RESUME Q & A

What is a resume?

A resume is a written summary of your qualifications, skills, and work-related experience.

Do colleges look at resumes?

The Short answer is YES! Your activity resume will be a key element in your college applications (and even applications for some honor societies, scholarships, and summer programs). Of the roughly 900 colleges that accept the Common Application, about ⅓ provide you with the opportunity to upload your résumé. 

Should students have a resume by High School?

Yes, top tier students should be familiar with resume writing and have a master resume from which to draw pertinent information.

Students need a resume to apply to college, for scholarships, employment, and internships. Your resume is an important marketing tool. A well-written high school resume represents your character, your skills and accomplishments, and how you spend your time

I do not have a lot of real world experience. How can I craft a viable resume?

Some action words that you can use in your the resume include: observed, organized, assisted, developed, trained, tutored, and researched. Although your real-life work experience is likely minimal, you can creatively convey expertise.

How long should a resume be?

For most candidates, a resume should be only one page. Be brief and concise with anything you write on your resume. Draw information from your master resume. Customize your resume for the job you're applying for and include only relevant experience. If you've done everything right, you shouldn't get past one page.

What is a master resume?

A master resume is the "long version" of your experiences, education, awards, achievements, community service history, volunteer work, team and individual competitions, and serious interests. If you diligently keep this up to date, customizing a resume for different endeavors will be a much simpler process.

Example HOOKS Essay

Hooks to Inspire

by

Andre R.

A professor asked a student what inspired him to write his essay. The student replied, “The due date.” This joke certainly grabs a reader’s attention. That is what a hook is supposed to do. There are five types of hooks to use in an essay which include, the inverted pyramid, a fact, an anecdote, a rhetorical question, or a bold pronouncement.

The first type of great hook is called the inverted pyramid. It can be thought of as an upside down pyramid. The top is the hook, and the hook slowly narrows down to the thesis with the middle as a transition sentence. Using the example of The Odyssey, you might write: “Usually, you would offer hospitality with love and care, but in The Odyssey, people think from a different perspective. In The Odyssey, people show hospitality because of fear. One theme in The Odyssey by Homer is that fear can control you.” 

The next type of hook to use in your essay is stating a fact or a statistic from a reliable source about what you are writing. Starting your essay with a fact or an interesting statistic really draws the interest of the reader. Again, using an example of The Odyssey: “In The Odyssey, hospitality is a sign of respect for the gods which is an important value according to an IPL.org article on the role of hospitality. Some people learned this the hard way which resulted in their death. This caused fear to spread among the others. One theme in The Odyssey by Homer is that fear can control you.”

The third type of hook you should use in your essay is grabbing the audience's attention by using an anecdote or a personal experience. An anecdote is a small story that explains a point that you are trying to make. For example, “When someone knocks on your door for water, you hand them water but you do not invite them in. We have to be careful of strangers but we still hand them water out of love for our fellow man. In Ancient Greece, you would invite them in, supply them with food and water, and offer a place to sleep. This was because of xenia. Xenia means hospitality which Ancient Greece offered out of fear in case the guest was a god in disguise. One theme in The Odyssey by Homer is that fear can control you.” An anecdote draws the audience in just as a personal experience will.

The fourth type of hook that grabs the attention of the reader is using a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question asks the reader a question without wanting an answer. This type of hook is easy and often overused. Make sure to use this hook with caution. For example, “Do you offer xenia to strangers? What does it mean? Xenia is the Ancient Greek word for hospitality. It was offered out of fear. One theme in The Odyssey by Homer is that fear can control you.” 

The last type of great hook to use in your essay is a bold pronouncement. Stating a bold pronouncement immediately draws the attention of the reader. This causes the reader to be interested and keep reading. Here is an example, “Not letting even one stranger into your home when they knock will be the last thing you do. This was what the Ancient Greeks thought to be true. Believing this, Ancient Greeks handed over the key of their homes to fear. One theme in The Odyssey by Homer is that fear can control you.”

These five different types of hooks are important for a good essay. The most crucial hook to use is the inverted pyramid. All great students should know how to use all five of these inspirational hooks.

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A cool example of a fact or statistic:

The second hook is called fact or statistic. It is imperative that this hook be from a reliable source. If you used this type of hook, then your first paragraph might start: There are 660,000 people in the United States that use Airbnb. Air B&Bs are actually similar in some ways to the ancient Greek form of hospitality, called xenia. In Ancient Greece, people would let strangers into their homes, and supply them with food, shelter, and comfort. Unlike modern day Air B&Bs, the ancient Greek visitor would, in return, leave the host a gift. This ancient form of hospitality was called xenia. Xenia was not granted, as with modern Air B&B owners, out of care for fellow man, the hope to meet new and interesting people, or even to serve as a tour guide for a beloved city. Xenia was not even a small business venture as is often the case with Air B&B hosts. Xenia was rooted in fear. Ancient Greeks believed that strangers might be gods in disguise, and if they failed to show hospitality to the visitor, they might be punished.

Do Animals Have Language?

 

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Discreteness:   Language is built up from discrete units (signs, words, sounds) that can be combined in order to communicate new ideas. *2

What is meant by discreteness of human language?  A major difference between animal language and human language is the discreteness of human language. This refers to the uniqueness of the sounds used in human languages. Every language use a set of different sounds. Each of these sounds is different from the rest and are combined to form new meanings. A sound can be repeated, or combined with another to form a new meaning. But, animal languages do not have this feature of discreteness.*1

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Grammar:  a complex system of rules that indicate us how to combine such discrete units in our language. *2

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Displacement: refers to the ability to communicate about things or events that are distant in time or space

What is meant by displacement feature of human language?  A major difference between animal language and human language is the displacement feature of human language. It means that human language can overcome the limitations of time and space. Animal communication is designed for here and now. But, human language can relate to events removed in time and space.*1

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Productivity: refers to the ability to produce and understand an infinite number of messages by combining the units differently. *2

What is meant by productivity of human language?  A major difference between animal language and human language is the productivity of human language. This refers to the human ability to combine limited linguistic signs to produce new sentences and expressions. Animals are incapable of this as animal signals have fixed reference.*1

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Footnotes

*1Dr. Joseph Koyippally (College of Education, University of Hail)

239, English Department, College of Education, University of Hail, Saudi Arabia

from his class: ENG 252: Introduction to Linguistics  (Chapter 3: Properties of Language)

*2 Dr. Bishop

According to Dr Bishop there are animals who display some of the qualities, e.g. with their waggle dance, the bees exhibit the property of displacement and great apes like chimpanzee have learnt a modified sign language and demonstrated discreteness, as they are able to combine multiple signs into phrases. The video shows other examples of animal communication systems that display some of the qualities required to be considered a language but none actually gathers all four.

Sources

https://termcoord.eu/2017/04/video-fix-do-animals-have-language/