How Writing Quality Influences Readers' Judgments of Résumés in Business and Engineering

Abstract

To help students enter a professional discourse community, teachers must assess how accurately they both understand the community's discourse practices. Our research investigated how job recruiters seeking to fill positions in mechanical engineering or marketing were influenced by the quality of writing in student résumés. The résumés varied in elaboration, sentence style, mechanics, and amount of relevant work experience. The recruiters rated the résumés to indicate their willingness to interview the students. We found that recruiters in the two fields—engineering and marketing—valued quite different writing features. When we subsequently asked students in business writing and technical writing classes to rate the same résumés, we found that they underestimated the importance of various writing features. Generally, however, students' ratings resembled those of the recruiters in their respective disciplines. This study documents how students can improve their résumés and provides insight into the variations of discourse practices in professional disciplines.

The Resume Research Literature: Where Have We Been and Where Should We Go Next?

“…Regarding the possible inclusion of class projects and relevant coursework, there have been conflicting findings based on applicant experience and the functional areas in which applicants are applying for jobs (Charney & Rayman, 1989;Charney, Rayman, & Ferreira-Buckley, 1992). Nevertheless, some research assessing business professionals has provided support for the inclusion of coursework compared with no coursework being listed (Thoms et al, 1999).…”

“…It is of the utmost importance to have correct and error-free grammar, spelling, word choice, and punctuation as well as overall neatness and professional appearance in resumes and cover letters (Burns et al, 2014;Charney & Rayman, 1989;Charney et al, 1992;Culwell-Block & Sellers, 1994;Horn, 1988;Hornsby & Smith, 1995;Mansfield, 1976;McDowell, 1987;Schramm & Dortch, 1991;Spinks & Wells, 1987, 1993Stephens et al, 1979;Wells et al, 1981). In fact, previous studies have demonstrated that resume and cover letter communication proficiency is at least as important as (Horn, 1988) if not more important than (Charney & Rayman, 1989) technical competence, relevant work experience, and qualifications.…”

“Without the spelling errors I would have shortlisted her…”: The impact of spelling errors on recruiters’ choice during the personnel selection process

“…When recruiters are asked what would make them automatically dismiss an applicant from consideration, 43% mention spelling errors (ADECCO, ). Résumés that do not follow standard conventions for spelling will not be taken seriously by recruiters, even if the applicants demonstrate relevant work experience (Charney et al, ). Recruiters widely use applicants’ résumés and cover letters as initial selection tools in recruitment, spending perhaps 45 s on screening a résumé (Arnulf et al, ).…”

A Framework for Résumé Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reasons

“…• • Format and design, such as color, fonts, graphics, or the one-page rule (e.g., Arnulf et al, 2010;Blackburn-Brockman & Belanger, 2001;Diaz, 2013;Guffey & Loewy, 2013, 2019Hart-Davidson, 1996;Johnson-Sheehan, 2011;Popham et al, 2017) • • Tone and phrasing, including keywords and spelling (e.g., Bennett, 2014;Boettger & Emory Moore, 2018;Charney et al, 1992;Diaz, 2013;Larsen, 2005;Martin-Lacroux & Lacroux, 2017;Ross & Young, 2005; Yate, 2016) • • Sections and their organization, such as skills and objective statements (e.g., Brown & Campion, 1994;Cole et al, 2007;Hutchinson & Brefka, 1997;Knouse, 1994;McKinney et al, 2003;Tsai et al, 2011) • • Items and activities that go into sections, such as internships, extracurricular activities, GPA, or employment gaps (e.g., Darolia et al, 2015;Nemanick & Clark, 2002;Nunley et al, 2016;Quadlin, 2018;Stout & Olson-Buchanan, 2018;Waung et al, 2017;Weisshaar, 2018) Even scholarship that explores larger concepts, such as Popken's (1992Popken's ( , 1993 work on the rhetoric of résumés, focuses on formal features: Popken (1992) pointed to the sections and items of a résumé as potentially exclusionary. Studies on formal features are one component for guiding applicants to create effective, audience-centered résumés.…”