Writing for the Workplace: Business Communication for Professionals
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- Professionalism
- Thank-You Notes
- Direct opening
- Polite close
| Resume Layout and Design A resume must look as well as it reads. A reader should be able to scan the resume easily to locate sections and read specific items. Employ columns, white space, and clear, legible fonts to make reading your resume less of a chore. Avoid resumes that contain long blocks of dense type. Use graphical devices such as bullets (never use more than one style of bullet, boldface, and italics to highlight consistent categories like dates, locations, and names of organizations. Make sure your margins are at least one inch all around, and if your resume goes onto a second EmPLOYmENT COmmUNICATION page, provide a second page header with your first initial and last name and page number. If you want to use color for headings or your name, be conservative. Know that bright colors (fuchsia, magenta, yellow, orange) do not translate well into type. Stick with darker, more conservative colors like green, blue, or maroon. If sending the resume via email, save it as a PDF so your font and color choices are the ones you intend. If printing your resume, use good quality bond paper in ivory, white, or light gray. Professionalism Since your resume is your first contact with a potential employer, it is imperative that you show your professionalism. Make sure to proofread carefully many recruiters and hiring managers say that finding a typo or misspelling on a resume is the single best way to eliminate a candidate. Never lie about an achievement or exaggerate your abilities. Assume a potential employer will check everything you say. (Imagine saying you are fluent in Mandarin when you only know a few words and phrases and having the interviewer begin speaking to you in Mandarin) Exaggerating a claim is not worth the humiliation of being found out. See Appendix B for samples of a chronological and a functional resume. Thank-You Notes Sending a thank-you note after an interview helps set you apart from other candidates. It is an excellent way to get your name in front of a hirer again and to show your professionalism and writing skills. A thank- you can be sent as a physical letter, either handwritten or typed, or in an email. Never send a thank-you in a text message. Send a thank-you to each person with whom you spoke at the interview and be sure to get the correct spelling of the name. Thank-you notes need not belong and should never go over one page. It’s best to send the thank-you within 24 to 48 hours after the interview. 104 WRITING FOR THE WORKPLACE Use the direct organizational strategy as follows Direct opening. Begin with thanking the individual for the opportunity of talking in person. Include a second sentence that mentions an aspect of the interview that stood out to you Details in body. Include specifics about something you saw, learned, or omitted in the interview. For example, if you noticed employees collaborating in an open workspace and you work well in such an atmosphere, say so. You may also take this opportunity to bring up something you forgot to say in the interview Polite close. Mention that you are excited about the possibility of joining the organization and hope to hear you will be part of the team soon. See Appendix B for an example of a thank-you letter. Download 3.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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