Ask the Saint: "How Long Should My Resume Be?"

Not long ago, I was helping one of my typically insightful, creative, funny, charming, kind, and fascinating clients with a resume.  She had graduated from college with a degree in history, and thanks to some dazzling internships at New York museums that are world-famous, she'd ended up at the right place at the right time to be recruited to a modeling agency.  Who wouldn't?  But after a while, she wanted to get back into a steadier job, so it was time to put together the requisite documents for going out on the job hunt.  She came to me from a third-hand recommendation, and I prepared a LinkedIn profile and resume for her that helped to highlight her talents as a researcher and analyst.

During one of our initial conversations, she expressed some concern about the length of her resume.  It was bleeding onto a second page.  "How long should it be?" she asked.

The answer, as always, was, "It depends."

• Have you been working in your field for more than 10 years? Then your resume can be a bit longer. Less than that, and you're in a grey area until you hit about the 5-year mark. Anything below 5 years, and I say that it should be on one page. This is mostly because recruiters who are hiring for the kinds of positions that you'd be applying for aren't looking for your whole career history; they just need to know if you have the requisite skills and seem to be a safe bet, and they will make that determination very quickly. That's why it's important to fit your most-essential information onto one page.

• What are others in your field doing? Search Google Images for examples of resumes in your field. Do people with your amount of experience typically have 2-page resumes? If so, then it's probably safe to let your resume be 2 pages long. If not, then 1-page is the way to go.

Let's say that your resume is 2 pages long but shouldn't be, according to those two criteria.  What can you do to trim your resume down?

• Use margins strategically. Your resume doesn't need to have 1" margins. Expand those to .5" margins on all sides. You just gained 2 more inches of space.

• Adjust font size and style. Don't go below 11-pt font for text, but perhaps the lines between paragraphs could be 8-pt. And some fonts require more space between letters than narrower fonts. Find the option that prioritizes readability but also doesn't require wasted space.

• Get your priorities straight. You might want to brag about this or that accomplishment, but is it going to demonstrate the quality of your fit for the positions that you're applying to? If not, it's on the chopping block. Start eyeing your job duty descriptions with the same critical eye: if there's any verbiage that doesn't clearly and directly connect to the position descriptions for the jobs that you're applying to, it can go. Similarly, know what needs to stay. Be strategic about what you cut so that you're trimming fat that isn't related to the job description at hand.

• Have someone else read your resume. Tell them to look for wordiness, and maybe ask for their help in rephrasing things. You might think that there's only one way to word something, but asking for fresh eyes to review your resume can help you trim out unnecessary words.

Of course, if you need help creating a resume that speaks to your audience and reflects your strengths, you can always ask me for help.  I work on resumes for anyone from C-suite clients to their interns.  If you're in a rush, though, you can use these tips to give your own resume a bit of polish.

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What type of copyediting do you need?

I work with a lot of first-time authors, and most of them don't realize that they don't just need copyediting.  They need a specific type of copyediting. 

Most copyeditors break down copyediting into categories that anyone who studies metaphor theory (including yours truly, here) would find fascinating.  The categories are based on weight: light, medium, and heavy.  Then there's developmental copyediting, which breaks the pattern, disappointingly. 

Here's how I treat these categories in my own work.  (My categories are an adjusted form of the categories from the Bay Area Editors' Forum, which I highly recommend you peruse for yourself.)

Light copyediting includes:

• Correcting spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

• Correcting usage (e.g., commas with non-restrictive relative clauses, using “there” for “their,” etc.).

• Checking in-text cross-references (e.g., "Figure 5.6 indicates...").

• Ensuring consistent spelling, hyphenation, numerals, fonts, and capitalization across the text.

• Checking for proper sequencing in lists and other displayed material.

Medium copyediting includes light copyediting, plus:

• Changing text and headings to achieve parallel structure.

• Flagging inappropriate figures of speech.

• Ensuring that key terms are handled consistently.

• Ensuring that previews, summaries, and conclusions reflect content.

• Flagging ambiguous or incorrect statements.

• Eliminating wordiness, triteness, and inappropriate jargon.

Heavy copyediting includes medium and light copyediting, plus:

• Smoothing transitions and moving sentences to improve readability.

• Assigning new levels to heads to achieve logical structure.

Developmental (and sometimes just really, really heavy) copyediting includes all the above, plus:

• Restructuring content across and within paragraphs to achieve greater clarity and logic.

• Suggesting — and sometimes implementing — additions and deletions, noting them at the sentence and paragraph level.

You might have a sense of what you want, but the copyeditor (yours truly, again) will also have a say in what you're actually going to request.  For example, I've had authors send me manuscripts and ask for, say, "light" copyediting, but when I return the sample edit of five or so pages, they say something like, "But I wanted you to make it make sense!  Could you do some rewriting of transitions and headings?"

Yes, I can do that.  It's going to take longer and cost slightly more.  But never fear, because you're in good hands, and in most cases you can pay in installments.  Or you can get just light copyediting and then rework your own transitions and headings. 

But don't forget that I'm invested in your manuscript, too, because I want it to be as good a final product as possible (my reputation's on the line, too), so I want you to have the type of copyediting that will be most beneficial for your manuscript and that will also respect your vision for your project.

For more information about how each of these types of copyediting break down by price, you can check out the post about pricing and payment plans by clicking here.

Our rates, or: Yes, you'll get an invoice. No, it won't be that bad.

No "Perfect Rate"

Before I started freelancing, I had no idea that so many people got so much help with so many different kinds of writing.

That's mostly because I never needed much help with writing.  I hire out for things like taxes (I have never nor will ever prepare my own taxes), graphic design (looking at you, Wayward Broad Studio), and cello repair (not to mention lessons).

If you've ever needed help with editing or writing, you've probably thought to yourself -- probably late at night a few hours before your deadline -- "Can't I just pay someone to do this?"

The answer, obviously, is yes.

But the thought that no doubt followed swiftly on the heels of the previous thought was: "GETTING A WRITER/EDITOR WOULD COST A FORTUNE!"

That's just not true, though.

In a room of thirty different editorial freelancers, you'll find thirty different ways of arranging a contract.  That's why flexibility is one of my company's values: ultimately, as long as the rate is fair and the time-frame for payment is mutually acceptable, there's no universally right way to arrange a freelancing contract.

What's the "Industry-Standard Rate"?

First, you should know that even though there isn't a universal rate scale, there are some industry-standard guidelines and minimum rates.  The Editorial Freelancers Association website has a list of their minimum rates that you can peruse here.

Second, keep in mind that what counts as "industry-standard guidelines" for organizations like the EFA really are minimums: the EFA posts theirs as a way of being clear about the fact that no job that pays less than the posted rates will be allowed on the EFA website.  Now, I've got a PhD in rhetoric and composition and an MA in literature, language, and composition from a research university, where my dissertation passed with honors, and not long ago I was a tenure-track assistant professor and writing-program director.  I've got a decade of experience in teaching writing at the university level and six years of experience in administration, not to mention nearly a decade of freelancing experience.  Nevertheless, it's part of my Christian business practice not to have my rates be so high that students, retirees, people going through job transitions, etc., can't afford our help.  I try to keep our rates low so that LSE's services can be accessible to people who need them most.  

So, what are LSE's rates?

• Copyediting

  • Light editing: $50-55/hr

  • Medium editing: $55-60/hr

  • Heavy editing: $60-65/hr

  • Developmental editing: $70/hr

• Business genres: rates by type of document

  • LinkedIn profiles: $375 for an interview-based profile; $300 for a questionnaire-based profile.

  • Other documents (e.g., whitepapers, reports, blogs, website copy): $70/hr

If you don't see the type of genre or service you're interested in here, contact us so we can provide you with details about pricing.

Other Policies/Fine Print

Flat rates are another option, of course.  We base those on an estimate of what we think it would take me to complete the work in a set number of hours according to my price scale, above, so it's usually a wash, in terms of final cost.

If you are a new customer, please expect to pay a small deposit, even for short manuscripts. For longer manuscripts or anything that we estimate will be more than $1,000, we'll ask for a deposit of one-third of the estimate.  When we send you the first half of a longer project (e.g., a full first-pass of a book or report) we'll invoice you for the second third of the estimate.  Then when we deliver the final draft of the manuscript, we'll invoice you for the remaining actual cost (which may be more or less than the estimate).

We customarily expect payment within 30 days, but we often set up installment plans for students, unemployed persons, retirees, and just about anyone else who asks.  I was a poor grad student once; I understand the struggle.

Last but not least: if you've had a contract arrangement with a copyeditor/copywriter in the past that worked well for you, let us know. We can probably work with that other editor's paradigm, or we can at least try to accommodate you.

The Next Steps

If you want to know if Laughing Saint Editorial can accommodate your pricing or billing preferences, it never hurts to ask. 

Contact LSE today for an estimate and some free words of encouragement about your writing project!

Last updated: Sep 2019

International English Translation

Back when I taught in higher-ed, I was extraordinarily fortunate to teach students in first-year and advanced writing courses. Why was this such a blessing? Let me count the ways.

First, it brought some much-needed fresh perspective to what's honestly a pretty homogenous--linguistically and dialectically speaking--situation. That is, a university-level composition class is supposed to teach students strategies for successfully using what some of you undoubtedly think of as "proper English" but which I think of as "Standard Edited English" (SEE) or "Standard American English." Moreover, students aren't just expected to know (or learn, if they don't already know) SEE, they're supposed to know (or learn) a specific dialect of SEE/SAE, the hyper-correct, syntactically dense academic dialect of SEE/SAE.

The truth is that this academic dialect is often a foreign dialect to first-year students, even those who are native English speakers.

When an international student was in class--especially those for whom English was a second language--the native speakers had almost no choice but to confront the fact that their "native" way of speaking and writing was not, in fact, the only acceptable way to use their language. When they started getting papers back with comments from me like "Your metaphor here is unclear to me. What do you mean by 'a huge deal' when referring to the importance of tone?", they might be more likely to wonder, "Why did I use the word 'huge' instead of 'important'?" They were at least more open to my asking them to reconsider and explain their choices.

Second, it gave me a chance to find out more about where and how English is being taught around the world. My African students--whether from Nigeria, Ghana, or Ethiopia--all had learned British English, with its preference for preterites spelled with "t" rather than "(e)d" (e.g., I learnt how to spell in school) and such. Same with my Western European students from Germany, Greece, and, of course, Britain. My Asian students generally had learned American English conventions, but they struggled with syntax (wide is the divide between English syntax and Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Korean syntax!). Eastern European students--from places like Kazakhstan and Serbia--had learned both British and American conventions and were often comfortable switching back and forth. Thinking about the geopolitics behind how each of my students had learned English gave me a deeper sensitivity for their difficulties in adjusting to an American first-year writing class.

Third, and least important, whenever I had a student who used British English, I was transported to my own time in Europe when I lived in London and Paris. Sometimes, it's the little things...

So, what can Laughing Saint Editorial LLC do for international English speakers?

We can copyedit a document of any length from any dialect of English into American English. We can help you with light copyediting on a cover letter for a job in the States, medium copyediting of your resume, heavy copyediting of grant, or developmental copyediting of a book you'd like to market to an American audience, just to name some examples.

We can help you write important documents in American English. This is a service we offer to anyone, but we developed it with job-seekers in mind. If you need a resume, CV, or cover letter in American English, contact us to find out more about our international copywriting services.

We can also help you learn more about American English if you've learned a different dialect. This would entail working with you on reviewing and revising documents you've already written in English and on a few reading and writing exercises we'd send you. If this is what you think you need, contact us today to ask about our hourly rates for American English tutoring.