Posted by on Jan 27, 2012 in
Creating A Resume Did you know that it takes less than 30 seconds for an employer to look at your resume? Thirty seconds determines if your resume makes it to the second round, which could be an interview, or is filed in the round filing cabinet. So what can you do to give yourself the competitive edge? Your resume has to capture the employer’s attention. In today’s economic environment, the competition for jobs is fierce. There are so many people vying for work that your resume really does have to stand out to get noticed. The resume is an expression of yourself, so you have to stand out, you have to get noticed. Here are what I consider to be the three top resume writing mistakes that people make.
Mistake 1: Listing Your Job Duties Instead of Your Accomplishments
Avoid statements such as “Job Duties” or “Job Responsibilities”. Employers want to know about your specific accomplishments and contributions to your previous employer. Did you save money, improve a process, solve a problem? By listing your accomplishments you are letting the employer know you can accomplish the work. This will certainly set you apart from the competition. When listing your accomplishments use bullet statements and action words instead of a narrative paragraph. Remember you have 30 seconds to get your point across, so make it easy to read.
For example, instead of:
I wrote down my duties in a job manual
I reorganized the publications and forms department
Use this instead:
Constructed a procedure manual giving step by step instructions on how to bill a client
Completely restructured a failing publications and forms department into a model department
Mistake 2: Not Using Key Words
Do you know that 80% of resumes are scrubbed through a database looking for key words? Those resumes where key words are identified get noticed by employers. Use key words in your qualifications and accomplishments. Think of them as encoding your resume with powerful words. Another tip is to read the job posting closely; key words employers are looking for are usually in the posting. There are many websites that list key words, one of my favorites is resumebuzzwords.net.
Mistake 3: Sending the Resume as an Attachment without Knowing how it will look
Have you ever opened an attachment and found it completely messed up? Somehow in the transmission the layout became distorted, the bullets were out of alignment, or the top of page 2 ended up on the bottom of page 1. The same thing can happen to your resume if you don’t do a test run. Email your resume to a few friends as an attachment and confirm how it looks on their computers. If it looks good, send it off to the employer. If there are problem you want to know about it now. You may have to save your resume in a text format with a .txt file extension. Making a .pdf version of your resume is another option. A variety of software applications are available to this.
Tags: Mistakes, Resume, Three, Writing
Posted by on Aug 2, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Are you struggling to write your resume and promote yourself effectively in your job search? Here are five prevalent resume writing myths and mistakes to avoid that you must be aware of.
1) Myth: Resumes should be only one, or at the most, two pages.
In most cases, this is true. It is the rare reviewer of resumes who, when being completely honest, will tell you that he or she spends more than a few seconds in the first review of a resume. Unless your resume captures immediate attention through an eye-appealing design and succinct, compelling language, your resume will be screened out after just 15 seconds. With this reality in mind, imagine the thoughts of the reviewer when he or she receives a four- or five-page resume, with another 100 resumes waiting for review right behind it. Clearly, the odds of your resume capturing attention and being read increase when the length is limited to one or two pages.
Are there exceptions to this rule? Absolutely!
While it is true that with each additional page you reduce your chances of your resume being read thoroughly, for many executives, contract workers, consultants, and technical professionals it is unrealistic and nearly impossible to compress years of experience into one or two pages. When attempted, important achievements are left out to make room for a full chronology of the career history and education. What is left is a boring listing of companies, positions, and dates that are virtually guaranteed to turn off the reader and land your resume in the circular file.
A better strategy is to write your resume with exactly as much detail as is needed to persuasively convince the reader that you are the ideal candidate to solve his or her problems – to compel the reader to pick up the phone and call you for an interview. While this is sometimes a difficult balance to strike, you should edit your resume with a very discriminating eye toward reducing unnecessary wordiness. Every word in your resume should have a purpose. Items that can be presented as a list – continuing education courses, technical summaries, associations and memberships, etc. – can often be included in an addendum that may or may not be used as appropriate. Within the resume, use succinct, dynamic, action-oriented language to convey your ability to add value to the reader’s company and you will capture and hold attention through three or even more pages.
2) Myth: All resumes should include a clearly stated objective.
It is essential that your resume is audience-focused – it must succinctly communicate that you understand the employer’s needs and that you are uniquely qualified to meet those needs. While the use of an objective is a controversial issue, at its basis, an objective tells the reader what you want from him or her (focused on YOUR needs rather than the employers’). A popular and often more effective alternative to the objective, the qualifications summary, allows you to establish focus for the resume while summarizing the key qualifications and value you offer the employer. This is a subtle but critical difference – one that may weigh heavily in opening the door to an interview. While an objective is both appropriate and effective in some cases, for example, career changers or new graduates with little or no work experience in the targeted field, experiment with the qualifications summary as a strong alternative.
3) Myth: Resumes should thoroughly describe the responsibilities of each position.
The absolute most important element of your resume is your value proposition. Your unique ability to solve business problems, meet challenging goals, and produce desired results should be the focus of your qualifications summary (see above) and this focus should be supported by proof throughout your career. How better to do this than through achievement-oriented, results-focused descriptions of your career history? While employers and recruiters will want to know the scope of your position (number of direct reports, amounts of budgets managed, areas of management authority, etc.) this is most effectively communicated within the context of the challenges you faced, the actions you took, and the results of your actions. “Responsibilities” only tell the reader what you were supposed to do, not what you actually did do. Use powerful, active language to concisely tell the reader the “story” behind your most recent or relevant positions. By documenting your consistent ability to produce results and solve problems you will demonstrate your ability to produce similar results in the future.
4) Myth: Resumes should include only the last ten years of experience.
Content of your resume should be strategically selected to support your focus and value proposition. While it is true that readers of your resume will be most interested in your most recent experience, there is often value in including experience further back in your history. Perhaps your early career includes work for well-known, prestigious companies. Perhaps you want to document the full scope of your cross-industry experience, much of which occurred in your early career. Perhaps you believe some valuable networking opportunities may come out of your experience 15 or 20 years ago. Or perhaps your most impressive accomplishments were in a position you held 12 years ago. In any case, if your career history is lengthy, it will be apparent to the reader that your career did not suddenly materialize ten years ago, so there is little harm and many benefits to summarizing this early experience. Of course, this does not mean that you must give equal page weight to your early career. If you feel early dates will be used to screen you out, subtly leave them out of your early career summary. If some early career positions have more strategic relevance than others, give them more emphasis in your summary. Think carefully about the content of your resume. If there is solid reasoning behind your desire to present early experience, than do so.
5) Myth: Resumes should include personal information, to indicate the many dimensions to your life and interests.
There is no way to predict the personal biases of the individuals who will read your resume. The first and primary way that an employer uses a resume is to screen candidates out; don’t give them any reason! Professional memberships and related volunteer work should often be included but religious affiliations, family status, social club memberships, and hobbies have no place on a resume. The only exception to this is when you are preparing a resume specifically written to appeal to a single individual who you are absolutely certain would be fascinated in your piloting license or passion for golf. Even then, be careful; you never know where your resume will be passed. However, if you are certain that your personal information will help you to break the ice and build rapport, you may have a valid reason for including it.
Tags: Avoid, Mistakes, Myths, Resume, Writing
Posted by on Jul 31, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Is your resume generating disappointing results? Have you been sending your resume for positions that you know you are qualified for, but the phone remains silent? If so, you might want to check it and revise it against these ten common errors.
1. Including an objective statement that tells the reader what you want.
If there is one major rule to keep in mind as you write your resume, it is that all of the content should be written to be employer-centered. Objective statements that tell the reader what you want are inherently self-centered. The more modern way of providing focus for your resume is to include a summary or profile section. A profile is fundamentally different from an objective in that it is employer-centered, conveying to the reader what you offer them, rather than what you want from them.
2. Writing your resume to be intentionally broad in scope.
Many people will write a broad resume out of fear that focusing too precisely will exclude them from certain opportunities. Unfortunately, this strategy almost always backfires. Resume readers are notoriously lazy and give your resume only a few seconds at most before making the decision to screen it out or screen it in. If you are lucky you have 15 seconds to clearly convey your focus (level and type of position you are seeking) and how you would add value within their organization. If your focus is ambiguous and you haven’t made it crystal clear how you will “fit” in the company, you certainly expect the reader to make the effort to figure it out.
3. Including a generic profile/summary statement.
While it has become common and even expected that your resume will include a profile/summary statement, far too often they are just generic statements that do nothing to differentiate the individual from their competition in the job market. What is it that differentiates you and make your contributions to the companies you have worked for better and unique than your peers? What is the value proposition that you are making to the reader of your resume? What sets you apart from the competition and what uniquely qualifies you to meet the needs and solves the problems of the employer? Additionally, it isn’t enough to tell a reader that you have certain abilities or traits; you must show them through examples of past achievements. Prove impact! Forget about cliches and jargon. Soft skills are often important, but even those should be backed up by specific accomplishments that illustrate them.
4. Describing your job scope and responsibilities in detail.
Think about it: Being “responsible for” doing something certainly doesn’t mean a person does it. What a person is supposed to do and what they actually do are two different things. Many people make the mistake of selling features (responsibilities) rather than benefits (achievements/results) in their resume. It is very important to place the emphasis on achievements, quantifying results whenever possible. Document the ways in which your work have benefited your employers and quantify whenever possible. By including past achievements and results, you demonstrate your future potential. Always remember, you won’t get hired for what you know how to do, you will get hired for what you do with what you know how to do.
5. Focusing solely on the achievement and forgetting about the results.
Just telling the reader that you have achievements isn’t very effective unless you present them in terms of the results and benefits they have produced for past employers. You should always try to think in terms of the “so what” of your achievement. What did you improve, save, increase, enhance, etc? What impact did the work you do have on the companies? At the root, every single job is designed to solve a problem, save money, make money, or improve efficiency. It is crucial that you understand and be able to communicate the impact of your performance. Whenever you can do so, you should use numbers to illustrate your results, but even if you are unable to quantify achievements, the emphasis should still be on the results/benefits of your work.
6. Writing an autobiographical style resume.
Your resume is a marketing document. It is not an autobiography. While the decision about how far back to date your resume really depends on the individual circumstances, generally it is standard to go back 10-20 years. If experience earlier than that is still relevant, you can always summarize it in a couple of sentences without the use of dates. Always think in terms of relevance and impact. Does a particular piece of data or achievement support your personal brand and value proposition? Does it help promote your qualifications in relation to your current career goals? If not, you probably should not include it. In fact, by including irrelevant data, you dilute your focus and make the recipient wonder if you truly understand the position you are targeting. If you feel really strongly that particular data may be relevant to at least SOME recipients, you can always create an addendum that you choose to use selectively.
7. Including personal information.
If your resume is meant for the U.S. market, it should not include a photo, your birth date, mention of unrelated hobbies or interests, info about your family, info that reveals your religion, or any other similarly personal data. Including such data in a resume meant for the U.S. market may actually eliminate you from consideration, as hiring decision-makers may be concerned about discrimination suits.
8. Using a template design for your resume.
You should never use a template to create a resume. Your resume should be uniquely designed to highlight your unique qualifications and selling point and to set you apart from other candidates. If you use a template (or a format that looks like a template), you ensure that your resume will simply blend in with all the rest. To really compel action, your resume MUST attract immediate attention and present an unquestionably professional appearance. Create an eye-catching design, but forego the templates!
9. Using the same structure and resume writing techniques that you were taught in college ten years ago.
A common error made by experienced professionals is overemphasis of education. As an experienced professional your history of accomplishments and proven ability to produce and deliver results is far more important than your degrees. Only new graduates with very little or no experience should list education at the beginning of the resume. The most important thing is that you prioritize and organize your selling points, listing categories of primary importance first. The best structure in almost all circumstances is a combination reverse chronological order. This includes a profile/summary section, a reverse chronology of your work history and achievements, education, and other qualifications such as professional affiliations.
10. Listing all your achievements in a section separate from your career history.
It is critical to show progression and a consistent, repeated ability to produce results. By listing your achievements separately from your career history, you lose this. Go ahead and use specific achievements to illustrate the value proposition and personal branding that you convey in your profile. In fact, it is crucial that you do so. But, for the most part, the majority of your achievements are best presented within the chronological and situational context in which they happened. In other words, go ahead and include a SUMMARY of achievements that are selected to illustrate your value proposition and brand, but the body of your resume should also include achievements and results that illustrate your impact in each company or each position.
Do you still feel at a loss about how to improve your resume, even after reading these tips? If so, consider hiring a professional resume writer. Hiring a resume writer is an investment, but it is an investment that will often pay you back many times over by dramatically shortening your job search, positioning you to win coveted positions, and preparing you with the pitch you need to negotiate top compensation.
Tags: Avoid, Classic, Mistakes, ResumeWriting
Posted by on Jul 20, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Writing off a good resume is very essential if you seek for a job. You need to equip your resume with the right information that the company would need so you can get the job. A professional looking resume is a perfect tool when you go job hunting. We are experiencing global economic crisis and finding a job is too difficult as reinforced by the tough competition that other job seekers impose.
The most crucial part of resume writing is to avoid the mistakes you might commit that would sham away probable clients. Here are the classic resumes writing mistakes that you must avoid:
#1 A resume does not have a focus or single objective.
A resume objective will help enhance the effectiveness of the resume. Avoid uncertain career goals that would leave a bad impression on your future employees. You must tailor your resume to the position you are applying for.
#2 If your resume lacks marketing strategy, you are in a grave danger.
Always keep in mind that your resume is a marketing material that would attract attention to a myriad of job interviews. Job hunters rarely see the purpose of a resume as a sales campaign. Try to consult a resume coach who could help your career history to be translated into an effective marketing tool which could persuade buying motives of future employers, save your money or increase profitability.
#3 Resumes with no accomplishment statements should take the backseat.
Statistics says that 95% of all resumes lack accomplishment statements. If you have these statements in your resume it will allow employers to visualize your contribution to their company.
#4 Resumes with no resume keywords are less likely to be noticed.
Resumes are screened both by computers and humans. We live in a technologically advanced era and a lot of things can be done through digital format. If your resume lacks keywords then you will have lesser chances of getting an interview. There are candidate tracking software which can retrieve resumes through a keyword. You must seek a keyword-rich resume which will put your resume upfront when probable employers start scanning for an available job position.
#5 Your resume format is too lousy.
There are three resume formats which we can use for a job application:
Chronological – the easiest way of writing a resume; timeline style of writing the resume. This format will work well if your objective is the same to any industry or occupation you are applying for. Functional – includes transferable skills and accomplishments in your resume. You must properly craft a functional resume in order to avoid confusions which lead to speculations of undisclosed information. Hybrid – You can combine the best features of the resumes when you want to structure it through the hybrid method. In this way, you can showcase your skills and your accomplishments as readable as possible. This can be one of the most difficult types of resume to be written but it can be the most effective.
Tags: Avoid, Classic, Mistakes, ResumeWriting
Posted by on Jun 20, 2011 in
Creating A Resume With big competition observed in the job market, employers are finding it hard to shortlist people from the stacks of resumes. Employers are now looking for those resumes that standout from the mound. Hence, your resume writing should be very accurate and errors free to get a job interview. Following is a list of common mistakes people make while writing a resume:
1) Absence of cover letter: Employers expect to see a cover letter with a resume. It is an introduction and a brief summary about your job intentions.
2) Typing errors: A resume with typos and grammatical mistakes will make the recruiter think that you are inattentive to details. Proofread your resume and ask someone to read it.
3) Disorganized content: The content of your resume should be organized well. List the important information on top of the resume. Other factors like your experience, employment history in the middle and hobbies should be placed at the end of the resume.
4) Unprofessional email address: The email addresses should not be sloppy.
5) Layout lacking consistency: Equal spacing between headings, equal distance in margins, and include dates on your resume. Use various action verbs when highlighting your skills. Avoid abbreviations or contractions.
6) Unclear focus: Your resume should focus on your experience and education with the job you are seeking. The employer should be able to think that you are the best person for the job. Avoid phrases like ‘responsibilities included’
7) Lacking extracurricular activities: Employers like to read about your additional activities which will show employers that you are out going and well-rounded.
Inappropriate personal information: Do not put in personal information like your gender and age. Also don’t include any picture of yourself. Always maintain a strict difference between your personal and professional life in order to be taken seriously.
9) Inaccurate information: Don’t lie or exaggerate. It would be awkward if you are caught telling lies. Your resume should stick to facts.
10) Job experience too old: It is significant not to go back too far when listing your work experience. If you are older, employers will hardly see what summer job you had in high school.
Tags: commit, Common, Mistakes, People, Resume, Writing
Posted by on May 17, 2011 in
Writing Books Have you picked up a self published book and noticed misspelled words, a wall of text and grammatical errors? Did it inspire you to read on? Or did it cause you to lose a tiny bit of confidence in the author?
The truth is poor proofreading hurts the self published author and the industry itself. You see, every ounce of confidence lost in one self published author reflects poorly on all independent publishers.
Professionalism inspires confidence. Whether you are writing a short ebook or a full length guide for your industry, your well edited words will work powerfully for you.
In the same way, a book lacking professionalism through misspelled words, bad grammar, etc. will drain confidence. Start with this short checklist to translate your professionalism to more profits. Write your ticket to success through a well edited book.
1. Failure to start well. Create a sizzling start. Hook your readers through emotion. Slant your book or introduction with a question or an amazing statistic. Share the top benefits of your book early. Target the ‘You’ in every reader.
2. Failure to shorten your introduction. Entice your reader with the main benefit (main central thought) early to keep them reading. Write the rest of your piece to support your main central thought. Sprinkle the rest of the benefits throughout your copy in descending priority.
3. Failure to slash passive structures. Passive sentences slow and dull your writing. Get rid of the passive voice sentences. Give your sentences a clear subject and a verb to avoid the passive voice. “The writer found fame and fortune through marketing her books online.” instead of “The writer’s books were instrumental in leading her to fame and fortune.” Avoid connecting verbs like ‘was’, ‘is’, ‘had’, and ‘seemed’. Replace passive voice verbs with active verbs.
4. Failure to shorten your sentences. Slash your sentences to under 15-17 words. Don’t bog your readers with complex sentences. Remember multiple phrases slow your reader’s comprehension. Make it easy. Get to the point fast.
5. Failure to write compelling copy. Write for the 8-10 grade level. Reward your readers with benefits for them. Clear, easy to understand copy makes your reader want to read your piece to the end. Fill your writing with what’s in it for them. They’ll come back for more and tell all their friends.
6. Failure to be specific. Avoid generalities. Engage your reader’s emotion with specifics. Let them experience color, size and shape. Instead of, “Complete your degree online fast to increase your income.” Say, “Complete your master degree online fast so you can upgrade your lifestyle, get vacations, health insurance and other corporate benefits.” Specific benefits create a stronger pull than the general benefit of increased income.
7. Failure to slash adverbs. Go through and cut words like openly, suddenly, very that tell the reader instead of show the reader. Circle all the (ly) and very words. Pull out your thesaurus and replace them with power words that show emotion or describe.
Are you ready to translate your professionalism to profits? Correct the above mistakes and watch your sales soar from the minute you publish. It’s time to represent you and your industry well with a successful top selling book.
Remember to develop a sizzling start, shorten your introduction, slash the passive voice, shorten sentences, write compelling copy, avoid generalities and slash the adverbs. Implement these seven tips to begin proofreading for more profits! Now go; write a successful book and make us all proud!
Tags: Book, Loser, Mistakes, Published, Self, Stamp, Writing
Posted by on Apr 19, 2011 in
Writing Books Are you ready for a change your life kind of experience? Yes. Then write the book you’ve been dreaming of writing. Few things hold the potential for a life changing experience like writing a book does.
You can receive life long income from writing a book. You can affect the lives of hundreds even thousands for the good. You gain the added respect of your colleagues after writing your book. You can leverage the increase of fees exponentially in your business.
Even so, many new authors don’t receive the rewards they deserve. They forfeit their advantages by making simple mistakes that block their book’s success. Correct the following mistakes to enjoy the rich rewards of a top selling book author:
1. Failure to set realistic expectations.
To be honest, your book by itself probably won’t make you rich. Don’t be disappointed with your royalty check or dismayed by direct sales of your self-published book.
Instead, plan to use your book as an important leveraging tool to advance existing sales, increase your business or catapult your career. Plan to receive open door opportunities that you may not have received any other way.
2. Failure to organize book project.
Researchers say we waste over 6 full days a year looking for mislaid information. Make it easy for yourself. Create a filing system for your book project. You’ll write faster and with less stress. Did you discover you can’t pull it all together by yourself? Delegate; hire an assistant to help. Do the part you are most skilled in and assign the rest.
3. Failure to turn off self-editor.
Turn off the self-editor while writing. The editor in you will want to stop and correct every error. Don’t allow him or her a voice until you finish the writing process. It’s more important to finish your rough draft than to write a perfect manuscript. Don’t let a too early editing process block your rewards.
4. Failure to avoid marathon writing.
Prolific authors at some point realize they don’t have to sell their soul to write a saleable book. They write a little each day to get it done faster. They avoid marathon writing (going away). You unintentionally set yourself up for failure if you opt for the marathon writing. What happens to your book goals, if you come back and your book’s still not written?
5. Failure to focus on one main topic.
Top selling authors focus on one main topic. They make sure each chapter supports that subject. If you scatter your focus, you’ll come across as unorganized, long winded, and boring. Your readers may find your book hard to understand.
Instead of an encyclopedia type book, chunk your information into modules, segments, chapters or parts. In each segment, offer plenty of detail to make it useful to your reader.
6. Failure to write ‘Grab You by the Collar’ titles.
It’s a known fact; titles sell books. In fact, titles sell a lot more than books. Titles sell newspapers. Titles sell magazines. Titles enhance the selling power of ads, brochures, web sites, booklets, and just about any kind of marketing element you can think of. Don’t forget chapter titles, sub heading titles, bulleted points (mini-titles) benefit from sizzling titles.
7. Failure to think series.
Top selling authors focus on a series of books rather than one book. Publishers look for concepts that can be expanded into a series of books rather than individual titles. Even your readers (if they like it) will look for the sequel.
8. Failure to think community.
Successful authors look for ways to engage and involve a nurturing relationship with readers and peers. You should seek to include the support of your family, friends, readers, other authors, book coaches and others who feed your enthusiasm. Most are eager to provide ideas, assistance and feedback.
9. Failure to engage in promotion.
Most beginning authors hope someone else will come along and promote their book for them. In the real world, successful authors take ownership in promoting their book. They know if they want their book to succeed, they have to promote it.
10. Failure to develop future income streams.
Even after you finish your book, new ideas will probably continue to surface. Ideas that you wish you had thought to include in your book. Instead of going back to re-work your manuscript consider using them in your promotional material.
Become a trusted resource and supplier of fresh information in your field. Create an ongoing relationship with your readers. Continue to develop your topic by creating articles, speeches, workshops, courses, or invite readers to submit questions and suggestions to your website.
If you continue in the mistakes above your book may never reach the level of success it deserves. Instead, implement good book writing tips and avoid the mistakes new authors make. Go ahead; take the wheel of writing well and drive your book to a wild success.
Tags: Author, Block, Book, Mistakes, Success, Writing
Posted by on Apr 14, 2011 in
Writing Books How can book writing software help you with continuity in your novel? Indeed, even before we start talking about that, we need to discuss what I mean by continuity in your novel and why that’s important in writing a novel. You might be aware of websites which share the various mistakes that are bound to be found in movies. And there are always loads. Making a movie is a hugely complex process, and mistakes creep in.
Thing is, though, writing a novel is also a massively complicated process and mistakes creep in there too, such as continuity mistakes (I’m borrowing that term from the movie industry). An example of a continuity mistake might be something like having Character A hand Character B a glass of wine, and then two or three lines later, having him hand her a glass of wine again. That is actually one that I made – I am just lucky that my editor spotted it! Or even more subtly, you could have a character receive a glass of wine, take only a sip or two, and another character is filling up the glass again even though there’s no room for it. I’ve read novels where characters changed names half way through with no explanation.
These sort of continuity mistake are very easily done. There is so very much to keep track of when you’re writing a novel. You have to keep track of the plot, any subplots, make sure clues are dropped where necessary, look after your character arc and development, keep the timeline straight and keep track of any important ‘props’.
It’s very hard to pick up on these mistakes yourself, as we all have a tendency to read what we expect to read. We see what we think will be there, rather than what IS there. The problem is that readers, of course, come to the novel with no preconceived ideas, and then genuinely see what is there, mistakes and all. And continuity mistakes can really spoil their pleasure in the story.
One solution to this problem is to make sure you are super organised, so you have the right information to hand. I know writers can shudder at that prospect (I’m prone to doing that myself!), wanting to just enjoy being in the flow of the muse. But a novel is a very complex construct – with as much science as art in it – no matter how much we might like to think otherwise, and needs to be handled as such.
You can use index cards or post-it notes to keep organised. Both of these options are much, much better than keeping all the details in your head. But they can get lost, or out of order, and shuffling through a whole pack of cards (say) to remind yourself what colour eyes the hero has, is time-consuming. And so a modern option would be to use book writing software. The simplest of these acts like a virtual index card system, but one which is much easier to keep track of than real ones. And the higher-end products have other facilities such as timelines and mind maps.
The essential issue though, no matter which option you choose, is to make sure to check for continuity, and ensure there are no errors in your novel.
Tags: Avoid, Book, continuity, Helping, Mistakes, novel, Software, Writing
Posted by on Apr 9, 2011 in
Research Term Papers Oversimplification
We have used a spectrophotometer to determine protein concentrations for all our samples. We also used an oscilloscope to measure the resting potentials in crayfish muscles.
The oscilloscope or the spectrophotometer may be a novel, mystery, and a versatile device to you, but according to what I have suspected, even an expert biochemist might have a hard time in finding a protein concentration while using only a spectrophotometer. The first statement, however, leaves out the dye reagent, pipettors, standards, etc. that you require for the assay. The second statement omits the references to the micropipettes or the specialized electronic instrumentation that is again required to measure the transmembrane potentials.
What was the information that you intended to convey? If you are planning to describe the methodology, then you should write a complete description. If you intend to just summarize the procedures then you may just seek for a phrase that sums up all that was done without oversimplifying.
Superficiality
The purpose of a discussion is to solely interpret the results and not to state them in a different way. In most of the cases a superficial discussion might ignore the mechanisms or fail to explain them completely. You should always make it clear to the reader why and how a specific result came to pass. The statement, “The result already agreed with the known theoretical value,” does not tell us anything about the mechanism itself that are behind the results. What can be the basis of expecting a particular result? Explanations would not be easy in this case, nor would the explanations be correct, but you would get the most or all of the available credits for bringing about a reasonable explanation, even if it is not quite the right way. On the other hand the superficial statements will cost you.
Anthropomorphism
Sometimes, it is not easy to find the right wording that is in order to explain a cause and effect statement or relationship, and you may not even understand the concept well enough in order to write an explanation of it. A type of oversimplification is Anthropomorphism that helps the writer to avoid the real explanation that lies of a mechanism. A couple of examples should make the point easy for you.
Sodium wants to move towards the compartment, down the chemical gradient with a lower concentration.
However, the thought behind this statement might be correct, but this statement does not represent the correct mechanism that is actually required. Sodium does not have a free will to move around. It tends to move towards the compartment with a lower concentration because the probability increases of a sodium ion while it moves through a channel on the more concentrated side of the membrane and that the ion will move on the less concentrated side through a channel. In case you do not want to explain the principle that is behind osmosis, you may simply state the osmosis pressure that tends to drive sodium from the higher to a less concentrated side of a membrane.
Tags: Mistakes, Papers, Research, term
Posted by on Dec 22, 2010 in
Creating A Resume Have you ever submitted a resume only to realize too late that there was a resume writing error in your materials? If so, you may know all too well the consequences. Resume writing mistakes devastate job searches, according to Certified Professional Resume Writers. In fact, according to a recent survey, 84% of hiring professionals would reject a candidate who had just one or two typographical errors on their cover letter or resume.
Avoiding resume writing mistakes may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised to know that we see candidate-written resumes with errors on a daily basis. Fortunately, these devastating resume writing consequences are 100% avoidable. With close attention to detail and careful proofing of your resume writing materials, you can avoid these resume writing pitfalls.
The most important thing to do in resume writing is to proofread your resume many times over. Do not rely only on your own proofreading skills. Instead, enlist the help of others to go over your resume writing materials. Contact a career services professional, a friend in hiring or human resources, or a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). Often someone who is viewing a document for the first time will see errors that your eyes might gloss over.
When you are proofing your resume writing, remember that effective resume writing focuses on your achievements. Still, it is a mistake to itemize all of your achievements. If you flipped more burgers than any other cook, that is great and it may have landed you your next job. If that was 20 years ago, however, listing the achievement may indicate to a potential employer that you peaked 20 years ago. Employers want resume writing to answer the question: What have you done lately that fits the job?
After writing a convincing resume, you need to write a convincing cover letter. The same rules apply. Because many people send a different cover letter for each job application, however, it is often more common that mistakes show up in a cover letter than in a resume. Still, cover letter mistakes can have the same effect as resume writing mistakes – you will lose the interview.
Another common error in resume writing and cover letter writing is using a font too small to read, in an effort to get as much content as possible on a single page. If the font is too small, then people will not be interested in reading it. It also gives the appearance that the writer is disorganized and unable to prioritize his or her thoughts and incapable of selecting the most important information to highlight on the resume.
A word of caution: resume writing can take many hours. It is sometimes draining but necessary. Think about the years of effort you have put into your education, training, and career. The investment in building your resume is miniscule in comparison.
Tags: Kill, Mistakes, Prospects, Resume, Search, Writing