Content

The words within a given piece of text constitute the type of content for that piece of text. Content is generally produced by writers for the sake of a specified purpose. For example, a marketer may need content written about one of his products, and he may hire a writer to produce that content. The term content has become especially relevant within the context of the information economy, where it refers to the "product" delivered by a writer.

What is content?

Every writer or author fundamentally produces content as a part of their work. The content of a piece of writing simply refers to the set of words that can be found within that piece of writing. Content can be defined according to various parameters, such as length, tone, and difficulty level. It's also important to take into consideration who the text is addressed to, as well as the format and style of the work.

Usage examples

In case you are a little confused about the meaning of content, here is the term used in a few real sentences. 

"The content of the Wikipedia page was deleted due to the fact that it was widely reported by the community as containing bias."

"The professor gave the student a low grade on the paper due to the fact that the paper's content did not follow the rubric for the assignment." 

"The writer tried to figure out how much time it would take him to actually produce eight whole pages of content." 

Now, here are a couple basic guidelines you can follow in order to make sure that you are using the term content correctly. 

1. Again, content just refers to what is actually contained within a piece of writing. The whole set of words: that is what the content is. When people begin to judge the content of any given work, they are clearly looking at nothing other than that set of words, and evaluating it according to the criteria appropriate to the specific context. 

2. It is important to not confuse the noun content with the adjective "content", which means something entirely different. The two terms are spelled the same way, but sound different when spoken. 

3. Content, as such, is a neutral word. Whether the content of a given work is good or bad depends entirely on the audience and the purpose of the work. For example, some content may be excellent for academic purposes but no good if it is (for example) to be translated into a Broadway show.  

Other content uses and expansion due to the internet

To an extent, the term content may be related to the rise of the Internet and the late modern information-based economy. Before this, people may not have really thought of the work done by writers in terms of the production of content. However, when such work became essential to the economy as a whole, it probably became necessary to conceptualize the work done by writers as parallel to the work done by anyone else. So, just as the cobbler produces shoes, the writer now produces content. 

Within academic and business settings, it is important for the writer to make sure that he produces content that is congruent with the specific instructions that have been given to him. For example, when a student writes a paper, he needs to make sure that his content follows the rubric provided by the professor, because otherwise he will not get a good grade. Likewise, a freelance writer has to produce content that is in line with his client's instructions, because otherwise the client will not be happy.