CV Writing: Page 04


So to the Genre

Look at any journalist's report. Using simple, unfoggy words, it always follows a set order. It is not an essay or a story, but an essential summary that opens up detail later.
How does a journalist write a report? His or her name is at the top, certainly, but the first paragraph or two contains the essence of the story. If that's all the reader ever read, it'd still give the essentials or basics of what happened.
The journalist knows that readers scan newspapers and news reports. Surfers wander off webpages with a click. Viewers of TV news lose interest quickly. The journalist tries to keep attention by highlighting matters of potential keen interest, and so can the CV writer, but the rule of 'essentials first' always governs.
Formal reports use numbers and bullet points: after names of source writers and the purpose of the report the recommendations come straight to the top with only summary explanations. Any detail is much later in the document.
Further parts in any report contain regressively less essential material with progressively more detail. Eventually the report may conclude with background information, and contact details.
So the CV is a report, with essentials first, for a readership of employers.

The CV writer is like a journalist of the self for employers.

So the upper first text of the CV will contain some key skills and experiences and perhaps the relevant very essence of the person's career intention. Employment and education with training details follow on.

Move back | Move on

 

Adrian Worsfold