Make sure your grammar is at least passable in your Resume

[olds]

//shrug

My office uses an ancient version of IE and there is no built in spell check. When I type out documents in Word, I don't even see a spelling error like "rediculous", it gets repaired as soon as I hit the spacebar.

I love you guys, but I am not going to do any lengthy proofreading before I post. If this results in lulz for some, good.

http://www.iespell.com/

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Throw them out.

Maybe my high school English teacher was a grammar Nazi or something. But, I'm amazed that with all the things mentioned about his post, you guys ignored all the run-on sentences.
"I'm reviewing about 20 resumes." STOP! That's a sentence. "And, the grammar is simply terrible on at least half of them. Subject and verb don't match." Again, stop! That's the end of a sentence. "Tense is all wrong. Adverbs are used as verbs." I could be wrong, but I also believe there should be a comma between "so" and "I'm."

Has your English teacher ever heard of a compound sentence, perchance?

I could be wrong, but I also believe there should be a comma between "so" and "I'm."

I don't think so...it may be a matter for personal preference...

Just to point out, you quoted "and the grammar..." wrong. You added a comma that shouldn't be there.

 

[spidey07]

Throw them out.


Has your English teacher ever heard of a compound sentence, perchance?


I don't think so...it may be a matter for personal preference...

Just to point out, you quoted "and the grammar..." wrong. You added a comma that shouldn't be there.

I think he's one of those "comma sprinklers". You know the type, that just throw them in there, willy-nilly.

 

[Blackjack200]

It was typed as rEdiculous because it's in your head as rEdiculous, that's not something that proofreading will fix because to you that seems right. Don't blame IE for your own stupidity. The greatest lulz are for your lameass excuses. Instead of blaming everything and everyone except yourself, accept that YOU are the problem and learn to spell.

Yuo konw waht? Why don't I contniue to let technloogy worry abuot the spellnig, and I'll focus on the clraity and qulaity of contnet. It wroks prttey well for me.

 

[preslove]

Sure you did.

Now let's discuss the fail of "20 resume's." :biggrin:

This. I would have thrown your resume in the reject pile because of it...

 

[Phoenix86]

This. I would have thrown your resume in the reject pile because of it...

I tried that tactic once, they all went into that pile.

Dug back through them and hired one anyways.
:|

:\

 

[TheTony]

Either cap all words in a title or just proper nouns if you want to be lazy.

That assumes people treat thread titles like story/article/document titles, as opposed to regular grammar, which I'm not so sure is the case. Even if it did, all words are not capitalized in such titles. Capitalize first, last and every other word except for a, an, the and conjunctions and prepositions of four letters or fewer.

 

[BoomerD]

Maybe my high school English teacher was a grammar Nazi or something. But, I'm amazed that with all the things mentioned about his post, you guys ignored all the run-on sentences.
"I'm reviewing about 20 resumes." STOP! That's a sentence. "And, the grammar is simply terrible on at least half of them. Subject and verb don't match." Again, stop! That's the end of a sentence. "Tense is all wrong. Adverbs are used as verbs." I could be wrong, but I also believe there should be a comma between "so" and "I'm."

If Spidey is finding problems with the "resume's," imagine how much worse the probably actually are.

And, I agreed on the sit and have a beer with Spidey comment. As long as the discussion doesn't turn to broadband access for rural areas.

My "Grammar Nazi" English teacher always emphasized the improper use of "and" or any other "coordinating conjunction" to begin sentences...


http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/conjunctions.htm#beginning



"A sentence beginning with and or but will tend to draw attention to itself and its transitional function. Writers should examine such sentences with two questions in mind: (1) would the sentence and paragraph function just as well without the initial conjunction? (2) should the sentence in question be connected to the previous sentence? If the initial conjunction still seems appropriate, use it."

The use of "and or but" has become more acceptable in recent years...IF the conditions of the sentence permit it, but it's still best to avoid it when possible.


For the kiddies out there...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkO87mkgcNo

 

[AstroManLuca]

so what's with all these post's on the internet's complaining about people's grammer's?

 

[BoomerD]

so what's with all these post's on the internet's complaining about people's grammer's?

Dood...you're grammers va-jay-jay smell's bad and she cant cook.

 

[Ika]

Dood...you're grammers va-jay-jay smell's bad and she cant cook.

That's nasty.

 

[nerp]

This is giving me a headache. I'm reviewing about 20 resume's and the grammar is simply terrible on at least half of them. Subject and verb don't match, tense is all wrong, adverbs used as verbs, etc. Every 3rd sentence or so I'm having a "Did you really think that sounded right?" moment.

Has it really gotten this bad at written communication for young'uns?

Ahem.

 

[child of wonder]

A friend of mine was applying for jobs and couldn't understand why he never got any callbacks. I offered to spruce up his resume for him.

I then realized no one was calling him back because where he meant to say "maintaining servers" it read "marinating servers."

 

[spidey07]

Ahem.

An internet post is a far different audience than somebody who want's to pay you a lot of money.

 

[theflyingpig]

Are these people qualified? If they are stop concerning yourself with pointless garbage like grammar. Fucking grammar nazis are just a step above fat people in terms of stupidity and uselessness. Everyone knows this.

 

[Mark R]

Are these people qualified? If they are stop concerning yourself with pointless garbage like grammar. Fucking grammar nazis are just a step above fat people in terms of stupidity and uselessness. Everyone knows this.

It's true. Grammar pedants are annoying, and don't generally help matters much.

However, what does it say about an applicant, who may be looking for a life-changing job, if they expend so little effort into the application process that they may as well be a 3rd grader?

Further, if the job requires communication, if a prospective employee is unable to communicate their skills to you in a easily understandable fashion then how good would they actually be at their job?

I had an old physics teacher, who in tests and class work would deduct points for each spelling and grammar error; you could still end up with a C, even if you got all the questions correct. His justification was not too unreasonable: if you want to work in a scientific discipline, you have to be able to communicate complex technical information which may contain many subtleties, and correctness of language is essential to ensure that the desired meaning is communicated. This type of teaching is frowned on these days, and I can understand the motivation for the change, even though I, myself, may not agree entirely.

Of course, things can go a bit far. A senior colleague insisted on changing some documents I prepared, because I had written "These images have been compared to the set obtained last week." What was his gripe with that? It was the use of the word "to"; if you compare A to B, you imply that A and B are fundamentally different, but that they are alike in some small way (e.g. Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?). However, if you want to imply that A and B are fundamentally similar, but you are looking for differences, then you compare A with B.

 

[nerp]

An internet post is a far different audience than somebody who want's to pay you a lot of money.

Look, I'm an editor and I have a staff of about 12 writers. I don't give a shit about writing well on a message board. But c'mon. Those were glaring mistakes -- for someone ranting about poor grammar, no less.

 

[spidey07]

Look, I'm an editor and I have a staff of about 12 writers. I don't give a shit about writing well on a message board. But c'mon. Those were glaring mistakes -- for someone ranting about poor grammar, no less.

Comma sprinkler! I'm trying to determine if your post was a test to point out all the glaring errors.

 

[Regs]

Oh fawk, you guys are making me stupider.

 

[dfuze]

Wait till you do interviews and every other word is like and you know.
Text messaging has made illiteracy worse rather than better. I have seen applications with things like "C" instead of see and "4" written instead of "for"

I am glad that there seem to be a lot of people like that, it'll make me look better if/when I interview after I get my degree.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

This thread suck's.

 

[shopbruin]

It's true. Grammar pedants are annoying, and don't generally help matters much.

However, what does it say about an applicant, who may be looking for a life-changing job, if they expend so little effort into the application process that they may as well be a 3rd grader?

Further, if the job requires communication, if a prospective employee is unable to communicate their skills to you in a easily understandable fashion then how good would they actually be at their job?

I was having this discussion on my facebook status today (of all places.) I've been reviewing resumes, and I'm amazed at the lack of effort put forth in some of them. This is the first impression you're making? Spelling errors, grammar errors, run-on sentences in the cover letter...

I even had a cover letter that was basically a mini resume. Come on people!