Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
You choose your samples carefully and attempt to craft a seamless presenta-
tion. What you write is equally important.
As someone who sees lots of student résumés and portfolio packages, I've been
treated to many remarkable writing errors. They don't make a potential employer feel
confident, although they can brighten up a tense day at the sender's expense. My
personal favorites…the student who claimed proficiency in “Adope Photoshot” and
the person who misspelled his own name. Then there was the poor applicant whose
résumé design had a large initial letter at the beginning of each major heading. The
problem was that these initial letters were for the words Louis, Objective, Schooling,
Experience and References. Oops.
Want to look bad in print? Here are a few ways to do it.
Sad spelling and grammar
In the age of spell checkers, there is no excuse for misspelled words. They tell
people that you are sloppy. Spell check even if you think you are good at spelling.
Everyone has some words that they consistently spell incorrectly, and everyone
makes typographical errors.
The paragraph below is an excerpt from a real online résumé. The résumé
itself was very nicely designed but had a remarkable number of errors—indicated in
bold—for one short paragraph.
Work with the design team developing new brands, as well as
(verb
missing)
strategies for moving
extisting
brands online; present design
mockups and
iteration
to clients; and
manageeing
the production of
final media assets.
Resposible
for text production and layout, as well
as digital photography.
If you don't spell well, chances are your grammar isn't perfect either. This
paragraph also had a grammatical problem. The word “managing” should have been
“manage” to match the verb tenses for “work” and “present.” Grammatical errors are
trickier to catch than spelling errors but can lead to real embarrassment. Not only
did these errors make it hard to appreciate the writer's design, they raised a horrible
question: Why was this person in charge of text production?
Unless the program you are using contains a spell-checker
and
a grammar
checker—or you are both an accomplished typist and good writer—write everything
in a program that has these helpful tools. Then cut and paste the text into whatever
development program you're using.
Microsoft Word can be irritating, but it does a pretty good job of preventing
the worst grammatical goofs. In it, you can select Tools > Spelling and Grammar at
any point and check your document for errors. If you don't mind interruptions as you
