Investigating Students’ Problems in Understanding Their Personal Qualities and Skills for Cover Letters - A Self-Assessment Approach

Sep 13, 2026

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This paper explores students’ problems in presenting their personal qualities in cover letters for job application and evaluates a self-assessment approach to address these challenges. The study uses action research with content analysis, individual interviews, and self-assessment feedback across a three-stage process. Findings indicate post-intervention cover letters have clearer, more effective content, with learners providing relevant and specific personal information that supports both technical and soft skills.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time4 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background of the Study

Malaysian workplace and employment scenario: the mismatch of workplace requirements

Brief overview of literature

Research objectives and research questions

Research methodology, methods and procedure

Analysis of the findings

Implications to classroom contexts

Conclusion

Investigating Students’Problems in Understanding their Personal Qualities and Skills for Cover Letters –A Self-Assessment Approach Saadiah Kummin, The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia Chia Loy Khim, The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia Roselind Razali, The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia Roslina Salim, The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia The Sixth Asian Conference on Education 2014 Official Conference Proceedings Abstract This paper explores students’problems in presenting their personal qualities in cover letters for job application and examines the effectiveness of self-assessment approach in countering these problems. This study adopts the action research approach, and the research methods used are content analysis, individual interview and self-assessment feedback. The research procedure consists of a three-stage approach. The researchers comprise four English instructors who also act as participant-observers in their language classrooms and collaborators in this action project. The objective of the research is to identify the problems faced by the selected learners in writing relevant information on their personal qualities and their strategies in overcoming the problems based on their own self-assessment feedback. Primarily, this study focuses on the presentation of both technical and soft skills in the cover letters. Based on the content analysis and the students’ self-assessment feedback, it was found that generally, the cover letters produced in the post-intervention demonstrated clearer and much more effective content. Specifically, it was found that students were able to do their own self-assessment by providing relevant and specific personal information that promotes personal qualities and skills in their cover letters. iafor The International Academic Forum [www.iafor.org](www.iafor.org) Introduction This paper investigates students’problems in understanding their personal qualities for cover letters and how the knowledge about self-assessment approach helps them to gather relevant personal information in the process writing of cover letters for job application among six second language learners who took a workplace communication course at a Malaysian public university. In particular, this study is an action research project. The research methods used are content analysis and individual interview. The research procedure consists of the three-stage approach, the pre-, while- and post- intervention stages. In the premise of this study, action research, similar to other forms of inquiry, is perceived as value laden (Herr and Anderson 2005) as it enables changes in the classroom learning with subsequent monitoring. The researchers consist of four English instructors who also act as participantobservers in their language classrooms and collaborators in this action research project. The main objective of conducting this action research is to identify the problems faced by students in writing relevant information on personal qualities to display professionalism. It is also to investigate whether students’use of the self-assessment approach help them to gather relevant personal information problems or errors in the selected students’ cover letters and to provide the necessary teaching and learning input and strategies to counter the problems identified. This paper consists of eight segments. First, this paper will present the background of the study. Second, a brief background of literature review is presented, followed by third, a brief description of the course, participants and teachers. The fourth segment outlines the research objectives and research questions. Fifth, the research methodology, methods and procedure are explained briefly and subsequently, the sixth segment will explain the analysis of the findings. Seventh, implications to classroom contexts will be highlighted followed by the final section, the conclusion. Background of the Study Malaysia

FAQs

What problems do students face when writing cover letters related to personal qualities?

Students struggle to understand and present relevant personal qualities in cover letters for job applications, which affects how effectively they communicate employability.

How does the self-assessment approach help students in this study?

Self-assessment enables students to gather and present more relevant, specific personal information that better supports the personal qualities and skills highlighted in their cover letters.

What research methods and procedure are used in the action research project?

The study applies action research using content analysis and individual interviews, supported by self-assessment feedback, following a three-stage pre-, while-, and post-intervention process.

Sep 13, 2026

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