My department is also hiring right now, and some of the resumes that we've gotten have been absolutely atrocious. I definitely agree with the advice given on this post, and I would like to add a few more:
Get an email account that sounds professional. For example,
janesmith@hotmail.com sounds a lot better than
janey-waney@hotmail.com. (Yes, we really did have someone apply whose e-mail address was like that.) It's so easy to do and it will help employers take you more seriously.
Use normal font. We got a resume that was in Stonehenge font, which is hard enough to read, but it was also faxed, so it was damn near impossible to read it.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use spell check and grammar check. Also, have someone who you believe is a decent writer check your resume and cover letter before you send it. It's so distracting to try to read a resume when it is grammatically incorrect.