9. Positive Writing1. Give evidence2. Use action verbs3. Write in an active style4. Write Concisely5. Use ellipsis6. Format and edit your resume

1. Give evidenceGive clear and specific evidence of skills, experience, knowledge, and achievements

✕ ‘I am good at persuading other people.’

✓ ‘Able to persuade others to change point of view as demonstrated winning a University team debating competition.’✕ ‘I have strong leadership skills.’

✓ ‘Organized group tours of school campus for middle school students and delegated roles to team members.’

Starting a sentence with a verb or power word not only pro-vides a strong and clear opener but it can also make your skills and achievements stand out, especially if the recruiter is speed-reading your application. It also stimulates the reader to want to learn more about you.

In addition it ensures your resume is not rejected by recruiting software

2014 & 2015 (summer vacation) Portal Services, Nottingham, UK - Information Systems AssistantBased in the IT department but also worked closely with the Training Team.

• Designed a staff development database allowing staff to record their training requirements.• Worked with a number of clients to redesign their websites using the latest web tools.• Devised an online ordering system for one of our clients, using MySQL.

Sept 2015 - present (part-time) Broomhall Community Project, Sheffield, UK - Database DeveloperVoluntary work for four hours per week:

• Developing a database to record the names, addresses and skills of community project participants.• Training other staff within the team to use the database.

* notice the verb tenses

2. Use action verbs

AccomplishedAchievedAdaptedAddressedAdvised AnalysedArrangedCoachedCoordinated CommunicatedCompleted Created Delivered DesignedDeveloped

Common Action Verbs

ParticipatedPersuadedPlannedPresentedResearchedResolvedTeam Work-ingTrainedTranslatedWrote

Enhanced EstablishedExplainedFulfilled HelpedImplementedImprovedInfluencedInitiatedInstructedLedMaintainedMotivatedNegotiatedOrganised

More verbs on next 2 slides arranged by skills/type

Leadership/management: accomplished, achieved, administered, analyzed, assigned, at-tained, chaired conducted, consolidated, coordinated, delegated, developed, directed, earned, established, evaluated, executed, facilitated, formulated, guided, handled, headed, impacted, improved, increased, led, mastered, orchestrated, organized, oversaw, planned, predicted, pri-oritized, produced, proved, recommended, regulated, reorganized, reviewed, reorganized, scheduled, spearheaded, strengthened, supervised, surpassed, trained

Communication: addressed, arbitrated, arranged, authored, clarified, collaborated, conferred, convinced, corresponded, delivered, developed, directed, documented, drafted, edited, energized, enlisted, explained, formulated, influenced, interpreted, lectured, liaised, mediated, moderated, negotiated, persuaded, presented, promoted, publicized, reconciled, recruited, reported, rewrote, spoke, suggested, synthesized, translated, verbalized, wrote

Technical: analyzed, assembled, built, calculated, computed, consulted, designed, devised, engineered, examined, fabricated, identified, installed, interpreted, maintained, operated, optimized, overhauled, programmed, remodeled, repaired, solved, standardized, streamlined, upgraded

Helping: advised, arranged, assessed, assisted, clarified, coached, counseled, demonstrated, diagnosed, educated, enhanced, expedited, facilitated, familiarized, guided, instructed, motivated, oriented, participated, proposed, provided, referred, rehabilitated, represented, served, supported

Creative: acted, composed, conceived, conceptualized, created, customized, designed, developed, directed, established, fashioned, founded, illustrated, initiated, instituted, integrated, introduced, invented, originated, performed, planned, published, redesigned, revised, revitalized, shaped, visualized

Action verbs – arranged by skill

Research: assessed, clarified, collected, concluded, conducted, constructed, critiqued, de-rived, designed, determined, diagnosed, discovered, evaluated, examined, extracted, formed, identified, inspected, interpreted, interviewed, investigated, modeled, organized, researched, resolved, reviewed, summarized, surveyed, systematized, tested

Teaching: adapted, advised, clarified, coached, communicated, coordinated, demystified, de-veloped, enabled, encouraged, evaluated, explained, facilitated, guided, informed, instructed, persuaded, set goals, stimulated, studied, taught, trained

Financial: administered, analyzed, balanced, budgeted, calculated, contracted, forecast, marketed, planned, projected, recommended

Clerical: revised, collected, catalogued, classified, compiled clarified, indexed, organized, prepared, processed, simplified, systemized

Sales: consolidated, distributed, generated, increased, marketed, obtained, promoted, recruited, stimulated

Organizational: approved, accelerated, added, arranged, broadened, catalogued, centralized, changed, classified, collected, compiled, completed, controlled, defined, dispatched, executed, expanded, gained, gathered, generated, implemented, inspected, launched, monitored, operated, organized, prepared, processed, purchased, recorded, reduced, reinforced, retrieved, screened, selected, simplified, sold, specified, steered, structured, systemized, tabulated, unified, updated, utilized, validated, verified

Action verbs – arranged by skill

An active style puts the emphasis on the action you took, rather than what you were expected to do. Here’s an example:

✕ Passive style: ‘The project required me to research information from various sources. I had to make conclusions and present my findings in a report. It involved working under pressure and coping with deadlines.’

✓ Active style: ‘Researched information using various sources including databases and scientific journals. Produced a comprehensive report that detailed my findings which received 76% (equivalent to a ‘distinction’ level grade). Learnt the value of prioritising tasks for effective time management.’

* In the passive style, the sentences are accurate, but weak and vague. Using the active style, the writer implies that they took the initiative.

3. Write in an active style

This paragraph shows how text in a resume or application form can often be difficult to read when grouped together in one huge ‘block’. Selectors could have difficulty in ex-tracting the key information and this is not what you want to happen. Not only can it be difficult to extract pertinent information, huge blocks of text don’t always look good on the page, and can create a poor first impression. This neg-ative attitude may influence how employers react to the content of applications. It can also lead to a negative judgement on how well you communicate. If you claim to have good communication skills and then present long paragraphs of text that are off-putting to read, then you are failing to communicate effectively through your appli-cation.

4. Write concisely

This is NOT good! Don’t even try to read

it!

Organise information using bullet points

• Look how easy it is to get a similar number of words across by splitting the text into two sections and using bullet points and bold text.

• These are easier to read, look neater on the page, and grab a recruiter’s at-tention to create a positive first impression.

• Recruiters can see your key points clearly without real effort.

Effective wording

• You have to use short sentences and get to the point.

• You need to give examples and evidence to prove your point.

• This style makes it easier to read and communicate key selling points rele-vant to the job or course.

Use sub-headings, with bullet points, for exam-ple:

You can omit:

the pronoun ‘I’, auxiliary verbs (am/was), the possessive ‘my’. and often, articles (a, an, the)

✕ I worked as a part-time cashier.

✓ Worked as part-time cashier.

5. Use ellipsis (leaving out words)

• Use a standard font that is easy to read such as Times New Roman or Garamond

• 11 or 12 is a good font size – depending on the font you choose.

• Use a clear font and one font style throughout. More on fonts for resumes.

• Capitalize and bold your major headings

• Use bold for any sub-headings

• Make sure your resume "looks good“. It should be:

- Neat- Symmetrical- Visually balanced.

• Proofread your resume carefully

• Be sure your spelling, grammar and punctuation are flawless.

6. Format and edit your resume