• Use a personal email address on the ERAS application
• Use a U.S. Address
• Use a U.S. Phone Number
• Your application photo matters. Provide a good one! Description of experiences
• Spell, Capitalize and Punctuate Correctly
• Use gapping and parallelism.
• Gapping is the use of incomplete sentences to present your information concisely.For example, you might write: Composition Instructor (2000–2004). Planned course activities. Graded all assignments.”By using incomplete sentences, you cut out unnecessary words but convey the responsibilities of the position.
• Parallelism means keeping the structure of your phrases consistent throughout a document.For example, if you use verb phrases in one portion of your CV to describe duties, use them throughout your CV. Verb phrases are a strong way to describe responsibilities. Use the present tense for roles you currently hold and past tense for former roles.
• An example of parallelism could be:
  • Taught a class of 20 students
  • Graded all assignments.
  • Planned course activities
• You should use both gapping and parallelism when writing a successful CV. Reader should understand the extent of your experience in terms of: Settings
• Whom you worked with (types of specialists, researchers, etc. you worked with)
• Populations served (adults, children, underserved, bilingual)
• Clinical issues you addressed
• Skills developed/demonstrated during the experience
• Achievements/Accomplishments gained during the experience
• Extracurricular activities and interests. Briefly focus on how activities helped you develop skills.
• OK to use bullets
• Use action-oriented verbs
• Don’t use the first person. I distributed medications at . . .” vs. “Distributed medications at . . .”