It can sometimes be challenging to come up with ways to describe your accomplishments, especially those from academic settings. Here are a handful of resume phrases that English majors may find useful:
- Compared and contrasted _________ with _________ resulting in 8-page paper and 10 minute class presentation
- Conducted extensive literature review of academic essays about William Blake
- Utilized Lexis-Nexus, EBSCO Host, Jstor and other electronic databases
- Wrote extensively on topic of female concepts of power in 18th century France
- Conducted close readings of texts
- Examined “war writings” of 19th century Russia
- Explored impact of poverty on expressions of faith in poetry of 17th century Europe; contrasted findings with translations of 17th century Chinese poetry
- Led class discussion on the use of irony in Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos
- Organized meeting times among 4 fellow students for group project
Keep in mind that the phrases above are just examples and are provided to remind you of your many accomplishments as a student. Revise, edit and tailor the phrases as your needs require.
honestly, though… there’s a huge resume error here. you’re using past tense for all your opening verbs, except for when you say “lead.” lead won’t be picked up by spellcheck because it’s actually a word, but “lead” is either a present-tense verb for “guiding” or a noun describing a type of metal. you’re looking for “led,” past tense of “to lead.”
Thank you for your comment, Supermark. Actually, past tense action verbs are common usage for resumes. Resume phrases are often sentence fragments – we remove all unnecessary articles, use past tense verbs (since the actions have already been completed, in most cases), and use a very condensed style of writing.
sorry… I know that past tense is common, what I meant is that the past tense of “lead” is “led.” going by your use of past tense, it should say “Led a group” rather than “Lead a group,” because “Lead a group” is present-tense.
Supermark, OOOHHH, I see what you meant now! Thank you for catching that!! That’s wonderful, and I’ve made the correction!