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.

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.

Document Design

Document design is a broad term that encompasses many diverse projects. At its core principles, it is simply the application of design aesthetics (in all their subjectivity) to written documents. In practice, it is an endeavor that runs the gamut from an informational or promotional flier to a detailed investment prospectus for a Fortune 500 company.

An appropriate goal of document design is to convey information in a meaningful, insightful, intuitive, and efficient way. However, those criteria can take many forms and these forms should be managed based on an understanding of the content, medium, budget, and intended audience.