How to Show Your Writing Chops on a Resume

If you’re a good writer, never miss a chance to show off your writing skills. Think of your resume as an opportunity to tell the story of your candidacy. Why are you the right person for the job? How did you develop your skills? Why will you benefit the company? Let’s talk about how you can reflect your writing skills on your resume and how these talents can land you your dream job.

Be Effective

The best writers know how to get their point across succinctly. When you list your experience, include a few brief statements describing what you accomplished in each position. Choose powerful action verbs rather than boring ones such as taught, utilized, or sold. Don’t use generic adjectives. Instead, use specific vocabulary to describe your strengths.

Be Accurate

The worst thing you can do is overlook an error. Some hiring managers, especially in the writing industry, immediately discard resumes that contain misspellings or grammar mistakes. Proofread your resume several times. Then, ask a friend or colleague to look it over for you. Some people find it easier to see flaws if they review a printed copy of their resume rather than look at it on their computer screen.

Consider Your Audience

Just like when you write an article, you need to consider who will be reading your resume. If the reviewer won’t be an industry insider, avoid jargon and use terms that anyone can understand. If you know that the chief of the department in which you want to work will read it, use terms that show you know how to do the job.

Do a Peer Review

You might enjoy searching for resumes in your field. Print out a few of the best and then compare them with yours. If you were a recruiter, which resume would stand out to you? Which candidate’s word choices reflect intelligence and fluency? If your resume can’t withstand the scrutiny, make adjustments until it’s the best of the best.

Be Logical

The layout of your resume will directly influence how hiring managers perceive your writing skills. If the arrangement is thoughtless or confusing, why would a recruiter imagine that your writing would be any different? Many applicants automatically assume that a chronological format is the best way to go, but you’ll need to do a bit of research to see whether this is the best format for the type of work you do.

Replace the Objective Statement with a Targeted Summary

Many websites about resume writing encourage applicants to omit an objective statement. After all, it’s evident from your experience that you’re a content writer, sales writer, editor, etc. Obviously, you are looking for a position like the one that’s being offered. Therefore, it’s not necessary to spell out the obvious. A better use of the space below your name and contact information is a summary of your strongest qualifications for the open position. But keep it brief because you need the rest of the space for your education, certifications, and experience. You should be able to accomplish this aim in no more than three bullet points or a three-line paragraph.

Write About What’s Related

What have you done besides writing? While you may be proud of your years spent in nursing, it really only belongs on your resume if you want to be a medical writer. Freelance writers must be especially careful. Many of them have worked on everything from screenplays to children’s nursery rhymes. Focus on experience that is most relevant to each job announcement. Otherwise, you might seem like the kind of candidate who applies for everything, even positions in which you have no real aptitude or interest. On the other hand, some abilities are clearly a plus for almost any writing job. Feel free to enumerate your mastery of word processing programs, foreign languages, or typing.

Send a Thank You Note

A thank you note isn’t a part of the resume, but it should be a part of the process. Why? First of all, it’s simply a nice thing to do. Secondly, you can express your thanks and display your personal writing style at the same time. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! Remember, too, that a thank you note can be sent by email. You actually might be more likely to get a response if human resources has your email at their fingertips. Also, ensure that your thank you note has a personal touch. No one likes a canned message!

Include an Attachment

When sending your resume by email or publishing it on a website, it’s easy to upload samples of your best writing. If you have room on your resume, you can make a list of published writing. Published work is always the best option, but newbies might feature unpublished work if that’s all they have. Make sure to organize your works into genres to make it easy to see what type of writing they feature. Place either the most recently published or the most relevant pieces at the beginning of the list. If you are including website hyperlinks, make sure they work before you send the email! Show that you understand copyright law by including only clips of works that you own or have permission to use.

A resume isn’t going to take the place of a short story or a newspaper article, but it can give potential clients a good idea of your writing style. Be sure that your resume reflects your accuracy, organizational skills, and effectiveness with your choice of words and formatting. Remember the questions asked at the onset? Why are you the right person for the job? How did you develop your skills? Why will you benefit the company? If you allow your resume to tell your story, you may just get the happy ending that you deserve!

Simple Future Tense

The simple future is a verb tense that’s used to talk about things that haven’t happened yet.

This year, Jen will read War and Peace. It will be hard, but she’s determined to do it.

Use the simple future to talk about an action or condition that will begin and end in the future.

How to Form the Simple Future

The formula for the simple future is will + [root form of verb].

I will learn a new language. Jen will read that book. My brothers will sleep till noon if no one wakes them up. You will see what I mean.

It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula for the simple future doesn’t change.

But…

There is another way to show that something will happen in the future. It follows the formula [am/is/are] + going to + [root form verb].

I am going to learn a new language. Jen is going to read that book. My brothers are going to sleep till noon if no one wakes them up. You are going to see what I mean.

The “going to” construction is common in speech and casual writing. Keep in mind though that it’s on the informal side, so it’s a good idea to stick to the will + [root form] construction in formal writing.

How to Make the Simple Future Negative

To make the simple future negative, the formula is will + not + [root form].

Jen will not quit before she reaches her goal. Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow because the bus will not wait for you. He will not say anything bad about his boss. I will not finish my homework in time for class.

Using the “going to” construction, the formula is [am/is/are] + not + going to + [root form].

Jen is not going to quit before she reaches her goal. Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow because the bus is not going to wait for you. He is not going to say anything bad about his boss. I am not going to finish my homework in time for class.

How to Ask a Question

To ask a question in the simple future, the formula is will + [subject] + [root form].

Will Jen finish War and Peace over the summer? Will I have the discipline to study Spanish every day? What will you buy with the money you found?

The formula for the “going to” construction is [am/is/are] + [subject] +going to + [root form].

Is Jen going to finish War and Peace over the summer? Am I going to have the discipline to study Spanish every day? What are you going to buy with the money you found?

Common Verbs in the Simple Past

The “Going to” Construction

How to Write Nowhere, Somewhere, and Anywhere?

There’s only one way to write nowhere, somewhere, and anywhere, and that is as one word. If you write them as no where, some where, and any where, you’re making a mistake.

He was no where to be found.

Tony tried to build his own business, but it went nowhere.

More Examples

Some where over the rainbow there’s candy waiting for you.

He lost his key somewhere on his route home.

Any where she went, she was looking for something that resembled her home.

He felt comfortable anywhere he went for the holidays.

What’s the Difference between Less and Fewer?

Why is it so easy to confuse less and fewer? Perhaps because they both represent the opposite of the comparative adjective more. Luckily, the conundrum of less vs. fewer has a solution that is simple to remember. It involves deducing whether fewer or less will be working with a countable or uncountable noun in your intended sentence.

In English, we use the same word, more, for a greater number and a greater amount/quantity. There is little doubt about when to use more.

Cookie Monster has demanded more cookies.

Could you give Cookie Monster more milk to wash those down with?

Cookies is a countable noun; it is possible to count cookies. Milk, on the other hand, is an uncountable noun; it is a liquid that we measure in terms of volume. Uncountable nouns are always singular.

Here’s a tip: A good way to test that a noun is truly uncountable is to try making a plural out of it.

Could you give Cookie Monster more milks to wash those down with?

That quick check confirms that milk is an uncountable noun.

The Difference between “Less” and “Fewer”

Fewer means “not as many.” We use fewer with countable nouns like cookies.

Cookie Monster was told to eat fewer cookies.

Less means “not as much.” We use less with uncountable nouns like milk.

Could you give Cookie Monster less milk next time?

Most often, you will not have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce whether a noun is countable or uncountable, thus the decision between less and fewer will be an effortless one.

If fewer people used disposable water bottles, there would be less plastic in landfills.

Molly has been drinking less water than she should on this dry day.

David makes fewer grammatical mistakes than the average person.

My new furniture leaves me with less space for yoga practice.

As the days passed, the rose had fewer petals left on it.

In these examples, determining the countability of the nouns involved was easy. People, grammatical mistakes, and petals are all countable nouns. As difficult as it would be to count all the people who use plastic water bottles, it would be possible to enumerate them because they are itemizable individuals.

Plastic, water, and space, on the other hand, are uncountable; we only describe them in quantities. To make them countable, we would be obliged to compartmentalize them in some way (e.g., pieces of plastic or glasses of water). Nouns that can be further defined and measured in this way make the distinction trickier. For example, here are two sentences with almost the same meaning, but one requires fewer while the other requires less.

Now that my commute is shorter, I use fewer gallons of gasoline each week.

Now that my commute is shorter, I use less gasoline each week.

In the first sentence, fewer is used with the countable compound noun gallons of gasoline. In the second, less is used with the uncountable noun gasoline.

“Less vs. Fewer” with Money

Although we can count money, it is usual for us to think of money as a bulk quantity rather than an aggregate of currency units. Therefore, we use less rather than fewer.

Rebecca has less than twenty dollars left in her checking account.

It would not be wrong to say, “Rebecca has fewer than twenty dollars left,” but it would seem awkward and unexpected to your reader.

“Less vs. Fewer” with Time

It is also customary to use less with regard to time, even though we can count time in seconds, minutes, hours, and so on.

Ethan has been at his job for less than five years.

I wish I could spend less time on household chores.

Yet, depending on how general or specific your reference to time is, it may require the use of fewer.

I wish I could spend fewer hours on household chores and more on watching television.

“Less vs. Fewer” with Weight

Weights are also nouns that are measured in a countable way, yet are customarily used with less rather than fewer.

Baby pandas weigh less than 200 grams at birth.

Even though the pandas’ weight is countable (and in fact we did count it, in grams), it would seem awkward to write, “Baby pandas weigh fewer than 200 grams at birth.”

“Less vs. Fewer” and Percentages

Determining whether percentages represent something countable or uncountable can be tricky. To decide whether to use fewer or less with a percentage, you will have to look at the bigger picture and ask yourself, “What is this a percentage of? Is it countable?”

Fewer than eight percent of the world’s people have blue eyes.

Although counting the world’s people would be an unenviable task, it is possible to count individual people. Therefore, eight percent of the world’s people is countable and we use the word fewer.

I see you have eaten less than ten percent of your mashed potatoes.

As determined as the speaker in this sentence might be, it would not be possible for him or her to enumerate the uneaten percentage of potatoes. Therefore, we use the word less.

All the Wondrous Ways We Express Wonder in English

As we get nearer to the end of December, we are reminded of why it’s called the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the season of holidays, with Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Mawlid usually celebrated within a month of one another. And then there’s the New Year, a great opportunity to commit ourselves to plans and resolutions we’ll never actually make good on. This time of year is a great opportunity to remind ourselves of some of the words we have at our disposal to express all the wonder that’s going on.

Let’s kick off with wondrous, an adjective we get from the word “wonder.” Something that creates a feeling of wonder can be called wondrous. It can also be called wonderful, but let’s stick with the rarer of the two. Also, note that there’s no e in wondrous—wonderous was once an alternative, albeit less common spelling of the word. But as with monstrous and ambidextrous, we use the spelling without an e because it’s much closer to the way we pronounce the word.

There’s more than one thing we could do with awe. There’s always awesome, but if you’re tired of hearing that word, you might use awful instead. It once meant “awe-inspiring,” even though it’s rarely, if ever, used that way anymore. If you don’t want to spend the holidays explaining to people that you’re not a Grinch but a fighter for grammatical lost causes, you can just say that something is awe-inspiring or that you are awe-filled.

Of course, the English language isn’t lacking in synonyms for awesome and its relatives. Marvelous is a very nice word (which you’ll want to spell with two l’s if you’re in the UK). You might also want to pronounce it “maah-velous!”—it makes the word sound even better. Astonishing is a word you’d use for something that causes amazement or wonder. And look, we almost forgot amazing.

If you want to say that something is so good it actually overwhelmed you with wonder, you can call it astounding. Although, if something really astounds you, you can say that it flabbergasted you or even dumbfounded you. It might have even stupefied you—but be careful when using these words because some of them might also carry negative connotations.

If you want to stray from the path of overly formal words, there’s no better place to start than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The word means “exceptionally good,” and when was the last time someone wished you a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious New Year? From there, you can head onto fantabulous. It’s is a mix of “fantastic” and “fabulous,” and when you encounter something that can only be described with the combined powers of those two words, you know it’s full of wonder. If you’re in the UK and you want to compliment something but you don’t want to say it’s wonderful, you might say it’s dench, or well dench if you want to take it up a notch. Of course, there’s no need to point out that people sometimes use words like “sick,” “ill,” or “wicked” to describe something that’s good. But why would they, when fantabulous is around? Really makes you wonder.

Please Advise: When to Use “Please Advise”

That email is sitting in your inbox. You know the answer to the question it’s asking, but those two words are still haunting you: “please advise.” It can show up in the subject line, somewhere in the middle of a message, or, most frequently, right before the signature at the end of the email. But what do you do with it?

The good news: if you know the answer to the main question in the email, just write your reply and boom! You’ve “advised.” At the most basic level, “please advise” is a request for advice or answers. But to some people, it can come across as redundant, stuffy, or passive aggressive.

Please advise: What does “Please advise” mean?

Depending on the context, the person who’s using the phrase, and what that person wants, the phrase can have a few different meanings. Here are a few possible synonyms for “please advise”:

• Let me know
• Get back to me
• Can you give me your thoughts, answers, or input?
• Give me the information I already asked for in the body of this email
• I’m waiting for you to respond

As you can see, “please advise” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Its primary meaning is a request for information, but it can also come across as having one of those last two meanings—and that’s not so pleasant. It all depends on context.

“Please advise” as an email ending

The way readers interpret “please advise” depends not only on what the message is about but also on the tone of the rest of the message. In most cases, this confusion can take place when “please advise” appears as the end of an email.

These example emails give a sense of the different ways “please advise” might come across to a reader.

Dear Karen,

I was hoping you could help me go over the training decks. You were the last person to give these trainings, so I’d appreciate some background on the order and how the exercises are supposed to work.

Please advise. Eric

Dear Jared,

I know you’re swamped, but can you let me know whether it’s okay to move forward with publishing the article? Hoping to get it up mid-week.

Please advise.

Jennifer

In Eric’s email, which already seems passive aggressive, the “please advise” at the end is the bitter cherry on top. Jennifer’s email, on the other hand, tries to be polite, even though Jared has clearly caused some delays.

“Please advise” alternatives

“Please advise” is on the formal side. In fact, it sounds a bit stuffy and old-fashioned. If you want alternatives for “please advise” that work in a more modern, casual workplace, try these synonyms:

• Let me know
• I look forward to your answer
• Thanks for your help
• …Nothing at all

That’s right: the best way to get around “please advise” is just to leave it out. In most cases, the phrase comes after a question, so it ends up functioning as filler words or worse, as in Eric’s email.

In the second example email above, the “please advise” doesn’t necessarily come across as rude, but it’s also not strictly necessary. Here’s a crazy idea: if you’re writing an email asking for information, advice, or ideas from a colleague, they’ll see your request in the body of the email. They already know they’re supposed to get back to you with answers, with or without the “please advise” tacked on at the end.

So, if your message feels complete without “please advise,” just ask your question and leave it at that.

Is “Please advise” wrong?

As far as grammar goes, some experts say that “advise” is a transitive verb, so it needs to have an object. In other words, someone has to be advised. However, it’s pretty obvious who is to be advised: whoever wrote the email. To get around verb confusion, you can think of “please advise” as a shortcut for “please advise [me].”

Another potential problem is the difference between advise and advice. Advice is a noun, meaning “suggestions for what to do,” and advise is a verb meaning “to give advice.” Mix up your s and your c and you’ll need advice on your spelling, as well as on the question you’re actually asking.

In the end, there’s nothing grammatically wrong with “please advise.” It’s just a question of usage and style. Some people don’t like it because it can be interpreted as rude or demanding. Other people think it’s redundant: just ask your question and call it a day.

If you like the formality of “please advise,” go ahead and use it. But first, just make sure the rest of your email doesn’t seem impolite. That will keep your emails clear and courteous no matter what. Whether or not you wanted us to advise, that’s advice you can live by.

What is a Gerund Phrase?

A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any modifiers or objects associated with it. A gerund is a noun made from a verb root plus ing (a present participle). A whole gerund phrase functions in a sentence just like a noun, and can act as a subject, an object, or a predicate nominative.

If you look up the definition of gerund (pronounced JER-und), you will find that it means “an English noun formed from a verb by adding -ing”; that is, a present participle used as a noun.

Traveling is a good way to expand your worldview.

My passion is reading.

My doctor suggests running to improve my health.

In all three of these examples, words ending with -ing are acting as nouns. Traveling is the subject of the first sentence. In the second sentence, reading is a predicate nominative, a word (or group of words) that completes a linking verb and renames the subject. The verb is, a form of the linking verb to be, is followed by reading, which renames the subject my passion. In the third sentence, the gerund running is acting as the object of the verb suggests.

How Do Gerund Phrases Work? They Act Like a Noun

Gerunds can appear alone or band together with other words to form a gerund phrase. Collectively, this phrase behaves like a single noun.

Running is a favorite activity of mine.

Running with scissors is a favorite activity of mine.

Both the gerund and the gerund phrase above function as subject nouns and take the third-person singular verb is. We could substitute a non-gerund noun such as chess to mentally confirm its function.

Chess is a favorite activity of mine.

Not Acting Like a Noun? It’s a Participle Phrase

Gerund phrases can easily be confused with participle phrases. It is possible, for example, to encounter the gerund phrase we used above in a context where it is not acting like a noun. When used as a modifier—that is, as an adjective or adverb—it is now a participle phrase.

Running with scissors, Tim charged after the cat.

Here, running with scissors modifies the verb charged. It gives us further information about how Tim charged.

Gerund Phrases as Objects

Just as nouns sometimes function as objects in a sentence, so can gerund phrases.

Tim enjoys running with scissors.

In this sentence, the gerund phrase running with scissors is the direct object of the verb enjoys. We could easily replace it with a simpler object noun to confirm that it really is an object.

Tim enjoys racquetball.

(That would be a much better idea, Tim.)

We could also use this gerund phrase as an indirect object.

Tim attributes his high blood pressure to running with scissors.

Like many indirect objects, the gerund phrase running with scissors is introduced with the preposition to.

Dangling Gerunds

You may have heard of dangling participles; dangling gerunds are quite similar. Dangling gerunds are somewhat less frequent, but they can crop up when gerunds or gerund phrases are acting as objects of a preposition such as before, after, by, or with.

By running with scissors, Tim’s cat suffered some battle scars.

The gerund phrase is said to be dangling here, because it is mismatched with the subject that follows, creating an illogical scenario. The writer of a such a sentence no doubt intended to convey that when Tim ran with scissors, his cat was injured. But as the sentence reads, it is the (atypically scary) cat who ran with scissors.

The best thing to do with a sentence that contains a dangler is to rewrite it to give the sentence its proper subject. There may be a number of ways to do that correctly.

By running with scissors, Tim gave his cat some battle scars.

Tim wounded his cat when he ran with scissors.

Tim’s penchant for running with scissors has left some battle scars on his cat.

You can read more about the hazards of danglers in our blog about dangling participles.