₦airaland Forum

Writing in the 21st Century With digital technology and, especially Web 2.0, it seems, writers are everywhere—on bulletin boards and in chat rooms and in emails and in text messages and on blogs responding to news reports and, indeed, reporting the news themselves as I-reporters.

Such writing is what Deborah Brandt has called self-sponsored writing: a writing that belongs to the writer, not to an institution, with the result that people—students, senior citizens, employees, volunteers, family members, sensible and non-sensible people alike—want to compose and do—on the page and on the screen and on the network—to each other.

Opportunities for composing abound—onMySpace, Facebook, Googledocs, multiple blogs and platforms—and on national media sites, where writers upload photos and descriptions, videos and personal accounts, where they are both recipients and creators of our news.

In much of this new composing, we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate. In fact, in looking at all this composing, we might say that one of the biggest changes is the role of audience: writers are everywhere, yes, but so too are audiences, especially in social networking sites like Facebook, which, according to the New York Times, provides a commons for people

Perhaps most important, seen historically this 21st century writing marks the beginning of a new era in literacy, a period we might call the Age of Composition, a period where composers become composers not through direct and formal instruction alone (if at all), but rather through what we might call an extracurricular social co-apprenticeship.

Kathleen Blake Yancey

I’ve explored the science behind what makes kids happier, what type of parenting works best and what makes for joyful families.

But what makes children — from babies up through the teen years — smarter?

Here are 10 things science says can help:
1) Music Lessons

Plain and simple: research show music lessons make kids smarter:

Compared with children in the control groups, children in the music groups exhibited greater increases in full-scale IQ. The effect was relatively small, but it generalized across IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement.

In fact musical training helps everyone, young and old:

A growing body of research finds musical training gives students learning advantages in the classroom. Now a Northwestern University study finds musical training can benefit Grandma, too, by offsetting some of the deleterious effects of aging.

(More on what the music you love says about you here.)
2) The Dumb Jock Is A Myth

Dumb jocks are dumb because they spend more time on the field than in the library. But what if you make sure your child devotes time to both?

Being in good shape increases your ability to learn. After exercise people pick up new vocabulary words 20% faster.

Via Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain:

Indeed, in a 2007 study of humans, German researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise, and that the rate of learning correlated directly with levels of BDNF.

A 3 month exercise regimen increased bloodflow to the part of the brain focused on memory and learning by 30%.

Via Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain:

In his study, Small put a group of volunteers on a three-month exercise regimen and then took pictures of their brains… What he saw was that the capillary volume in the memory area of the hippocampus increased by 30 percent, a truly remarkable change.

(More on how exercise can make you and your kids smarter and happier here.)
3) Don’t Read To Your Kids, Read With Them

Got a little one who is learning to read? Don’t let them just stare at the pictures in a book while you do all the reading.
Call attention to the words. Read with them, not to them. Research shows it helps build their reading skills:

…when shared book reading is enriched with explicit attention to the development of children’s reading skills and strategies, then shared book reading is an effective vehicle for promoting the early literacy ability even of disadvantaged children.

(More on things most parents do wrong here.)
4) Sleep Deprivation Makes Kids Stupid

Missing an hour of sleep turns a sixth grader’s brain into that of a fourth grader.

Via NurtureShock:

“A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” Sadeh explained.

There is a correlation between grades and average amount of sleep.

Via NurtureShock:

Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged fifteen more minutes than the C’s, and so on. Wahlstrom’s data was an almost perfect replication of results from an earlier study of over 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers by Brown’s Carskadon. Certainly, these are averages, but the consistency of the two studies stands out. Every fifteen minutes counts.

(More on how to sleep better here.)
5) IQ Isn’t Worth Much Without Self-Discipline

Self-discipline beats IQ at predicting who will be successful in life.

From Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business:

Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success… Students who exerted high levels of willpower were more likely to earn higher grades in their classes and gain admission into more selective schools. They had fewer absences and spent less time watching television and more hours on homework. “Highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic-performance variable,” the researchers wrote. “Self-discipline predicted academic performance more robustly than did IQ. Self-discipline also predicted which students would improve their grades over the course of the school year, whereas IQ did not.… Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.”

Grades have more to do with conscientiousness than raw smarts.

Via How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character:

…conscientiousness was the trait that best predicted workplace success. What intrigues Roberts about conscientiousness is that it predicts so many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. People high in conscientiousness get better grades in school and college; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer. They live longer – and not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Credit: Time.com

Errors can mar one’s writing and this can be more embarrassing if one allows such errors get out without noticing them. Errors could detract a great deal from one’s writing and put off the audience from the message being portrayed. It also question the writer’s credibility, as regards the qualification he or she has in authoring the literary piece.
But for the sake of this write-up, we shall be considering a list of word pairs or triplets often mistaken for the other. Some words sound alike but spelt differently. Due attention should be drawn to them to avoid misrepresentation when writing.
1. They’re, There, Their:

‘‘They’’ refers to third person plural pronoun, ‘‘there’’ refers to a place, while ‘‘their’’ is used to denote possession.

So one can say: They are going there with their bags.

2. Your, You’re:

‘‘Your’’ is showing possession while ‘‘You’re’’ is expressing what someone is and it is also a contracted form of ‘‘you are’’.


3. Its, It’s:
“Its’’ is possessive pronoun used for a non-personal subjects or objects. “It’s” is a contracted form of ‘It is’.


4. Incomplete Comparison:
It could be detected in a hanging statement. The non-completion of grammatical expression lies in its non-communication of a complete sense. For example:

Your car is slower, cheaper, and dirtier.

The statement did not tell us what the car is compared with.
Better put: Your car is slower, cheaper, and dirtier than mine.

5. Passive and Active Voice:
It is advisable writers use active voice, which makes writing alive and clear, in language expressions other the passive which makes the writing dull, and difficult to understand, especially if the sentence is any of a compound, complex or compound complex sentence.


6. Dangling or Hanging Modifiers:

This occurs when a writer uses an adjective or adjectival phrase or clause, which does not relate to the noun it precedes.
E.g.:After declining for months, Jean tried a new tactic to increase ROL.
Better still, say: After declining for months in meeting his target, …

7. Referring to a Brand or Entity as ‘They’:

This is a commonplace in some write-ups but it is wrong to describe a brand or entity(organization, government, society, etc) with ‘they’. E.g: Nigerian Airways says they are not opening for business
Correct: Nigerian Airways says it is not opening for business.

8. Affect vs Effect:
These are often confused in usage. When one is referring to one thing changing the other, the cause of change, (noun), is followed by ‘effect’. But if it’s the action of change itself (verb), then ‘affect’ is appropriate.
Eg: The movie effected an unfamiliar mood in the audience.
The movie affected me greatly.

9. Me and I:
These are often confused in normal usage. ‘Me’ is the objective form for the personal pronoun‘I’, and of course ‘I’ takes the subject position in a sentence.
Eg: When he comes, tell him to send it to Bola and I

Corrected: When he comes, tell him to send it to Bola and me.

10. To and Too:
‘To’ is used before a noun or verb to depict a destination, recipient, or action.

Eg: I am going to Lagos Island (destination)

I will give it to him (recipient)

I want to eat (action)

While ‘Too’ is used in place of ‘as well’ or ‘also’ or express adjectives in extreme cases.

They, too, can do same.

They, as well, can do same.

We too have the pack of cards.

We also have the pack of cards.

It’s too cold for me. The sound is too loud. (extreme cases)

“How long should my CV be?” This is a question that has been pondered for years by jobseekers and is still a cause of debate across the recruitment industry. Although there is no single, definitive rule, the general consensus is that you should try to keep it as close to two pages as you can.

This can be difficult to achieve, especially when you have years of experience you want to show the prospective employer. So, to create an interview-winning CV, it’s vital that you understand the importance of CV length and the need to keep yours short.
Why is brevity important?

To understand how the length of your CV affects your ability to land job interviews, you have to look at it from the point of view of the recruiters. The average recruiter can easily sift through hundreds of CVs a day, so they simply don’t have time to read anything too lengthy. Your document, therefore, needs to be short and sharp to get your message across quickly.

Your CV is like a piece of marketing material that advertises your services to potential employers. You need to ensure that it connects with its audience and tells your story without boring them.
Pare back older roles

One of the easiest ways to shorten a drawn-out CV is to cut descriptions of your older roles to a brief summary. Recruiters do not need to know about what you did 10 years ago in great detail, so there’s no need to go into it. Your recent roles should contain the most detail to highlight the value you can bring to a new employer, but older roles are really just included to show your career path and background. If you’ve got a lot of experience, you can simply list your oldest roles to save space.
Filter out irrelevant details

If you have a broad skill set and lots of career achievements then it’s only natural that you will try to cram them in to make a big impression. However, many jobs will actually call for a very niche set of skills, making some of your attributes surplus to requirement.

Take a good look through the job adverts that you are applying to, and find out what the most sought-after requirements are – if you find that your CV includes a lot of skills or experience that are not being asked for, then you can cut those areas down or remove them from your CV altogether.

If you are applying for a broad range of roles, then it’s OK to have more than one CV, with each tailored towards a particular niche in your industry.
Avoid cliches

The use of cliches is unfortunately quite common in CVs and hugely disliked by employers. Typical expressions include “works well in a team or individually” and “go-getter with an entrepreneurial mind set”. The reason they are so disliked is that they don’t actually tell the reader much about you and they are often not backed up with any proof. Instead of writing “excellent team leader”, give examples of occasions where you have led teams and highlight details of the results. This way you can prove that you’re an excellent team leader without wasting valuable space on meaningless and overused phrases.
Don’t waste space with personal details

The only personal details that need to be on your CV are name, phone number, email address and rough geographic location – using minimal space at the top of your CV. Recruiters just need to be able to contact you and know roughly where you can commute to – prior to interview, they don’t need to know things like your date of birth and full postal address.

You should only include hobbies and interests if they are relevant to the roles you are applying for or if you have any major achievements that might impress potential employers. If you do include interests, keep the section very brief and at the bottom of your CV.

Credit: The Guardian

When attaching documents…

Most of us…ok, some of us merely scribble: “find attached” when attaching documents to e-mails. If your intention is to get the receiver to open attached document, then your miserable “find attached” does not suffice in any way, except in situations where they (the receiver) expect it/ have been waiting for it.

Here are two or three indicators you have shared enough information regarding the attached document.

Let the reader know more about the attached document. Let’s take a common example: someone sends you a link and asks you to open; I’m very sure you will want to ask that person what it contains. There is no major difference between the reaction in both situations (a link and an attached document). Knowing what a document is about, would go a long way in compelling the reader to open.



Include a few lines pointing out the importance of the document and why they would find it worthwhile. Take time to convince the receiver/reader in your writing how it would be of benefit to them if they opened; phrase in such a way as to appear you have done this person a huge favour by sending them that document.



Also let them know, politely, that they are accountable for feedback. Using our link example, the sender of the link would tell you something like- “…look at it and let me know what you think.” Same applies here. Get them aware that you are highly expectant of feedback. That way, you are politely punctuating accountability. If you can attach a deadline, the better; that way, your reader would have more regard for you and your document.



Suggest a part or parts of that document to which the reader should pay more attention. This way, you are taking part of the steam from them and making it easier for them to look at and respond. This also means you value the time of your reader and have no intention of wasting it.

Here are ten ways to produce more vivid, direct, concise prose by replacing wordy phrases with fewer words and reorganizing sentences. It is not advisable to employ these strategies indiscriminately, but prose will usually be improved by following the recommendations below.
1. Use Active Voice

When a sentence includes be or any other copulative verb, such as is or are, recast the sentence to omit the verb.
Before: “The meeting was seen by us as a ploy to delay the project.”
After: “We saw the meeting as a ploy to delay the project.”
2. Avoid Vague Nouns

Phrases formed around general nouns such as aspect, degree, and situation clutter sentences.
Before: “She is an expert in the area of international relations.”
After: “She is an expert in international relations.”
3. Use Words, Not Their Definitions

Replace explanatory phrases with a single word that encapsulates that explanation.
Before: “The crops also needed to be marketable so that families would be able to sell any yields that exceeded what they personally required.”
After: “The crops also needed to be marketable so that families would be able to sell any surplus.”
4. Avoid Noun Strings

Reorganize sentences to eliminate series of nouns used as adjectives.
Before: “The lack of a secure transfer may hamper computer security incident response efforts.”
After: “The lack of a secure transfer may hamper responses to computer-security incidents.”
5. Convert Nouns to Verbs

When a sentence includes a noun ending in -tion, change the noun to a verb to simplify the sentence.
Before: “They will collaborate in the creation of new guidelines.”
After: “They will collaborate to create new guidelines.”
6. Reduce Verb Phrases to Simple Verbs

Identify the verb buried in a verb phrase and omit the rest of the phrase.
Before: “The results are suggestive of the fact that tampering has occurred.”
After: “The results suggest that tampering has occurred.”
7. Replace Complex Words with Simple Ones

Choose simpler synonyms for multisyllabic words.
Before: “The department will disseminate the forms soon.”
After: “The department will pass out the forms soon.”
8. Avoid Expletives

Don’t start sentences with “There is,” “There are,” or “It is.”
Before: “There are many factors in the product’s failure.”
After: “Many factors contributed to the product’s failure.”
9. Eliminate Prepositional Phrases

Replace “(noun1) of the (noun2)” phrasing with “(noun2)’s (noun1)” phrasing.
Before: “The decision of the committee is final.”
After: “The committee’s decision is final.”
10. Reduce Wordy Phrases to Single Words

Replace phrases that signal a transition with simple conjunctions, verbs, or other linking words.
Before: Due to the fact that the project is behind schedule, today’s meeting has been postponed.
After: Because the project is behind schedule, today’s meeting has been postponed.



Credit: Daily Writing Tips

Despite students’ wildest hope of avoiding the dreaded essay exam—one that requires either short or long essay answers rather than multiple choice answers—most find themselves taking such an exam, particularly for subjects like history, philosophy, literature, sociology, political science and others. This type of exam, however, can be successfully managed if you follow a few guidelines outlined here:

1. After the initial panic passes, read through all the questions before you begin to answer any of them, underlining key words and phrases that will help guide you in your answer. In many cases, instructors will incorporate key words and phrases from their lectures in the exam question, so make sure that you focus on these elements in your answer.

2. Based on your comfort level (or lack thereof) with particular questions, after you have reviewed all questions, decide approximately how much time you have for questions that are relatively easy for you to answer and, conversely, which questions will require more time to answer correctly and thoroughly. This is a very important step because it will help you organize your time and effort.

3. Think of each essay answer as a mini-essay in itself, and approach each answer with a shortened version of the process that you’ve been taught to use when writing full essays. If you are used to brainstorming or clustering when preparing to write an essay, go through the same, but greatly shortened, process for an essay answer. The time spent in some form of outlining will save time and effort as you answer the questions.

4. Given the time constraints of most essay exams, you can’t afford to write and re-write answers. From an instructor’s perspective, if a student’s answer contains a great deal of cross outs and perhaps whole paragraph deletions, the instructor will probably conclude that the student is not well prepared. It is critical, therefore, to outline the answer before you begin writing and to follow the outline as you write. Marginal notes of an outline or brainstorming process will probably impress the instructor.

5. The “rhetorical mode” for an answer may be determined by your instructor. For example, you may be asked to analyze, define, compare/contrast, evaluate, illustrate, or synthesize the subject of the question, and you need to focus on answering the question with an analysis, a definition and so on in order to respond to the question appropriately.

6. Just as you do when you draft an essay, try to begin the answer with one or two sentences that answer the question directly and succinctly. In other words, think of the first two sentences as a thesis statement of an essay, and after you’ve stated the answer’s “thesis,” support that thesis with specific examples in the body of the answer.

7. Lastly, one of the most important steps you can take is to proofread your answers and make any necessary corrections neatly and legibly.

Credit: Daily Writing Tips

Brief is a statement of fact aimed at achieving an objective- passing information, either for business purposes (written by an advertiser or sponsor), legal proceeding, a meeting, security purposes, etc. Such information is incontrovertible by anyone who comes across it. Brief’s role is just making available the needed facts and figures and nothing more. And the onus lies on those to whom the brief is written to act, as expected of them.

When writing a brief take note of the following:

Remember, your goal is to persuade, not to argue:



Briefing does not call for an argument other than an act of TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE BRIEF WRITING

persuasion. And persuasion is enabled by letting the recipient know the usages (in case of products or services), benefits or goals (in taking an action), procedure to follow (in performing a task),strategies, etc,which should be enough to lead the actors through the whole process of execution.



Know your audience:



This is key in any form of writing and must be the deciding factor at the beginning of the exercise. Writing a brief takes full consideration about how the audience behaves or would act. In case of adverts, the users of products or customers have certain behavioural pattern (taste, reaction to change in prices, demand for close substitutes or complementary goods, etc, which must be understood and provided for in the brief for onward action.



Knowthe facts.



Of course, if facts are not inclusive then it is mere propaganda. The objectivity of briefs does not give room for sentiments because whatever is provided in the brief are verifiable. It is the fact that sells and nothing more. So, why present what would later be a trash at the end of the day? Helping those working with the brief with facts does not only make them do a good job, it also gives a true representation of its subject and source.



Brevity is Brief:



There is no need belabouring the contents with much information than is necessary. Same way it is out of place to burden the recipients of one’s brief with verbose document, as this could put them off. Concise but precise data is enough to do the job.



Quality: Doing a good brief is in the way it is written and presented. Depending on the kind of brief one is writing, it is traditional that the piece be written based on generally acceptable standards as regards the organization and content (which must be accurate, coherent, well expressed etc).



Stating the objective or goal: Another major factor is objective which is in fact why the brief is documented at the beginning. This gives the direction of course: either to make sales, to persuade, to inform, among other things.



Don’t cast aspersion: Like it is said, brief is a statement of facts and figures and anything that detracts from such is not a brief. Whether one is referring to a competitor or political opponents, it is unacceptable to smear, attack personality or use other anti-people tendencies to pass one’s information. Caution should be ensured that one is not derailed from the essence of the brief.



Don’t allow repetition:

Repetition of claims, especially same things for a number of time for an instance, could mean the author of the brief does not have much to say but using the instrument of recall (which is in a way good, but could prove a disadvantage if abused) to buy time and make the brief longer than normal. Whatever need to be said should be done with a sense of exaction or precision.

You found an exciting new job posting and are getting ready to submit your resume, but what about a cover letter? Is it always necessary to spend time writing a cover letter, or are there times you can get away without one? We checked in with a panel of career experts to find out.

Pro: A Cover Letter Can Set You Apart

“Skip the cover letter, and you miss out on an opportunity to sell yourself,” says Evelyn Salvador, author of Step-by-Step Cover Letters: Build a Cover Letter in 10 Easy Steps Using Personal Branding and principal of Creative Image Builders, a resume-development and career-coaching firm in Coram, New York.

Sending a cover letter along with a resume helps job seekers build their brand, the same way an advertising company promotes a product’s brand. “A well-defined brand wins interviews, maximizes salary potential and puts job seekers in the top 2 percent of candidates considered for positions,” Salvador says.

Think of your cover letter as another tool in your job search arsenal, says Betty Corrado, owner of career-coaching and resume-writing firm Career Authenticity in Cos Cob, Connecticut. “The cover letter is a key part of your marketing package,” she says. “Use it as an opportunity to convey your brand and value proposition.”

Pro: Cover Letters Let You Reveal Your Personality and Build Rapport

A resume tends to be fact-based and somewhat formal, but a cover letter can be infused with personality. “Don’t be afraid to inject personal notes about interests or philosophies that may help employers determine if you will fit into their culture,” says Roleta Fowler Vasquez, professional resume writer and owner of Wordbusters in Fillmore, California. To increase the “wow” factor of their cover letters, she encourages applicants to add a few standout accomplishments that don’t appear on the resume.

Laila Atallah, a Seattle career counselor and owner of Career Counseling with a Twist, agrees that a cover letter can be more revealing than a resume. “The best cover letters are infused with energy, personality and details about the applicant’s skills and achievements,” she says. “I get a sense of the person and what they’ve accomplished, and it’s easier for me to picture them in their next job.”

Job seekers often make the mistake of sending a resume without a cover letter, says Ann Baehr, president of Best Resumes of New York in East Islip, New York. “This is a missed opportunity to establish rapport with employers and provide a sense of who they are beyond their work experience,” she says.

Thinking about skipping the cover letter when applying for an internal position? Don’t. Use the cover letter to show how well you understand your employer’s mission and remind management of how much you have already accomplished. Include a cover letter even if a colleague is submitting your resume for you. The letter is a chance to introduce yourself and mention your contact as a reminder that you are a referral. This is what a cover letter should include, should you decide to send one.

Pro: A Cover Letter Lets You Tell a Story

The cover letter can include information that would be out of place on the resume. “Job seekers can include the name of a mutual contact or referral, state how they would benefit the employer if hired and explain tricky situations such as changing careers, relocating, returning to the workforce and so on,” Baehr says.

Atallah encourages job seekers to learn about the requirements of the job opening and use the cover letter to express how and why they are uniquely qualified. “Use your cover letter to tell a story,” she says. “Studies show that stories are memorable and engaging, and cover letters are a perfect vehicle for expressing your successes in a more storylike format.”

When Not to Send a Cover Letter

Given all the reasons to send a cover letter, is it ever a good idea not to? “If the application instructions expressly say not to include a cover letter, or if an online application offers no opportunity, then you can forego the cover letter in these cases,” Atallah says.

Vasquez agrees that you should not send a cover letter when the employer specifically says not to. “This may be a test of your ability to follow directions,” she says.

What if you think the cover letter won’t be read? Corrado says that while some hiring managers say they don’t read cover letters, those who do may dismiss your application if you don’t send one. “Why take this chance when you need every possible advantage in this job market?” she asks.

While writing cover letters is time-consuming, the consensus is that the effort could give you an edge and help you land more interviews.

Credit: Kim Isaacs, Monster Resume Expert

Stand out. Your CV should demonstrate your unique blend of skills and experience. Make sure you include examples of commercial success, problem resolution or management achievements.
Keep it simple. Your choice of font and layout are key to making sure a would-be employer carries on reading your CV. Simple formats work best.
Don‘t be generic. Work out who or which industry sector your CV is destined for and tailor it to highlight the right aspects of your experience for them.
Check and check again. Avoid errors at all costs. This means spelling mistakes, dates which conflict with one another and incorrect email address and phone number.
Update. Firing off an old CV will look unprofessional, so make sure that yours is regularly updated to meet the requirements of any jobs you see advertised.
Use a template. By following a CV template you are not restricting the way in which you can express yourself, but you will find that your CV becomes easier to read and covers all the most important aspects of your work history.

By using these tips, your CV will create the right impression and help yours get to the top of the pile with the result that you are much more likely to be called for an interview.

Credit: Monster

Having a solid and effective resume can greatly improve your chances of landing that dream job. That is beyond discussion. How does one make sure that his resume is top notch and bullet proof, however? There are several websites with tips around the web, but most bring just a handful of them. We wanted to put them all together in a single place, and that is what you will find below: 44 resume writing tips.

1. Know the purpose of your resume

Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!).

2. Back up your qualities and strengths

Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things.

3. Make sure to use the right keywords

Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts.

These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for. You can read more about resume keywords on the article Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.

4. Use effective titles

Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example:

Bad title: Accounting
Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping

5. Proofread it twice

It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, here are 8 tips that you can use.

6. Use bullet points

No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives.

7. Where are you going?

Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.

8. Put the most important information first

This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.

9. Attention to the typography

First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices.

10. Do not include “no kidding” information

There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!”

11. Explain the benefits of your skills

Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.

12. Avoid negativity

Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.

13. Achievements instead of responsibilities

Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements.

14. No pictures

Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.

15. Use numbers

This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on.

16. One resume for each employer

One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point applies to your cover letters.

17. Identify the problems of the employer

A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to solve those problems.

18. Avoid age discrimination

It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.

19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences

If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position.

20. Go with what you got

If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are official or not.

21. Sell your fish

Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you an advantage over the other candidates.

22. Don’t include irrelevant information

Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your chances of landing an interview. Just skip it.

23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate

If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender.

24. No lies, please

Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility for good.

25. Keep the salary in mind

The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for.

26. Analyze job ads

You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented.

27. Get someone else to review your resume

Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make appropriate suggestions.

28. One or two pages

The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary information is there, the shorter your resume, the better.

29. Use action verbs

A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned. Here you can find a complete list of action verbs divided by skill category.

30. Use a good printer

If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain white paper is the preferred one as well.

31. No hobbies

Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.

32. Update your resume regularly

It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer.

33. Mention who you worked with

If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.

34. No scattered information

Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the information you will include will work towards a unified image. Employers like decided people.

35. Make the design flow with white space

Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume.

36. Lists all your positions

If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years) it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles that you had during this time separately. You probably had different responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the employer will like to know it.

37. No jargon or slang

It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.

38. Careful with sample resume templates

There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you?

39. Create an email proof formatting

It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.

40. Remove your older work experiences

If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough.

41. No fancy design details

Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.

42. No pronouns

You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.

43. Don’t forget the basics

The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have more than one).

44. Consider getting professional help

If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth the money.

Source: Daily Writing Tips

34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better Writer
By Daniel Scocco

we asked our readers to share their writing tips. The response was far beyond the initial expectations, and the quality of the tips included was amazing. Thanks for everyone who contributed.

Now, without further delay, the 34 writing tips that will make you a better writer!

1. Daniel
Pay attention to punctuation, especially to the correct use of commas and periods. These two punctuation marks regulate the flow of your thoughts, and they can make your text confusing even if the words are clear.

2. Thomas
Participate in NaNoWriMo, which challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I noticed that my writing has definitely improved over the course of the book — and it’s not even finished yet.

3. Bill Harper
Try not to edit while you’re creating your first draft. Creating and editing are two separate processes using different sides of the brain, and if you try doing both at once you’ll lose. Make a deal with your internal editor that it will get the chance to rip your piece to shreds; it will just need to wait some time.

A really nice trick is to switch off your monitor when you’re typing. You can’t edit what you can’t see.

4. Jacinta
In a sentence: write daily for 30 minutes minimum! It’s easy to notice the difference in a short time. Suddenly, ideas come to you and you think of other things to write. You experiment with styles and voices and words and the language becomes more familiar…

5. Ane Mulligan
Learn the rules of good writing… then learn when and how to break them.

6. Pete Bollini
I sometimes write out 8 to 10 pages from the book of my favorite writer… in longhand. This helps me to get started and swing into the style I wish to write in.

7. Nilima Bhadbhade
Be a good reader first.

8. Douglas Davis
While spell-checking programs serve as a good tool, they should not be relied
upon to detect all mistakes. Regardless of the length of the article, always read and review what you have written.

9. Kukusha
Learn to take criticism and seek it out at every opportunity. Don’t get upset even if you think the criticism is harsh, don’t be offended even if you think it’s wrong, and always thank those who take the time to offer it.

10. John England
Right click on a word to use the thesaurus. Do it again on the new word and make the best use of your vocabulary.

11. Lillie Ammann
After editing the work on screen or in print, I like to read the text aloud. Awkward sentences and errors that slipped through earlier edits show up readily when reading out loud.

12. H Devaraja Rao
Avoid wordiness. Professor Strunk put it well: “a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

13. David
Write as if you’re on deadline and have 500 words to make your point. Then do it again. And again.

14. Yvette
Sometimes I type in a large font to have the words and sentences bold before me.

Sometimes, in the middle of a document I will start a new topic on a fresh sheet to have that clean feeling. Then, I’ll cut and insert it into the larger document.

I wait until my paper is done before I examine my word usage and vocabulary choices. (And reading this column it has reminded me that no two words are ever exactly alike.) So at the end, I take time to examine my choice of words. I have a lot of fun selecting the exact words to pinpoint my thoughts or points.

15. Amit Goyal
To be a good writer is to start writing everyday. As Mark Twain said, “the secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Try using new words. i.e avoid repeating words. this way we learn the usage of different words.
Do edit your previous articles.

Start with small paragraphs like writing an article for a Newspaper, and proceed from there.

16. John Dodds
Remove as many adjectives as possible. Read Jack Finney’s tale, Cousin Len’s Wonderful Adjective Cellar for a fantastical tale about how a hack becomes a successful author with the help of a magical salt cellar that removes adjectives from his work.

17. John Ireland
I set my writing aside and edit a day or two later with the aim of making it terse. It has trained me to be more conscious of brevity when writing for immediate distribution.

18. Jai
Try to write in simple way. Express your views with most appropriate words.

19. Mark
Read great writers for inspiration. If you read them enough, their excellent writing style will rub off onto your dazzling blog.

YOU ARE what you read (and write!).

20. Caroline
I watch my action tense and wordiness in sentences when I am writing my technical diddley.

For example, in a sentence where you say …”you will have to…” I replace it with “…you must…”, or “Click on the Go button to…” can be replaced with “Click Go to…”.

Think of words such as “enables”, instead of “allows you to” or “helps you to”.

If one word will work where three are, replace it! I always find these, where I slip into conversational as I am writing quickly, then go back and purge, purge, purge.

21. Akhil Tandulwadikar
Don’t shy away from adopting the good habits that other writers use.

Do not worry about the length of the article as long as it conveys the point. Of course, the fewer words you use, the better.

Start the article with a short sentence, not more than 8 words.

22. Julie Martinenza
Instead of adding tags (he said/she said) to every bit of dialogue, learn to identify the speaker by showing him/her in action. Example: “Pass that sweet-smelling turkey this way.” With knife in one hand and fork in the other, Sam looked eager to pounce.

23. Aaron Stroud
Write often and to completion by following a realistic writing schedule.

24. Joanna Young
One that works for me every time is to focus on the positive intention behind my writing. What is it that I want to communicate, express, convey? By focusing on that, by getting into the state that I’m trying to express, I find that I stop worrying about the words – just let them tumble out of their own accord.

It’s a great strategy for beating writer’s block, or overcoming anxiety about a particular piece of writing, whether that’s composing a formal business letter, writing a piece from the heart, or guest blogging somewhere ‘big’…

25. Shelley Rodrigo
Use others writer’s sentences and paragraphs as models and then emulate the syntactic structure with your own content. I’ve learned more about grammar and punctuation that way.

26. Sylvia
Avoid long sentences.

27. Mike Feeney
Learn the difference between me, myself and I. For example: “Contact Bob or myself if you have any questions.” I hear this very often!

28. Richard Scott
When doing a long project, a novel, for instance, shut off your internal editor and just write.

Think of your first draft as a complex outline waiting to be expanded upon, and let the words flow.

29. David
Careful with unnecessary expressions. “At this point in time” came along during the Nixon congressional hearings. Too bad it didn’t go out with him. What about “on a daily basis?”

30. E. I. Sanchez
For large documents, I use Word’s Speech feature to have the computer read the article back. This allows me to catch errors I have missed – especially missing words or words that ’sort of sound the same’ but are spelled differently (e.g. Front me instead of ‘From me’).

31. Cat
Either read the book “Writing Tools 50 Strategies for Every Writer”, by Roy Peter Clark, or read the Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List on his blog. Then join a writing group, or hire a writing coach.

32. Suemagoo
Write the first draft spontaneously. Switch off your internal editor until it is time to review your first draft.

33. Lydia
If you’re writing fiction, it’s a great idea to have a plot. It will coordinate your thoughts and add consistency to the text.

34. Pedro
Edit your older articles and pieces. You will notice that great part of it will be crap, and it will allow you to refine your style and avoid mistakes that you used to make.

Ever been frustrated that you have been submitting your CV to live roles but don’t seem to be getting the call back and interview invites you would like? Perhaps your CV isn’t quite grabbing people’s attention. Here are my 3 top tips to get more calls back after you have submitted your CV.

In my last blog I spoke about identifying the types of roles that you want to start looking for in order to make your next sales career move. In this blog I want to give you a few tips on how to write a sales CV that gets you interviews.

I see lots of CV’s every day and there are a few things that any employer or recruiter is looking for when they are scanning CV’s.

Tip 1 – Current / Past Employer details – The companies you have worked for may be well known in the sector they are in but its highly likely that the person reading your CV doesn’t, so, make sure that you put one or two sentences into your CV on what it is that the company actually does. It’s quite simple to do, go onto LinkedIn and look at the companies page, it will describe what they do, cut and paste in the most relevant parts, that way when an employer is looking they can see straight away if the company background is relevant and invite you to interview. If they can’t see what the company does, its likely your CV goes to the “Not Sure” pile and trust me, that pile very rarely gets a second look.

Tip 2 – Responsibilities, targets and achievements. Really important this one, less is better regarding responsibilities, 3 – 5 bullet points of the key outcomes your role had to achieve, making sure the first bullet point states the primary purpose of the role. Then below the bullet points put the revenue and KPI targets you were set and then how you went to these targets year on year. I guarantee if you have these you will get invites to interviews. By the way, very few people hit their target without fail consistently every month or every quarter so if you have some poor months or a bad quarter, don’t hide it, be honest. If there were extenuating circumstances for not achieving put them in (be careful not to use blame or excuses however!)

Tip 3 – Reasons for moving – If you have a few short stints or long stints then a short move, be sure to put in a RFL (reason for leaving) this is helpful in explaining moves and also to set some context around why you may have had some short stints. Once again, if there are no reasons then your CV will go into the “Not Sure” pile and like I said earlier, very rarely does this pile get a second view.

So there you have it, some tips to improve the look and content of your CV and also to help improve your conversion rates from application to interview invite.

Credit: Charles Noyce LinkedIn Post

Publishing fiction is brutal.

Big legacy publishers. Tiny specialty presses. Indie. It doesn’t matter. It’s all fucking terrifying.

I can post an article. Any old article. THIS article. And it’s no big deal. I hit publish, maybe send it over to Facebook and Twitter. Maybe let my email subscribers know it’s there. (But not always.)

And then I forget about it.

I don’t stress or worry or agonize over what every minute detail of every stat I have access to MEANS. It does well, it bombs, whatever. I’m already on to the next thing anyway.

But a short story? I hit publish and then Blythe, my inner editor, does this:She’s like . . . Shaunta! What in the hell did you just do? That wasn’t ready. Now everyone ON EARTH (Yes, all 7 billion of everyone. Blythe is not my rational brain.) is going to know that you’re a total fraud who is practically illiterate and definitely not a writer in any common and acceptable sense of the word.

The short story that I published two weeks ago was the first fiction that I’d put out into the world since a tiny e-only press published Broken Nation, which is a prequel to my novels Viral Nation and Rebel Nation.

I didn’t make a conscious decision not to publish. It just happened. And then it kept happening for more than two years. As evidenced by the zero fiction that I published.

I was still writing. I’ve written three novels and a dozen short stories in that time. They’re nice and cozy on my hard drive, wrapped in a thick layer of my fear of publishing them.

A fiction writer’s brain is a crafty trickster. It’ll convince itself that writing a whole shit ton of blog posts and MFA packets is the same thing as writing. It’ll rationalize that finishing novels is the end game and totally blow off publishing like it’s no big thing.

Your writer brain will do everything it can to protect you from the hard, hard work of creating a story and then putting your baby on a street corner and hoping everyone thinks she’s pretty.

Of course your brain is trying to protect you (and itself) from that. That, friends, is crazy town.

And then one day you look up and realize that you have three novels on your hard drive, and you haven’t even sent them to your critique partner. Because one day in 2014 you walked into Barnes and Nobel and realized that they didn’t pick up your second book.

And your career was over.

And you stood there all dressed up nice with your kids and your husband and you cried. Right there in the YA science fiction section.

And by you, I mean me.

Writing is tough, but publishing is an absolute asshole.

So, you get to feel extra brave and extra proud of yourself when you have the stones to do it.

Me, too.

Here’s how to find the nerve to publish. It’s a two step process.
Acknowledge your fear.

I didn’t even realize that I was scared of publishing. It hadn’t reached into my conscious thought. It wasn’t until I had my first short story all queued up and ready to go that I realized I was terrified.

If you have a backlog of stories that you’re hording on your hard drive, ask yourself if the reason you aren’t sending them out is fear. If the answer is yes, just let it soak in. Fear dissipates when you look at it.
Do it anyway.

Sorry. There’s no easy way out of this.

Either acknowledge that you’re afraid and you’re not going to put your stories out there. Or hit publish, in whatever form that’s taking for you.

Credit: The Cofeelicious

t’s hard to get anything done if it needs to be perfect, because if you’re constantly criticizing the work there is always more work to be done. But the real problem comes in when you don’t even want to do the work because making it perfect seems too daunting. This is how perfectionism can lead to procrastination, and here’s what you can do about it.

Dr. Bill Knaus, writing for Psychology Today, suggests that we’d just tell ourselves to “STOP IT!” every time this behavior arose—if we lived in a perfect world. Knaus suggests that the real problem is rooted in contingent-based thinking, meaning a true perfectionist thinks their self-worth is contingent upon achieving perfection in a given situation. For example, “if I want to be smart, I need to do read the entire newspaper every day.” Reading an entire newspaper is not necessarily a realistic goal for most people, but perfectionism doesn’t allow for partial completion. The end result is black and white: you either succeed at your task or fail. When you fail, the task doesn’t go away. Yesterday’s newspaper is still something that needs to be read. It piles up, the work gets too hard to handle, and procrastination is really the only option.

This is a somewhat extreme example, but fixing the problem is rooted in fixing contingent-based thinking. Often times, perfectionism isn’t very logical and so you can’t fix the problem by saying “it’s unrealistic to read the entire paper every day.” Instead, Knaus suggests that perfectionists need to look at their own core beliefs. Often times—like most anybody—they contradict themselves. In this example, you might ask “is someone who only reads the entire newspaper every day a smart person, or does it take more than that to be intelligent?” If you believe that it takes more than just reading the daily paper to be smart, then that contradicting belief inserts a flaw into the other belief. When flaws come in, the process isn’t perfect anymore and it’s hard to be a perfectionist when you’re pursuing a flawed goal.
The takeaway is this: if you’ve got a black and white view of how to make something perfect, and it’s keeping you from accomplishing your goals, think about your other beliefs and how they contradict your monotone view. If you can see flaws in your attempts for perfection, it’ll be easier to let go and settle for the best you can do.

Credit: Life Hacker

Fingers and fingering sound so alike but are actually different in meaning. Finger is indeed a rich bank of varying expressions.

The different fingers include: thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger.

History shows that the earliest use of the word finger dates back to 1450 with the meaning “to point” while the reference ‘to touch with the fingers’ dates back from 1590.

Due to the nature of the finger being long and thin, the word is used for almost anything long and thin.

Below are some idioms that have the word ‘finger’ in them;

To lay a finger on someone (to harm)

I met the baby crying even though I couldn’t tell who laid a finger on him.
To finger (to incriminate)

After the touts were accosted at the motor park by policemen, they fingered their accomplices without further delay.

To lift a finger (to make an effort to help)

Belinda hardly lifts a finger except when asked in as much as she litters the place with her papers.

To raise a finger against (to offer violence against)

Mother Theresa never raised a finger against any of the children she adopted.
To cross one’s fingers (to trust to luck)

As for Ken, his known way is to cross his fingers while putting his best to his work
To burn one’s fingers (to suffer financial losses)

The Arabian billionaire Mohammed Abdul severely burned his fingers in the crude oil exportation of 1990 that it took him almost ten years to regain his financial standing.
To point an accusing finger (to point with the forefinger as a gesture of blame)

Esther Braithwaite pointed an accusing finger at her friend for betraying her by disclosing her secret to her colleagues.
To make a slip of the finger (to make an unintentional movement of the finger)

In today’s world of digital communication, just one slip of the finger could end up allotting to a different person what was originally meant for someone else.
To put one’s finger on a problem (to identify the crux of a matter)

Naomi Williams put his finger on the problem when he said “it is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment”.
A finger of Scotch or other liquid (a unit of measurement approximately the width of an adult finger)

Sydney headed straight to the sideboard immediately after the meeting, pouring two healthy fingers of scotch into two glasses.
A wag of the finger (a gesture or statement of reprimand)

Literally, the “finger wag” is an act of reprimanding or warning someone by moving the forefinger from side to side.
Nigeria’s Super Eagle’s captain Sunday Oliseh is noted for wagging his finger as a warning to opponents that they could not score against his team.

Credit: DWT

Your CV is an opportunity to showcase your skills, talents and expertise to a potential employer, so it’s vital you get it right.

It will usually be the first point of contact a potential employer has with you, and they’ll probably only spend seconds looking at it.

To stand a chance of scoring an interview, you need to reel them in and make them want to see more. You need to highlight the most important information in a clear and succinct way.

Whilst the rules of CV writing aren’t set in stone, there are certain things every CV should include.
Personal details

It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to include a full range of contact options.

Include your address, telephone number and email address, and make sure they’re all current. Put them at the top, right under your name, so they’re immediately obvious.

The hilarious email address you’ve had since you were a teenager won’t seem so amusing to potential employers – make sure your email address is appropriately professional.

If you have a website or blog that will add value, you can include its URL too.

It’s not necessary to include your date of birth, gender or nationality – employers are required by law to ignore this information anyway.
Career narrative

Your career history will be the part of your CV potential employers are most interested in, so make it a good read.

This section of your CV should tell a story about you. Be descriptive and showcase relevant skills, experience and achievements in your professional history to accentuate the value you could bring to your potential employer.

You don’t need to list every job you’ve ever done. Keep it relevant to the job you’re applying for, and explain any gaps in your employment.

If you’re just starting out in your career, include details of any volunteering or work experience you’ve done and emphasise any relevant skills you developed.
Keywords from the job description

Study the job description carefully and research the company’s mission statement and values. Pick out some keywords and phrases to incorporate into your CV.

If you have a career objective or personal statement on your CV, this could be a good place to include some carefully placed keywords. Alternatively, work them into your career history to demonstrate the relevance of your experience.

Including keywords will show that you’re the right person for the job as well as that you’ve paid attention to what the employer is looking for.

This is especially important for online applications, which are often screened for keywords by computer software before anyone sees them.
Achievements, awards and training

Potential employers want evidence of what you’ve done to contribute to the growth of your team, department or organisation so they can gauge whether you’ll be an asset to them.

Use this section to highlight any relevant professional achievements, awards you’ve received and industry training you’ve participated in.

This can help your application stand out, and may make for a good conversation starter if you’re successful in getting an interview.

Keep things recent and relevant to the job you’re applying for – a potential employer is unlikely to be impressed that you were East Grinstead’s under-13 falconry champion in 1984.
Education and qualifications

It’s vital to include details of your education and academic qualifications, especially if they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for.

The information you provide here will vary depending on what stage you’re at in your career and what level of education you reached.

If you have a degree and years of work experience, you probably don’t need to include your GCSE results.

However, if you’re a recent graduate with a strong academic record, including some exam results may help you to stand out from your competitors.

Credit: Purple CV

http://purplecv.co.uk/blog/72-five-things-you-absolutely-must-include-on-your-cv.html

Ready for some school idioms? Let’s get to it and make this schoolhouse rock! Here is a list of ten popular education idioms and examples of how to use them:



A for effort! – recognizing that someone tried hard to accomplish something, although they might not have been successful.



Example: “The cake didn’t turn out like she had planned, but I give her an A for effort!”



Copycat- someone who copies the work (or mimics the actions) of others



Example: “Janie is a copycat- she was looking at my answers while we were taking the test!”



Learn (something) by heart- to memorize something completely



Example: “I have played that song so many times that I have learned it by heart and don’t even have to look at the music.”



Pass with flying colors- to pass (a test) easily and with a high score



Example: “Todd must have studied a long time because he passed the test with flying colors.”



Play hooky- to skip school



Example: “My friends are playing hooky today so they can be first in line for concert tickets this afternoon.”



Drop out of school- to stop attending school



Example: “Maurice had to drop out of school when his mother became ill so that he could help take care of her.”



Put your thinking cap on- to think in a serious manner



Example: “We’re all going to have to put our thinking caps on to tackle this big problem.”



Show of hands- raising hands to vote about something



Example: “By a show of hands, how many of you would prefer to have the test on Friday?”



Teacher’s pet- the teacher’s favorite student



Example: “Jonathan is the teacher’s pet- she always calls on him first.”



Bookworm- someone who reads a lot



Example: “She is such a bookworm! She seems to have a new book every day!”



There are plenty more school-related idioms; are there any that you can think of? Share with us!



Jessica Weeg

Because of my love of world building, I’ve always been drawn to the fantasy genre and knew I wanted to try writing a fantasy. But I found out very quickly that crafting a breathing, living world isn’t as easy as reading about one. Suddenly, I needed to know how long it would take to get from one city to the next on horseback. And how long could a horse travel at top speed in a day anyway? When the main character got to that next town, what does the architecture look like? What’s the hierarchy of authority?

It occurred to me then that I wasn’t just building a world where the main character lives, I was building a world where thousands of people exist. If I wanted to make my fantasy feel real, then I was going to have to understand what was going on beyond my main character’s point of view.

With that in mind, here are a few tips I’ve learned to help craft realistic fantasy worlds.
1. Not every world needs to be based off of the European Medieval period.

I love “classic” European-based fantasy, and the fashion of the medieval period fits so well with the epic fantasy feel. But I’ve found that selecting other cultures as a base for your fantasy world can really bring that fresh feeling to your fiction.
2. If you do decide to base your fantasy world off a certain culture, do your research.

This is such an important detail. I know it’s tempting to start writing after plotting and creating characters, but researching about the culture and time period you’ve selected will allow you to pick the most important aspects to add. Research far and wide, even though you’ll only end up keeping about 10% of what you find. If you’ve done your homework, it’ll show in the informed decisions you make while writing and will make your world feel unique.

[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing: How to Build Fantastic Worlds]
3. Say “yes” to yourself.

This is one I had a lot of trouble with in the beginning. It’s hard to trust your gut, but the worst that can happen when you’re writing a fantasy is to get too bogged down in the details. If you find that to be the case, you can edit them out. Better to have many details that you can par down than to have a bare and unimaginative world.
4. Only keep your best ideas.

This one might be in contradiction with the last tip, but it’s really important, too. If you’ve said yes to everything about your world that’s popped into your head, the likelihood of your story being long and reading slow is pretty strong. But now you have so many details to work with. Use the details to craft multiple sentences of the same topic, describing details in different ways. Half of my first drafts are sentences written over and over again describing things differently. It’s easier to shape your favorites after you’ve done the hard work of thinking them up.
5. Give your world a history.

Take the time to go through your world’s backstory, per se. Even if you don’t know who first decided to cultivate the land your bustling main city is on now, make sure there are at least rumors on how the people think their world was created. Nothing is worse than reading about a setting that feels like it just sprang to life because the main character came there. Know the history so you know what shaped your character’s minds—even if you only use a fraction of it.
6. Keep it simple.

Above all, simplicity is always the right choice. If you have to bend over backwards to explain something, it probably doesn’t need to be in your manuscript. If you need to drink an entire mug of coffee to interpret or discuss your world’s over-complicated magic system, you should rethink things. Chances are that the simplest answers are often the strongest, and these details will make your world crystal clear to the reader.

Fantasy novels demand lush worlds. Readers want to discover the world you’ve created as much as they want to meet your new characters. Crafting a world that feels unique isn’t always easy, but if you do it correctly, every place on the page will feel like its own character. And who knows, you might even get readers to say a swear word you created or utter nox when turning out the lights after finishing their new favorite book.

Source: Writer’s Digest