I work in a fully remote organization. I _always_ read cover letters. I have wasted too many years of my life trying to decipher some ungodly pile of crap somebody thought was a question (much less a spec!) and a cover letter can be an indication of a candidate's writing ability.
Poor writing leads to wasted hours, wasted sprints, and frustration. Good writing shines a light on incomplete reasoning and logical inconsistencies. A person who takes the time to write a decent spec is the person who has considered "what, exactly, do I want?" in detail. Too often people try to paper over their complete inability to write a paragraph by saying "let's get on Zoom" and spewing out nonsense verbally, because this is somehow better than putting nonsense in writing.
Unfortunately, if the person reviewing your application is a terrible writer - and most are - it's unlikely your cover letter will be read.
It seems like it would be so much more productive to give the candidate a writing prompt where they can show their skills, instead of such a poor and generic exercise of “tell me who you are and why you want this job even though you’ve spoken to no one at the company yet”.
If you value good spec writing then give them a spec-writing exercise.
Can you share advice or recommend any resources on how to improve one's writing? Especially with regards to technical writing and communication in remote organizations.
You mostly get better at writing by doing it. There are a fair number of online publications that have editors and are always looking for writers. (Not paid but this is a case where it really is good exposure and a way to build skills.) Opensource.com is one I write for fairly frequently.
Poor writing leads to wasted hours, wasted sprints, and frustration. Good writing shines a light on incomplete reasoning and logical inconsistencies. A person who takes the time to write a decent spec is the person who has considered "what, exactly, do I want?" in detail. Too often people try to paper over their complete inability to write a paragraph by saying "let's get on Zoom" and spewing out nonsense verbally, because this is somehow better than putting nonsense in writing.
Unfortunately, if the person reviewing your application is a terrible writer - and most are - it's unlikely your cover letter will be read.