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Workwrite Resumes

Resume grammar: What you might not know

Before you crumple your new resume in disgust at the "errors," find out if what you're reading is correct and standard US resume style.

Before you crumple your new resume in disgust at the “errors,” find out if what you’re reading is correct and standard US resume style.

You’ve just received your new resume, and it looks wonderful!

But wait … There isn’t a subject on these sentences. In fact, they’re not even sentences! She calls herself a resume writer?

And look, she’s forgotten “the” before the word “goal.”

I paid a lot of money for this resume, and I expect complete sentences and all the words.

***

What you might not know is that the first two rules of Standard US Resume Style are:

  • Truncate subjects. This means resume items will often begin with verbs. The reason for this is that practically all of the sentences, if they were indeed sentences, would begin with “I.” Leaving in all of the subjects would be repetitive and could give the impression that the owner of the resume is egotistical.
  • Omit articles. The words “a,” “an,” and “the” are a special class of adjectives called articles. They are signal words that tell a reader there’s a noun coming next. Generally, we can omit them and not even miss them. Best practices for resumes recommends omitting them to save space and offer a quicker read. Resumes are meant to be scanned before being studied. Omitting articles helps the reader scan through the document quickly.

So, before accusing your resume writer of grievous grammatical errors, check to see if the reason your resume sounds funny is because it’s following the rules.

 

 

 

 

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