First the good news. You do not have to be William
Shakespeare to compose a solid, well-organized, professional-looking
resume. All you need are the ability to express your ideas in proper
English and an understanding of how a resume should be organized and
written.
Being able to handle the basics of English — grammar, spelling,
punctuation, proper word usage, and so forth — has become a critical
skill in today's e-mail and facsimile-driven business environment. If
you lack confidence in your ability to use English properly, think about
enrolling in a writing workshop or community college course. Also, get
the classic book The Elements of Style, 3rd Edition, by William Strunk and E. B. White (Allyn & Bacon, 1995). |
Now the bad news. You can forget most of the rules and
principles you were taught when you were writing reports and term
papers in high school or college. Those principles simply do not apply
to resumes. Resumes are business documents. They follow certain
conventions that business people take for granted but that most English
teachers would consider incorrect.
Following are five simple writing principles that
apply specifically to resumes. All of them should come in handy when you
begin to string words together in your resume, particularly when the
time comes to describe your work history.
Avoid the first person pronoun
The pronoun I has no place in a resume — and for a logical reason: Who else would you be talking about if not yourself?
Instead of this:
I demonstrated professionalism, tact, and diplomacy while I worked with our customers in high-pressure situations.
Write this:
Demonstrated professionalism, tact, and diplomacy while working with customers in high-pressure situations.
Instead of this:
I managed a department whose chief responsibility
was to oversee safety audits. I wrote all audit reports and conducted
management briefings.
Write this:
Managed a department whose chief responsibility
was to oversee safety audits. Wrote audit reports and conducted
management briefings.
Notice that the second version of each example begins with an action
verb. Beginning most of your sentences with action verbs may not have
been standard practice when you were writing term papers, but this
practice is accepted and recommended in resumes. |
Keep your sentences short and don't worry about fragments
Resumes call for short, crisp statements. These
statements do not necessarily have to be complete sentences; you can
frequently leave out the articles a, an, and the.
Instead of this:
Spent three years working on major accounts, as
both a lead generator and a closer, demonstrating proven skill in
organizing and managing a territory with efficiency as well as in
developing customer databases.
Write this:
Spent three years working on major accounts.
Generated leads and closed sales. Demonstrated proven skill in
organizing and managing a territory and in developing customer
databases.
Instead of this:
I was involved in the creation and implementation
of statistical reports for a large metropolitan hospital, which required
the use of spreadsheet software for cost analysis and, in addition, the
creation of a database to track patient visits.
Write this:
Created and implemented statistical reports for
large metropolitan hospital. Analyzed costs with spreadsheet software.
Created database to track patient visits.
Or try a bulleted format:
- Created and implemented statistical reports for large metropolitan hospital.
- Analyzed costs with spreadsheet software.
- Created database to track patient visits.
Use plain English
Don't be victimized by the myth that the bigger the
word you use, the more impressed the reader will be with your
intelligence. Keep things simple. Go easy on the adjectives. And be
especially wary of those grammatical constructions known as nominalizations —
that is, nouns that are built around verbs and become part of a bulky
phrase that can just as easily be expressed in a single word. See the
examples in Table 1.
Table 1 Using Plain English
Bulky Phrase | Better |
Effected the solution of | Solved |
Engaged in the operation of | Operated |
Offered assistance in the facilitation of | Helped facilitate |
Use bullet statements when appropriate
You usually have a choice when you are writing your
resume to combine a series of related statements into a single paragraph
or to list each sentence in that paragraph as a separate statement,
each occupying its own line. There are pros and cons for each option,
and sometimes you have to base your decision on the amount of information you need to get across.
Bulleted information is more readable and tends to
stand out more than the same information contained within a paragraph.
But bulleted information also takes up more room. Your best bet is to
combine the two.
If you decide to express information in bulleted style, keep the
bulleted items brief and pay attention to parallelism. That is, try to
make all the items in a sequence adhere to a similar grammatical
pattern. |
Examples of nonparallel statements include
- Reconcile all statements for cardholders
- Purchases are approved
- Have experience in performing training of tellers
Examples of parallel statements include
- Reconcile statements
- Approve purchases for Marketing department
- Train tellers
Go from general to specific
Sequence the information in a section by beginning with a general statement and following it with more specific ones.
Instead of this:
Supervised training of seven toy-making elves.
Responsible for all toy-making and customer-related activities in
Santa's workshop. Answered customer complaints during peak season. (Note that the second of these two sentences is more general than the first.)
Write this:
Responsible for all toy-making and
customer-related activities in Santa's workshop. Supervised training of
seven toy-making elves. Answered customer complaints during peak season.
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