Created by Hunter Brown
Summer 2013
Resumes

“A resume is a structured summary of a
person’s education, employment
background, and job qualifications. Before
you begin writing a resume, make sure you
understand its true function—as a brief
persuasive business message intended to
stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting
you and learning more about you. In other
words, the purpose of a resume is not to
get you a job but rather to get you an
interview.”
Types of Resumes
1. Chronological resume
• The most common approach.
• Work experience section dominates and is placed immediately
after contact information and introductory statement.
• Lists jobs in reverse chronological order.
Types of Resumes
2. Functional resume
• Emphasizes your skills and capabilities.
• Stresses individual areas of competence rather than job
history.
• Sometimes causes suspicion because it obscures work history.
Types of Resumes
3. Combination resume
• Meshes skills focus of functional resume with job history focus
of chronological resume.
• Allows you to emphasize your capabilities if you don’t have a
long job history.
• A good choice for college students.
This is a
sample
combination
resume.
Created by Hunter Brown
Summer 2013
Name and Contact Information
Resumes should begin with the following contact information:
• Name
• Physical address
• Phone number(s)
• Email address
• URL of webpage (if you have one)
Introductory Statement
The introductory statement can be structured in a number of ways:
• A career objective statement identifies either a specific job you want to
land or a general career track you want to pursue. Avoid using unless you
have no qualifications for, or employment background in, the career you are
attempting to enter.
• A career summary offers a brief recap of your career. Use if you have a
long work history.
• A qualifications summary offers a brief overview of your key
qualifications. Use if you have a reasonably focused skill set but don’t yet
have a long career history. John Smith has chosen to use a qualifications
summary.
Education Section
The education section is your strongest selling point if you are still in or
freshly out of college.
Starting with the most recent, list
• the name and location of each school you have attended,
• the month and year of your graduation (or “anticipated graduation in ___”),
• major and minor fields of study,
• significant skills and abilities developed, and
• degrees or certifications gained.
Employment Section
In the employment section, starting with the most recent, list
• the name of each company or establishment in which you’ve worked,
• your position in the company,
• the name and location of the employer, and
• a brief description of the organization’s purpose (optional).
Employment Section
• Include all full- and part-time jobs and internships that are
relevant to the position for which you’re applying.
• Also list military service, which is applicable to all jobs, and
any bilingual or multilingual skills and experiences you have
gained.
Employment Section
• Devote the most space to jobs that are directly related to
your target position.
• John Smith is applying for an English teaching job, so he
spends more time discussing his position as a Grammar
Tutor than as a Piano Tutor.
Employment Section
Notice that this applicant avoids using I and, instead, begins
his bullet points with strong verbs.
Business Letters
Choosing an Approach
There are two main approaches to writing a business letter, one for bad
news and one for good:
1. Use the direct approach when relaying a positive message. Start with the
main idea and then give the evidence.
Main idea: “We have decided to award the contract to your firm.”
Evidence: “You have more experience and better testimonials than any
of your competitors.”
Business Letters
Choosing an Approach
There are two main approaches to writing a business letter, one for bad
news and one for good:
2. Use the indirect approach when relaying a negative message. Start with
the evidence and build up to the main idea.
Evidence: “Our products don’t come with a water damage warranty.”
Main idea: “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to grant your claim.”
The “You” Attitude
To turn the focus toward the audience, try to replace words such as I, me,
mine, we, us, and our with you and yours.
Change this:
To this:
We have a wide variety of
products to choose from.
You can choose from our
wide variety of products.
We will ship our newest
toaster oven model to you
as soon as we can.
You should receive your
new toaster oven by the
beginning of next week.
Staying Polite and Emphasizing the Positive
• Try to maintain a courteous tone.
• Look for positive ways to relay negative news.
• When appropriate, use euphemisms—words or phrases that express a
thought in milder terms:
senior citizens for old people
restructuring for laying off
Staying Polite and Emphasizing the Positive
Change this:
To this:
You have once again failed to follow
protocol.
Let’s review company protocol and
ensure that we are remaining
compliant.
After calling your firm multiple times
without receiving the necessary
information, we’re beginning to get
frustrated.
The successful completion of this
project depends on information only
your firm can provide—please send it to
us at your earliest convenience.
We won’t be able to fill your order until
next week.
Your order should be filled by the end of
next week. In the meantime, help
yourself to our free online samples.
Style and Tone
• Style is made up of your word choices, sentence structures, and
paragraph organization.
• These stylistic choices create a certain tone. When writing business
letters, you want to use a tone that is more professional than
conversational, but without sounding stuffy.
Too Stuffy
Professional
Too Casual
It has come to my
attention that your
efforts to stimulate
company growth
have met with
considerably less
success than initially
anticipated.
I just learned that
your plan for
improving workflow
is falling short of
expectations.
So I found out that
your big plan is
basically failing. Ya’ll
have really let the
ball drop.
Improving Readability
Large blocks of text can be intimidating and difficult to read. Use lists to
break content down into parallel items that can be easily scanned.
Narrative
List
As you know, our competitors have been
making drastic price cuts in the last
quarter and have somehow continued
turning a profit, despite the rising steel
costs. In addition, labor costs are rising,
even in countries known for cheap labor,
and hazardous waste regulations are
adding to operating costs as well. These
prohibitive costs would make outmatching
our competitors’ price reductions difficult.
As you know, our competitors have been
making drastic price cuts in the last
quarter. Outmatching their price
reductions would be difficult considering
the following trends:
• Rising steel costs
• Rising labor costs
• Expensive hazardous waste regulations
Improving Readability
• Be generous with “white space,” a term referring to blank areas, such as
margins, indents, and horizontal spaces between paragraphs. These
white spaces make documents easier on the eyes.
• Your letter should be centered vertically (but not horizontally) on the
page. If you need to add extra white space to center the letter, adjust the
number of lines between the date and the inside address only.
Centered Vertically
Vertically Unbalanced
 1 blank line
July 11, 2013
 1 blank line
July 11, 2013
Ms. Gambling
5050 Chance Blvd.
Wetumpka, OK
Ms. Gambling
5050 Chance Blvd.
Wetumpka, OK
 1 blank line
 3 blank lines
 3 blank lines
 3 blank lines
Improving Readability
Use a flush-left, ragged-right margin rather than a justified margin, which
makes some lines look denser than others.
Flush-left, ragged-right—correct
As you know, our competitors have
been making drastic price cuts in
the last quarter and have somehow
continued turning a profit, despite
the rising steel costs.
Justified—incorrect
As you know, our competitors have
been making drastic price cuts in the
last quarter and have somehow
continued turning a profit, despite
the rising steel costs.
Letterhead
Date
Inside address
Salutation
Body
Complimentary
close
Signature
block
This is a
sample
business
letter with
letterhead.
Heading
Date
Inside address
Salutation
Body
Complimentary
close
Signature
block
This is the
same
business
letter
without
letterhead.
Standard Letter Parts
1. Heading
When letterhead stationary is unavailable, the heading should include
a return address (without a name) and should start 13 lines from the
top of the page, leaving a 2-inch top margin.
2. Date
• Place the date at least one blank line beneath the lowest part of the
letterhead. If letterhead is unavailable, place the date directly below
the return address.
• Standard date format includes the full name of the month, followed
by the day, a comma, and then the year: August 31, 2012.
Standard Letter Parts
3. Inside Address
• The inside address identifies the recipient of the letter.
• Precede the recipient’s name with a courtesy title such as Mr., Ms.,
or Dr.
• For businesswomen, the generally accepted business title is Ms.
• There are many personal, professional, and governmental titles, so
do the necessary research to ensure that you use the correct one.
4. Salutation
If the first line of the inside address is a person’s name, the salutation
should be Dear Mr. or Ms. Name, followed by a colon.
Standard Letter Parts
5. Body
Single-space the body of your letter, and insert one blank line after
the salutation, between paragraphs, and before the complimentary
close.
6. Complimentary close
Try to stick to one-word closings such as Sincerely or Cordially.
7. Signature Block
To leave space for a written signature,
insert three blank lines below the complimentary
close, and then include the sender’s name.
References
Bovee, Courtland L., and John V. Thill. Business Communication Today.
11th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.