Resolved: Journo Resumes Should Be Journalistically Consistent (That Means AP Style)

From Joe Grimm‘s JobsPage blog:

“Time and again, people claim on their resumes that they know AP Style, but they do not follow it.”

One of the best ways to prove you know AP style is to use it in your cover letter and resume. Here are the top six errors Grimm says he sees:

1. State abbreviations.
2. Capitalization.
3. Numbers.
4. Punctuation: Colons introduce, dashes separate and hyphens join. But on a resume, people seem to run out of typographical devices and use these in all kinds of new and inventive ways.
5. Street addresses.
6. Seasons: Why do internships so often happen in Summer rather than summer? Is it to make seasons look like months? They shouldn’t.

The punctuation tip is especially important, we’d say, even for those who don’t have to follow AP style for their job. Using “inventive” punctuation is silly; often, nothing serves you better than a little well-placed white space. Ask a designer.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.