Recruiters skim cover letters in under a minute. One typo, one wrong company name, one 'their' where you meant 'they're' — and you're in the no pile. Here's the checklist that catches almost everything.
Before we get into the list, here's the kind of mistake that costs interviews — a real opening line with real problems:
Dear hiring manger hiring manager, I am writting writing to apply to apply for the position at you're your company.
Four mistakes in the greeting and first sentence. Spellcheck catches one of them. That's the exact gap this checklist is designed to close.
Content (the stuff AI can't fully check)
- The company name is correct — and spelled correctly, including capitalisation.
- The hiring manager's name is right (and it's their preferred form, not just LinkedIn's).
- The role title matches the job posting exactly.
- You've named at least one thing specific to this company, not a generic 'I love your mission'.
- Your opening line isn't 'I am writing to apply for…'.
- Every paragraph earns its place — cut anything that would fit any other application.
Rewrite your opener
'I am writing to apply for the position of…' is the fastest way to be forgotten. If you have that line, run it through a paraphraser on 'creative' and pick the version that sounds like you would actually say it out loud.
I am writing to apply for the position of Marketing Coordinator at your esteemed company.
Your Marketing Coordinator role is the first job I've seen this year that made me stop scrolling — here's why I'd be a strong fit.
Mechanics (where AI shines)
- No spelling errors — including real-word errors like 'form' vs 'from'.
- Consistent tense — present for current role, past for previous.
- No repeated words within a sentence or two.
- Consistent UK or US English (organisation vs organization).
- Contractions match the rest of the letter (don't mix 'do not' and 'don't').
- One space after full stops, no double spaces anywhere.
- The hiring manager's name is spelled the same way at the top and bottom.
The one homophone that lives on cover letters
Nine times out of ten it's this pair:
I would like to bring my skills too you're team.
I would like to bring my skills to your team.
'too' vs 'to' and 'you're' vs 'your' — the twin cover-letter killers.
Run it through a free AI proofreader
Paste the letter into Verbao's free proofreader. It'll catch the mechanics list above in one pass, and flag any awkward phrasing — critical when a recruiter is skim-reading. Free up to 500 words, which is longer than any cover letter should be. If yours is above 400 words, that's your first thing to fix.
The final human pass
- Read it aloud. If any sentence makes you pause, rewrite it.
- Read it on your phone — the smaller screen catches padding.
- Check the attached CV filename doesn't say 'CV-final-final-v3-USE-THIS.pdf'.
- Check the email subject line one more time before you press send.
The three-sentence sanity test
Before you send, cover the rest of the letter and read only three sentences: the opening, one from the middle, and the closing. If those three alone don't sell you for the role, the rest of the letter probably doesn't either. That's your signal to rewrite one paragraph, not tweak commas.
Recruiters don't read cover letters. They scan them. Write for the scan.
Then send it. Perfect is the enemy of applied.