Creating Effective CVsHints, Tips, &

Examples

By Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie

What is in a name?Curriculum Vita or Curriculum Vitae?

• Both are used

• Vita means “life’s course” (singular)

• Vitae means “life’s courses” (plural) or “life’s course” (singular, feminine)

• According to Webster: Vitae is the way to go

CV Vs. The Resume• CVs are for “faculty, research, clinical, or 

scientific position[s]”• CVs are more formal and longer

– Resumes should be a page– CVs should be more than 2 pages

• CVs include publications, presentations, professional activities, honors, and additional information, no objectives

• There is no “set” format for a CV

Things to Include• Basic contact information• Educational background• Honors and awards• Teaching experience• Other employment experience if related• Publications (in bibliographic format) including

– publications forthcoming– manuscripts under consideration

• A brief description of your dissertation• Academic service• Professional memberships/Affiliations• List of references• Grants• Consulting• Volunteer Experience• Address where your dossier is available

CV Tips• People reading your vita usually grant it 20 seconds. There is no

room for error: misspellings, contradictions, grammatical mistakes, awkward phrases, or chronological gaps.

• The formatting should be clean and easy to read. • Highlight significant items by placing them strategically.• Do not pad your vita with trivial or irrelevant items.• Do not pass off one vita item for something more significant than it

is.• Have a “master” CV with everything that you draw from to create the

CVs you use• If you can: Don’t include all publications or presentations so you can

list them as “selected” publications and “selected” presentations (only good if you have a lot, otherwise not worth it)

• Length: Debatable, more than 2 and less than 6 (w/o references)

Setting up your CV: Part 1• Start with name & contact info• Then education in reverse chronological order

(most recent 1st)• Next dissertation info: title, committee, brief

summary (<200 words)• Decide which is more important:

– Publications & Presentations (for research jobs)– Teaching (for teaching jobs)– Both? Go with your strength, often Publications best

Setting up your CV: Publications & Presentations• Set up in MLA (or appropriate) format• List in reverse chronological• Include things under consideration or

upcoming• Put your book reviews in a subcategory

under Publications• If only doing a selective listing concentrate

on items that reflect your academic/ research “focus” & what the job wants

Publications & Presentations Examples• Publications:“Student Problems with Hypertext and Webtext: A Student-Centered

Hypertext Classroom?” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy 6.2 (2001).

“From Blood Ties to Surrogate Involvement: Cornelius Suttree's Search For Happiness in McAnally Flatts” Under review September 2004 The Southern Quarterly.

“Memento Mori,” Black Warrior Review, Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer 2001.

Publications & Presentations Examples“Considering Relationships, Differences, and Boundaries: Expanding

and Empowering Technical Communication by Adopting Feminist Approaches.” Conference on College Composition and Communication; San Antonio, TX (March 2004).

“The Sum of All Lesser Tales’: Cultural Myths and Social Conflicts in Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy.” Western Literature Association Conference. Rice University, Houston, TX. October 2003.

“‘I Guess You Learn from Me’: Towards a More Reciprocal Relationship Between Doctoral Students and Graduate Faculty.” Presenter. Conference on College Composition and Communication

(CCCC) 2003 Convention, New York City. March 20. Session G24.

Setting up your CV: Teaching• Provide at least:

– Place, title (TA, Instructor, whatever), course title, dates

• Consider (especially if it is a teaching job):– Details on the class like material covered,

genres, technology

Teaching ExamplesLiterature

English 2307 (Introduction to Fiction), 8 sections at Texas Tech University (2002-2003)

First Year Composition

English 1302 (Composition/Rhetoric II), 2 sections at Dallas County Community College (2004-present)

Ball State University, Instructor (1998-Present). Undergraduate courses taught include computer-mediated, face-to-face, hybrid, and distance education basic writing, Composition I, Composition II, and Writing in the Disciplines (an upper-division history of writing technologies course).

Setting up your CV: Other items• Include the remaining items in the order

that most qualifies you• Awards/Honors: include name of award,

date received, info on award, and amount (if applicable)

• Service: departmental, university & organizational– Include name of organization, title of position,

dates & other important info

Setting up your CV: More other items

• Professional Experience & Consulting (if applicable):– Include job title, place/org. and dates– If you need to add also include brief details

• Affiliations: include name, abbreviation and dates

• Computer Skills: if applicable• Editor & Administrate Roles: title, org.,

dates

Setting up your CV: More other items

• References:– ALWAYS ask first– Include at least a teaching reference, a

research reference, & the chair of your diss, and another (more are good, but not too many)

– Include their name, title, and contact info

Design?• Design is always good, but a CV should

not be a work of art

• Use a simple, clean design

• Use 1-2 fonts either serif or sans serif– If using 2 use one serif and one sans serif

• Include white space!

Look at the examples:• Jennifer L. Bowie (me): Ph.D. in Tech

Comm• Richard A. Rice: Ph.D. English,

Concentration: Composition and Rhetoric Pedagogy, Specialty: Computers and Writing

• Elizabeth Burmester: Ph.D. in English, Specialization: Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric

Questions?