To spell check a job application, check each part on its own: the cover letter, the resume, and every answer you type into an application form. Set the checker to the English of the country where the job is, go through each suggestion, and then read the result once more yourself before you send it.
A spelling mistake in an application costs more than one in a text message. The person who reads it has never met you, and the application is all they have. A typo in the first lines can look like a lack of care, even when the rest is excellent. Most of these mistakes are easy to find before anyone else sees them.
What to check
An application has more parts than most people think. Check all of them:
- the cover letter or motivational letter
- the resume or CV
- the short answers in an online application form, such as "Why do you want this job?"
- the email you send the application with, including its subject line
Form answers and emails are the parts people forget. They are often written last, in a hurry, and straight into a box that has no spell check of its own.
Spell check your application in 7 steps
The steps below use the Spell Checker. It is free to use and needs no account.
- Open the Spell Checker. For a cover letter or a resume, open the document itself. For a form answer or an email, paste the text into the text box.
- Choose the language and its variant, for example American English for a job in the United States, or British English for one in the United Kingdom.
- Turn on Picky mode for the cover letter.
- Press Check spelling.
- Go through each suggestion: pick a fix, or ignore it if it is wrong for your text.
- Add names and terms that are spelled correctly to the dictionary.
- Download the corrected document, or copy the corrected text back into the form.
Open the original document
The Spell Checker reads Word documents (DOCX and DOC), OpenDocument text (ODT), RTF, PDF, and more. If you wrote your resume in Word and plan to send it as a PDF, check the Word file, not the PDF. A Word or OpenDocument file that you download in its own format keeps its formatting: you get your original file with each fix written into it. Export the PDF from that corrected file. How to spell check a Word document online explains this in detail.
Pick the right English
Spelling differs between the variants of English. A British employer expects organise, colour, and centre; an American one expects organize, color, and center. Choose the variant of the country where the job is: American, British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, or South African English.
You can let the app detect the language, but detected English is checked as American English. For a British application, choose British English yourself. British or American English? explains how to keep one variant from the first line to the last.
Use Picky mode for the cover letter
Picky mode adds style suggestions: wordy phrases, words you repeat, and wording that could be simpler. They are suggestions, not mistakes, but they help a letter that has to say a lot on one page. A resume is written in short fragments on purpose, such as "Led a team of 5", so you can leave Picky mode off for it.
Review each suggestion
Each issue is underlined in the text and listed beside it, by kind: Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and, in Picky mode, Style. Click an underline or a card to see the explanation and choose a fix. A document is checked page by page, so you can start on page 1 of your resume while page 2 is still being read.
Teach it your names
An application is full of words that no dictionary has: your name, your street, the companies you worked for, and the software you know. They are flagged as unknown words. Ignore each one, or choose Add to dictionary, and it is not flagged again. The words are kept in this browser only.
Before you add a word, make sure it really is spelled right. A misspelled company name in the dictionary is a mistake the app will not point out again.
Download or copy the result
For a document, choose Download and pick its own format, such as DOCX for a Word file, to keep the formatting. For a form answer or an email, press Copy text and paste the corrected text back where it belongs.
When to use the AI Spell Checker
Some of the worst mistakes in an application are real words. Manger instead of manager, or form instead of from, are spelled correctly, so a check by dictionary can miss them. The AI Spell Checker reads whole sentences, so it also catches a real word in the wrong place and wording that sounds clumsy. It is used the same way as the Spell Checker. It costs more to run, so its free use is limited, which makes it a good choice for the page that matters most: your cover letter.
What no checker can do for you
A spell check cannot know whether your facts are right. Before you send the application, check these by hand:
- the name of the company, spelled exactly the way the company spells it
- the name and title of the person you write to
- the job title, as it appears in the job ad
- your phone number and email address
- the dates when you started and left each job
Then read everything once more, out loud, from the first line of the email to the last line of the resume. The proofreading checklist lists what else to look at before you hit send.