RESUME WRITING

Need help compiling the information for your resume? Here are the sections that you need to include in a resume, along with the appropriate format and advice on what information include in each section.

Resume Contact Information

Copyright Alison Doyle

It's important to include all your contact information on your resume so employers can easily get in touch with you. Include your full name, street address, city, state, and zip, home phone number, cell phone number, and email address.

Resume Objective

Copyright Alison Doyle

If you include an objective on your resume, it's important to tailor your resume objective to match the job you are applying for. The more specific you are, the better chance you have of being considered for the job you are interested in.

Career Summary

Copyright Alison Doyle

The Career Summary section of a resume is an optional customized section of a resume that lists key achievements, skills, and experience relevant to the position for which you are applying.

Resume Experience Section

Copyright Alison Doyle

The experience section of your resume includes your employment history. List the companies you worked for, dates of employment, the positions you held and a bulleted list of responsibilities and achievements.

Resume Education Section

Copyright Alison Doyle

In the education section of your resume, list the schools you attended, the degrees you attained, and any special awards and honors you earned. Also include professional development coursework and certifications.

Resume Skills

Copyright Alison Doyle

The skills section of your resume includes your abilities that are related to the jobs you are applying for. Include skills that are relevant to the position / career field that you are interested in i.e. computer skills, software skills, and/or language skills.

Resume Keywords

Copyright Mark Poprocki

Your resume should include the same keywords that appear in job descriptions. That way, you will increase your chances of your resume matching available positions - and of you being selected for an interview

TEMPLATES FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT010144894.aspx
Go with a simple one that ISN'T covered in pictures and colors; a little flair is fine, but don't go overboard!!!!

STAIRS

The magical basement.  This name was reserved only once a year for the basement of my aunt's house, when Christmas Eve peered out through frosted windows, celebrated alongside steamy cups of cocoa and snuggled into with warm blankets.  As Christmas Eve came around, my sister and I would imagine all the glory  that awaited us down the carpeted stairs of my aunt's home.  We would sit at the top of those stairs, holding hands, unabashedly ready to pounce down the stairs to discover what store of treasures awaited us. The grown-ups always had first access to the basement, making sure that everything was in order below.  Finally, after resting for an egregiously long period of time, the word finally came, "You can come down now!" Lisa and I practically flew down the stairs, disregarding the wooden banister as we took the stairs two, sometimes three, at a time.  As we rounded the corner of the stairs, socks sliding over the linoleum of the basement floor, the Christmas tree would beckon us with twinkling lights and home-made ornaments, constructed with pop-sickle sticks and tissue paper.  To our elementary-school selves, the pile of presents seem to reach to the ceiling, though in reality, there were a few boxes for each family member.  The awe and exciting of a bare basement, suddenly transformed into this winter wonderland, made it magical to us.  As I look back now though, it wasn't just the presents and tree that was magical.. Those moments encapsulated times of family unity, or love and affection that, although visible through the gifts at hand, was most preciously felt through through the hugs, the snuggles, the joy of loving, and giving, and living, which lingers still today, sending a soft smile across my face

Water

Having grown up in the a crowded suburbs, where our yard had only two small trees, I was running in the yard, testing the hammock, and hugging the surrounding trees, I became rather parched and tromped into the kitchen for the first time. Holding my favorite E.T. glass up to the faucet, I filled the cup quickly and took a gulp.  Immediately, I spat the water out of my mouth.  It turns out that, aside from having the primitive wonder of shade and trees, I also now had to deal with the eggy and sulphuric taste of well-water, something to which I was completely unaccustomed.  No longer could I drink water from every faucet with the ease of before as I carelessly rinsed my mouth after tooth-brushing or snuck gulps of bath tube water.  No, from now on, the only water I could handle had to be filtered through Brita purifiers and bottled water.  I became accustomed to this change in my life, and soon found it only slightly annoying when I had to filter the water before drinking it.  Yet more surprises lay in story for me.  When violent storms and crashing thunder bellowed from the sky, we lost not only our electricity in the house, but our capabilities to access water,since it was connected tot he electric pump.  In the winter of 2004, a giant ice storm decimated the area, covering branches in a film of glassy frozen water, bending their once suppliant branches to the ground or simply snapping them in half.  My family lost water and electricity for eight days during winter break of that year, so we spent most of our time in the heated movie theater down the road, or stealing cans of beets and beans from my mom's preschool, heating hotdogs in the microwave there.  When we were in the house, we were bundled up in parkas, scarves, gloves, and hats, attempting fuitily to keep warm.  Because I am constantly cold, I was always bundled up to full capacity, and it was due to this that my family decided I was the designated snow fetcher.  This meant that I braved the freezing elements with a large metal bowl, usually designated for mixing up the dough for warm, gooey cookies, in which I packed as much snow as possible.  We had one tiny kerosene heater in the kitchen, and we melted the snow atop this.  With the newly aquired water supply, I then had to fill the backs of the toilets with water, so taht they would be able to flush.  Without electricity,t he pump couldn't fill them back up, and we were left with clogged and unaccessible toilets.  however, I became the master of the water-melting and made sure that our family could use the bathroom for our dark week.

Tetherball Pole

I sprinted across the blacktop in my red kangaroo shoes, spinning quickly away from the outstretched hand of  Brad Franz, as he fruitlessly attempted to capture me in our fourth grade game of tag.  This wasn't ordinary tag, but a game of epic proportions that pitted boys against girls, in a prepubescent battle to capture the most members of the other gender.  There were two rules to the game: don't get caught by the boys, don't get dragged to jail at the tetherball pole.  Brad Franz, who, on a side note, went on to be a huge jock in high school, while I took the path of the nerd, conjured up this idea with me one day at the lunch table over tater tots and chocolate milk.  At the end of every recess, we would tally up who had more boys or girls captured, and that group was the winner for the day.  If I was only tapped or brushed by someone's hand, this did not mean my immediate capture   Instead, a person had to be dragged to the actual pole in order for the capture to count.  I had ripped my neon pink coat a couple times while squirming away from dangerous hands, had suffered some scraped knees, but had never touched the gleaming metalof the tetherball pole as a captive.  I was the leader of the girls team, while Brad led the boys, and neither of us had yet been captured.  I touted my success humbly, but I considered it a great honor (and a quiet indicator) that I was an expert in the game of chase.  Yet one overcast Thursday, I decided that it was more important to show humility over pride when it comes to human connections.  A group of three frenzied girls had finally trapped Brad, two grabbing hold of his arms, and one snagging him by the waist.  Monica started dragging him towards the girl's capture spot, an orange slide, when Brad made one last flailing attempt to escape.  He torqued his body and bashed his face into the arms that were grasping her, and in the process, a rivulet of blood pooled out of his nose. We could all see that he was fighting back tears, not just from the painof his nose, but the humiliation of the capture that he had avoided for so long.   Since he had been captured and had suffered torturous pain from his captors, I decided that the noble thing to do would be to voluntarily put myself in jail.  I marched myself over to the tetherball pole, reaching out and touching the cold metal that I had steered clear of for so long.  At the end of recess, there was a tie between the girls and boys, since both had their leaders captured, and although I had tried to never touch that tetherball pole, I felt proud of my eight-year old self for putting a person before a cold and unfeeling pole. While my little competitive self was saddened that I no longer had a clean jail record, the compassionate side of me patted my back and said, "Well done."

CHAIR

I sat in the diminutive blue chair, the tan desk attached to it, and I squeezed my eyes together, hoping that by doing so, the time would fly by.  Yet when I opened my eyes, the clock seemed stuck, moving so slowly that I didn't even register its movement.  I glanced to the front of the room, where a large lady, Mrs. Gates, stood at the front of the class.  She was a substitute in my second grade class, one I had seen once or twice, but whom I did not know very well.  Moments earlier, I had seen her reprimand Jeff Hall as he asked her if he could use the bathroom.  She told him he needed to sit down and wait until recess.  This crushed my spirits, because I had to go to the bathroom so badly, yet I was now terrified to ask Mrs. Gates for permission.  I assumed that since Jeff was denied a chance to use the restroom, I would receive a similar denial.  I forgot that Jeff was one of those kids who was always looking to leave the classroom, often attempting to pull something over on an unsuspecting substitute (and Mrs. Gates had been around enough as a substitute to know that Jeff was this kind of kid).  But all I could think was that she would tell me no, and I hated to be a bother or be rejected, so I continued to sit squeamishly in my chair.  All of a sudden, a warm puddle formed on my chair.  I couldn't believe it.  I had just peed my seat. Mortified, I tried to sit really still, but the puddle spread and slowly dripped off the sides of the blue seat.  At that point, classmates started turning and looking at the growing moisture surrounding my chair.  I tentatively raised my hand.  "Mrs Gates....I peed my chair." Mrs. Gates looked at me, her face agast.  "Julie, why didn't you ask to go to the bathroom?!"

Common Application Essay Prompts 2011

Common Application Essay Prompts 2011-2012

1.        Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

2.        Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

3.        Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

4.        Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

5.        A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

6.        Topic of your choice.

Sample Essay website

Go to the following website; read the sample essay, along with the critiques.  What criticism, if any, can you provide? What was good about the essay?
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/apply/essay-skills/9407.html

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/apply/essay-skills/9408.html

The College Essay

Compliments of College Board!

Choosing a College Essay Topic

What You Write About Says Something About You

Underlying all essay questions is choice. The essay question may be direct and ask you to choose something about yourself to discuss, or it may be indirect and require you to write about something such as an event, book, or quotation.

Why Your Choice of Essay Matters

The college regards your choices as a way to evaluate your preferences, values, mental processes, creativity, sense of humor, and depth of knowledge. Your writing reflects your power of persuasion, organizational abilities, style, and mastery of standard written English.Your essay topic reveals your preferences.

Here is what colleges look for: 

Your Preferences: Your essay topic reveals your preferences. Are you an arts person or a hard-facts science type? Certainly, there is a difference between the person who'd like to talk about the Cold War with Machiavelli and someone who'd like to get painting tips from Jackson Pollock.

Your Values: Choice also reflects values. The person who drives a beat-up, rusty, 1971 Volkswagen is making a statement about how she wants to spend her money and what she cares about. We say, "That dress isn't me" or "I'm not a cat person." In choosing, you indicate what matters to you and how you perceive yourself.

Your Thought Process: Choosing shows how you think. Are you whimsical, a person who chooses on impulse? Or are you methodical and careful, a person who gathers background information before choosing? Questions about you and about career and college reflect these choosing patterns. Even a question about a national issue can show your particular thinking style, level of intelligence, and insight.

Think About Topics

The topic you select for your essay can also reveal much about who you are. Yale's application instructs: "In the past, candidates have used this space in great variety of ways.... There is no 'correct' way to respond to this essay request...." No answer is wrong, but sloppy, general, insincere, or tasteless responses can hurt your cause.

Some of the best essays—the memorable and unusual ones—are about very similar, just more focused, topics. Essays about your family, football team, trip to France, parents' divorce, or twin can be effective as long as they're focused and specific: a single Christmas Eve church service, a meal of boiled tongue in Grenoble, or dipping ice cream on a summer job.