Preparing the Annotated Resume 
From: Dr. G. Jennifer Wilson (gjwilson@college.ucla.edu),
Asst. Vice Provost for Honors
To: Students planning to apply for a national scholarship that needs institutional nomination.
Re: Preparing the annotated résumé for the institutional letter writer and other letter writers.
How to prepare an Annotated Résumé: The annotated résumé follows the format of an annotated bibliography. For each entry there is an annotation of a few lines describing the achievement, accolade, work experience etc. The annotated résumé thus may run to several pages. It should never be used for employment purposes. Its purpose is to educate your letters-of-recommendation writers or your graduate school application readers in such a way that they will know far more about you than they might otherwise know.
Examples of annotated entries: Notice that the convention is to begin with the most recent entries and go backwards.
Honors and Awards:
2003 – 2006 (continuing). Member of UCLA College Honors Program. A program in which the student must complete a minimum of 44 units of Honors credit course work and maintain an exceptional grade point average. Only 3% of students in the graduating class achieve College Honors at graduation.
2005: Recipient of the Andrea L. Rich Honors Programs Scholarship. Awarded in competition to a high achieving College Honors student in the Humanities who has financial need.
2004: Recipient of Honors Summer Research Stipend. Awarded in competition for a research proposal to study Mayan Burial Practices through forensic archeological evidence. Research conducted under the auspices of Professor Douglas Hollan, Anthropology.
What to include on your Annotated Résumé: Your entries should include all of the following:
1) Career Goals and Objectives: In this section, make a brief statement of your vision of yourself in the future – both academic plans and career plans. It’s ok to be general if your career plans are not yet gelled but don’t be so general as to be meaningless. (Meaningless = I want a great career that challenges my talents; general = I plan graduate study either in international affairs or law and hope to enter public service in the future; specific = I plan a graduate degree in public policy and international affairs and my goal is to work in the US foreign service in Japan.)
2) Education: Here list all the institutions that you have attended since high school and the degrees expected or attained. Include expected graduation accolades (e.g. Summa Cum Laude; Departmental Honors; College Honors) and current Grade Point Average.
3) Honors and Awards: Here, make an annotated list of Honors and awards following the annotated model described above. Don’t forget Dean’s/Provost’s list, College Honors, Departmental Honors (describe your Senior Thesis) and PBK and Latin Honors as well as individual awards. You may also include major awards in high school (e.g. if you were valedictorian). As above, begin with most recent and move backwards.
4) Research Experience: Here, prepare an annotated list of your research experience. This can be SRP experiences, but also class experiences in which you have done a research project or paper. Make a list of these. If your research did not have a title or has an undescriptive title, give the research a title. Indicate your hypotheses and conclusions and the professor under whom you worked. E.g. 2006 : Research in Voting Patterns of Recent Naturalized Citizens. Under the auspices of Professor Vilma Ortiz, conducted census data research on citizens naturalized in the past ten years in Los Angeles and correlated data with voter registration index. Confirmed hypothesis of high democratic participation. Begin with the most recent and move backwards.
5) Internships and Other Academic Experiences: Here, include Internships (explaining with what organization and what your duties and tasks were); also include academic presentations (perhaps you did a presentation of your research at a student conference), publications (don’t worry if you don’t have any yet!); study abroad (annotate what you studied and where and under what organization); and anything else academic. E.g. Summer 2005: Internship with the Pacific Council in Los Angeles. The Pacific Council promotes international trade, study, and exchange of ideas amongst nations on the Pacific Rim. I worked as a researcher for Dr. Geoffrey Garrett, examining the free-trade business climate of Singapore. My work included attendance at two conferences in Singapore and presentation of my research to other Council Fellows.
6) Community Work/Service: In this section, include an annotated list of paid or unpaid community work. This may include political campaign work, service work associated with a church or other service group, campus service work (e.g. student government), membership in service organizations (annotate entry on the résumé with your role in the organization) etc. Include dates, documenting the most recent first and annotating your role and participation. If your organizations use acronyms, spell out the acronym at least once to clarify what the organization is.
7) Other Work Experience: Here, include annotated lists of other work. Usually it is not necessary to list “character building jobs” (slung hash at LuValle!) in detail but it is valuable to get a picture of how much the student may have had to work during his/her career at UCLA.
8) Extracurricular Activities: Unlike service work, this is non-academic activity that you do to cultivate the self. Perhaps you play the piano or sing or play soccer or paint. Indicate these. If you belong to organizations that promote these activities indicate membership and annotate the entry as above. For the Rhodes, for example, you do not have to be a GREAT athlete to be an excellent candidate (this is a misconception); but the Rhodes people are looking for the well rounded person, strong in body, mind, and character. So if you belong to a swim club or a tennis club (for example) that would look good.
9) Leadership: In this section, list some examples of instances in which you have demonstrated particular leadership. This may be part of activities documented elsewhere on the résumé but should describe the particular leadership situation. E.g. 2005: Leadership in Initiating Liaison between Mobile Clinic and Public Policy Students. During my volunteer work with the Mobile Clinic in downtown Los Angeles, I discovered that very few students choose to work in the skid row homeless community. I learned from a professor that graduate students in Public Policy have to participate in service work in the city as part of their requirements to the degree. I worked with the department to get a link on the PP website to inform graduate students about the rich service opportunities available at the Mobile Clinic.
10) Languages and Special Talents: Here cite languages spoken and degree of proficiency; computer skills; any other special skills (you may have certification in EMT, for example)
11) Miscellany: Put here anything that you can’t fit in anywhere else. Ok to leave this part blank.
In Addition:
1) Write a personal paragraph on yourself. This should try to reveal something about you as a person - where you grew up; what your family is like; what values you hold dear; any special struggles you have had to face growing up; any special triumphs. Think about talking to a dear friend and write down what you would like him/her to know about you. This helps get the right tone.
2) Include a list (it can be tentative) of people who will write letters of recommendation for you. Here, list not only the names but also the titles of the people and indicate whether the emphasis in the letter will be academic or speaking to other of your virtues (your community work for example).
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