I asked the same question a few days ago and nobody answered either.

I guess either nobody knows, or nobody cares.

I submitted stories to a short story contest run by a major magaine and included a cover letter anyway. It's good business practice, in my opinion. And to be a successful writer you have to be a business professional as well. So my opinion is... always include a cover letter or a letter of introduction (LOI) until someone advises differently.

Thanks Craven. Your reminder to always comply with the contest rules is much appreciated and really good advice.

I especially like blind judging. Where I went to college, all English majors had to pass a comprehensive exam, with the first try at the end of your junior year. If you didn't pass it then, you had the opportunity to take the test again at the end of your senior year.

My course grades tended to be mediocre in spite of a lot of hard work on my part. I was rather shy back then, and besides, brown-nosing really bothered me so I didn't practice it to get good grades. I didn't stick out in class and, as a result, professors judged me as mediocre and graded accordingly, even though my work was always handed in before it was due and was well-researched and neatly typed (on my trusty portable Smith-Corona).

I took the comprehensive exam as a junior (all 16 hours of it) and it was graded blindly. We were given an ID number to write on the front page of each blue book. Only the department head knew who was who. When I appeared at his office door two weeks later to pick up my test score, he was truly embarrassed to tell me that I had the top score out of all juniors and seniors and apologized for his colleagues who had prejudged my course work.

I guess the word got around campus, because I made the Deans List both semesters of my senior year. I think a few professors got the message... namely to grade on substance, not personality.

By the way, I went to the same college that expelled J.D. Salinger for his poor writing (I also had the two professors who expelled him!). Go figure! 

There's more to the J.D. Salinger story.

Junior year one of the required courses was The Modern Novel, taught by the college dean (who later became college president). Coursework included a minimum of ten novel critiques out of a reading list of about 25 novels. The list included Catcher in the Rye.

I read the book, did a little background research about J.D. Salinger, discovered that he had attended the same college and handed in an essay that paralleled scenes in the novel to our college campus and what was going on in the English department. The paper was folded neatly in half and discretely handed back to me with a big red F at the top and a tiny note stating that my analogy was unfounded, and therefore my paper was not acceptable. That's when I found out that he was the professor who had actually expelled J.D. Salinger.

After a quick visit to the professor's office to discuss the matter, I was "allowed" to read an additional three novels and write papers on them to erase the F on the Salinger paper. Needless to say, after that I kept my opinions to myself and wrote exactly what the professors wanted to read. That's also a very good writing exercise. It takes a lot of  creativity to churn out mindless dribble, but it kept the English department satisfied and kept up my grade point average.

My undergrad experience was amazingly weird. I minored in German and the head of the German department looked exactly like Goethe. The head of the English department was an exact copy of D.H. Lawrence, right down to the silver beard and slicked back hair. You can image some of the fun we had with creative writing. Of course, those papers were not turned in for a grade.