This week Edutec has been working with a number of recent graduates from non-native English speaking backgrounds who are preparing to enter the workforce. To do this, we have been assisting them with writing and proofreading CV's and cover letters.
It's amazing how many mistakes that highly qualified graduates can make in simple areas. Out of a large group, not a single post-graduate student was able to produce a document that was 100% correct.
Common mistakes included:
- confusion between singular and countable nouns
- confusion of verb tenses, especially present perfect and past simple
- incomplete sentences
- verb agreement
- wrong use of prepositions
- inappropriate use of idioms
- spelling
- capitals
- use of punctuation and spacing
- formatting inconsistencies
The sad part is that these students have invested tens of thousands of dollars in their education, and they are blowing it by writing poor quality applications. While universities may have been happy to let them get by with poor writing skills, their future employers will not be prepared to do the same, as the reputation of the businesses are often at stake.
