Literary techniques to make your resume more interesting
What word is this? Resume
Without the appropriate context, we don't know. If I put it in a sentence, "If you want the job you better brush up your resume" you immediately know what I am talking about. If I say, "Hey, you better resume your job search before all the good jobs are gone," again you know. I can even say "Hey, if you want to resume your job search, you better brush up your resume." Now I used two words that are spelled the same, pronounced differently and have different meanings in the same sentence; you easily know which word is which.
Anyone know what that is called? If you said homonym, you would be giving the same answer as most … and you would be wrong! In fact these are heteronyms - words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently and have different meanings. Wow, English is a crazy language.
In any case, we just got back from vacation. We had a great time, thanks for asking. While on vacation my daughter was regaling us over dinner one night about a song she had to learn in school about literary techniques. The song, set to a catchy tune gave the definitions for techniques we can use to make our writing more interesting. It mentions similes, metaphors, homonyms and techniques such as alliteration, anthropomorphism and onomatopoeia - all of which make an otherwise boring story more exciting and engaging for the reader. Those of you that read my little bits of wisdom regularly know that I talk all the time about making your resume interesting. So, I began to make the connection between my daughter's school lessons and using the English language more effectively.
My first recommendation is take a look at this page from Wikipedia and see if you can leverage anything there to make yourself feel fine, fantastic and fanatical about finding your final job.
Also for those of you that might be interested in more about homonyms, heteronyms and other linguistical silliness, I have compiled this table - it may not make your job search any better, but it certainly may help you at Trivial Pursuit.
| Term | Spelling | Pronunciation | Meaning |
| Homonym | Same | Same | Different |
| Homograph | Same | Same or different | Different |
| Homophone | Same or different | Same | Different |
| Heteronym | Same | Different | Different |
| Heterograph | Different | Same | Different |
| Polyseme | Same | Same or different | Different but related |
| Capitonym | Same except capitalization | Same or different | Different when capitalized |
Comments and feedback are requested and desired; and you are welcome and encouraged to submit questions to thecareerdoctor.
Debra Wheatman, CPRW, CPCC is the founder and Chief Career Strategist of Careers Done Write, a premier career services provider focused on developing highly personalized career roadmaps for senior leaders and executives across all verticals and industries.
Debra can be reached at -
DWheatman@ResumesDoneWrite.com
ResumesDoneWrite.Blogspot.com
Careers Done Write
Connect to me on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter