Paragraph Style
by ResumeEdge.com - The
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Good advertisements are designed in such a way
that the reader's eye is immediately drawn to important pieces of information using type and graphic
elements, including bold, italics, and headline fonts, and so forth. Then the design must guide the
reader's eye down the page from one piece of information to the next with the use of white space or
graphic designs between short paragraphs.
In this science of typography, very long lines of
text (longer than six or seven inches, depending on the font) and large blocks of text (more than seven
typeset lines) are considered to be tiring to the reader's eye. If you look closely at textbooks,
magazines, and newspapers, you will notice that the information is usually typeset in columns to reduce
line lengths, and journalists intentionally write in short paragraphs because they are more reader
friendly.
How does this science translate into the design
of a resume? As a general rule, you should keep your lines of text no longer than seven inches--five to
six inches is even better--and your paragraphs shorter than seven lines of text each. Many people find
it difficult to cram the description of a job and its accomplishments into a single paragraph while
following this rule. Therefore, you will often see bulleted sentences used instead of paragraphs on
resumes.
If you prefer the paragraph style, there are some
tricks of the trade that can help you make your resume more readable:
1. Divide your experience into related
information and use several shorter paragraphs under each job description (Sample
1).
2. List the job summary in paragraph form and then use bullets to highlight your achievements (Sample
1).
3. Use left headings instead of centered headings (Sample
1) or put dates in a left column (Sample
1) to make the line lengths shorter. This won't work, however, when the shorter line
length forces your information into very long paragraphs. It is better to have longer line lengths
and shorter paragraphs.
Full justification--where all the lines end at
the same place on the right margin--makes paragraph-style resumes look more formal. Ragged right
margins generally give a more informal appearance. Full justification creates a neater appearance any
time the lines of text run all of the way to the right margin, even in bulleted resumes. However, you
can choose either style and not go wrong. Again, it is just a matter of your personal preference.
From Designing the
Perfect Resume, by Pat Criscito.
Copyright 2000. Reprinted by arrangement with Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
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