Business & Professional Interactions

When the time comes for me to graduate, I have no doubt I would be drafting many letters of application to various companies in order to try to secure a job. After studying Week 10's notes, I have learnt more about the structural moves of the application letter, and I believe the knowledge would be useful to me when I write my letters of application in time to come.

I attempted the tutorial on my own and below is how I answered Activity 2, which required me to identify the moves in the letter of application given.


Dear Sir, [Opening]

I wish to make application for a lectureship in the Department of English at this University. [Offering Candidature]

I have a Ph.D. in English from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, where I studied under such distinguished scholars as Professors K.R. Sisson and P. Hogg. I also have an M.A. in English from Napoli University. [Promoting the Candidate]

I have taught English at a number of American and Canadian educational institutions, including Purdue and Oklahoma universities. I have also taught at Lohis College in Tehran, Iran, where I had experience teaching English as a second language. Currently I am on the staff of Riyadh University in Saudi Arabia. [Promoting the Candidate]

I have written about ten research articles in the last seven years, all of which have been published in scholarly journals. I have also written two books, one on Shakespeare and the other on the teaching of writing, which are being published by Guelph University and will be out in a few months. [Promoting the Candidate]

My speciality is Shakespeare and Renaissance drama in general, but I am also qualified to teach a wide variety of other courses, including the Novel, Poetry, Composition, writing and teaching of writing and ESL. [Promoting the Candidate]

I hope this letter of ‘application’ will clarify some of the information on the enclosed C.V., which outlines my qualifications, experience and research interests. [Enclosing documents]

I am required to give notice to Riyadh in early April and therefore look forward to hearing form you soon. Since I do not have a telephone, I will be happy to call you should a telephone discussion become appropriate. [Polite Ending]

Sincerely yours

XYZ [Signing off]

The 5 moves used by the letter writer in the tutorial are the main structural moves of writing such letters as Henry & Roseberry(2001) have found them to be present in all of 40 letters they collected. Therefore when writing such letters in the future, I would make sure I at least cover these 5 moves as well.