The ability to write clearly and effectively is an asset in nearly any profession. From emails to reports, written communication is a daily function that shapes perceptions and drives business outcomes. For job seekers, effectively showcasing these abilities on a resume can be a way to stand out to recruiters. This guide provides a roadmap for identifying, describing, and strategically placing your writing skills on your resume.
Why Strong Writing Skills Matter on a Resume
Strong writing skills are transferable abilities that signal more than just grammatical correctness. They demonstrate to a potential employer a candidate’s capacity for clear thinking, attention to detail, and professionalism. Recruiters look for candidates who can communicate complex ideas simply and persuasively.
The resume itself serves as the first and most direct piece of evidence of your writing proficiency. A thoughtfully structured and error-free document implicitly proves your claims. Conversely, a resume with typos, inconsistencies, or unclear language immediately undermines any assertion of being a strong writer.
Types of Writing Skills to Showcase
To effectively present your writing abilities, you first need to identify the specific types of writing you have experience with. Recognizing and naming these skills allows you to align your resume with the needs of an employer.
Content Creation
This category involves developing materials intended to engage or inform a specific audience. Examples include authoring blog posts to establish thought leadership, drafting social media updates to build a community, or creating scripts for informational videos.
Copywriting
Copywriting is the craft of writing with a persuasive goal, typically to prompt a specific action like making a purchase. This is seen in website landing pages, email marketing campaigns, product descriptions, and ad copy. It often involves understanding consumer psychology and using a specific brand voice.
Technical Writing
Technical writing focuses on making complex information clear and accessible. This skill is demonstrated in the creation of user manuals, internal procedure documents, or scientific reports. The goal is to distill specialized knowledge into easy-to-understand instructions for a designated audience.
Editing and Proofreading
This skill set involves refining written material. Editing focuses on improving the overall quality of writing, including its flow, clarity, and tone. Proofreading is the final check for surface errors like typos, grammatical mistakes, and punctuation issues.
Communication and Reporting
Many professional roles require the ability to synthesize information and present it clearly to stakeholders. This includes writing internal memos, preparing detailed project status reports, crafting client-facing presentations, or summarizing research findings. These tasks demonstrate your ability to convey information efficiently.
Grant or Proposal Writing
This specialized form of writing involves creating persuasive documents to secure funding or win new business. Grant writing requires thorough research and a detailed presentation of a case for financial support. Proposal writing involves outlining a clear plan, budget, and value proposition to convince a stakeholder.
How to Effectively Describe Your Writing Abilities
Simply stating you have “excellent writing skills” is not enough; you must demonstrate their impact. The most effective method is to use a formula that combines an action verb, a specific task, and a quantifiable result. This approach provides concrete evidence of your accomplishments and allows a hiring manager to visualize the value you brought.
Consider the difference between a vague statement and a metric-driven one. A resume might state, “Wrote company blog posts.” A more powerful version would be, “Authored over 15 SEO-optimized blog posts per month, driving a 30% increase in organic search traffic.” This revised statement uses a strong action verb, describes the task with details, and quantifies the achievement.
When quantifying your results, use numbers, percentages, and dollar amounts whenever possible. For example, instead of saying you “edited internal documents,” you could say you “Edited and streamlined a 50-page employee handbook, reducing onboarding questions by 25%.” If you don’t have precise metrics, you can still add context by describing the scale of your work, such as the audience you reached.
Where to Place Writing Skills on Your Resume
Strategically placing your writing skills on your resume ensures they are visible and contextualized for maximum impact. There are three primary locations where these abilities can be showcased, each serving a different purpose. This helps create a comprehensive picture of your writing proficiency for potential employers.
The work experience section is the most powerful place to demonstrate your writing abilities. Here, you can embed your skills directly into the bullet points describing your job accomplishments. This approach provides context, showing how you applied your writing skills to achieve specific outcomes. For instance, you can describe how you “Authored a comprehensive user manual for a new software product, which was downloaded by over 1,000 users in the first month.”
A dedicated skills section is useful for listing specific, keyword-friendly writing competencies. This is valuable for passing through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that scan for certain terms. Here, you can list skills like “AP Style,” “Content Management Systems (CMS),” or “SEO Copywriting.” This section provides a quick, scannable overview of your capabilities.
The professional summary at the top of your resume offers an opportunity for a brief, high-level mention of your writing prowess. A well-crafted sentence can frame your entire application. For example, a marketing professional might include a statement like, “Creative marketing manager with eight years of experience in crafting compelling digital content that grows brand engagement and drives revenue.”
Tailoring Your Writing Skills to the Job Description
To make your resume as effective as possible, you must tailor its content to the specific job you are applying for. This involves a careful analysis of the job description to identify the employer’s precise needs. Customizing your resume shows the hiring manager that you have the right skills and a genuine interest in the role.
Begin by thoroughly reading the job posting and highlighting keywords related to writing. Employers use terms like “communication,” “reporting,” “editing,” or “drafting documents.” Once you have a list of these keywords, strategically integrate them into your resume, particularly in the work experience and skills sections. This alignment helps your resume pass through automated screening software.
Mirroring the language of the job description goes beyond just matching keywords. Pay attention to the specific types of writing mentioned. If a role emphasizes “client-facing reports,” your resume should feature a bullet point describing your experience in creating exactly that. For example, you might write, “Prepared and delivered weekly client-facing progress reports, maintaining a 95% client satisfaction rate.”