The Benefits of a Cover Letter Editing Service

A fresh perspective on your cover letter

Everyone should have their cover letters looked at by at least one other person. A fresh set of eyes can do wonders to improve the effectiveness of any piece of writing, let alone a cover letter. An editor is a defender against grandiose statements, wordy sentences, and unnecessary information that might cause a reader to lose interest. As much as language rules are becoming more fluid, an editor is a guardian of the rules of syntax and grammar, and a misplaced comma or an errant typo might be the thing that gets or loses someone a job.

Imagine someone wrote “I enjoy cooking animals and hiking.” While this is a rather obvious example, and veganism isn’t necessary to getting a job, it does create a bit of an awkward situation. As Arthur Plotnik once said in The Elements of Editing, “Communication is your reason for being—not nourishment of ego, not praise of colleagues, not money, not love of generations to come. You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you—and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” Rather than take the risk of presenting a cover letter riddled with obvious errors that overshadows what could be an extremely impressive resume, it is much better to have a seasoned veteran of the craft look over a piece of writing that runs the risk of being ineffective.

As such, the greatest benefit of a cover letter editing service is precisely that a job applicant would not have to submit their documents with only blind hope. Having run their cover letter by an editor, the applicant would have the luxury of knowing how their cover letter stands out or matches up against the thousands upon thousands of cover letters out there. A cover letter editing service is a valuable tool that can be the deciding factor in whether an applicant gets in the door or not.

Cover letters are used for a variety of purposes from job and university applications to article submission packages. While there is some conflict on whether cover letters still carry a lot of weight in applications, many companies still use cover letters as an initial gauge on a person’s personality, communications skills, and general attitude.

Clarity for your intended reader

For those whose native language isn’t English, the benefits of an English language editing service are obvious—good English writing is often required for any applicant to be taken seriously. No matter how much of a genius anyone might be, this genius won’t be understood if said genius can’t communicate effectively. While editors can only do so much to help with oral and verbal skills, editors can go a long with into helping a piece of writing convince a reader that it is effective and clear.

Editors can go a long way into helping non-native speakers acquire positions in English-speaking countries by improving the clarity and natural flow of their writing. In the end, what would ultimately shine is the writer’s accomplishments and achievements and not the fear that they might not be able to communicate effectively with native English speakers.

For those who are already proficient English writers and speakers, they might wonder why an editor is necessary or important. They might be surprised to find out that the most common and obvious mistakes are the ones that are most often overlooked. No person can construct a perfect piece of writing without several readthroughs and spellcheck on. Psychologist Tom Stafford at the University of Sheffield has noted that the brain attempts to generalize simple tasks (such as word choice, spelling, and general sentence construction) to focus more energy on difficult tasks (such as idea creation, argumentative flow, and conveying meaning).

This often causes a person’s thoughts to run faster than their fingers can keep up; as such, typos are made, commas are left out, and a random space might appear before the “a” and “nd” to make “and.” These types of errors are often not caught by writers as they become overly accustomed to their own ideas and writing; they are no longer capable of catching these minute mistakes that a new set of eyes would latch on to.

Often, these mistakes can present as carelessness or a lack of effort, and they are the errors that admissions officers and hiring managers use as evidence to support their eventual decisions of to hire or not to hire. Therefore, an editor is valuable just as a proofreader alone.

Presenting your experience

Not only are editors valuable proofreaders, they’re also the people who encounter the most resumes and cover letters apart from human resources departments. Editors can weed out clichés from just a glance at a cover letter; they can determine extremely quickly if a cover letter is just another piece of paper in the pile or if it’s the golden lottery ticket. They can tell you if your content is effective or redundant. Should this detail be moved to the resume?

Should this information be deleted altogether? Is this too much information? Is this too little information? Is this of any relevance to the job? These are all questions an editor can answer about a resume’s contents.

Depending on the editor, he or she can also be an impartial third person that can tell a writer if a section is working or isn’t. In today’s world, people are becoming increasingly conscious of word choice and usage, even if grammar and punctuation rules are becoming increasingly lax. The use of pronouns and inclusive language, the use of the singular they, and the use of politically incorrect terminology, these are all elements that factor into a cover letter. They convey a person’s political associations, ideological views, and general opinions, and an accidental slip up in the use of “businessmen” versus “businesspeople” might just be the deciding factor that gets someone axed from a job organizing a women’s rights march, for example.

These subtleties in language convey an abundance of information regarding a person, and editors are trained to find these minute technicalities.

Communication and teamwork

Most job application postings nowadays always emphasize one word in their applications postings: teamwork. Communications abilities and empathy are becoming increasingly important in the workplace as people are continually seeing the benefits of mutual collaboration. To mitigate strife and conflict, people are increasingly looking for employees that can adapt to a team environment. Editors pay attention to the current job markets and any shifts in employer expectations. In doing so, they help applicants write cover letters that are more than just a laundry list of skills and qualifications—they help writers create compelling pieces of correspondence that convince an employer of the applicant’s qualities as a person as well.

Editors tell writers if they’re focusing too much on the “me, me, me!” and convince writers of the need to cater their applications to the specific needs of the employer. There is no point in having an excellent set of qualifications if the applicant can’t convince an employer they’re not a pain to work with. Any lack of expertise can be made up for with training, but a difficult personality is a little bit harder to deal with.

An editor is the bridge between the reader and the writer; often, it can be difficult for writers to know what the reader wants. As this bridge, an editor informs writers of a reader’s idiosyncrasies—editors act as a roadmap to help applicants make it to their end goal. The benefits of an editing service result not only in improvements in grammar, syntax, and the overall quality of a document; an editing service allows a writer to present the best version of their qualifications.

Just as you wouldn’t go to an interview wearing mud-covered sneakers and jeans, you wouldn’t apply for a job with an error- and cliché-riddled cover letter.