Information density in resumes

It's useful to pay attention to the information density of each of your sentences. How much information do I provide the reader? You can do this analysis on a word-by-word level. Here are a few examples inspired by resumes I've seen in real life.

  • Worked with clients [extensively] during the planning, design, and execution phases [with the goal of producing a quality product]. Note how the words and phrases between brackets could be removed with no loss of information. Most of the time, we can infer that you were trying to create a product
  • Demonstrated outstanding communication skills during tutoring [by assisting with questions, teaching many efficient problem-solving methods and helping clear up concepts seen in class]. Note how most of this sentence just defines what tutoring is.

Another example is from a web design instructor position:

  • Taught introductory web development and design classes to students [with minimal prior programming experience]. This is implied by "introductory".
  • Created a curriculum [with the goal of fostering creativity and better understanding of website development through web language applications]. The key information this sentence adds is that the person not only taught a class, but designed some parts of it. However, it should be obvious that some web language had to be used and understood.
  • Communicated ideas and concepts clearly while reviewing the main principles to build a solid foundation in web development. This sentence provides no information. In the first half, it's expected that a teacher would communicate clearly, it's not worth mentioning unless you have concrete evidence that demonstrates the teaching quality. The second half is already part of teaching a class.
  • Delivered lessons on using HTML, CSS and general web design principles. This provides some information about what was taught concretely, though largely guessable.

In the most extreme case, the above could be condensed into "Designed and taught an introductory class on web design using HTML and CSS. Learned how to communicate concepts clearly to students with no prior experience". How much you will want to shorten depends on your situation. When you have little experience and need to fill a full page, it's fine to be a little bit more verbose. Just stay aware of which details are most important for the reader.