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1 Spend the time needed - Your resume is YOUR sales brochure.
Double check you've followed the Word Processing Hints.
2 Medium and large companies scan all resume.  Make sure the scanner does not make errors by using proportional san serif (like Ariel) fonts.  A resume is selected from the database when it matches keywords for a position.  Use plenty of keywords like computer, spreadsheet, Excel, Internet, etc in your resume.  Bold stuff you want noticed like "saved the company $10,000,000" or "turned irate customers into happy customers."
3 Make your resume easy to read, and make every word count.
Avoid abbreviations of things that are not commonly know.  Abbreviate when there is NO question (like NJ for New Jersey), and Jan. for January.
4 Put an Objective that is SPECIFIC about what you want and what you have to offer.  
What field, what type of position are you looking for and are you qualified for? 
"An exciting position in a progressive company that will recognize my talents...blah, blah, blah" is worse than useless. It will stop the reader from continuing to read your resume.  
State the type of company you hope to work for, the type of position you would like to obtain.  Summarize your qualifications (course work and/or work experience) that the prospective employer would see make you qualified for that position.  
"An entry level position in accounting that utilizes skills learned in a summer bookkeeping job and knowledge gathered in the several college accounting and computer courses taken." is specific and points out some of your strengths.
5 For Both Experience and Education -reverse chronological order.  P put most recent job/school first.
6 Education should come first, unless it is more than 5 years since you left college/high school.
7 Put Employer or School name, City, State (NJ, NC, PA, NY)
no street address, no zip, no phone, no supervisor name.  See example.
8 Union County College, Cranford NJ is important because it is VERY recent.  Include expected date of graduation, credits completed, GPA if over 3, names (not numbers) of pertinent/relevant courses completed (like Introduction to Computer Applications).
9 Put dates on Education and Experience.  Month and year if less than 2 years. 10/02-9/03 or Oct '02 - Nov '02 both look good.
10 In most large companies your resume will be read by a scanner before a human. The computer will select which resumes humans will read by how many key words are found in it. If a company is looking for someone with computer expertise, particularly with spreadsheet, your resume needs to be the one that says spreadsheet and computer and Excel several times. Say it in your objective. Say it in education. Say it in experience.  Say it in skills.
11 Underlining can confuse a scanner, which what will happen to your resume at most large companies, so don't underline. Use an 11 point or larger san serif (like Ariel) font.  Avoid italics.
Don't use a fancy font for any words you want understood by the computer.
12 Don't use first person.  No "my", no "I".  Don't say "I did such and such." Say "Prepared financial statements", etc.
13 Jazz the resume up with your photo, small clip art and put things like your name and address in a box. Vary font sizes. Use a bit of italics.
14 Language Skills are important: If you are bilingual, put it first in skills (in objective too) in bold.  State your native language and low long (and where) you have speaken other language(s).
15 List you computer skill as "Computers: MS Windows 95, Word with clipart and mail merge, Excel with graphics, Internet Browsing, Searching and e-mail" or some variation of this. Try to use "computers and some of the other words in the Experience or Education section of the resume.
16 Unless you have more than 8 years of work experience, your resume should fit on one page.
17 For each  job held6 months or more, have a line or so explaining responsibilities and tasks performed on the job.  Preferable state accomplishments.  More recent experiece requires the most detail.
18 Do NOT use the space bar for horizontal spacing (use left indent and negative 1st line indent).
Do not use "enter" for vertical spacing (Use Space Before in Format Paragraph, it's much more precise).
Let word wrap do its job, but be careful to use "non-break spaces" if needed.
19 Spell Check!!! Use the thesaurus for interesting words.
20 See exactly what you are typing: Be sure tabs, spaces, enters are visible - Show hide is on
21 List volunteer work as experience, just mention volunteer and the number of hours in the description.
22 Do NOT say "references furnished upon request".  Of course, that goes WITHOUT saying!
23 By the end of UCC's Introduction to Computer Applications course you should be able to include the following for skills:

Skills: MS Windows, Word Processing with MS Word including clipart and Mail Merge, spreadsheets with MS Excel including charting, presentations with MS PowerPoint, database with MS Access, Internet browsing, searching and e-mail.