Journal of Inappropriate Articles to Include in a CV (2009) "In Defense of Sex in Public Places" Submitted.

July 29, 2009 1:46 PM

A former professor and I are meeting tomorrow, as she's writing me a recommendation for getting a PhD. She's requested that I bring a CV along with my writing samples. I've been employed as an editor, freelance writer and blogger for the most of my post-undergrad career. None of my articles are particularly serious or scholarly. What's the best way to format this info in a CV?

I'm aiming to get a (very) interdisciplinary degree in English or American Studies, so I feel like my bloggy contributions in the online world of arts and criticism is a bit more noteworthy than if I were going to study Renaissance theater. My professor noted that she's most interested in my papers, but I'd still like to show up with a detailed CV in case my employment history is relevant.

Most of my writing is celebrity interviews, blog posts for online, mainstream political/cultural magazines, movie reviews, and bar reviews. I've been gainfully employed as a freelance editor for many magazines at once, but I've never been, say, an associate editor on a masthead. I'm totally uninitiated in the arts of writing a CV and have no idea if I should mention specific articles I've written even if they're unrelated to my current endeavors. As I've been out of school for maybe 3 years, this is the bulk of my experience, so I'd rather not sweep it under the rug and turn in a 3/4 page CV.

Are there any templates for people in my situation? Am I overthinking a request from a professor who'd just like to familiarize herself with my post-college activities?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

posted by Hwaet to work & money (4 comments total)

You have mefi mail.
posted by quodlibet at 1:50 PM on July 29

This is how I'd do it, but I'm no expert:

Freelance Writer/Editor [Date - Date]
Write for various online and print magazines, including [X big names]. Articles ranging from [x], to [y], to [z]. Editor for [insert.] [Insert couple of sentences on freelance editing. I don't know what one does.]
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 4:22 PM on July 29

My two cents:

A resume is a targeted summary of your skills, education, and employment.

A CV is a listing of your life's work and is supposed to include just about everything.

So if she is asking for a CV I would find a good template and and start listing.

I think.
posted by SLC Mom at 5:55 PM on July 29

My guess is she's looking for the CV as a way of figuring out what you've been doing, and as a jumping off point for talking to you about what she can say in your letter.

I've been on a few academic job search committees, as a student representative. I would say that if you were applying to an academic job that was looking for evidence of ability to communicate with the public, or something like that, you could put all that stuff under the heading of "unrefereed publications". Since this is an informal setting, I would do the same (basically, I agree with you that your writing experience is relevant.) For me, I have a "master" CV that lists everything I've done that is even vaguely related to academia, one way or another, and I can edit it for specific circumstances, in this circumstance, the broadest possible CV is in order. For a situation like this, the "master" CV is appropriate.

I would say that the main areas that often show up in CVs are:

education
grants/scholarships/fellowships/
publications (refereed/nonrefereed... if you had refereed you would want to separate them into books, manuscripts, journals, and book reviews)
conference presentations
invited talks
Teaching/Teaching Assistantships
Research Assistantships
Other Work Experience
Service (this is work you've done on committees, for your department, really any academic volunteering you did as an undergrad).

It's okay if you don't have all of these, but these are common categories that you might want to think about whether you have *any* experience or accomplishments that you could put in them.

Now, because of the programs you are applying to and the experience you have, you may want to separate the nonrefereed publication section into chunks. I would separate it into:

print publications (compilation books, then journals then newspapers)
online publications (online magazines, for hire stuff--come up with a better term--, invited blog entries, self published blog)

The most important thing that I've found with CV's is making sure that what you've done is clear: don't make a blog look like a New Yorker article, or a newspaper article look like a peer-reviewed one. As long as what you've done is *clear* pretty much anything goes.
posted by carmen at 6:24 PM on July 29 [1 favorite]