Making sure your CV gets read

One of the most damaging things you can do to your chances of getting an interview is to send out a CV or covering letter with spelling, grammar or punctuation mistakes. After all, as the reasoning goes, if you appear slapdash and error-prone in writing your CV, you may also be a slapdash and error-prone employee. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this way of thinking, spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes just make you look unprofessional. Here are some of the most common spelling mistakes to avoid:

Words which are frequently misspelled

Surveys often point to the misspelling of words such as curriculum vitae, liaison, role and personal.

Other commonly misspelled words are recieve (receive), sentance (sentence), correspondance (correspondence), definately (definitely), alot of (a lot of) and successfull (successful).

These mistakes are generally picked up by the spell-checker on your computer. But there is a second category of mistakes – pairs of words which are pronounced similarly, but which are spelled differently and which have different meanings. Computer spell-checkers might not pick up these mistakes, as they don’t always spot errors of meaning.

Using the wrong word

Pairs of words in this second category which are often confused are:
faze / phase
allusion / illusion
lose / loose
draught / draft
principal / principle
counsel / council
patients / patience
incidence / incidents
sight / site
compliment / complement
fair / fare
discreet / discrete
affect / effect

How good is your spelling?
Can you identify the correct word in these sentences?

1. Interviews never faze / phase me.
2. She made an allusion / illusion to the Board Meeting.
3. The last sales manager managed to loose / lose five major accounts.
4. We have drawn up a draught / draft proposal.
5. The principal / principle point in his argument is flawed.
6. The town counsel / council will pedestrianise the High Street.
7. Thank you for your patients / patience.
8. There is a high incidence / incidents of absenteeism in the company.
9. At first sight / site, the proposal looks interesting.
10. The airline always offers a complimentary / complementary packet of peanuts.
11. The airfair /airfare is over-priced.
12. He is the ideal mediator: discreet / discrete but persuasive.
13. How will the recession affect / effect the company?

Answers

1. Interviews never faze me.
(faze  = confuse; phase = do something in different times or parts)

2. She made an allusion to the Board Meeting.
(allusion = reference: illusion = wrong idea)

3. The last sales manager managed to lose five major accounts.
(lose = verb; loose = adjective )

4. We have drawn up a draft proposal.
(draft = preliminary copy; draught = air current)

5. The principle point in his argument is flawed.
(principle = basic idea or moral rule; principal = US head master)

6. The town council will pedestrianise the High Street.
(council = local government; counsel = US lawyer)

7. Thank you for your patience.
(patience = willingness to wait; patients = people waiting to see the doctor)

8. There is a high incidence of absenteeism in the company.
(incidence = rate; incidents = accidents)

9. At first sight, the proposal looks interesting.
(sight = vision; site = place)

10. The airline always offers a complimentary packet of peanuts.
(complimentary = given free; complementary = combining well with something else)

11. The airfare is over-priced.
(fare = ticket cost; fair = exhibition / funfair)

12. He is the ideal mediator: discreet but persuasive.
(discreet = careful about what you say; discrete = clearly separate)

13. How will the recession affect the company?
(affect = produce an effect or change; effect = noun e.g. a side effect)