1. Writing Resumes and Business Letters
Created by Hunter Brown
Summer 2013
Writing Resumes and Business Letters

2. Resumes
“A resume is a structured summary of a person’s education, employment background, and job qualifications. Before you begin writing a resume, make sure you understand its true function—as a brief persuasive business message intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in meeting you and learning more about you. In other words, the purpose of a resume is not to get you a job but rather to get you an interview.”

3. Created by Hunter Brown Summer 2013
This is a sample combination resume.
Created by Hunter Brown
Summer 2013

4. Name and Contact Information
Resumes should begin with the following contact information:
Name
Physical address
Phone number(s)
address
URL of webpage (if you have one)

5. Introductory Statement
The introductory statement can be structured in a number of ways:
A career objective statement identifies either a specific job you want to land or a general career track you want to pursue. Avoid using unless you have no qualifications for, or employment background in, the career you are attempting to enter.
A career summary offers a brief recap of your career. Use if you have a long work history.
A qualifications summary offers a brief overview of your key qualifications. Use if you have a reasonably focused skill set but don’t yet have a long career history. John Smith has chosen to use a qualifications summary.

6. Education Section
The education section is your strongest selling point if you are still in or freshly out of college.
Starting with the most recent, list
the name and location of each school you have attended,
the month and year of your graduation (or “anticipated graduation in ___”),
major and minor fields of study,
significant skills and abilities developed, and
degrees or certifications gained.

7. Employment Section
In the employment section, starting with the most recent, list
the name of each company or establishment in which you’ve worked,
your position in the company,
the name and location of the employer, and
a brief description of the organization’s purpose (optional).

8. Employment Section
Include all full- and part-time jobs and internships that are relevant to the position for which you’re applying.
Also list military service, which is applicable to all jobs, and any bilingual or multilingual skills and experiences you have gained.

9. Employment Section
Devote the most space to jobs that are directly related to your target position.
John Smith is applying for an English teaching job, so he spends more time discussing his position as a Grammar Tutor than as a Piano Tutor.

10. Employment Section
Notice that this applicant avoids using I and, instead, begins his bullet points with strong verbs.

11. Staying Polite and Emphasizing the Positive
Business Letters
Staying Polite and Emphasizing the Positive
Try to maintain a courteous tone.
Look for positive ways to relay negative news.
When appropriate, use euphemisms—words or phrases that express a thought in milder terms:
senior citizens for old people
restructuring for laying off

12. Staying Polite and Emphasizing the Positive
Change this:
To this:
You have once again failed to follow protocol.
Let’s review company protocol and ensure that we are remaining compliant.
After calling your firm multiple times without receiving the necessary information, we’re beginning to get frustrated.
The successful completion of this project depends on information only your firm can provide—please send it to us at your earliest convenience.
We won’t be able to fill your order until next week.
Your order should be filled by the end of next week. In the meantime, help yourself to our free online samples.

13. Style and Tone
Style is made up of your word choices, sentence structures, and paragraph organization.
These stylistic choices create a certain tone. When writing business letters, you want to use a tone that is more professional than conversational, but without sounding stuffy.
Too Stuffy
Professional
Too Casual
It has come to my attention that your efforts to stimulate company growth have met with considerably less success than initially anticipated.
I just learned that your plan for improving workflow is falling short of expectations.
So I found out that your big plan is basically failing. Ya’ll have really let the ball drop.

14. Improving Readability
Be generous with “white space,” a term referring to blank areas, such as margins, indents, and horizontal spaces between paragraphs. These white spaces make documents easier on the eyes.
Your letter should be centered vertically (but not horizontally) on the page. If you need to add extra white space to center the letter, adjust the number of lines between the date and the inside address only.   
Centered Vertically
Vertically Unbalanced
1 blank line
July 11, 2013
Ms. Gambling
5050 Chance Blvd.
Wetumpka, OK
3 blank lines

15. This is a sample business letter with letterhead.
Date
Inside address
Salutation
Body
Complimentary close
Signature block

16. This is the same business letter without letterhead.
Heading
Date
Inside address
Salutation
Body
Complimentary close
Signature block

17. Standard Letter Parts Heading
When letterhead stationary is unavailable, the heading should include a return address (without a name) and should start 13 lines from the top of the page, leaving a 2-inch top margin.
2. Date
Place the date at least one blank line beneath the lowest part of the letterhead. If letterhead is unavailable, place the date directly below the return address.
Standard date format includes the full name of the month, followed by the day, a comma, and then the year: August 31, 2012.   

18. Standard Letter Parts 3. Inside Address
3. Inside Address
The inside address identifies the recipient of the letter.
Precede the recipient’s name with a courtesy title such as Mr., Ms., or Dr.
For businesswomen, the generally accepted business title is Ms.
There are many personal, professional, and governmental titles, so do the necessary research to ensure that you use the correct one.   
4. Salutation
If the first line of the inside address is a person’s name, the salutation should be Dear Mr. or Ms. Name, followed by a colon.

19. Standard Letter Parts 5. Body
Single-space the body of your letter, and insert one blank line after the salutation, between paragraphs, and before the complimentary close.
6. Complimentary close
Try to stick to one-word closings such as Sincerely or Cordially.
7. Signature Block
To leave space for a written signature,
insert three blank lines below the complimentary
close, and then include the sender’s name.

20. References
Bovee, Courtland L., and John V. Thill. Business Communication Today. 11th ed. Boston: Pearson, Print.