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This is a s ample cover letter for a position as a postdoctoral instructor at a university. The details are, of course, fictitious. This letter is longer than usual because it includes more examples of content that could be included than probably apply to most cases. Dear Professor White: I am currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at Boston University, expecting to complete my degree requirements in August 2004. I wish to apply for the open position of Instructor of Foreign Literature in your department, as advertised in The Chronicles of Higher Education. I feel that I am very well qualified to undertake the responsibilities of an instructor and that your department would provide an excellent environment for my intellectual and professional growth. At this point in my career, I am seeking a position that will allow me to combine my two intellectual loves, French biographical literature and teaching French language and literature to well-motivated college-level students. Your department includes Professors John Smith, a leading expert on 19th century French novels and Mary Brown, famous for her encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century French nonfiction. I think that my own concentration in French biographical literature would complement these areas nicely. I am also certain that interacting with Professors Smith and Brown on a regular basis would expand my ability to analyze the literary works of French authors from the past two centuries. Of the five courses in which I have served as a teaching assistant or lead instructor, I was most stimulated by LF 339, Difficult Readings in French. I was the sole instructor for this course, supervised only by the director of the program in French literature, Professor Marie Dumands. The fifteen students in the class were extremely well motivated, since the course is an elective rather than a requirement in the program. The students were all completely fluent in French, which allowed me to concentrate on all the nuances that make the study of literature both fun and rewarding. My enthusiasm seemed to transfer to the students: they rated my performance in the class as 4.7 on a 5.0 scale. This convinced me that I would greatly prefer to teach in a program that emphasizes complete fluency as a pre-requisite for enrollment in literature courses in which the readings are all in French. The program in your department has this characteristic, and X University has a reputation for academic excellence among its students. For this reason, I am extremely enthusiastic over the possibility of teaching in your department, even on the understanding that the duration of the position is likely to be only two years. My accomplishments in the field of my dissertation, biographies of the painter Claude Monet, include publication of (1) five major, peer-reviewed papers in the Journale de Biographies de Impressionists, (2) six shorter articles in various magazines on art history, (3) a translation into English of an article on Monet written in French, and (4) three short papers in the proceedings of international conferences on the French impressionists. In addition, I have completed five chapters of an expected twelve-chapter scholarly book in English on the life of Monet as compiled from three French-language biographies, including one that was lost until 2002. The book is based on my PhD dissertation, Insights into the Mind of the Artist: A New Compilation of the Biography of Claude Monet. I expect to complete the book during the next holiday break and, if necessary, the following summer. Please find enclosed my curriculum vitae, which lists my educational background, professional positions, teaching experience and accomplishments, statement of research interests and accomplishments, published works, and names and contact information of more senior colleagues who have agreed to write letters on my behalf. I feel strongly that my qualifications match the needs of your department and that I would thrive in the stimulating intellectual environment that you would provide. In addition, the Fairbanks area would be an ideal location for the pursuit of my hobby of painting pristine forests and mountains during different seasons and angles of sunlight. Thank you very much for considering my application. Yours sincerely, Chris Jones |
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February 24, 2006 |