Is Marisela Thornbury-Okafor a real reporter

No. She is invented for this page, and so are The Pendlewick Chronicle and Calderdale Evening Post. The figures show a shape and no story described here exists.

Where should a number sit in a line

Next to the thing it counts. The evidence rule looks for a number followed by a unit it recognises, and it allows up to two words between them, a window widened on 2026-09-13 after one adjective was found hiding a true claim. Written the short way, the line is caught by the rule and is easier to read.

Is that a fault in the checker

It is a limit, and it is worth knowing. The rule is deliberately literal so it cannot be talked into counting something that is not there. The effect is that a number and its unit should sit close together, which is also better writing.

What did the checker score it

98 out of 100, re-measured on 25 September 2026, with achievement quality 3 points short and readable volume 2 points short. The arithmetic is 100 × 30% for parseability + 100 × 30% for completeness + 95 × 40% for content. The writing check scored it 95, which is 91 of the 96 points that applied to it.

Should clippings go on the page

Yes, as a plain address in the contact row so it survives extraction. An editor will open it, and a parser will store it as text rather than losing it inside a graphic.

Which design is this rendered in

Bridge, one of the eight layouts in the ATS family and one of the 24 ATS-safe layouts out of 37. This page used to show the document in Ledger and argue that newsroom applications go to an editor directly. Ledger is in the family too now, and the eight were chosen on 2026-09-14 from a measurement: each one exports a PDF whose text layer scores exactly what the pasted text scores, on both test documents, in one column, with the reading order kept and no graphics.

Example · Media

A free reporter résumé example, and one word that cost five points

One complete reporter résumé, written out in full in three dated roles. The person is invented. The reading, the score and the note on the evidence rule are the product's own.

ConxfolioPublished 2026-09-13 · updated 2026-09-25

— bylines are the portfolio. the page is the record.

The reporter example résumé drawn as a complete page in the Bridge design: name, summary, three dated roles with five achievement lines each, education, skills and languages — The example below, drawn by the builder's own renderer in the Bridge design, one of the eight layouts in the ATS family. The picture was taken by pressing this page's own Use this example door and photographing what the editor rendered.

Reporters are hired on clippings and shortlisted on a page, and the page is usually the weakest document in the application. This example is written out in full so you can read a strong one, then put through the tools here so you can see what a parser makes of it. The candidate is invented.

The example, in full

An invented person. Not a real document, and not yours.

Marisela Thornbury-Okafor
Reporter
Manchester, United Kingdom · [email protected] · +44 161 496 0533

Summary
Reporter with seven years covering local government and health for regional titles, filing 240 articles a year and leading investigations built on records requests, court files and named sources across Greater Manchester.

Experience

Senior Reporter · The Pendlewick Chronicle, Manchester · 2021 to present

Wrote 240 articles a year on local government and health, and 3 national outlets followed 9 of those stories within a week.
Led a 4-month investigation into care home inspections, filed 30 records requests and published 6 articles that changed how the council reports failings.
Trained 5 trainee reporters on records requests, contempt rules and court reporting, and each of them filed 4 published stories within 3 months.
Built a contact book of 200 sources across 10 councils and 4 hospital trusts, and 60 of them answered across 90 articles.
Delivered 30 freedom of information appeals to the regulator over 3 years and won 21 of them, releasing 1 400 pages of inspection files.

Reporter · Calderdale Evening Post, Halifax · 2018 to 2021

Covered 3 council patches and filed 6 stories a week for 3 years, including 40 long reads and 12 audio pieces on housing.
Reported 2 court cases a week for 2 years and held every one of those 200 reports inside the contempt rules the editor set.
Investigated 9 housing complaints across 400 tenants on one estate, and the landlord repaired 120 homes in the 6 months after publication.
Edited the Saturday features pages for 2 years, commissioning 90 pieces a year from 20 freelance writers and holding every one to deadline.
Filed 30 records requests a year to 12 public bodies and turned 14 refusals into disclosures that produced 8 front-page articles.

Trainee Reporter · Calderdale Evening Post, Halifax · 2017 to 2018

Completed the newsroom training scheme in 12 months while filing 4 stories a week, and passed 5 examinations at the first attempt.
Attended 150 council and magistrates sessions in a single year and filed copy from 90 of them before the evening deadline.
Rewrote 600 press releases a year into news copy and added an independent source to 200 of them before anything reached the page.
Logged 500 reader calls and tips over 2 years and turned 40 of them into published stories on schools, roads and planning.
Learned shorthand to 100 words a minute within 9 months and used it in 3 court trials that allowed no recording equipment.

Education
MA Journalism · Rochdale Media School, Manchester · 2016 to 2017

Skills
news reporting, investigations, freedom of information requests, interviewing, media law, court reporting, data journalism, audio production, shorthand, source management

Languages
English · native · Yoruba · native

Certifications
NCTJ Diploma in Journalism · 2017

Output, investigation, pick-up

Two hundred and forty articles a year. A four-month investigation with thirty records requests filed. Nine stories broken and followed by three national outlets. Those three describe a reporter completely: the volume they can sustain, the patience they have for a long story, and whether anybody noticed.

Pick-up is the hardest of the three to write honestly, and a count of stories followed elsewhere is the version that survives a check. It is a fact about other publications rather than a claim about impact.

Where the number sits

The document opens with "Wrote 240 articles a year on local government and health", and the number sits directly against the unit it counts. That placement is the one the evidence rule reads most easily, and it is the reason this page carries a note about a measurement rule at all.

The rule is exact and it has a history. It looks for a number followed by a unit it recognises, and "articles" is on that list while "published" is not. Until 2026-09-13 the unit had to sit immediately after the number, so "240 published articles" read as no measurement at all and "240 articles" read as one, which is the same true claim scoring differently on one adjective. The window was widened that day to allow up to two words between the number and its unit, guarded so that a range cannot bridge a number to somebody else's unit and a bare year cannot pose as a count. The practical advice survived the change: put the number next to the thing it counts, which reads better anyway. The ATS checker prints which lines it counted, so you can find this on your own document in about a minute.

Skills for a journalist résumé, grouped

Marisela's skills group into reporting, law and formats. Reporting: news reporting, investigations, freedom of information requests, interviewing, source management, court reporting. Law and craft: media law, shorthand. Formats: data journalism, audio production. A news editor reads the reporting and law groups first, because they decide what can be published safely.

Broadcast and digital journalists add production tools as a group of their own. Groups can be renamed or dropped in the free résumé builder at any time.

From trainee reporter to senior reporter

A trainee's résumé proves output and accuracy: stories filed, courts covered, a shorthand speed reached. The Calderdale roles start there. A reporter adds exclusives and investigations.

A senior reporter adds pick-up and impact: stories followed by other outlets, an investigation that changed a decision. Keep the link to published work in the contact row. The writer portfolio guide covers the clippings.

How it reads and scores

The import review reads 3 roles, 1 degree, 2 languages and 10 skills before anything reaches the editor. The ATS checker scored it 98 out of 100, re-measured on 25 September 2026, with achievement quality 3 points short and readable volume 2 points short: 100 × 30% for parseability, 100 × 30% for completeness and 95 × 40% for content. The writing check scored it 95, which is 91 of the 96 points that applied here, and the five it did not award are the tense rule. How our examples are made explains the import review and the scoring behind these figures.

The Conxfolio import review after the door opened, showing Marisela Thornbury-Okafor's example read into fields beside the rendered page, with the line saying it is an example — Marisela Thornbury-Okafor's reporter résumé read into fields, each field beside the line it came from.

The same import review on a 390 pixel phone screen, with the example notice above the accept button — Marisela Thornbury-Okafor's reporter résumé in the same review on a 390 px phone.

What this example leaves off

No source names, no unpublished material and no list of every outlet that has ever run a freelance piece. Sources are the one thing a reporter never puts in writing, and an editor reads their absence as professional.

Social media follower counts are left off as well. A following is an audience the platform lends you, it moves for reasons that have nothing to do with reporting, and an editor hiring for a patch is buying the records requests rather than the reach.

What to change for your own

Change the patch. Politics, sport, business, culture and court reporting all use this shape with different sources and different risks. Keep the shape: three dated roles, five verb-first lines under each, a figure in every line. Then put in your own output, records requests, investigations and pick-up.

Keep shorthand and media law in the skills row if you have them, because they are still filter terms. Keep the clippings address readable. The guide on quantifying achievements covers the rest, the design gallery holds 37 layouts, and the copywriter example, the content strategist example and the paralegal example sit beside this one.

Write yours beside it

Opens the builder with Marisela's example loaded, saved as its own entry in the Bridge design. Replace every line with your own. Free, no account.

Use this example Check a résumé instead

Questions

Is Marisela Thornbury-Okafor a real reporter: No. She is invented for this page, and so are The Pendlewick Chronicle and Calderdale Evening Post. The figures show a shape and no story described here exists.
Where should a number sit in a line: Next to the thing it counts. The evidence rule looks for a number followed by a unit it recognises, and it allows up to two words between them, a window widened on 2026-09-13 after one adjective was found hiding a true claim. Written the short way, the line is caught by the rule and is easier to read.
Is that a fault in the checker: It is a limit, and it is worth knowing. The rule is deliberately literal so it cannot be talked into counting something that is not there. The effect is that a number and its unit should sit close together, which is also better writing.
What did the checker score it: 98 out of 100, re-measured on 25 September 2026, with achievement quality 3 points short and readable volume 2 points short. The arithmetic is 100 × 30% for parseability + 100 × 30% for completeness + 95 × 40% for content. The writing check scored it 95, which is 91 of the 96 points that applied to it.
Should clippings go on the page: Yes, as a plain address in the contact row so it survives extraction. An editor will open it, and a parser will store it as text rather than losing it inside a graphic.
Which design is this rendered in: Bridge, one of the eight layouts in the ATS family and one of the 24 ATS-safe layouts out of 37. This page used to show the document in Ledger and argue that newsroom applications go to an editor directly. Ledger is in the family too now, and the eight were chosen on 2026-09-14 from a measurement: each one exports a PDF whose text layer scores exactly what the pasted text scores, on both test documents, in one column, with the reading order kept and no graphics.

Conxfolio is a free set of four career tools: a résumé builder with 37 rendered layouts, an ATS résumé checker that prints its own arithmetic, a cover letter builder that traces every proof paragraph back to the line it came from, and a portfolio builder with 22 authored designs. There is no account to create, nothing is held back for a paid plan, and no language model is used anywhere in the product, so the readers, the score and the letter are deterministic code you can check.