As you near the end of drafting your CV, your concentration levels may dip due to fatigue. Wrongly, you might feel that the reader will just glance over your CV. That may be the case initially, but what if your CV gets chosen for a closer review? You will not get invited to interview if it is riddled with grammar errors and mistakes.

Spell checkers

Be careful not to over rely on spell checkers. Sentences will fly through a spell checker without a problem, but be mindful that homophones can easily slip through the net and ruin a good CV.

Homophone mistakes

It can happen very easily. You are in such a hurry to finish and submit your CV that you do not notice you have mixed up ‘their’ and ‘there’ or ‘two’ and ‘to’ and ‘too’. These homophones are words that sound alike but mean different things and are spelled differently. Be extra vigilant in the final edits. Take the time to make sure your CV makes sense before sending it.

Capital letters

Some people feel the need to capitalise every important word in a sentence. Some like to use block capitals in the belief that they are easier to read. Whatever your motivation, never capitalise when it is incorrect to do so.

Apostrophes

Famed for their misuse, apostrophes demonstrate your understanding of grammar. Some people forget about them altogether while others pepper their CV with them generously. The truth is that the rules are fairly simple, so getting it wrong on your CV will not send a great message to employers. Use apostrophes to indicate missing letters, a possessive, time or quantity.

Neutral person

Write in the neutral person and do not use the first person ‘I’ or ‘my’.

Correct tense

This will mean talking about old jobs in the past tense and your current job in the present tense. Of course, there may be exceptions to this general rule, such as talking about a past event that occurred in your current job. The key, however, is to ensure it makes sense and avoid switching between tenses in a middle of a phrase. Mixing up your tenses is not only grammatically incorrect, it also makes it difficult to follow the thought pattern of your CV.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations and technical terms should be avoided. If the concept is not well known or obvious then write it out in full to avoid confusing employers with jargon.

Avoid semicolons

Semicolons can be used when a comma is not enough, but a full stop is too much. They can also be used to separate items in lists. If you are using them correctly, use them. If you are unsure, then do not use. Again, the most important step which you can take to eliminate any grammatical mistakes on your CV is to get someone suitably qualified to proofread your document when you have finished.

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