iw, A satisfactory start on the resume and application letter pair. In revision for the portfolio, please teach me more about the audience and purpose, that is, what type of job is this? What are the typical duties? What type of company is this? What are their values, their track record, the persona they project online? Also as you revise, think more about the issues of layout, typography, color, organization, and punctuation. At the level of layout, the two documents should be designed a pair - sharing a ‘common header, for example, and the yellow border, or no border at all. Typographically, we have a sanserif letter and serif resume. One uses only black type and the other uses blue for headings. | like the addition of color, and I'd like to see you make one or two very deliberate decisions about the font(s). Content-wise, please omit the high school information. In the letter as on the resume, Lead with information about your current educational program. Perhaps name courses or projects. The undergraduate poetry work also probably is not relevant for a technical writing position. And you need not overstate your request for an interview. On the resume, experiment with alternative alignments for the header information. You can use the vertical rules as dividers in the contact information line, but omit and opening and closing ones ~ they are not needed. Space consistently between the elements. In the body of the resume, | suggest you use normal punctuation like commas to separate elements. Leading with education is wise, but make each degree entry clearer: Master of Arts in English, Concentration in Technical/Professional Writing Date University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 Description with key courses, projects, experiences Post-baccalaureate Studies Date Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Xxxxxx Description with key courses, projects, experiences Bachelor of Arts in English Literature Date Madras Christian College, location information Description with key courses, projects, experiencesProject Assessment of the Resume and the Cover-Letter iw The most challenging aspect of the cover-letter was in selecting @ template for this document. | was indecisive about whether to emulate the layout of a simple design from the various options found on Microsoft Word or to select an elaborate and detailed template from google images. Eventually, | settled on a sample cover-letter from MS Word. | stuck with this option because the document had already been formatted in a professional and corporate style. {also found the implemented design to be visually appealing, as well. In addition to that, !had a tough time in deciding which company | needed to cater my cover-letter and resume to, However, | resolved this issue by sticking with a job description that didn’t require extensive years of technical communication experience. The position that | applied for was an entry-level position. Essentially, it was for the role of a junior technical writer and it was also a contracting, based job, as well. This was ideal for me considering the fact, that | don’t have any professional experience in the discipline of technical communication. However, | still wanted to obtain exposure, a fundamental background, and practical experience in afield with growing demand As far as the other aspects of the cover-letter are concerned, | didn’t have to make any drastic alterations from the rough draft to the final draft. There were a few necessary revisions that needed to be implemented in terms of the person who | was addressing the letter to, For example, |addressed the letter to: Corey!Mikels @creativegroup.com in the rough draft. However, | decided to incorporate this contact detail just below his official name in the first line, and then include his name again as a single line without the email address, directly above the body paragraphs, In addition to that, based on the critique from my peers, | also went ahead and capitalized the name of the position: junior technical writer, as well as the name of the subject/course that {'m minoring in: technical communication, Furthermore, | included different transition sentences into the body paragraphs of the cover-letter so that the content would sound more varied and grammatically correct. | also truncated a few run-on sentences in the body paragraphs to make the content clear, coherent, and explicitly concise to the reader/potential future employers. ‘Some parts of the information in the cover-letter were a little vague. Therefore, | made it a point to specifically state the name of the institution, and the country from which I had obtained my bachelor’s degree. | also specified the name of the writing competition that | participated in, in the second paragraph of the cover-letter. Incorporating the personal details such as the: contact information and address in placement markers was absolutely necessary. Initially, | made sure to incorporate this feature in the first draft of the cover-letter, because the role of segregation markers is integral in demarcating important pieces of information, as well in imparting the overall layout of the cover-letter with a well-organized and systematic appeal. pio Ms Heron yout sueten?In terms of orientation, | made sure to structure the layout and content of this cover- letter in the left-alignment. | felt that this was an appropriate way to set up the configuration of the document, since this format seemed to be the standard and conventional way to arrange the headings, salutation, body of the text, and complimentary close of the cover-letter. Perhaps, | could have also altered the color of the margins to a blue shade in an effort, to make the presentation of the cover-letter look more marketable and professional. This particular shade of orange was already implemented in the margins when I selected this template on word. However, this background design doesn’t really appeal to me, since it makes the layout of the cover-letter look a bit obsolete and outdated. However, | wasn't entirely sure how to modify the border of the cover-letter on a different word document. Therefore, the presentation and design of the cover-letter could have encompassed additional changes and slight tweaking. However, | ‘am satisfied with the overall content of the cover-letter. After reconstructing some of the sentences, the quality of the body paragraphs sounds more comprehensible and intelligible. | also reduced the font of the entire content to size 10 and incorporated the typeface; Tahoma, ‘The reduction of the font size and this type-face made the overall design of the cover-letter look more aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, the cover-letter was significantly easier to work with, in comparison to the resume. In terms of the resume, I had to restr the entire content of this document since the. rough draft required extensive modification. For example, the size of the letters in my name at the top of the page was a standard font size of 12. The typeface that | utilized for this resume was also the conventional font of Times New Roman since the appearance of the resume should have a professional and corporate appeal to it. However, in a resume, the traditional heading which is typically embodied by the name of the individual at the top of the page, is what most people view first. Therefore, in order, for the heading to stand out in a more conspicuous manner, it was crucial for me to enlarge the size of my name. In addition to that, | also enlarged the size of the other titles/headings which was inclusive of: education, skills, interests/hobbies, and achievements. Not to mention, | decided to accentuate these titles/headings in a bright shade of navy-blue so that the resume looks more visually enticing to the reader/potential future employer. This is also an effective strategy in delineating the titles from the elaborate description of the course, job or accomplishment incorporated in the content. Secondly, | reformatted the contact information and the address just below my name by implementing boundary markers to create a distinction between key pieces of information. | also incorporated these dividing lines into other sections of the resume. For example, :|June 2012- May 2016| Madras Christian College | English Literature|. | found that utilizing these segregation markers was an effective way to space out significant pieces of information, so that these details don’t look too clustered or overwhelming to the reader at first glance. The reader/potential future employer can immediately know what to scan for in the resume, since the information is organized in a systematic manner, Therefore, | categorized the details in accordance to the date/time-period, the name of the institution/place/job, and the subject/job-title/position.