Explore by Career/Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Writers and Authors
Originate and prepare written material, such as scripts, stories, advertisements, and other material.
- Median pay
- $72,270
- per year
- 10-year outlook
- +3.6%
- Stable
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
Key skills
- Writing
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Active Learning
- Time Management
- Social Perceptiveness
What they do
- Develop advertising campaigns for a wide range of clients, working with an advertising agency's creative director and art director to determine the best way to present advertising information.
- Vary language and tone of messages based on product and medium.
- Present drafts and ideas to clients.
- Discuss with the client the product, advertising themes and methods, and any changes that should be made in advertising copy.
- Review advertising trends, consumer surveys, and other data regarding marketing of goods and services to determine the best way to promote products.
- Write articles, bulletins, sales letters, speeches, and other related informative, marketing and promotional material.
- Conduct research and interviews to determine which of a product's selling features should be promoted.
- Invent names for products and write the slogans that appear on packaging, brochures and other promotional material.
- Collaborate with other writers on specific projects.
- Conduct research to obtain factual information and authentic detail, using sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, and interviews.
Majors that lead here
- Broadcast Journalism
- Children's and Adolescent Literature
- Communication, General
- Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other
- Creative Writing
- Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Communication
- General Literature
- Journalism
- Literature, Other
- Mass Communication/Media Studies
- Professional, Technical, Business, and Scientific Writing
- Rhetoric and Composition
- Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies, Other
- Speech Communication and Rhetoric
- Writing, General
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS, Employment Projections) and O*NET, used under CC BY 4.0.