Paragraph Style
by
ResumeEdge.com
- The Net's Premier Resume Writing and Editing Service
Good advertisements are designed in such a way
that the reader's eye is immediately drawn to important pieces of
information using type and graphic elements, including bold, italics,
and headline fonts, and so forth. Then the design must guide the
reader's eye down the page from one piece of information to the
next with the use of white space or graphic designs between short
paragraphs.
In this science of typography, very long lines
of text (longer than six or seven inches, depending on the font)
and large blocks of text (more than seven typeset lines) are considered
to be tiring to the reader's eye. If you look closely at textbooks,
magazines, and newspapers, you will notice that the information
is usually typeset in columns to reduce line lengths, and journalists
intentionally write in short paragraphs because they are more reader
friendly.
How does this science translate into the design
of a resume? As a general rule, you should keep your lines of text
no longer than seven inches--five to six inches is even better--and
your paragraphs shorter than seven lines of text each. Many people
find it difficult to cram the description of a job and its accomplishments
into a single paragraph while following this rule. Therefore, you
will often see bulleted sentences used instead of paragraphs on
resumes.
If you prefer the paragraph style, there are
some tricks of the trade that can help you make your resume more
readable:
1. Divide your experience into related information
and use several shorter paragraphs under each job description
(Sample
1).
2. List the job summary in paragraph form and then use bullets
to highlight your achievements (Sample
1).
3. Use left headings instead of centered headings (Sample
1) or put dates in a left column (Sample
1) to make the line lengths shorter. This won't work, however,
when the shorter line length forces your information into very
long paragraphs. It is better to have longer line lengths and
shorter paragraphs.
Full justification--where all the lines end at
the same place on the right margin--makes paragraph-style resumes
look more formal. Ragged right margins generally give a more informal
appearance. Full justification creates a neater appearance any time
the lines of text run all of the way to the right margin, even in
bulleted resumes. However, you can choose either style and not go
wrong. Again, it is just a matter of your personal preference.
From Designing the Perfect Resume, by Pat Criscito.
Copyright 2000. Reprinted by arrangement with Barron's
Educational Series, Inc.
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