Learn English – Listing skills in CV. Good knowledge or good knowledge of

ellipsislistsprepositions

I'm writing a CV in English and I want to list my skills. Should I write:

Good knowledge:

  • X
  • Y
  • Z

or:

Good knowledge of:

  • X
  • Y
  • Z

I know that a proper form is for example "I have knowledge of X" but I don't know which form is proper in this case.

Best Answer

I would say that the second option, Good Knowledge Of: ... , sounds more natural. It is not uncommon in formal or academic writing to write lists as though they were part of a complete sentence:

I have good knowledge of X, Y, and Z.
-----
I have good knowedge of

  • X,
  • Y, and
  • Z.

Outside of academic writing, however, this often gets simplified into the form you used—removing the "I have" and extra punctuation and conjunctions. You can go here to read more about bulleted lists (and there are a number of links to other articles on list styles at the bottom of the page).

In this context, it is also natural to see things like Skilled with or Trained in or Good understanding of; in American usage, Proficient in is fairly common. It just depends on how you want to present your capabilities.

The first option is possible, certainly grammatical, but "Good Knowledge" as a header feels unnatural to me. It works in an introductory phrase ("Good Knowledge of") but not as a descriptive category ("Good Knowledge").

To keep that structure, try to pick a more specific noun, such as Skills, or Qualifications, or even just Knowledge (again, depends on how you want to present your skills).

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