What makes a cover letter stand out? Some say a compelling first paragraph or an original way of expressing an idea can cut through the clutter.

But four recent applicants for a receptionist position at a Manhattan photography studio were noticed for an entirely different reason. All four, who live in different parts of New York City, used identical language in a portion of their e-mailed cover letters, says Mary Catanzaro, the employee who screened the applications.

The applicants apparently lifted the passage from the Microsoft Office website’s template gallery, a tactic that has become increasingly common in an age when thousands of cover letters, r?sum?s and thank-you notes are readily available to download or cut and paste.

Specialists agree that the abundance of job information available online makes it possible for people to conduct more informed job searches. But it is also more likely that employers will receive similar or nearly identical r?sum?s and letters copied from easily accessible websites.

Some sites promote a casual attitude towards the practice of lifting words, phrases or whole passages. “Take out the guesswork and easily get great ideas from these top-notch samples,” reads one online advertisement, which offered 50 sample cover letters customers could use to steal phrases and words for their own cover letters.

How serious an offence is this? Some are not sure it should be considered an offence at all. “It’s something of a grey area,” says Randall S. Hansen, a marketing professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and founder of Quintessential Careers, an online job-search information site. “If it were a student assignment I would say that it’s plagiarism. As an employer, I would think this is a lazy individual and question the ethics of taking someone else’s work.”

Some job seekers see no difference between taking passages from online sites and hiring a r?sum? consultant to write the documents for them. Daphne Jean Baptiste, who is looking for a customer service or administrative assistant position, says that she has used portions of online cover letters if they were “worded better” than her own. But she says that employers are more responsive to personalised r?sum?s and cover letters specially tailored to each position.

Hansen, who in addition to his jobs website offers a writing service called Quintessential R?sum?s and Cover Letters, says, “It’s possible to create a flawless document and a false image.”

John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm based in Chicago, says the typical job searcher focussed too much attention on r?sum? and cover letters. He says he has found that “wordsmithing” cover letters is not a good use of time and that r?sum?s do not always open doors.

Still, most employees will use r?sum?s and cover letters as their introduction to future employers. And specialists say that sample r?sum?s and cover letters can be useful to inspire ideas for individualised documents.

?NYTNS