A Genre Analysis of Job Application Letters by British University Student

Abstract

This study examined the schematic structure of job application letters of British university students who were native speakers of English. The aim was to find out the generic move structure, the associated strategies and linguistic features of the application letters. A total of 35 application letters were analysed using Bhatia’s (1993) move analysis model. The analysis revealed that although the applicants broadly followed the generic framework of the genre of job application, they tended to disregard certain typical generic features. The disregard to generic norms was most obvious in the organizational order of various moves. This lack of homogeneity in discourse patterns betrays the ‘noviceness’ of the applicants who, unlike the professional and experienced writers, display lack of skills needed for constructing a well-organized letter of application.