Cover Letter Format

Three templates with the format already right.

Every rule below is already applied inside these — copy one to Google Docs or download the Word file, and you are editing a correctly formatted letter instead of building one.

The parts of a cover letter, in order.

• Header. Your name, phone, email, city and state, and a LinkedIn or portfolio URL. A full street address is no longer expected. Match the header on your resume exactly.
• Date. Written out: September 7, 2026.
• Recipient block. The hiring manager’s name, title, company, and company address — or as much as you can find. Three or four lines.
• Salutation. ’Dear Ms. Rivera,’ or ’Dear Alex Rivera,’ — a name whenever possible. ’Dear Hiring Manager,’ is the fallback. See the how-to-address guide.
• Opening paragraph. The job, where you saw it, one specific reason, one credential.
• Body — one or two paragraphs. Two or three results matched to the posting, with numbers.
• Why-here paragraph. Something that could only be about this company.
• Closing paragraph. The ask, the attached resume, thanks.
• Sign-off. ’Sincerely,’ then a blank line, then your typed name. No handwritten signature needed for email or upload.

That’s the whole structure. Every template on this page follows it; the letterhead styling changes, the letter format doesn’t.

Fonts, margins, spacing, and length.

Font: one clean typeface, 10.5–12 pt — Calibri, Georgia, Garamond, Arial, or the same font as your resume. Never two fonts in the body. Margins: 1 inch, or 0.75 if you need the room; never below. Spacing: single-spaced within paragraphs, a blank line between them, no first-line indent. Alignment: left, ragged right — never justified.

Length: one page, always. 250–400 words is the working range; the length guide has the reasoning and when shorter wins. If the letter runs to a second page, cut the paragraph that restates the resume — not the margins.

Header design: how much is too much

A letterhead with your name in a larger size, a rule, and a single accent color is standard and reads as professional in every field. Color bands, sidebars, and monograms are fine in design, marketing, and tech; keep them out of law, finance, government, and academia unless the resume already uses them. Whatever you choose, it must match the resume — the two documents should look like a set.

File type, naming, and email versus attachment.

PDF unless the posting asks for Word — a PDF locks the layout and every applicant tracking system reads PDF text. Name it Firstname-Lastname-Cover-Letter.pdf. If a portal has a text box instead of an upload, paste the letter body without the header and recipient block (the portal already knows who you are).

Sending by email? Either attach the PDF and write a three-line email, or put a short version of the letter in the email body — the email cover letter collection has both, with subject lines. Don’t do both at full length.

ATS-safe formatting

• Real text, not text boxes; the header in the body of the page, not in Word’s header/footer area.
• Standard section order and a single column — tables are fine for the letterhead only.
• No images with text in them; a logo or monogram is fine because it carries no words the ATS needs.
• Every template here passes: select-all, copy, paste into a plain text editor, and the letter reads in order.

Cover Letter Format FAQ

More cover letter guides and collections.