Words and Phrases to Avoid in Your Cover Letter
A hiring manager can tell within a couple of sentences whether a cover letter was written with care or assembled from the same tired phrases as everyone else’s. The problem is that most of us reach for those phrases without noticing, because they sound like what a cover letter is supposed to sound like. Learning the cover letter words to avoid, and what to write instead, is one of the fastest ways to lift your application above the pile.
The words below are not banned because they are wrong. They are worth cutting because they are empty. They take up space, make a promise your examples should be making, and blur into the hundreds of other letters saying exactly the same thing.
The opening lines everyone has read a thousand times
The first sentence is where letters most often go stale. “I am writing to apply for the position of…” tells the reader nothing they did not already know from the subject line, and it wastes your most valuable moment. “Please find attached my CV” is equally hollow, since they can see the attachment.
Start instead with something that only you could say. Lead with a specific reason you want this role, a relevant achievement, or a genuine connection to the company. Compare “I am writing to apply for the marketing role” with “When I grew a small charity’s mailing list from 400 to 6,000 in a year, I knew marketing was where I belonged.” The second opening earns the next sentence, which is the whole job of a first line.
Empty adjectives that describe nothing
The most common cover letter cliches are the self-describing adjectives we all reach for. Words like these appear on almost every letter, which is precisely why they no longer mean anything:
- Hard-working
- Passionate
- Motivated
- Dynamic
- Team player
- Thinking outside the box
- Go-getter
The issue is not that these qualities are bad. It is that claiming them proves nothing. Anyone can type “passionate”, so the word carries no weight. The fix is always the same. Replace the claim with the evidence. Rather than calling yourself hard-working, describe the weekend you spent rebuilding a report that saved your team a fortnight. Rather than saying you are a team player, mention the cross-department project you pulled together. Show the quality in action and you never need to name it.
Weak, hedging language that undersells you
Some phrases do more than sit flat. They actively shrink your authority. Words like “I feel”, “I think”, “I just”, “quite” and “a bit” hedge your statements and make you sound unsure of your own value. “I think I would be quite a good fit” is a far weaker sentence than “I am a strong fit, and here is why.”
Watch too for phrases that hand power to the reader before you have made your case, such as “I hope you will consider me” or “I would be grateful for any opportunity.” Courtesy is good, but there is a difference between polite and pleading. Aim for warm confidence. You are offering something worth having, so let the language reflect that. These small hedges are among the most common cover letter mistakes to avoid, and cutting them tends to sharpen every sentence around them at the same time.
Tired closings that fizzle out
Many letters build reasonably well and then collapse at the end with a limp, formulaic sign-off. “I look forward to hearing from you” is harmless but forgettable. “Thank you for taking the time to read my application” is polite but does no work.
Use your final lines to look forward with intent instead. Reaffirm, briefly, what you would bring, and express real interest in the next step. Something like “I would welcome the chance to talk through how I could help your team hit its targets this year” leaves energy in the reader’s mind rather than a shrug. A strong close is not about grand promises, it is about ending on your value rather than trailing off into a stock phrase.
Jargon, waffle and words that hide meaning
The final group to watch is corporate jargon and filler. Phrases like “synergy”, “leverage my skill set”, “results-driven professional” and “proven track record” feel businesslike but say very little, and they can make a real person sound like a template. Plain, specific language always reads as more confident than buzzwords.
Filler phrases also creep in and pad your letter without adding meaning. “In order to” can nearly always become “to”. “Due to the fact that” is just “because”. “At this moment in time” is simply “now”. Trimming these makes every sentence land harder and keeps your letter to the single page a reader expects.
Cutting weak language is only half of the picture, of course. Knowing what strong cover letter writing actually looks like matters just as much, and our guide to the dos and donts of cover letters shows the positive habits that make hiring managers keep reading, so you have a clear target to aim for once the clutter is gone.
Write like a person, not a template
The thread running through all of this is simple. The words to avoid are the ones that could belong to anyone. Every time you replace an empty claim with a real example, swap a hedge for a confident statement, or trade jargon for plain English, your letter sounds more like you and less like the hundred others on the desk.
Editing your own writing to this standard is genuinely hard, because the tired phrases are the ones that feel most natural. If you would like a professional eye to strip out the filler and let your real strengths show, have our writers sharpen your letter into something a hiring manager cannot skim past.
