ATS Cover Letter: How to Write One That Gets Read | Resume Wiz

ATS Cover Letter: How to Write One That Gets Read

October 31, 2026

An ATS cover letter is an ordinary business letter built so software can read it and a person wants to finish it. Keep it to one page, in plain text, with no tables, graphics or fancy templates. Use the job posting’s own language, but only inside real sentences backed by real examples. Below you will find the exact format, a paragraph-by-paragraph structure, a sample letter and a checklist, plus what to do if your resume was built in Canva.

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Key Takeaways:

  • Yes, applicant tracking systems can read cover letters. UT Dallas says many companies scan them for keywords that match the job description.
  • Write it in a blank Word or Google document: text only, one page, black standard font, no color, pictures, text boxes or QR codes.
  • Use three to five short paragraphs: the role and why you want it, two or three proof points from the posting, then a clear close.
  • Keywords belong inside stories with results. A list of buzzwords helps neither the software nor the recruiter.
  • Canva resumes are risky. Export carefully and run a plain-text test, or rebuild the file in a simple document.

Table of Contents

Do applicant tracking systems read cover letters?

Yes, in many cases. UT Dallas’s career center states that many companies use ATS software to scan cover letters for keywords matching the job description. Whether a particular employer’s system does so depends on how they configured it, and you cannot see that from the outside. So you write for both audiences at once.

That is less of a burden than it sounds. The traits that make a letter parse cleanly (simple structure, standard headings, real words in real order) are the same ones that make it easy for a hiring manager to skim. You are not writing a special “robot version”. You are writing a clean letter and removing anything that could trip a parser.

It also helps to know what the system is not. An ATS is a filing and sorting tool. A recruiter still opens the file, and on a senior search that person is usually the one deciding whether you move forward. For how the resume side of the scan works, see our guide to ATS resume scanning.

If you want a broader view of how software is changing screening, this overview of AI in recruitment tools explains why plain formatting and clear language matter more as screening gets automated.

What makes a cover letter ATS-friendly

An ATS-friendly cover letter has three properties: it is readable as plain text, it mirrors the employer’s language honestly, and it is short enough to be read in full. The formatting rules are simple enough to memorize.

UT Dallas recommends building the letter as a text-only document in a blank Microsoft Word or Google document, especially for online submission. Its guidance covers the rest of the basics:

Element What to do
Length One page maximum
Font Black, standard, 10.5 to 12 point
Margins 0.5 to 1 inch
Avoid Templates, text boxes, pictures, QR codes, color and shading
Before sending Proofread

Those specifics come from the UT Dallas cover letter guide. A second source, ATS Hiring Platform, recommends a single-column layout with Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, contact information in the body of the document rather than a header, and a text-based DOCX or PDF instead of a scan or image.

The contact-information point is easy to miss. Many people put their name and phone number in the page header because it looks neat. Some parsers skip headers and footers entirely, so your own details can vanish. Put them at the top of the page body.

Word or PDF?

Follow the application. If the portal says Word or PDF, either is usually safe as long as the PDF has real, selectable text. A PDF created by exporting from Word or Google Docs qualifies. A photo, a scan or a PDF printed from a design tool as an image does not. If the posting names a format, use that format. We cover when to attach a letter and when to paste it in an email in attach a one-page PDF cover letter.

A simple test: open your file, press Ctrl+A, copy, and paste into a plain text editor. If the order is jumbled, text is missing or symbols appear, a parser will likely struggle too. The University of Florida’s Career Connections Center suggests a similar plain-text check to see whether content stays readable once formatting is stripped away.

ATS cover letter format, section by section

Use business-letter format. Northwestern’s career office says the letter should run one page with three to five paragraphs tailored to the specific employer and position, and should carry the same header as your resume. That matching header is a small, useful touch: it makes the two documents read as a set.

Header and greeting

Use your name, city and state, phone, email and LinkedIn URL as plain text, formatted the same as on your resume. Add the date, then the greeting. Northwestern advises addressing a named contact when you have one, and using “Recruiting Team” or “Hiring Manager” when you do not. “To Whom It May Concern” reads as a form letter, so skip it.

A few minutes on LinkedIn or the company’s team page often turns up a name. If the posting lists a recruiter, use that name. If you guess wrong, you lose more than you gain, so use the generic greeting when unsure.

Opening paragraph

Name the exact job title and say why you are interested. Northwestern says the opening should identify the role and explain your interest. Two or three sentences are enough. Use the title as written in the posting, because that is the phrase a system and a recruiter will both look for.

Good openings carry a reason that is specific to the company: a product you have used, a market it just entered, a problem you have solved before. Weak ones say you are “excited to apply” and nothing else.

Body paragraphs

This is where the letter earns its place. UC Santa Barbara Career Services recommends an introduction, one to three body paragraphs and a closing paragraph. Each body paragraph should tie a job-description qualification to a specific example and explain why it matters for the role.

Northwestern’s advice agrees: choose two or three experiences that show your relevant skills, give specifics of their positive impact and do not simply repeat your resume. The structure of a good body paragraph looks like this:

  1. The requirement. Pick one from the posting, in its own words.
  2. The proof. One situation, what you did, and the result with a number if you have one.
  3. The link. One sentence on why this matters for their team.

Closing paragraph

Thank the reader and ask for a conversation. Northwestern’s guidance is to close by thanking the reader and requesting an opportunity to discuss the position. Keep it short and confident. Then sign off with “Sincerely,” and your name.

How to use keywords without stuffing

Start with the posting. Read it twice and underline the skills and responsibilities that repeat or appear in the first few bullets. The University of Minnesota’s Carlson School career guide suggests identifying the key skill areas and ranking them, then supplying specific evidence and outcome statements instead of merely listing keywords.

UC Santa Barbara frames it well: treat each keyword as an anchor for a specific story, and state the connection to the target role directly rather than leaving the reader to infer it. A recruiter quoted in the Carlson guide, Alyssa Robbins of Chevron, says a strong letter shows you understand the posted position and have skills and experience relevant to it.

Here is what that looks like in practice.

Keyword stuffing Keyword as an anchor
“I am a results-driven leader with budget management, P&L, stakeholder management and change management skills.” “At my last company I took over a regional P&L that was missing plan, reset vendor terms and cut cost of sales by 6 percent in two quarters.”
Repeats the posting’s list Chooses the two or three items that matter most
Nothing a hiring manager can verify A story they can ask you about in an interview

The second column still contains the keywords “P&L” and “vendor”. They just sit inside a claim. For a deeper look at the resume side, see our post on optimizing resume keywords and the skills section.

Two cautions. Use only terms that are true for you. And spell out an acronym once if the posting uses both forms, since the University of Florida warns that acronyms used instead of keywords can affect parsing.

A sample ATS-friendly cover letter

This is an illustrative example for a fictional operations director role. Swap in your own details and numbers.

Jordan Reyes Columbus, OH | 555-0142 | [email protected] | linkedin.com/in/jordanreyes

[Date]

Dear Ms. Alvarez,

I am applying for the Director of Operations role at Harbor Freight Logistics. Your expansion into cold-chain distribution is the kind of build-out I have led before, and I would like to bring that experience to your Midwest network.

The posting asks for experience managing multi-site operations. At Calder Supply I ran six distribution centers with 410 employees and brought on-time delivery from 91 percent to 97 percent in 18 months by standardizing shift handoffs and carrier scorecards.

You also want someone who can lead a cost program without hurting service. I rebuilt our freight contracts and renegotiated warehouse leases, which saved $2.3 million a year while customer complaints fell by a third.

I would welcome the chance to discuss how this approach could support your cold-chain launch. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, Jordan Reyes

Notice what it leaves out: no graphics, no columns, no list of adjectives. It mirrors three phrases from the posting (multi-site operations, cost program, cold-chain) and every one is attached to a result. For more examples by career stage, see our cover letter examples.

Should you send a cover letter at all?

If the posting requires one, send it. If the posting says optional, we lean toward sending a short, tailored one for senior, managerial and career-change roles, where a resume alone cannot explain why you fit. If the application has no upload field for one, do not force it into your resume file.

The letter should complement the resume, not echo it. Your resume shows what you did. The letter says why it matters for this job, covers a transition the resume cannot explain (a move across industries, a gap, a relocation) and shows how you communicate. Skip it only when the process is high-volume and clearly does not use one, or the system has no place for it.

Canva resumes and ATS: what to check

Many readers ask whether a Canva resume is ATS friendly. The cautious answer is that it can be risky. UT Austin’s career services advises avoiding Canva and other resume-design sites because an ATS may not read resumes made there accurately. The University of Florida adds that templates, tables, columns and formats other than .docx or .pdf can affect parsing.

If you already have a Canva file, here is a practical check:

  1. Export as a PDF with selectable text, not as an image.
  2. Copy all text and paste it into a plain text editor. Look for scrambled order, missing sections or odd characters.
  3. Check that headings read as headings: Experience, Education, Skills.
  4. Remove icons, skill bars, photos and decorative text boxes.
  5. If the paste test fails, rebuild in a blank Word or Google document with one column.

The same logic applies to cover letters. A Canva cover letter that matches a decorative resume looks nice to a person, but a design-tool file adds risk for no gain. Our guides on ATS-compliant resume formatting, two-column layouts and how layout costs interviews go further. A tidy file name also helps; see this file-name guide.

Our perspective

We have spent more than a decade on the recruiting side of the table, and what we see is that candidates over-engineer the ATS and under-invest in the human who opens the file. The software decides very little on its own. What it does is make a messy document harder to find, so the formatting rules matter, but they are the entry fee, not the strategy.

The strategy is relevance. At the executive and senior-manager level, the letters that work name one or two business problems the company has, then show you have solved them. They are short. They sound like a person. They never read like a resume pasted into paragraphs.

We also tell clients that a cover letter is one piece of a system. Resume, LinkedIn profile, outreach to real people and interview preparation all have to say the same thing. A perfect letter attached to an application nobody sees still goes nowhere, which is why we pair documents with direct outreach.

Kim

Get the whole package working together

If you would rather not rebuild it alone, our Evolution package ($699) gives you a recruiter-written executive resume, LinkedIn profile and cover letter built to read cleanly for both people and parsers.

Final checklist before you submit

  • One page, three to five paragraphs, business-letter format.
  • Blank Word or Google document; black standard font at 10.5 to 12 points.
  • Contact details in the body, matching your resume header.
  • Exact job title in the first paragraph.
  • Two or three requirements from the posting, each with a specific result.
  • A named greeting, or “Hiring Manager” if you cannot find one.
  • Pasted into plain text and checked for order and missing characters.
  • Proofread aloud.

Want a recruiter in your corner for your next senior role? Book a free call with Resume Wiz and we will map out your next move together.

FAQ

Do cover letters need to be ATS friendly?

Yes, if you are submitting one through an online application. Many employers scan letters for keywords, so a plain, text-only file removes the risk of the system misreading it. It also makes the letter easier for a person to read.

Can you provide an example of an ATS-friendly cover letter?

The sample above shows the pattern: matching header, named greeting, an opening that states the role, two body paragraphs with measured results and a short close. Use it as a structure and replace every detail with your own.

What is a good ATS score?

There is no universal score. Scoring tools differ, and employers’ own systems rarely show applicants a number. Aim for a letter and resume that honestly cover the posting’s main requirements, rather than chasing a percentage from a third-party checker.

Is an ATS-friendly cover letter format different from a normal one?

Only in what it leaves out. The structure is the standard business letter. You drop templates, text boxes, images, color and header-only contact details, and you keep it to one page.

Sources

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