Education Commons^™

Responding To High Stakes Writing: When Six Colleagues Read One Cover Letter, Sarah Snyder, Mark Blaauw-Hara, Cristyn Elder, Joseph Janangelo, Michael Pemberton, Staci Perryman-Clark, Irwin Weiser

Journal of Response to Writing

As preparation for the rhetoric and composition job market becomes more readily available through multiple sources, some cover letter writers may find themselves confused by the well-meaning, but perhaps conflicting, responses to writing given by mentors from differing backgrounds, statuses, and epistemes. This article seeks to illuminate the rhetorical situation behind the cover letter with simulated writing responses to a genuine cover letter by five reader archetypes: a supportive reader, a critical reader, an outside reader, a teaching-centric reader, and a research-centric reader. Through this exercise, cover letter writers are shown how to weigh writing advice through the juxtaposition of …