Chapter 5: Working with Short Documents

Technology has advanced dramatically, and with those advancements, how we write and communicate in the workplace has adapted and changed. The letter or memo, once a common form of business and interoffice communication, now seems in some business circles like an ancient relic, having been replaced with email and other communication and electronic tools. Unless you work in a field that still relies heavily on written documentation, you might find that your skills of writing short documents in programs such as Microsoft Word have atrophied a bit. So, when occasions arise where you need to write a short document, such as a cover letter or a résumé, "the old-fashioned way," you might have a difficult time getting started, struggle to get your document to look "just right," or have trouble finding the most efficient workflows. Or, worse, you might feel unjustly unqualified for the task.

The purpose of this chapter...