2 posts tagged “writing”

I love going back and reading emails from like 3 years ago.  It's funny to see what I thought was so uber-important back then and how trivial it all seems now.

My then-coworker asked me to help her peruse resumes for an assistant.  Here are some of my comments that I gave her:

- On resume, states that she has excellent writing and editing ability - but there are several grammar and punctuation errors in the email...

- May be used to doing things her way (she's a teacher, after all, and teachers usually are in command of the classroom).

- Low GPA (probably shouldn't have listed it on the resume).

- Her interests include browsing the internet and chatting on AIM? (I don't think I'd list that on my resume).**

- probably would be more interested in teaching Spanish.

- no college coursework, too liberal

- too liberal.  "IM" is not a skill.

- only average writing skills.

- tree-hugger type.  Would be more interested in research than in clerical work.

- A bit arrogant.

Obviously, you can't tell what a person is like from paper but I think you can tell a lot about what a person writes/includes.

** This candidate was the one that my coworker decided to hire... and eventually fire (after a couple of months).  See what I mean?

I've been proofreading a couple of technical papers over the past week or so.  Apparently, I'm the only staffer who proofreads technical papers... I guess that's the prize I get for being a) a native speaker and b) fairly good at writing.

One professor asked if I could understand the writing of another professor.  He thinks it didn't make sense, the other guy was too wordy, used some words that work in Chinese, but when translated into English - makes the sentence completely wrong.  I thought it was okay - a little wordy, but understandable.  I mean, heck, I can't understand a lot of the stuff I'm reading anyway, so what do I know?

Anyway, he suggested that I tell the other professor to write more straightforwardly in the future.  What?!  You want me, a lowly staffer, to tell a higher-education person what to do?  Seriously, that would go over real well.

I don't know - I'm kind of tired of helping people write...