O Careers in tourism
writing Cover letters
7 Read the text about writing cover letters and use the advice to complete the sentences below.
1 The address of the person the letter is addressed to appears................
2 If you begin a letter with 'Dear Mrs Healey' you should end with...............
3 You should write your own address.................,,. .
4 If an advertisement says 'Reply to Vikki West' you should................
5 If an advertisement says 'Reply to R. Simpson' you should........,.......
6 If an advertisement says 'Please send CV + cover letter to Marketing Director, Austravel' you should begin your letter with.............., and end with ..;.......
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When writing cover letters you need to use a standard format. Remember that the address' of the person you are writing to always appears on the left-hand .side-of the page and-your own address is in the top right-hand corner. Put the .date under your .address,;
Always, make sure you start and end your cover letters correctly. If you are writing to Mrs Linda Carr then you should start the letter 'Dear Mrs Carr' and finish-it with 'Yours sincerely'. Note that 'sincerely' has a small V, not a capital letter.
If the advertisement asks you to send your application to Melanie Thompson, how would:you begin your letter? 'Dear Melanie'? 'Dear Melanie Thompson'? ■Dear Mrs Thompson' is not really appropriate as she might not be married. It is probably safe to put 'Dear Melanie Thompson'.
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If ;the.-advertisement just says 'reply to J. Brown' how would you address the §if
fetter? 'Dear Sir'?, or 'Dear Madam' ? or 'Dear Mr Brown' ? You should ring the j§
company and find out J. Brown's full name and whether this person is a man feV
or a woman. §§}
Remember that letter etiquette costs you nothing, but it can really pay %
dividends and you may be the only person who has made the effort to find out. Jf,
This could help to make you different from all the other applicants and being |f
noticed--is important if you are going to get invited for interview. ||,
If the advertisement just states: 'Write to the Human Resources Department' or p;.
'Reply to Atlas Travel' it may not be possible for you to find out who will be p
dealing with your reply. In these cases you will have to start your letter 'Dear ||
Sir/Madam' and finish the letter with 'Yours faithfully' with a small 'f. . |f