This assignment is for students who are planning to graduate from Northampton Community College and are not planning to transfer to a four-year college. If you are planning to transfer to a
four-year college, whether or not you are getting a degree from Northampton, click here for a different version of this assignment:
Transfer Application Cover Letter.
Your assignment is to write a cover letter to send along with a resume or a job application form.
You are writing this letter as if this were a time period in the future: specifically, your last month
in college. For example, your last month would be December 2009 if you are planning to graduate from here
this semester and then enter the job market. If you are planning to graduate next semester, then the date would
be in May 2010. On the other hand, the year could be 2011 or later, depending on when you expect to get your degree.
The job you’re applying for should be on the entry level for your field if you haven’t
worked in this field before. If you have, then you should apply for a higher-level position.
Please try to use the CareerBuilder.com, Craig's List (for the Lehigh Valley), or Monster.com website to locate a good job to apply for, or you can use another Internet site for finding jobs, if you prefer.
(Don't forget that you are not actually applying for a job--this is a writing assignment!)
If you are unsuccessful in finding a job to apply for, please let your professor know.
Before you begin writing the cover letter, read pages 81-89 in your textbook for guidelines on writing
business letters and and 137-139 for guidelines on writing job application cover letters.
Also, look closely at the requirements for your major here at NCC. You
can find these requirements by going to the Programs and Majors webpage on the college website. You will then be able to include details in the letter about the courses you will have taken
in your major by the time you graduate.
Your letter should be at least four paragraphs in length, although two of them (the introductory and concluding
paragraphs) can be short.
Here are some basic guidelines for you to consider as you write your rough draft of the letter: Cover Letter Basic Guidelines
Follow the full-block letter format on page 84. Use Microsoft Word for this assignment,
and submit a rough draft that you have saved on a disk, a flash drive, or as an email attachment.
