Ask students to bring a cover letter written to an employer at their “dream job” to class. This cover letter is a rough draft and should be written in plain paragraph form. Ask students to keep this first draft to roughly 500 words.
Write up your own example of a perfect APA cover letter that you would create for a position as a teacher. You’ll use this example to compare with your students' cover letters in class.
Go over the basics of APA spacing and formatting. These include: writing a heading with your contact information and a greeting (“Dear Miss...”) with one space in between; single-spacing the text; leaving a full space between each separate paragraph; leaving three spaces between the last official sentence and your closing signature (“Sincerely...”); indenting the start of each paragraph once to the right; having standard 1-inch margins on all four sides of your document; and centering your cover letter in the middle of the page, making sure there’s the same amount of blank space at the top and bottom of your cover letter. Have students make a list of each of these rules.
Have each student exchange the first draft of her cover letter with another student. With the lists they made in Step 3, have students reformat their partners' cover letters and return them. Ask each student to rewrite her cover letter with the corrections made by her partner and bring it to class typed.
Ask each student to hand-sign her signature in ink between her closing statement (“Sincerely,” or “Best Wishes, for example) and her typed name. Have students exchange cover letters with a different partner for a second read-through. Repetition will help ingrain this process into the minds of your students.