Entries from February 2008 ↓
February 18th, 2008 — Vocab & grammar
Judging from all of the blogs that I read as well as emails and memos at work, there is a lot of confusion when it comes to using “a”and “an.”
When I was in school I learned that the usage rule for “a” versus “an” is as follows:
- for words that start with consonants, use “a”
- for words that start with a vowel, use “an”
And generally I find this to be a god rule of thumb if you are unclear on usage.
However, while looking through some posts on Daily Writing Tips I came across some additional info, which can be found here.
February 13th, 2008 — Vocab & grammar
I am certain that you remember the terms “metaphor” and “simile” from your days of sitting in English class.
If you were not paying attention in class you might think that a metaphor and a simile are the same thing. You would be wrong.
Daily Writing Tips has a great article that not only lets you know what the difference is between the two, but there are also some examples.
February 2nd, 2008 — resume tips
These days it is just not enough to send out a resume without a nice cover letter. I suspect that if a hiring manager narrows the field down to two resumes and one has a cover letter and one does not, well, the cover letter resume is the winner. Writing a well-crafted cover letter to go with your resume says a lot about you as an applicant.
It says that you thought that the position that you were applying for was worth the extra effort and time of crafting the cover letter.
It says that you are serious about the position in question.
It also says that you are a professional.
So, the question is, how do you write a cover letter and what should be in it?
Well, first note that your cover letter should only be about a page. There is really no need for a novel length letter because it probably won’t get read if it is too long.
A cover letter is basically there to fill in the gaps. Every thing that you think is important about why you should be hired for the position that did not fit on your resume should be in your cover letter. And always be sure to include any info that the employer specifically requested in the job advertisement.
Here are some places to see some examples of cover letters:
Here are other resources for tips on writing great cover letters: