Course: CMM 128 Interviewing Practices

Lecture Notes

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Principles for Formatting Resumes and Cover Letters

Principles for Formatting Resumes and Cover Letters

I.  Create Connections.
A.  Between the resume and the cover letter
1.  By referring to the resume in the cover letter
2.  By adding at the bottom of the cover letter: Enclosure: résumé
3.  By using the same heading in both the resume and the cover letter
B.  Within the resume
1.  By single spacing between information related to the same job or the same educational institution
2.  Double space between jobs, educational institutions, or sections of the resume

II.  Organize the Information Persuasively.
A.  Most recent information should be listed before older information.
B.  Most relevant information should be listed earlier in the resume than less relevant information.
C.  Basic data like the organizational names, titles, and dates should be moved to the left. Supporting material should be indented.
D.  Your name should be emphasized more than your address.
E.  Delete information that is not needed such as the city and state that a college is located in, words identifying readily identify information such as "e-mail," "duties included," or "telephone."

III.  Consistency. This will make information easier to find.
A.  Accent key information with bolding, underlining, larger font size, using all capilalization, or locating it at a particular tab
B.  Accent similar information in this way but do not use the same accent for different kinds of information. For example, you might bold the names of all organizations and underline all the job titles/educational degrees in your resume.

IV.  Formality and Conventions.

Informal | Formal
2/5/12 | May 2, 2012
Use of contractions: I’ve | No contractions: I have
Verb tenses of “to be” such as “am,” “are,” “is,” “will be,” “was,” “were,” “have been,” or “has been.”

“I am a student at CLC.”

“I will be graduating soon.”

“I was a member of the Speech Team.”

“I have been interested in this career for a long time.”
Action verbs, variation in verbs.

“I currently attend CLC.”

“I plan to graduate in May.”

“I competed on the CLC Speech Team.”

“Since eighth grade, I knew I wanted a career in this profession.”
E-mail addresses that are unprofessional.

HotStud@aols.com

BikerChick@yahoo.net

2Kool2BNSchool@monster.com
E-mail addresses that are professional:

YourName@aol.com

Speech2@clcillinois.edu
SkilledNurse@hotmail.com
Use of a comma after the salutation.

Use of a person’s first name in the salutation.

Use of a nickname in the salutation.  Informal greeting.

Dear Bobby,

Dear Mr. Wilson,

Hey there Ms. Wysocki:
Use of a colon after the salutation.

Use of the person’s last name with a title before it (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss).

Use of a generally accepted formal greeting.

Dear Mr. Wilson:

Dear Ms. Wysocki:

Dear Mrs. Wayne:

Dear Sir or Madaam:

Dear Hiring Manager:
Multiple page resume unless you have been in the field for a while | Single page resume
Lack of variation and sophistication in sentence structure: I am a hard worker.  I like this kind of work.  I would be a great asset to the company | Sophisticated and varied sentence structure: As a hard worker who enjoys this kind of work, I would be a great asset to the company.