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Create ResumeA resume grammar check is not just about catching typos. It is about making sure your resume reads clearly, consistently, and professionally before a recruiter or hiring manager decides whether you are worth interviewing. In the Canadian job market, small grammar issues can make a strong candidate look careless, especially when the role requires communication, accuracy, client interaction, reporting, leadership, or attention to detail. I do not reject every candidate because of one typo. That would be dramatic, and hiring already has enough theatre. But when grammar mistakes appear throughout a resume, they start to affect trust. The recruiter begins wondering whether the work behind the resume will be just as messy.
A resume grammar check is the process of reviewing your resume for grammar, spelling, punctuation, tense, sentence structure, consistency, readability, and professional wording.
That sounds simple, but most candidates only check the obvious things. They look for spelling mistakes, fix a comma here or there, and assume the resume is ready. The real issue is usually not one spelling error. It is the overall impression created by inconsistent writing.
When I review a resume, I am not reading it like an English teacher with a red pen and unresolved childhood trauma. I am reading it like someone trying to understand whether this person can do the job, communicate clearly, and represent themselves professionally.
A proper resume grammar check should answer these questions:
Does every sentence make sense on the first read?
Are job titles, dates, company names, and locations formatted consistently?
Are bullet points written in the same tense and style?
Are achievements clear, specific, and easy to understand?
Does the language sound professional without being stiff or fake?
A resume is not a writing test unless you are applying for a writing role. But it is always a judgement document.
Recruiters and hiring managers use your resume to make fast decisions. They are looking for relevant experience, career progression, technical skills, industry fit, education, certifications, and evidence that you can solve the problems attached to the role.
Grammar matters because it affects how easily they can see those things.
A strong candidate with poor resume grammar creates friction. The recruiter has to work harder to understand what they did, what level they worked at, and how strong their experience actually is. Most recruiters will not sit there lovingly decoding unclear bullet points like they are reading ancient scrolls. They move on.
In Canadian hiring, this is especially important for roles where written communication is part of the job. That includes administration, customer service, human resources, operations, marketing, finance, project coordination, management, healthcare administration, legal support, sales, business analysis, and many professional office roles.
Poor grammar can create several doubts:
Can this candidate communicate clearly with clients, colleagues, or leadership?
Will their emails, reports, documentation, or presentations need heavy correction?
Do they pay attention to detail?
Are there grammar mistakes that could make the candidate look less careful than they actually are?
That last point matters more than candidates think. In hiring, employers rarely say, “We rejected this person because their punctuation was inconsistent.” What they often say instead is, “The resume felt rough,” “I was not sure about their communication skills,” or “Something seemed a bit off.”
That “off” feeling is often the result of unclear writing, weak grammar, messy formatting, and inconsistent wording working together quietly in the background.
Did they rush the application?
Is this resume a fair reflection of their actual work quality?
That does not mean your resume needs to sound like a legal contract written by someone who hates joy. It needs to be clean, clear, and easy to trust.
Some grammar mistakes are small and harmless. Others damage the strength of your resume because they affect clarity or credibility.
This is one of the most common resume grammar issues I see.
For current roles, use present tense for responsibilities you still perform. For past roles, use past tense.
Weak Example
The sentence mixes past tense and present tense. It feels careless.
Good Example
For a current role, present tense works.
Good Example
For a past role, past tense works.
The issue is not that recruiters are obsessed with verb tense. The issue is that inconsistency creates distraction. A resume should guide the reader, not make them mentally edit every line.
Candidates often capitalize words that do not need capitalization because they want them to look important.
Weak Example
This reads awkwardly. It looks like the candidate is trying to make regular tasks look more formal.
Good Example
Capitalize proper nouns, company names, software names, certifications, departments when used formally, and official job titles when appropriate. Do not capitalize every task like it is being knighted.
A typo in a less important word may be forgiven. A spelling mistake in a key skill, software, certification, company name, or job title is harder to ignore.
For example, if a candidate applying for an accounting role misspells “reconciliation,” that is not just a grammar issue. It creates doubt around attention to detail in a field where accuracy matters.
The same applies to Canadian terms and spelling. If you are applying in Canada, use Canadian English consistently. That means words like “organize,” “analyse” is less common in Canadian resumes than “analyze,” and “labour” may appear in certain contexts. The bigger point is consistency. Do not switch randomly between Canadian, British, and American spelling throughout the resume.
Many resume grammar problems are actually sentence structure problems. Candidates try to include too much in one bullet point, and the result becomes heavy and unclear.
Weak Example
This is not terrible, but it is tiring. The achievement is buried under too many words.
Good Example
The second version is cleaner. It keeps the meaning but removes the fog.
This is especially common for candidates whose first language is not English. Let me be very clear: being multilingual is not a weakness. In many Canadian workplaces, it is a strength. But your resume still needs to read naturally in English if the role requires English communication.
Weak Example
Good Example
Small words matter because they make sentences sound complete.
Passive language makes achievements sound weaker because it hides ownership.
Weak Example
This tells me reports existed. It does not clearly tell me what you did.
Good Example
This is stronger because it shows ownership and purpose.
Resume punctuation does not need to be fancy. It needs to be consistent.
If one bullet ends with a period, all similar bullets should end with a period. If you use semicolons in one section and no punctuation in another, the resume can look patched together.
Personally, I prefer resume bullets without periods when they are short fragments, and with periods when they are full sentences. Either can work. What looks messy is switching randomly for no reason.
Candidates often ask whether one typo will ruin their chances. Usually, no.
One typo in an otherwise strong resume is not the end of the world. Recruiters are human. We know people make mistakes. We also know some hiring processes are so slow and chaotic that employers should not be judging anyone too aggressively for imperfection.
But repeated grammar mistakes are different. They create a pattern.
When I see several mistakes, I start asking different questions:
Did this person proofread their resume?
Are they applying too quickly without tailoring?
Will they communicate clearly in the role?
Does the resume represent their best effort?
If this is the polished version, what does normal work look like?
That last question is the uncomfortable one.
Hiring is full of imperfect signals. A resume is not a perfect measure of talent. Some excellent candidates have weak resumes. Some average candidates have beautifully polished resumes. Recruiters know this. But when the market is competitive, employers often choose the candidate who creates fewer doubts.
Good grammar removes unnecessary doubt.
It does not guarantee an interview, but it protects the strength of your experience.
Use this checklist before sending your resume for any Canadian job application.
Do not rely only on spell check. Spell check may miss correctly spelled words used incorrectly.
Look for mistakes in:
Job titles
Company names
Software names
Certifications
Locations
Industry terms
Contact information
LinkedIn URL
Email address
A misspelled company name or software tool looks worse than a normal typo because it suggests the candidate did not check the important details.
Use present tense for your current role and past tense for previous roles.
Current role examples:
Manage employee records and support payroll documentation
Coordinate vendor communication and internal scheduling
Prepare monthly reports for department leaders
Past role examples:
Managed employee records and supported payroll documentation
Coordinated vendor communication and internal scheduling
Prepared monthly reports for department leaders
Do not mix tenses within the same bullet unless there is a clear reason.
This is one of those grammar issues that makes a resume feel less polished.
Weak Example
Good Example
Weak Example
Good Example
Better yet, remove “my responsibilities include” completely and make the sentence stronger:
Good Example
Decide how you will punctuate resume bullets and use that style consistently.
If your bullets are short action statements, you can leave off periods:
Managed client onboarding for new accounts
Prepared weekly sales reports for leadership
Coordinated interview scheduling across multiple departments
If your bullets are full sentences, use periods consistently:
Managed client onboarding for new accounts and improved documentation accuracy.
Prepared weekly sales reports that helped leadership track regional performance.
Coordinated interview scheduling across multiple departments while maintaining candidate communication.
Do not mix both styles randomly in the same section.
Use capitalization for official names, not for ordinary duties.
Capitalize:
Microsoft Excel
Salesforce
University of Toronto
Certified Human Resources Professional
Government of Ontario
Royal Bank of Canada
Do not randomly capitalize:
customer service
team meetings
monthly reports
office administration
hiring process
project coordination
A resume with too much capitalization starts to look like someone is shouting politely.
A resume bullet should usually be easy to understand in one read. If a bullet needs to be read twice, it may be too long or too crowded.
A useful test is this: can a recruiter understand the action, scope, and result within a few seconds?
If not, simplify the sentence.
Weak Example
Good Example
Cleaner writing makes your experience look stronger because the recruiter can actually see it.
Grammar tools can help you catch spelling, punctuation, and basic sentence issues. Use them. I am not precious about this. If a tool helps you clean up your resume, use the tool.
But do not let a grammar checker rewrite your resume into bland corporate soup.
This is where candidates get into trouble. A grammar tool may improve the sentence technically but weaken the positioning. It may turn a strong, specific bullet into something vague, polished, and completely forgettable.
For example:
Weak Example
This may sound formal, but it says very little. It is the kind of sentence that makes recruiters stare at the screen and quietly lose the will to continue.
Good Example
The second version is simpler and stronger.
When using a resume grammar checker, review every suggestion with judgement. The goal is not to make your resume sound more complicated. The goal is to make it clearer, cleaner, and more credible.
Grammar tools are useful for:
Spelling errors
Missing commas
Repeated words
Basic grammar mistakes
Sentence clarity
Wordiness
Inconsistent punctuation
Awkward phrasing
Grammar tools are not reliable for:
Recruiter impact
Achievement strength
Canadian hiring context
Industry expectations
ATS keyword relevance
Seniority level
Whether your bullet points sound believable
Whether your resume is positioned for the right role
A grammar tool can tell you whether a sentence is grammatically acceptable. It cannot tell you whether the sentence helps you get shortlisted.
That is the part candidates need to take seriously.
A recruiter does not read a resume slowly from top to bottom at first. Most recruiters scan first, then read deeper if the resume looks relevant.
That means grammar issues show up in layers.
Before reading details, I notice whether the resume looks organized. Messy grammar often travels with messy formatting. If the resume has inconsistent headings, random punctuation, uneven spacing, and clunky sentences, it creates a poor first impression before the experience even gets a fair chance.
This is not about being fancy. Canadian resumes do not need colourful graphics, photos, or complicated templates. In fact, those often create more problems than they solve. A clean, ATS friendly resume with consistent formatting usually performs better.
Once the resume looks relevant, I look at the bullet points. I want to understand what the candidate did, where they added value, and whether their experience matches the role.
A good resume bullet usually includes:
A clear action
Relevant context
Scope or volume where useful
Tools, systems, or stakeholders when relevant
A result or purpose when possible
It does not need to include all of these every time. But if every bullet is vague, the resume becomes difficult to evaluate.
Grammar is not only about correctness. It is also about level.
A senior candidate should not sound like they only completed basic tasks. An entry level candidate should not inflate every duty into executive language. Both can feel wrong.
For example, if an administrative assistant writes, “Spearheaded enterprise wide operational transformation,” I will probably question what actually happened. Maybe they improved a filing process. That is useful. But say that clearly.
If a senior operations manager writes, “Helped with team tasks,” that undersells their level.
Good resume grammar supports accurate positioning. It helps the reader understand your level without overstatement or understatement.
Many resume grammar issues come from vague or awkward wording. These examples show how to make resume lines cleaner and more recruiter friendly.
Weak Example
This is grammatically fine, but weak. “Responsible for” often makes the candidate sound passive.
Good Example
This version shows action and service quality.
Weak Example
The phrase “was involved in the process of” adds weight but no value.
Good Example
Now the contribution is clearer.
Weak Example
This tells me almost nothing.
Good Example
Now I can see who the candidate worked with and why it mattered.
Weak Example
This is a big claim. Maybe true, but most resumes use language like this without proof.
Good Example
This is more believable and more useful.
Weak Example
How? Where? For whom? By how much? This sentence asks the recruiter to do all the thinking.
Good Example
Specific beats dramatic almost every time.
The way grammar affects your resume can change depending on your career stage.
Entry level resumes are often judged on potential, clarity, education, transferable skills, internships, part time work, volunteer experience, and early career achievements.
For entry level candidates in Canada, grammar matters because employers may have limited work history to evaluate. If your resume is clean, clear, and professional, it helps create confidence.
Avoid trying to sound overly senior. Do not write like you managed the entire company when you supported one project. Recruiters can usually tell when wording is inflated. Clear, honest language works better.
Good Example
This is simple, specific, and credible.
Mid career resumes need stronger achievement language. Grammar mistakes at this level can be more damaging because employers expect stronger communication and judgement.
A mid career candidate should show ownership, outcomes, collaboration, systems, and measurable contributions where possible.
Good Example
This tells me what the person managed, the scope, and the improvement.
Senior resumes need clarity at a higher level. The biggest grammar issue I see in senior resumes is not basic spelling. It is dense, overloaded language.
Some senior candidates write sentences so heavy that the meaning disappears. They try to sound strategic, but the result feels vague.
Weak Example
This could mean almost anything. It sounds important but says very little.
Good Example
That is clearer. It still sounds senior, but now it has substance.
If you are applying for jobs in Canada, your resume should feel natural for the Canadian job market. That does not mean stuffing the word Canada into every section like seasoning gone wrong. It means using the right terminology, formatting, and tone.
In most Canadian private sector job applications, “resume” is the common term. “CV” is usually used for academic, medical, research, scientific, or international contexts.
If you are applying for a marketing coordinator role in Toronto, a resume is expected. If you are applying for an academic research position, a CV may be appropriate.
Canadian resumes usually work best when they are direct, clean, and achievement focused. Overly formal language can feel unnatural.
Avoid phrases like:
Esteemed professional seeking to leverage multifaceted competencies
Dynamic visionary with unparalleled passion
Results driven guru
Please do not call yourself a guru unless you are applying to teach yoga on a mountain and even then, maybe relax.
Use clear language instead:
Operations coordinator with experience supporting scheduling, reporting, vendor communication, and process improvement
Customer service professional with a strong track record of resolving client concerns and improving follow up processes
Candidates moving to Canada often bring resume wording from other markets. Some of it works. Some of it needs adjustment.
For example, “fresher” is not commonly used on Canadian resumes. Use “recent graduate” or “entry level candidate” instead.
“Passed out from university” can be misunderstood. Use “graduated from” instead.
“Updation” is not standard Canadian English. Use “updates” or “updating.”
These details matter because they affect how natural your resume sounds to Canadian recruiters and employers.
A good resume grammar check should happen in stages. Do not try to fix everything in one pass. That is how mistakes survive.
Before checking commas, read each bullet and ask: does this clearly explain what I did?
If the meaning is weak, grammar correction alone will not save it.
A polished vague sentence is still vague.
Review your resume in sections:
Header and contact information
Professional summary
Skills section
Work experience
Education
Certifications
Volunteer work or projects, if included
This helps you catch inconsistencies you would miss if you only skim the full document.
This sounds basic, but it works. Reading out loud helps you catch awkward phrasing, missing words, and sentences that are too long.
If you run out of breath reading one bullet, the bullet is probably doing too much.
When you read from top to bottom, your brain starts predicting what should be there. Reading from bottom to top interrupts that pattern and helps you catch smaller errors.
This is especially useful for dates, punctuation, and job titles.
Your current role, most relevant role, professional summary, and skills section need extra attention. These are usually the sections recruiters read first.
A typo buried in a less relevant role from ten years ago is not ideal, but a typo in your current job title or summary is much worse.
Some formatting and spacing issues only appear after export. Always check the final PDF before applying.
Also keep an editable version in Word or Google Docs, but send the format requested in the job posting. If no format is specified, PDF is usually safest for preserving formatting, unless the employer’s applicant tracking system asks for a Word document.
A resume grammar check should improve your resume, not strip out your personality, weaken your achievements, or make everything sound generic.
Some candidates edit their resumes until every line sounds like it was assembled by a committee of tired office furniture.
Clear is good. Robotic is not.
Weak Example
Good Example
The second version is still professional, but it sounds like a real person did real work.
Big words do not fix weak experience. Sometimes they make it look worse because they create distance between the claim and the actual work.
Use strong verbs, not inflated language.
Better verbs include:
Managed
Coordinated
Improved
Prepared
Led
Supported
Analyzed
Resolved
Implemented
Reviewed
Trained
Developed
Choose the verb that honestly matches your contribution.
AI can help with grammar and clarity, but it can also exaggerate, invent, or smooth out important details until the resume sounds impressive but inaccurate.
That is risky. In interviews, candidates are expected to explain what they wrote. If your resume says you “led strategic transformation” and you actually updated a spreadsheet, the interview will get uncomfortable quickly.
Use AI carefully. Let it help you improve clarity, not manufacture a career you did not have.
Grammar and formatting work together. A resume can have perfect grammar and still look unprofessional if the formatting is inconsistent.
Check:
Font consistency
Heading style
Date alignment
Bullet spacing
Margins
Section order
Job title and company formatting
Use of bold text
Contact information placement
A clean resume helps recruiters focus on your qualifications. A messy resume makes them work harder than they want to.
Before you submit your resume, do one final review with the job posting beside you.
This is where grammar, clarity, and relevance come together.
Ask yourself:
Does my resume use the right terminology for this role?
Are my strongest relevant qualifications easy to find?
Have I removed awkward wording and vague statements?
Are my bullet points consistent in tense and structure?
Is my Canadian English spelling consistent?
Does the resume sound like a capable professional, not a keyword stuffed robot?
Would a recruiter understand my fit within ten seconds?
That last question matters. Recruiters often make initial decisions quickly, especially for high volume roles. Your resume does not need to tell your entire life story. It needs to make the right evidence easy to see.
A clean resume grammar check helps you avoid losing opportunities for preventable reasons. It will not turn an unrelated background into a perfect match. But it can make sure your actual qualifications are not weakened by errors, unclear wording, or careless presentation.
And that is the practical point. Grammar is not decoration. It is part of how your professionalism is interpreted.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
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