Lesson Thirteen
Business Correspondence II
Dr. Nancy Hoagland

Lecture Notes

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to prepare you to write a resume and other job application materials. You have the opportunity to post your resume in this week's conference topics to get feedback from your colleagues in the class. However, it is not a requirement to post a resume. I will point out some basic information from the chapter in the summary below, but I do not plan to include much information contained in the chapter. If you have the need to write your resume or to update your resume, I suggest that you read the chapter carefully. Markel has provided excellent and very specific suggestions for content and format that should be very helpful.

 

Chapter 16 Preparing Job-Application Materials

Writing a Resume

Markel begins by pointing out that you should prepare your own resume rather than going to an agency and paying to have one written. Professional resumes usually seem suspicious, and having one will discourage you from making changes in the resume to target specific jobs.

According to Markel, resumes should have a professional appearance. He suggestions margins of one-inch on all sides, use of a laser-printer, a balanced look to the page, and the use of white space and line spacing to organize information for the reader. He makes the point that "turnovers, the second and subsequent lines of any item" should be indented (397).

In terms of content, he advises that resumes should be honest, free of errors, and contain clear, specific information without too much of a boasting tone. In general, he recommends a resume of 1 page for someone with less than 10 years of experience and applying for an entry level position.

Two common styles of resumes are the chronological resume and the analytical resume. Most chronological resumes, which have time as the organizing factor, contain the following six items: : identifying information, job objectives, education, employment history, interests and activities, and references. The analytical resume includes all of the items above and one additional section called skills or skills and abilities. People who are reentering the job market, just graduating from college, or changing jobs sometimes prefer to use the analytical resume because it allows them to highlight skills and abilities without calling as much attention to gaps in employment history.

For a traditional printed resume, Markel suggest using tables for the layout and design. Of course, you would not print the grid lines for the table when you produced the final copy.

Today, many organizations keep a file of resumes stored on computer, so you may need to prepare a copy of your resume that can be submitted electronically. According to Markel, some organizations request "a plain text document sent in the body of the [e-mail] message" (409). In that case, you should prepare a resume using ASCII text only, limited to basic letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. You should avoid "boldface, Italics, underlining, and special characters" as well as "horizontal lines or graphics" (411). Be sure to left align all content and leave spaces to organize information. Markel says you should save the resume file as "text only" and then send it to yourself and open it in Notepad to check the appearance. See page 413 for an example of an electronic resume. This example also includes a section entitled Keywords with a list of words related to the writer's background, skills and abilities. The reason for this addition is that organizations often use keywords to search their file of resumes for job candidates with specific qualifications.

Markel says that in some cases, you know that the paper resume you send by mail will be scanned into a company's database. He offers these additional guidelines for creating a scannable resume. Use a laser printer, white paper, a simple sans-serif type face such as Arial, a single-column format, and wide margins with a line length of 60 or 65. Do not use the tab key because you cannot be sure how that will scan, and do not fold the paper because that can cause the resume to scan poorly also.

If you would like help in analyzing a resume, see the Interactive Sample documents for Chapter 16b from TechComm Web.

Writing the Job-Application Letter

Write a job-application letter to send with your resume in which you "appeal as directly and specifically as possible to a particular person" (414). The letter, usually from 1/2 to a page long, should highlight two or three main points regarding your qualifications for the position.. The typical letter has at least four paragraphs: (1) an introduction, which identifies your source of information and desired position, states the writer's desire to be considered, and forecasts the rest of the letter, (2) education, (3) employment or other experience, and (4) conclusion, which includes a reference to the enclosed résumé, a request for an interview, and your phone number and e-mail address.

The chapter also includes advice on preparing for a job interview and for appropriate measures to follow up on the interview.

For more information, see Module 4: Communicating through Business Correspondence.

Material for this course was originally written and developed by Michelle Didier, Edward Harris, James Gillin, Pat Kirby, Marj Crane,Danielle Bujosa, Andrew Joyce, Ed Brandmark, Traicy Garey, and Sharon Biederman.

||  Contact Nancy Hoagland || Back to Lesson Guide  ||
||  Library Services  ||  UMUC HomePage  ||  Writing Resources  ||
||  Back toTycho Login  ||
© 1999-2000 University of Maryland University College.