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I'm writing a cover letter and I'm wondering if I should put a comma before "which" in the following sentence:

All in all, this position offers a unique opportunity to use and hone the skills that I have and gain invaluable experience, which I hope will be of benefit to your company and myself.

I want the relative clause beginning with 'which' to apply to all that goes before it. But if I take the comma out, will it not only apply to "invaluable experience" and change the meaning altogether?

NVZ
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makarov1901
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  • Without the comma, it is a run-on. – cwallenpoole Jan 30 '17 at 14:01
  • @cwallenpoole Please read the above linked thread, and check on what 'run-on' means. 'which I hope will be of benefit to your company and myself' is not an independent clause. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 30 '17 at 14:03
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    As someone who has read innumerable resumes, I can assure you that very few people would even parse the sentence. If you can't get that message across in less than half the words, just kill it. – jimm101 Jan 30 '17 at 16:04
  • @EdwinAshworth You are correct. A better statement would be "the sentence seems overly-extended and needs a pause in order to be read freely." A run-on has the same symptom. – cwallenpoole Jan 30 '17 at 16:47
  • @jimm101 While I believe in answering the question as is, you do have a very valid point so I edited it into the answer. – htmlcoderexe Jan 30 '17 at 18:34

1 Answers1

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I am not well-versed in the proper technical terms, but the comma does indeed change the meaning.

The comma separates the sentence before it, so "which" refers to the whole separated sentence ("this position [...] invaluable experience"). Withouth the comma, the "which" only applies to the immediate subject ("invaluable experience".

It can be seen more clearly if you rewrite your sentence:

Case 1, with the comma:

"This position offers a unique opportunity to use and hone the skills that I have and gain invaluable experience. I hope will be of benefit to your company and myself."

Case 2, without:

"This position offers a unique opportunity to use and hone the skills that I have and gain invaluable experience. I hope that experience will be of benefit to your company and myself."

Notice the "that"?

In your original sentence, you can replace "which" with "that", which will be referring to the experience itself more clearly and not require the comma.

You will also notice that this will no longer be your intended meaning. So you let the "which" be and place a comma.

That all being said, your sentence is fairly long and complex. Since you mention that it is for a cover letter, you might want to use shorter sentences. These letters (and resumes) can and often are glanced over instead of being thoroughly read, in which case the simpler language is more likely to get the point across.

htmlcoderexe
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