November 7, 2008

Chapter 2 provides helpful information for creating a resume and cover letter. It gives specific help for resumes that will appear online. I have not yet used a resume to seek employment, but I anticipate needing to use its structure to obtain a possible promotion following the completion of my degree. I also appreciated this chapter because I see resumes on a regular basis, and it is easy to see where applicants have not been privey to this information.

Providing significant information, arranging it so it is easy to read and follow, and revising it in an attempt to show you've reviewed your work are all important aspects of constructing your resume and cover letter. Once again, thinking about your reader through all steps, and using what you know about your reader to guide you are at the peak of importance for this type of communication. A cover letter or resume may be your only opportunity to sell yourself to a possible employer, so they have to be the best they can be.

Chapter 9 and 10 give great guidelines to follow for writing both introductions and conclusions. These are typically difficult areas to write effectively. While guidelines 1-3 of writing introductions are similar to those we learned when starting a paragraph. They are perhaps more important in this stage of writing because they open the door to your entire communication. The guidelines for writing introdutions are:

• Give your readers a reason to pay attention
• State your main point
• Tell your readers what to expect
• Encourage openness to your message
• Provide necessary background information
• Include a summary unless your communication is very short
• Adjust the length of your beginning to your readers' needs
• Adapt your beginning to your readers' cultural background
• Begin to address unethical practices promplty-and strategically

The conclusion is possibly the second place a reader may look when deciding whether or not read an entire communication. In the introduction, you described what you planned to tell your reader and how you were going to accomplish that task. The conclusion is a quick place to find the answers to questions and review what you communicated in the entire piece. The guidelines for constructing a good conclusion are:

• After you've made your last point, stop
• Repeat your main point
• Summarize your key points
• Refer to a goal stated earlier in your communication
• Focus on a key feeling
• Tell your readers how to get assistance or more information
• Tell your readers what to do next
• Identify any further study that is needed
• Follow applicable social conventions

While your content is not to be discounted, without a good introduction and conclusion, it may not ever be read.