Proofread Your Resume For Content and Grammar

A quality resume should provide reviewers with a succinct, sequential summary of your triumphs and describe how you achieved them. While some job seekers are adept at spotting grammatical errors and typos, they often fail to evaluate their resume's content using the same critical eye.

Reviewers will reach conclusions about your competency and fit based on the information you provide. By placing yourself in their shoes, you can evaluate your resume's content and what it conveys about your capabilities and experience. Follow these tips to proofread your resume for grammatical correctness and exceptional content.

Read for meaning. Before reviewing your resume for spelling and grammar errors, print it out and read it out loud. Is the information presented in the right order to entice the reviewer? Are the sentences and phrases clear? Does your resume tell a story about your career or is it simply an inventory of your daily tasks and technical expertise? Reading your resume out loud will help you evaluate the effectiveness of the language and the flow of the information, eliminate redundancies and fine tune the action verbs and wording.

Let it sit. Take a break before reading your resume again. You'll spot additional errors and find new ways to improve the content by looking at it with a "fresh set of eyes."

Line edit your resume. Once you're satisfied with the content, edit your resume for spelling errors and inconsistencies in capitalization, punctuation and verb tense. By separating the proofreading functions, you'll improve your resume's overall impact on the reviewer.

Seek outside opinions. Ask a trusted friend or advisor to proofread your resume, but in addition to looking for typos, ask them to summarize your top three strengths. Compare their conclusions with your objectives to see if your resume's content is on target.