Resume Language

The writing style common to resumes is often described as "staccato". You achieve it by eliminating the subjects of sentences as well as personal pronouns and by using strong action verbs with highly descriptive modifiers called "verb phrases". An example might be "supervised five employees" or "analyzed research reports". Employers generally scan resumes, not reading them carefully (at least, not initially), and the staccato style conveys your key qualifications with few words but lots of impact. Consult the following list of action verbs for useful descriptors. Numbers strengthen this part of you resume. For example, "served an average of 30 customers per hour;" "wrote and edited reports of over 12,000 words;" "handled average cash sales of $2000 per day." Numbers make your accomplishments concrete for the reader.

ACTION VERBS

accelerated	demonstrated	investigated	reduced
achieved	designed	launched	reinforced
adapted	developed	lectured	renegotiated
adjusted	directed	led	reorganized
administered	distributed	liaised	reported
advised	eliminated	maintained	researched
affected	encouraged	managed	responsible for
analyzed	enlisted	molded	revamped
approved	established	motivated	reviewed
arranged	evaluated	organized	scheduled
assisted	examined	originated	selected
attained	expanded	participated	set up
budgeted	expedited	perceived	solved
chaired	explained	performed	stimulated
communicated	forecast	persuaded	streamlined
compared	founded	pinpointed	structured
completed	generated	planned	studied
conceived	guided	prepared	suggested
conducted	implemented	produced	summarized
controlled	improved	programmed	supervised
coordinated	increased	promoted	supported
counseled	influenced	proposed	systematized
created	inspected	proved	taught
dealt with	instructed	provided	trained
decided	interpreted	recommended	translated
defined	interviewed	reconciled	updated
delegated	invented	recruited	wrote