Editor Afloat

Dedicated to Sticklers everywhere!

Tag Archives: Résumé


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One Word? Compound Word? Hyphen? ACK!

Choosing the correct word for the situation can sometimes be confusing. Hint: your dictionary makes a great source of reference here. 🙂

Let’s take a couple of farmers for example. Farmer John is out standing in his field. Sadly, the weather is extreme and he is about to keel over from exposure to the elements. Farmer Mary, on the other hand, is outstanding in her field. She is very proud of the fact that her favorite pig just won the title of Grand Champion at the local fair. Ah, the power of a keystroke.

One of the cool tools a WordPress blogger can access is the ability to take reader polls. One might wish to query a cross section of readers if you are receiving lots of unhappy mail. Responses from a cross-section of readers, however, just might be helpful on an important topic.

How do you know when to use two ordinary words, when to turn them into a compound word or hyphenate? The easiest method is to read the sentence and think about the meaning of it each way. If it is awkward as two words or paints a completely different picture, then maybe you need to put the two words together. Some words just don’t go well together; it’s called “letter collision”. In that case you will most likely want to use a hyphen. You might wonder what the heck a “deice” was. But, “de-ice”, makes perfect sense.

Don’t forget to follow Author Kristen Hope Mazzola’s publishing adventure as she is about to unveil her debut novel, “Crashing Back Down”. Currently being edited is Anna Ellis’ first romance novel, “Husbands and Wives”. Check out both of these talented writers and don’t forget editing services are available from The Editor Afloat for anything from one-page résumés to full-length novels.


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Mass Appeal

We all know how much the advent of the Internet has changed how the world does business, connects with family and friends, goes shopping, entertains itself and a myriad of other things. It has also changed how we work in many cases and certainly how we search for employment. There are dozens of online employment agencies as well as classified listings, government positions, and job openings listed on many company Web sites. Once you have decided what it is that you want to do or perhaps where you wish to work, you must follow their hiring process. Typically, this involves filling out an application and often you are encouraged to attach a résumé to your file. Depending on the length of your employment career overall, your résumé may be more of an overview while you rely on the application itself for specifics. In any case, most employment coaches suggest that you tailor the focus of your résumé to match the industry or position for which you are applying. Which leads me to the question of mass marketing yourself. What about the job agencies that have you post your résumé on their site, then push the ‘submit’ button to send your info out to thousands of potential employers at a time? How do you target any one specialty if you are attempting to appeal to masses of employers? Are hiring managers who read through these submissions really able to see what they need? Consider these questions, think about your approach and then decide what may work best for you.


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45 Seconds to Change Your Life

In today’s really tight and faltering job market, being good at what you do isn’t good enough. You have to get a potential employer to recognize your talent. Most hiring managers admit to spending just 25 to 60 seconds scanning a résumé. If nothing outstanding jumps out at them, your cover letter and résumé are filed away with hundreds of others. Hiring managers are also very likely to discard a résumé with spelling or grammatical errors. Many mistakes won’t be picked out by your spell-checker. Words like “their”, “they’re”, and “there”, while all correctly spelled, are not interchangeable. Several surveys conducted over the past few years have found that hiring managers will routinely list poor spelling as the number one mistake a job seeker can make. One poll revealed that over 60% of résumés and cover letters with typos were shredded immediately.

So, what’s the big deal? Everyone makes mistakes, right? The big deal is perception. Many job openings will receive hundreds of applications, an overwhelming amount of material for a hiring manager to read. Your submission may, in fact, be run through a scanner which is programmed to pick out key words. If, for instance, the job description includes having the ability to focus on detail, and your résumé mistakenly points out that you are “detial” oriented, you just ruined your chance. Not proofreading your work conveys a lazy or uncaring attitude, or worse yet, a lack of education that you are unwilling to remedy.

Read your work out loud, have a friend check it for you or hire an editor! That effort can change your life.