CV

While resumes/CVs and cover letters are some of the most common professional documents, they can also be the most difficult to write. Conventions for these documents change over time, and vary from field to field. The most important thing to remember is that resumes and cover letters are rhetorical documents. This means that they are persuasive documents that have a particular audience, purpose, and context. Writing documents like these involves making choices about content, style, and formatting. Resumes and cover letters should also be tailored to each particular job you apply for.

For this assignment, you should create (or update!) a professional CV (Curriculum Vitae). A CV is longer, more detailed, and more comprehensive than a traditional resume, which is often tailored to a specific job. You can also tailor your CV to specific jobs as well, depending on what kind of position you are applying for. 

You may want to review your Vision Statement to help guide your approach for this assignment. 

A typical CV will include the following information:

Name and Contact Information: contact information for your current institution or place of employment may work best.
Education: a list of your degrees earned or in progress, institutions, and years of graduation. You may also include the titles of your dissertation or thesis here.
Grants, Honors and Awards: a list of grants received, honors bestowed upon you for your work, and awards you may have received for teaching or service.
Publications and Presentations: a list of your published articles and books, as well as presentations given at conferences. If there are many of both, you might consider having one section for publications and another for presentations.
Employment and Experience: this section may include separate lists of teaching experiences, field experiences, volunteer work, leadership, or other relevant experiences like publishing, editing, and journalism experiences.
Scholarly or Professional Memberships: a listing of the professional organizations of which you are a member. If you have held an office or position in a particular organization, you can either say so here or leave this information for the experience section.
References: a list of persons who write letters of recommendations for you, which includes their contact information.

A typical Cover Letter will do the following:

• Use letterhead, be formatted as a professional letter, be no longer than two (2) pages singled spaced

• It should have a clear thesis statement tailored to your professional brand/the job you are applying for/the publication you are submitting

• It will show not tell, meaning it will use specific examples of projects, classes, publications, related to your brand/the job you are applying for/the publication you are submitting

• You are welcome to tailor your Cover Letter to a specific job or publication.

However, your prospectus will serve as a longer form cover letter. In future, when composing a cover letter, you will need to address the concerns and expectations of your target audience and so will need to revise accordingly. That is, you may have a "stock" cover letter that should be tweaked for each employer.

The following sites are useful for locating job ads, as well as other resources related to the job market:

• Indeed

• LinkedIn

• Profjobs

• MLA Job List

• HigherEdJobs

• Poets&Writers

• Fellowships

The following sites are useful guides for formatting application materials:

• Center for Professional Success

• Purdue OWL’s guide to the basic business letter

• The Professor Is In CV

• The Professor Is in Cover Letter for Job

• The Professor In in Cover Letter for Publication

• Ask a Manager Cover Letter

• Cover Letters for Publishing

Here is a folder of sample materials you may use as a reference & a formatting guide:

• CV/CL Samples & Materials

• Google Docs Formatting Guide

• ATS Resume Template