Basic English Language Skills
Developed for Oxbridge Academy
LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT:
 THE FORMAT OF YOUR COVER LETTER:
• Your cover letter should be clear and concise. Keep it short   –
• ideally, your letter should fit onto one side of an A4 page.
• Use a standard font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, to type your 
e-mail.
• If you are sending a hard copy of your cover letter: use the standard 
letter format, with your address at the top right, and the recipient’s 
address below that, on the left.
• If you are sending your cover letter via e-mail: write the letter in the 
body of the e-mail, and start with the salutation  (instead of your ad-
dress).
• If you are responding to a job advertisement via e-mail, use the sub -
ject line provided in the advertisement. If no subject line was provid-
ed, use a relevant subject line that refers to the position being ad-
vertised. E.g. “Application for Project Management Assistant position 
(ref. no. 4231)”.
 
Salutation
If you know the name of the person to whom you are writing:
• Start your letter by addressing the recipient by name: e.g. 
“Dear Mr John Smith/Dear Ms Joanne Smith”
If you don’t know the name of the person to whom you are  writing 
(and only if you have no way of establishing the recipient’s name):
• Start your letter by addressing the recipient in one of the following 
ways:  “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Sir/Madam”
In an e-mail, you can also leave out the salutation entirely (and replace 
it with a subject line) if you don’t know the name of the intended recip-
ient, and you feel uncomfortable using an impersonal salutation such as 
“Dear Sir/Madam”.