What can I say instead of "Authored" on a résumé?

Wrote, Published, Drafted, Documented. Pick the one that matches what you actually did, then follow it with a number. Documentation is judged by the questions it prevents, and that number is usually sitting in a ticket queue somewhere.

Résumé words · Communicating and working with others

Another word for “Authored”

What it is trying to claim: That a document exists and you wrote it.

Why it underperforms

It is "wrote" in a suit. The extra formality suits published or attributed work and sounds inflated for a memo, and readers notice the mismatch between the register of the verb and the size of the object. It also says nothing about whether anyone read the thing, which for internal documents is the only question worth answering.

Stronger than "Authored"

Not ranked. Each is right for one situation, and the situation is the column that matters.

Word	Use it when
Wrote	Almost always better. Short and unpretentious.
Published	It went out to an audience, which is the stronger fact.
Drafted	You produced the first version and others finished it.
Documented	The output records how something works.
Co-authored	Shared credit, honestly stated.
Edited	You shaped somebody else words.

A real bullet, fixed

Before

Authored technical documentation for the platform.

After

Wrote the API reference that every new integration partner now onboards from; support questions from new partners fell by about two thirds in the six months after it shipped.

Documentation is judged by the questions it prevents, and that number is usually sitting in a ticket queue somewhere.

When “Authored” is the right word

For published, credited, or formally attributed work — papers, standards, specifications, books — where authorship is a real status rather than a description of typing.

Common questions

What can I say instead of "Authored" on a résumé?: Wrote, Published, Drafted, Documented. Pick the one that matches what you actually did, then follow it with a number. Documentation is judged by the questions it prevents, and that number is usually sitting in a ticket queue somewhere.
Is "Authored" bad on a résumé?: It is "wrote" in a suit. The extra formality suits published or attributed work and sounds inflated for a memo, and readers notice the mismatch between the register of the verb and the size of the object. It also says nothing about whether anyone read the thing, which for internal documents is the only question worth answering.
When is it fine to use "Authored"?: For published, credited, or formally attributed work — papers, standards, specifications, books — where authorship is a real status rather than a description of typing.

Fix these next

All 72 words are on the résumé words index. For the verbs grouped by what they claim, read résumé power verbs.

After the résumé

Fixing the words is the easy half. The applying is the slow half.

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