THE ABILITY OF STUDENTS AT THE TERTIARY LEVEL OF EDUCATION TO APPLY RELEVANT MOVES AND CONTENT IN JOB APPLICATION LETTERS

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of 22 job application letters written by students at the level of Master’s studies. The letters were analyzed regarding their structure, i.e. the moves they contained and their content, in order to determine whether students are able to write effective job application letters. When analyzing the documents, the main emphasis was put on the issues students had regarding the structure and content – the type of information included in each move. The small-scale research we conducted is mostly descriptive and qualitative with some quantitative data as well. The conclusions reached indicate that students are well aware of the correct structure of this type of document, but there is still room for significant improvement in terms of the content and the means to connect their skills to the requirements and present themselves in the best way possible. The findings reveal the necessity of explicit genre teaching with the focus on formal register and the ways in which applicants could attract potential employers.