Narrative Justice

In the broadcast radio industry, it pays to be an engineer. There’s not a lot of ‘copy’ in radio, it all comes from on-air hosts and Associated Press feeds. The corner of the market devoted to correspondent coverage of broadcast radio offers the best opportunities for a writer. Not that a good writer wouldn’t make a good on-air host. A degree in English usually gives anyone a respect for the power of words.

Historically, radio journalists and correspondents have been on-air personalities. In the days before television news and AP feeds, leads were tracked and reported on by radio journalists. The internet has allowed listeners to access news on their terms. Like newspapers, radio news has changed. In radio’s case, it has shifted to talk radio and intellectual forums.

Content Providers

Content Providers work to provide businesses with information in the form of text and graphics.  People hire Content Providers to enhance the professional look and appeal of their websites and print materials.  Often times, organizations feel that they can get by without hiring someone to provide them will quality information.  Usually, these people fall back on their own inferior skill in order to create this content, which sometimes falls short of professional quality.  It is generally the stubbornness of business owners that lead to websites having poor written content, documents having a second-rate look, and manuals looking like an uneducated individual assembled them.  It is for this reason that a Content Provider's job is very important to the business world.  In that same token, a Content Provider's job is recession proof (in theory) for as long as there are businesses and organizations in need of good content to provide to the masses, there will be a need for someone to create it.

Generally, a Content Provider's job involves research and an ability to learn quickly.  More often that not, the content being provided is something that the Content Provider isn’t familiar with or well versed in.  For this reason, a Content Provider must be able to think quickly on their feet.  They must be able to quickly adapt to each new job, which will require them to invest their time and energy in a subject or area that they may not know much about.  In most cases, the information is provided to them by the business or organization that employs them and they are expected to assemble that information into a coherent whole.  The ideal Content Providers are also Technical Writers and they are able to amalgamate their writing and common sense skills to form slick, concise, succinct information for the business world.

News Writer for The News

News writers write and edit news stories from information collected by reporters and correspondents and sometimes, if they’re chatty enough, get promoted to reporters or correspondents. Journalists are naturally curious animals. They research, write, omit serial commas, and produce reports for newscasts and news & information programs as well as the internets.

Broadcast journalists are responsible for investigating, gathering and reporting on news and current affairs. They are expected to present this information in a fair, balanced and accurate way through news bulletins, documentaries and other factual programs for radio, television and online broadcast.

Writers generate ideas for stories/features and follow leads from news agencies, the police, the public, press conferences and other sources.

A list of fun and games for journalists:

Grant Writing - The Need for Green

Grant Writing is one of the most in-demand skills for independent contractors today.  The organizations that require the services of a grant writer include non-profits, community-based organizations, universities and colleges, and other institutions that utilize grant as a funding source.

The keys to a successful grant proposal lie in comprehensive advance planning and preparation.  The more organized and concise the proposal, the easier it will be for a funder to determine whether or not its goals coincide with the goals of the grant seeking organization.  This process can be tedious and arduous but can provide a lucrative compensation for a skilled grant writer.












 

Magazine Writer

As an English Major it can sometimes seem depressing to wonder what the future will hold. Perhaps you have been called idealistic, or a Borders-employee-in-the-making. No fun. Not to fret, it appears that there are some options which don’t involve starvation, readily available for you. Yours for the taking! Have you ever thought about magazine writing? If you are looking for freelance jobs to cold call, according to another person’s blog, I’ll pass along the grapevine four very good starting point websites to visit: Mediabistro, MastHeads, Wooden Horse, and Ed2010.

If you are a Portlander like me, there are a lot of local organizations based in Portland which might be good first choices as well. It is known that living in proximity of the center of a field is most likely to get you the job than being best qualified. Get into the heart of the action, and this isn’t hard for a Portlander because although our city is small, we do have plenty of local organizations available to send internship requests for. The more well known magazines based in Portland are: Wend, NW Palate Magazine, Bitch Magazine, Flossin Magazine, and Spot Magazine.

Image Consultant

As an English major, you know all about language. You have analyzed works in the English language, perhaps considered translations from other languages, or even looked at the components of language in related fields like semiotics. Language has become such an integral part of your life that you may have forgotten it is a skill--one that many people do not possess, and subsequently, one you can sell to them.

As an image consultant, you can capitalize on your knowledge of language, and use it to excel in the field of personal branding. Personal branding involves indentifying and creating a visual brand language, similar to that used by a company, for an individual.

Think of it like writing a book report: pretend your client is the novel, and you are describing the things they do well or poorly. Clarity, coherency, consistency--all qualities present in good writing--must be presented by your client in order to help him be successful in his field. You provide him with the service of analyzing and then explaining aspects of his personal brand that work well, and other aspects that are ineffective.

Technical Writing

Technical writing is a style of writing used in a wide array of fields, from computer software to finance. These writers specialize in researching in depth information on subject and re-interpreting this for an audience to consume. This audience can be either specialists within the field or the audience could be a group completely unfamiliar with the work. This could mean explaining how to use a program system to a computer programmer or writing an instruction manual for someone use at home.

Technical writers must have a firm grasp of the English language as well excellent communication skills. A large portion of the job is being able to analyze a specialized subject and then explain in a way that people can understand.

Lots of Pennies for Your Thoughts

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy passing judgment. You love the passion you hear in your own voice as you critique a novel or film. You get a high from labeling things as “cliché” or “self-indulgent.” You’re not a bad person, you just know that you could make the wordy world infinitely better if someone would only listen. You know you could make everyone sound less dweeby if someone just gave you a chance. And maybe pay you for your insights?

Let’s assume that, along with dishing out blunt yet thoughtful critiques, you like to write. But maybe you don’t have any original ideas. Maybe you haven’t the attention span to stick with anything bigger than a haiku. Maybe you’re detail oriented—at your best when adding flourishes and accents to an existing text. If so, perhaps you’d like to be a developmental editor.

Comics: Write Your Own World

Comics are awesome. Hopefully that’s about the mindset you’ve got if you’re looking to be a comic book writer. If so, this is your time to shine. While mass hysteria may be rampant regarding plummeting sales within media such as newspapers and magazines, the comic industry, as well as their heftier brethren, the graphic novel, have surprised many with their vivid success over the past ten years.

Comics boast original stories, unique characters and savvy prose, as well as a wealth of stunning art styles and genres; in a world where the movie remake is becoming its own genre, originality goes a long way when entertaining the hungry masses. Comics have exploded out of their 2D paper world onto the scene in film and literary investigation, painting a colorful swath of movies such as: Spider-Man, X-Men, Ghost World, Sin City, A Scanner Darkly, Fantastic Four, V For Vendetta, Blade, Hellboy, Watchmen, Iron Man, Kick Ass, and Academy Award winner Road to Perdition. And there are even more upcoming features slotted for 2011.