How Do I Format My Paragraphs In A Job Application?
Talk to someone who has seen a teaching philosophy statement before, such as an advisor, or better yet a person who has served on search committees. Ask for advice. See if he or she will review yours and make suggestions. This is a more important bit than whether or not your cover letter is indented (mine are generally not, btw.) I was lucky enough to have the chair of my dept. look my application materials over before starting to send them out. It helped immensely. Also, take the time to specifically target your statements to the job, if possible – you don’t say what your field is, but a purely academic job requires a different statement than one which involves research, and guiding student research vs. doing your own independent thing requires a slightly different emphasis…
I work at a university (and have worked at 2 others) and see a number of documents (applications for jobs, grants, and awards)formatted by academics that range from neat to atrocious. There does not seem to be a standard, but, without double-spacing your lines, I would leave plenty of space – extra wide margins, and double space your paragraphs. It looks cleaner, and they can write heaps of notes on your application if they want. Mostly, aim for neat with good spelling and have a friend proof read it for things that Word can’t catch (like “form” and “from”). Where I come from, indenting is uncommon, but if you’re consistent (don’t use spaces! – use formatting tools), it should be fine. The standard you are talking about (non-indented paragraphs, double spaced) was taught in my “modern” typing class more than 20 years ago (eek!). It’s not just the internet.
Seriously, don’t waste time thinking about this; fussy formatting questions and font choices are classic avoiding-real-work time-sucks. Stop avoiding work and sit down and get something useful done. Think about the text of the letter. Think about how you might address the particular needs the department says it has. Think about who you know who might know someone in that department who might be able to put in a good word for you. Think very, very hard about finishing your dissertation or at the very least getting another chapter approved ASAP. Don’t waste your time fussing with whether paragraphs are indented or how big your margins are or whether 11.5 or 12 point fonts are better. Every year since I’ve had my PhD, I’ve looked at application cover letters. I have never once given the slightest damn how the paragraphs were delimited. I have cared very deeply about signals of whether or not the dissertation would be done, or how wel the letter matches up with our needs.
