Instead of complaining about Word’s Resume style suggestions. Turn it off! It’s easy to do, here’s how. I often see social media posts bitching about a Grammar or Style suggestion given by Word.
There are plenty of problems with Word’s Grammar and Refinements feature, but this one is an easy fix and it’s right there on the screen.
One of many similar gripes on social media
The five “Resume” checks in Word are NOT on automatically. At some point they were turned on manually.
Obviously, this document isn’t any kind of resume, so just turn off those checks. You can do that with any grammar/refinement setting in the ‘…’ menu “Stop checking for this”.
That’s the simple answer but dig a little deeper and you’ll find the annoyances in Grammar & Refinements.
No single ‘Resume’ setting
Choosing ‘Stop checking for this’ doesn’t prevent all “Resume” checks, despite the heading on the dialog box.
It only stops the individual test “More precise verbs make a resume more impactful”. aka “Vague Verbs“.
“Resume” is an overall word for five different checks.
- Avoid First Person References
- Superfluous Expressions
- Unsuitable Expressions
- Vague Quantifiers
- Vague Verbs
To turn off all “Resume” tests you have to go into Grammar and Refinements settings:
Choose Editor settings from the menu (see image above). That takes you to the Grammar and Refinements settings, a long, long list of options that should get some “Bad Interface” award.
In Word for Windows, File | Options | Proofing | Writing Style | Grammar & Refinements | Settings the list is broken up with some headings like “Resume” and “Vocabulary”
In Word for Mac, File | Options | Preferences | Spelling & Grammar | Writing Style | Grammar & Refinements | Settings, the same settings are available, in the same order as in WinWord. But without the headings, it’s even harder to navigate. The ‘Resume’ settings are there starting with “Avoid First Person References”.
Largest to smallest, Word’s missing grammar check
Stop Word’s grammar ‘help’ once or always
The mystery grammar mistake that Microsoft Word doesn’t always fix
