Professional Writer and Editor Sample

As a Professional Writer or Editor, you’re used to playing with words all day long and innovating creative phrases. They’re the building blocks of your trade. You choose each word carefully so it will have the most impact on your readers.

You might, therefore, reckon you’d easily be able to construct a resume that stands out from the crowd. After all, it’s just more words on a page or two, isn’t it?

Well, it’s a bit more complex than that.

There’s the ATS to consider. The formatting needs to be on point. The right order of the sections has to be correct. To help you, we have created this “Professional Writer Resume Example, Tips & Tricks” guide.

How to write a resume

There are certain rules when it comes to writing a resume, and it’s very different from writing a newspaper article or an excerpt for a trade magazine.

• First up, include contact details at the top of the resume. These should include the name you’re known by, telephone number, email address, city or town, state, and the URL for yourLinkedIn Profile.

• Under your contact details comes the professional summary, consisting of three to five concisely written sentences presented in a paragraph format. There’s an example further on down to give you an idea of how to construct this.

• Ensure to incorporate an Areas of Expertise section, listing keywords and phrases that showcase your skills in an easy-to-view way.

• Then it’s the Career History, detailing your work experience, but only going back to between 10 and 15 years (i.e., don’t include that car washing job you did in the 1990s). Again, there’s an example to view below.

• Below that are your educational details. If you’re a recent graduate with little work experience as a Professional Writer, it’s worth placing the Education Section under the Areas of Expertise to highlight the fact that you’re fresh out of college and on the lookout for your first or second role.

Laying it all out

All the above needs to be contained within either one or two pages. Those are the optimum lengths for resumes nowadays. As you’ll be used to word counts and fitting vital information into a certain amount of space, there’s a chance you’ll be able to do that admirably.

While you’ll be comfortable with writing about your specialized subject, you probably won’t be so comfortable when writing about yourself. While it might feel that you’re being boastful by listing all of your achievements on your resume, it’s vital that you do in order to stand out from the crowd of all the other job seekers vying for roles. 

Also, the tone and style of resume writing is a law unto itself and can feel strange at first.

Have a look at the following examples to give you an idea of how to go about it.

Summary paragraph example

The Professional Summary, which sits at the top of your resume, just under your contact details, allows you the opportunity to summarize your key skills succinctly.

Here’s an example:

A committed, hard-working, and reliable Technical Writer with an aptitude for collating and translating complex information into easily readable and instructive manuals for military aircraft, aircraft ground equipment, and aircraft electronic equipment. Heralds a robust technical command of the English language while communicating professionally with a wide range of people from all backgrounds. Accustomed to operating under considerable pressure while remaining calm and effective.

Work experience example

Check out the example below on how to construct and format your work experience:

Military Aircraft Magazine

Technical Author | Technical Writer | 05/2020 - Present      

Write and edit clear, concise, and original operation and maintenance manuals for new marine diesel engines. Utilize research from engineering drawings to produce updates for existing operation and maintenance manuals. Proofread and edit documents written by non-native English-speaking colleagues.

Professional Writer resume example

Sometimes, seeing a thing makes it easier to understand. With that said, here is an example of a complete Professional Writer resume with all of the most common sections included. 

Key hard & soft skills for a Professional Writer

The terms hard skills and soft skills are often bandied about in the workplace.

• “Have you got the right hard skills for this job?”

• “Soft skills are irrelevant in this day and age.” (Not true, by the way).

But what exactly are they, and how can you incorporate them into your resume in 2023?

Hard skills are quantifiable and measured capabilities that are normally acquired through training and experience. They’re the cogs that turn the wheel of your day-to-day work activities. If you didn’t have the hard skills required for your role, quite simply, you wouldn’t be able to do the job you do!

Soft skills steer the focus more toward who you are as a person and how you relate to others. Just like hard skills, they are acknowledged as transferable skills, as they can be the type of skills that can be transferred across a variety of different jobs and industries.

There are many hard and soft skills needed for the role of a Professional Writer/Editor. See below for a selected few. Once you get the idea, you’ll be able to think of many more that you have!

Hard skills

• Content creation

Creating compelling content for a targeted audience is a vital skill to have as a Professional Writer, no matter which field of writing you’re in.

• Research

Conducting thorough and meticulous research on a chosen subject gives you the information you need to write your piece. Selecting which bits out of that research to use is also a key skill that you need.

• Proofreading

Carefully checking and re-checking your work before submitting it to the Editor or whoever you answer to is an obvious but oh-so-important skill to obtain.

Soft skills

• Effective communication

If you can’t speak easily to interviewees or articulate perfectly what you want to come across in an article, you’re not going to get very far. Improving your communication and listening capabilities will set you on the right track.

• Relationship building

As a Professional Writer, you’ll probably come across a wide range of people from a wide range of backgrounds. Forming connections with them immediately will kick start that great rapport you’ll need to access the information you require.

• Enthusiasm

Showing your enthusiasm and passion for the subject you’re writing about will win you fans across the board.

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Summary and last words

You can no doubt see how different resume writing is from any other type of professional writing. As a Professional Writer, you craft articles on topics that you’ve researched extensively. With a resume, the topic is you.

Here’s what you’ve learned so far about drafting a resume:

• Keep it concise and relevant to the job you’re applying for

• Sprinkle the resume with hard and soft skills that you can source from the job application

• Follow the formula on how to correctly set out a resume with the sections in the right order

• List your career experience in reverse chronological order

• Don’t forget to add your contact details at the top, where they can easily be found by a hiring manager

It’s a lot to think about. Your day job is writing, so why not give yourself a break and leave your resume to the experts while you carry on with doing what you do best – writing in your own style? 

Introduction to ZipJob: Professional resume writers

Whatever level you’re at in your professional writing career, turning to the experts at ZipJob won’t be seen as a failure on your part. You might be an outstanding wordsmith, but you probably need help with the tricks of this particular trade.

The professionals at ZipJob are expert resume writers.

By making use of the services of a professional resume writer, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands when it comes to drafting a comprehensive and informative resume that will show you in the best possible light while paving the way for all those interviews that are bound to come your way!

Why you should make use of our resume writing services to land your next job as a Professional Writer

We’ve established you’re good at writing on your specialist topic. But writing about yourself? That’s a whole different ball game. A professional resume writer understands how to write a compelling resume that will impress prospective employers. This is because they’re objective and not so close to the subject matter, being able to take a more balanced view on how to best express your skills and abilities to hiring managers.

Resume writing service for a Professional Writer: Let us write your resume

It’s the expert and up-to-date knowledge that we’ve built up over the years that means we can create resumes that work. It’s as simple as that.