Posted by on Feb 2, 2012 in
Creating A Resume As you undertake your own resume writing project, you may find yourself turning to several different resources for help. Career counselors, peers, and mentors are all sure to offer their advice to help you along the path to your new job or career. An often-overlooked resource that you will want to consider, however, are resume books.
Resume writing books can be a huge help as you strive to create a document that is an accurate and positive representation of you and your work experience. Whether you are looking for an entry-level position or an upper-level management position, you can be confident that referring to a book or two will help you in your search. In fact, you will probably find some very specific benefits to turning to books for help with your resume.
You can use a book at any time. Have you ever tried to schedule an appointment in a career counselor’s office? Those offices can be busy places. If you opt to turn to a friend or colleague for help, you will find yourself subjected to his schedule. Using a reference book to help you, however, allows you a certain amount of freedom. You can fit your work into any time slot that suits your life; your book will be ready and waiting for you.
You can get specific advice about many different types of resumes. Although a friend may sympathize with your search for a new job in the legal profession, unless he happens to work in the same profession, he will not be able to give you valid advice about your job search. You can be certain, however, that your local bookstore will have plenty of books that cater to your profession.
Books make catching up on current trends in the job market much easier. Resume writing can change over the years. The words and phrases that employers looked for when you landed your last may not be the same as the words and phrases that employers look for now. A quick review of a book or two, however, can help you update your application to reflect current employer desires.
Tags: Benefits, Books, Enjoy, Resume, Three, Writing
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 14, 2011 in
College And University High school is so much different then college, this is why, sometimes college teachers as students to write high school vs. college essay so that the students should know what the differences are. There are different ideas in order to deal with high school vs. college essays such as you can compare the high school and college life in your college essay and high school essay. But, if you are still confuse then let’s check out a step by step procedure for writing high school vs. college essay in detail.
First step:
Writing a thesis statement:
These two lines have enormous impact on the high school vs. college essay; this is why it takes a lot of time to write a thesis statement for the essay. So, you should also make sure that it is well-written, well-defined and well- crafted, the thesis statement for school vs. college essay could be something like this:
“School might make the base of your life, but college makes you more professional”
Second step:
Writing and utilizing arguments:
There is a big difference of arguments in college essay and high school essay because the level of education differs a lot. Most of the students don’t know this thing and they just keep on writing with the same old schoolish arguments, this is why, they don’t get the desired grades. If you think, making a simple idea look more complex to fit it in the college level then you are totally wrong, the college level demands things to be more mature then the high school level and nothing else.
Third step:
The issue of flexibility and inflexibility:
If you think the five paragraph essay writing scheme would work for college essays then you are again wrong because writing an essay on college level demands a bit of more professionalism on the side of the students and the ideas that are discussed on college level are far too different and mature than that of high school. So, if you are at college level and you are assigned to write high school vs. college essay then you can incorporate this point in your essay to point out the difference between them.
Final tips for writing good high school vs. college essay:
Whenever students are assigned to write high school vs. college essays, they are always provided with the guideline which contains the format, topic is assigned and other important information for the students, so try to make sure that you follow them and if in case you are not given the outline then it is best to consult your teacher for the assistance.
Hence, the above three steps will guide you to write high school vs. college essays so make sure you follow them. Writing high school vs. college essays are no way difficult, the only thing you will require is some common sense, writing skills and a good knowledge of the difference between both the institutions, try not to overdo your essay and only include those arguments that are powerful and reliable.
Tags: College, Essay, High, School, Secrets, Three, Writing
One of the challenges an editor must face is polishing the work of an author without erasing too much of that author’s style. If you follow a particular novelist, you might notice over time particular quirks to dialog and narrative that shape the author’s unique voice, little things inspired to endear readers over time. It may be a method of relaying a specific dialect, a favorite phrase used in more than one book, or even a mechanic style one doesn’t often see in certain genres.
Fantasy authors, for example, may feature characters that communicate by thought. To enhance this phenomenon to the reader, use of italics denotes what is being thought, rather than said. Some authors may take this device and imprint a unique style by adding asterisks or other characters to further emphasize the story. Other books may use different fonts to express and highlight different aspect of their tales as well.
An author should be unique in writing style, and should possess a voice that attracts readers and inspires them to want to seek out books that mimic yours, rather than leave them guessing for whom you take after. That said, there are a number of tics that readers (and editors) may find more annoying than amusing. In the spirit of previous articles on the subject of style, I hereby submit three more personal nitpicks of mine: devices and phrases I have seen in bestsellers and small press offerings. The following are not necessarily incorrect or improper, but may cause distraction if overused in a manuscript. Grab a pen and proceed with caution.
1) There was no other word for it.
I can’t tell you how many times I have suggested in edits that authors strike this sentence from their works. It is common narrative, used mainly to emphasize shock or surprise as felt by a character.
When Brian pulled the gun on her, Darlene was flabbergasted. There was no other word for it.
You think so? What about shocked, galled, puzzled, speechless, amazed, surprised, or bewildered? A quick search in the Thesaurus may produce more suitable words to describe how Darlene is feeling, standing there at the end of a gun, wondering if her life is about to end. Quite personally, were I in Darlene’s situation, one other word would come to mind…it’s about four letters long!
Is this phrase used incorrectly? Not really. Taking the scene from Darlene’s point of view, there could be no other words to say. Having a gun pointed at your face doesn’t necessarily inspire anything verbose outside of screaming in fear or gasping for breath. Is the phrase necessary? Not really. As a matter of personal opinion, tacking on “there was no other word for it” seems rather superfluous in this situation. If there is no other word to describe what Darlene is feeling, why not leave the scene at flabbergasted? Why add on dressing to an already tense scene, when brevity better evokes a sense of doom?
When Brian pulled the gun on her, Darlene was flabbergasted. She grasped the doorknob for support and pressed a hand to her chest to keep her heart from bursting. “What are you doing?” she finally cried.
Continue with the action of the scene without unnecessary words getting in the way, and keep Darlene alert in front of that gun.
2) Heads-a-hoppin’
When I send manuscripts for evaluation, one thing I ask readers to look for is concise differentiation of point of view. Are scenes constructed in a manner that one point of view is presented clearly? Otherwise, does the narrative appear too jumbled with too many voices shouting to heard over the others?
In fiction, third person point of view is easily the more popular style – over first-person, where the story is told entirely by one character, either a lead (e.g. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum) or an observer of the leads (e.g. Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway, who tells the story of Gatsby and Daisy), and the rarely used second person (see Bright Lights, Big City for an oft-used example). Within the third person point of view are two distinctive styles: limited, which presents the story told from the perspective of a character based only on what he/she knows, and omniscient, where the character’s perspective of things is broader. In the case of omniscient point of view, the narrative might not even be told from the perspective of an active character, but an outsider watching and sensing everything that happens.
In a book written in the third person limited point of view, the perspective does not have to be limited to one character. In romance especially, point of view may switch from the hero to the heroine at various intervals. In mainstream fiction, perspective may expand to a number of core characters. Other books, especially cozy mysteries, limited the perspective to that of the sleuth, while a more intense thriller may also get into the head of a criminal.
However you decide to tell your story, it is strongly recommended to keep the perspective limited to one point of view within a distinguishable scene. In other words, avoid the device known as “head-hopping,” where point of view changes so swiftly within a passage that the reader might not know who is thinking what. While telling a story from different points of view is acceptable, it is suggested to make the shifts obvious so the reader can keep track. Head-hopping can be distracting to readers, and especially to editors who might decide the manuscript is too muddled to fix in a reasonable amount of time.
3) Dot-dot-dot
And now…we come to a device overused more than the comma…the ellipsis. Yes, there is actually a name for the “dot-dot-dot” that follows a trailed away thought, a break in conversation, or a tease into a sudden action. Used properly, the ellipsis indicates an omission of words; for example, if you have ever seen a movie ad where Roger Ebert proclaims American Pie is “The best film…of the year,” there is a good chance the film’s PR people are spinning critics words and exaggerating praise. For all we know, Ebert really said, “The best film to walk out of when you’re sick. Lord of the Rings is the best film of the year.”
In fiction, I often see ellipses unnecessarily used, whether to enhance a character’s flighty thought or conflict, or merely to make the prose more dramatic. In truth, words are better at doing that, and I would strongly advise any author who wishes to overdress his fiction in dots, dashes, and other superfluous characters to think twice. Stay to an active voice and let your sentences flow.
Take this advice as you will. As writers, you are the most comfortable with your style, but as you submit to editors and publishers they may not find that same level of ease you enjoy. Be judicious with punctuation and other devices, and tighten that manuscript for a future sale.
Tags: Author, Concerns, Fiction, Three, Writing
Posted by on Mar 12, 2010 in
Essay Paper Writing an essay can be frustrating and difficult. However, if planned properly and chosen wisely, your essay can stand out from the crowd because of its quality and richness in content.
The first thing your essay should have is an introductory paragraph. This paragraph has to be able to show exactly what your essay is about in only a couple of sentences. A great opening paragraph of an essay will show the reader exactly what they are going to read about and capture their interest straight away. This paragraph is also known as a thesis statement.
The next parts of your essay are the supporting paragraphs. These particular paragraphs make up the formation and the body of your written essay, and should be able to link together the different points you are making. A good tip here is to make a simple list of the points you are making in your essay. You can then develop your essay from this list by creating a supporting paragraph for every point made.
The final part of your essay should be the summary. This summary will conclude everything you have just written about in a few sentences. It differs from the introductory paragraph as that tells you what you are going to read; the summary paragraph tells the reader what they have already read.
You may already have your topic assigned to you for your essay or you may have to choose yourself. If you choose yourself, it is very important to be able to write fluently and confidently about your subject. Don’t pick a subject you know nothing about or are not very confident of. So, brainstorm a few ideas and pick your topic for your essay.
Then, prepare an outline or a diagram of your topic and any ideas you have for your specific essay. This structures your ideas and your essay by giving it a clear and well defined path to follow. If you feel that the structure you have prepared doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to tweak it here and there to make it work for you and your topic.
Write your thesis statement/opening paragraph and tell the readers what you as the writer are going to be showing them throughout your essay. What they will learn from it and the point you are trying to make within your essay.
Then you write your supporting paragraphs that make up your points list that you made earlier. Make a paragraph for each point and show your findings clearly and with solid facts, and possibly quotations or interviews.
Write the conclusion at the end, not during or at the beginning. Many people make the mistake of writing the conclusion before they have even finished and read through the final draft of the essay. Never do this as you may have written something else or become aware of other facts and figures later on in the essay writing process.
Once you have done all of this, you can go on to proofread what you have written. If you have the ability to do so, leave the essay overnight or for a couple of days and back to it with fresh eyes. This makes it easier to spot any spelling, grammatical or any other errors you may have made. If you can, let someone else go through it and proof it for you.
Tags: Essay, Great, Three, Tips, Writing