
While your resume provides a structured summary of your skills and experience, a cover letter elaborates on your achievements and values in a narrative fashion.
The following tips about the purpose of a cover letter will help you introduce yourself and tell your professional story in a compelling and convincing fashion.
Key components of a cover letter
To fulfill the cover letter purpose, use a concise cover letter format that includes the following sections:
- Your contact information
- The date you’re sending the letter
- A salutation with the recipient’s name (e.g., Address your cover letter with “Dear First Last Name,” “Dear Hiring Manager,” or similar)
- Introduction paragraph with the role, reason(s) why you’re excited about the job, and a claim about why you’re an ideal fit
- 1–2 body paragraphs to elaborate on the reason(s) why you’re uniquely qualified
- Conclusion paragraph that restates your claim and motivates the employer to contact you for an interview
- Complimentary close (e.g., “Sincerely”) and your full name (e.g., “Oliver Rodriguez”)
The tips and examples that follow will help you achieve the purpose of a cover letter throughout the main sections.
Purpose of a cover letter
When applying for jobs, the most common questions that job seekers have are “Is a cover letter necessary?” and “What is the purpose of a cover letter?” When a cover letter is necessary, understanding the purpose will help you make the best possible impression.
The main purpose of a cover letter is to:
- Introduce yourself to the employer
- Elaborate on your qualifications
- Show enthusiasm for the role
- Optimize for Applicant Tracking System (ATS) keywords
- Demonstrate effective writing skills
Introduce yourself to the employer
The first cover letter purpose is to introduce yourself to the employer in a professional and engaging manner so that they’re motivated to review your application further. Therefore, always start a cover letter with a concise introduction paragraph that includes these details:
- The job you’re applying for
- The reason(s) the company appeals to you
- An overview of your professional background
- Your claim about why you’re uniquely qualified
Dear SDU Admissions Team:
I was immediately drawn to your opening for an Academic Advisor because I admire SDU’s commitment to accessible and impactful online education. With two years of academic advising experience, I’ve honed my ability to foster student success, persistence, and satisfaction in a fast-paced remote environment. My success mentoring students from a variety of academic backgrounds aligns perfectly with SDU’s mission and the core responsibilities of the Academic Advisor role.
Elaborate on your qualifications
Another purpose of a cover letter is to elaborate on the qualifications and skills from your resume in 1–2 body paragraphs. Your cover letter should not repeat the resume but rather, expand upon the achievements that are most relevant to the job requirements and company culture.
In each body paragraph, develop an example or two of specific times when you excelled in the skills that the job requires. Focus on skills that are included in the job posting, and provide details about what you achieved. Describe the action that you personally took and the result that positively affected your previous workplace.
- On Darian’s resume, in a subsection for the previous job, she includes a bullet point that says “Spearheaded hands-on training activities that reduced average training times by 25%”
- In a body paragraph of the cover letter, Darian elaborates on the hands-on training activities to explain what they entailed, how new employees responded to them, and why they reduced training times.
Show enthusiasm for the company
When employers review cover letters to decide who to interview, they prioritize applicants who are genuinely enthusiastic about the company. The following tips will help you achieve this essential cover letter purpose.
- Before you write a cover letter, research the company’s website to learn about its mission, recent achievements, and the department where you’d be working.
- Use the company’s name throughout the letter (e.g., once in each paragraph).
- In the cover letter introduction, mention a main reason why you’re excited about working for this particular company. What aspect of their philosophy and products/services resonates most with you?
- In the body paragraphs, when you elaborate on your qualifications, explain how they align with the company’s goals and/or philosophy. How have your experiences prepared you to help the company achieve its most important goals?
- In the cover letter conclusion, reiterate your enthusiasm for the company. What are you most excited to do for this company?
Optimize for ATS keywords
Most major corporations use an ATS to scan your cover letter and/or resume for how frequently it uses keywords from the job posting. The ATS narrows the pool of applications first, and then a human recruiter reviews those selections to decide who to interview.
Optimizing a cover letter for ATS keywords is a 4-step process:
- Review the job posting for keywords about the soft skills (e.g., collaboration), hard skills (e.g., names of tools or software), and main responsibilities.
- Identify which of these job requirements are consistent with your background.
- Use the exact phrasing for the relevant keywords throughout the cover letter.
- Review your cover letter and the job posting to find any keywords you may have missed.
- Language acquisition theory
- Educator licensure assessments
- Evidence-based practice
- Bilingual education
- Content management
- SharePoint
- Test items
- WIDA framework
She incorporates these keywords throughout the cover letter to increase the odds that a human recruiter will review her application.
Demonstrate effective writing skills
The final purpose of a cover letter is to demonstrate the writing skills that you’ll use in the workplace. The organization, level of detail, grammar, and punctuation of your letter show how well you can organize and proofread emails, reports, presentations, and more.
Some of the most important writing skills include the following:
- A concise 1-page cover letter length
- Separate paragraphs for the introduction, body, and conclusion
- Organized body paragraphs (e.g., focusing each body paragraph on a different reason why you’re qualified)
- Action verbs (e.g., “spearheaded,” “implemented,” or “coordinated”)
- Examples to support your claim
- A professional greeting and closing
- Free of typos and grammatical errors
When you’re finished with the first draft, the QuillBot Grammar Checker will instantly find and fix errors so that your cover letter is polished and error free.
Frequently asked questions about what is the purpose of a cover letter?
- Should your cover letter match your resume?
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Your cover letter should match your resume format stylistically, but their content should not match.
Fonts, colors, and any design elements should match in both documents. Likewise, if you write a CV, your cover letter and CV should match in terms of style.
On the other hand, they should have complementary—not matching—content. Your resume outlines your qualifications and experience. The purpose of a cover letter is to showcase your personality and tailor your application to the specific job.
Both your cover letter and resume must be free of grammar and spelling errors, so run a QuillBot grammar check before sending.
- What is the best font for a cover letter?
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A cover letter is your chance to make a good impression on a potential employer. Both content and cover letter format are important.
The best fonts for a cover letter are fonts that are professional, legible, and familiar to the majority of readers. A few of these are:
- Arial
- Times New Roman
- Georgia
- Garamond
- Calibri
- Helvetica
No matter how good the font, your cover letter won’t make a good impression if it has grammar and spelling errors, so use QuillBot’s Grammar Checker to make sure your cover letter is error-free.
- What is the purpose of a cover letter introduction?
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The purpose of a cover letter introduction is to say what job you’re applying for, why the company/role appeals to you, and why you’re a great fit.
A cover letter introduction should motivate a recruiter or hiring manager to read the rest of your cover letter and your resume.
To achieve this purpose of a cover letter introduction, you also need to use impeccable grammar and punctuation. QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you do just that.
- What is the purpose of a cover letter conclusion?
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The purpose of a cover letter conclusion is to restate your claim about why you’re a great fit, reiterate your enthusiasm, and motivate the reader to contact you for an interview.
Your cover letter conclusion should leave a positive impression so that the recruiter or hiring manager is excited to review your resume.
To maximize the purpose of a cover letter, always proofread before you send it to employers. QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker instantly finds and fixes errors.
