Words that work: How linguistic impressiveness shapes graduate employability in job application letters

Job application letters (JALs) are a key employment-related genre through which applicants present their qualifications, experience, and suitability for a specific role. Yet some graduates may find it challenging to write letters that are sufficiently specific, role-relevant, and persuasive. This raises an important concern for ESP pedagogy about how students can be supported to write application letters that are more employer-oriented. This study investigates the linguistic impressiveness of JALs written by ESL graduating students at a Malaysian research university. In this study, linguistic impressiveness refers to how effectively a JAL uses genre structure, alignment with job-advertisement requirements, and persuasive self-presentation to make the applicant's professional suitability visible. Drawing on Fairclough's three-dimensional model of discourse and Upton and Connor's move structure framework, the study analysed 50 JALs in terms of move structure, lexical alignment with job advertisements, and persuasive self-presentation. The findings show that students generally included the main JAL moves, especially applying for the position and providing supporting information, but were less consistent in realising closing moves such as expressing appreciation, offering further information, and referring to the attached résumé. Many letters also showed only partial alignment with job-advertisement requirements and a slight tendency toward descriptive rather than persuasive self-presentation. The paper concludes by considering how ESP instruction can better support students' development of persuasive and employer-oriented job application writing.