Profile Essay

Format/Length

-4-6 page essay, 1,450-2,250 words (you must meet both the page length and word count minimums)

-1-page reflection on your process for writing the paper

-Follow MLA page layout guidelines (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1” margins, etc.)

-Document must be submitted to Canvas in .docx or .pdf format.

Sources

Three sources, documented correctly in MLA format, are required. You must have at least one primary and one secondary source.

 

Assignment Overview

Profiles are written portraits—of people, places, events, or other things. A profile presents a subject in an entertaining way, showing us something or someone that we may not have known existed or that we see every day but don’t know much about. This assignment will help you to bridge the descriptive writing skills you developed in the first unit with researched-based writing.

For your profile, you will choose a person of interest to write about and then, through primary observations/interviews and secondary/research sources, create a portrait of that person. Because you must include primary research, a historical figure is not an acceptable person to profile (unless you are Bill and Ted and can go back in time to conduct interviews/observations). Your profile should evidence the key features of a profile:

• An interesting subject: The subject may be someone unusual, or it may be someone ordinary shown in an intriguing way.
• Any necessary background: Include just enough information to let readers know something about the subject’s larger context. The goal of the assignment is NOT to write a summary, so don’t get side-tracked.
• An interesting angle: A good profile captures its subject from a particular angle. Do not try to cover every aspect of your subject; choose one specific angle to approach it from.
• A firsthand account: Spend time observing and interacting with your subject. With a person, interacting means watching and conversing.
• Engaging details: Include details that bring your subject to life:
  • Specific information
  • Sensory images
  • Figurative language
  • Dialogue
  • Anecdotes
  • Choose details that show rather than tell—and be sure all the details create some dominant impressionof your subject.

You are welcome to include photographs, but you will still be required to write 4-6 pages of text.

 

Rhetorical Situation

Imagine you are writing the piece to be published in a popular magazine.

Structure/Organization

You may choose the structure that works best for your subject. Two effective methods are the narrative approach and the descriptive approach.

Narrative:

With this structure, you can draw upon the chronological strategies we employed in the literacy narrative unit.

Descriptive:

With this structure, you tell your story by creating a dominant impression through vivid detail.

Reflection

Your reflection challenges you to think critically about your writing process for the essay. In unified paragraphs, you should address the following (in whichever order seems organic to your ideas):

• How well did you bring the subject of your profile to life?
• What did you do especially well?
• What could you still improve?
• How did you go about coming up with ideas and generating text?
• How did you go about drafting your profile?
• Did you include any visuals or pictures? What did they add to the text?
• How did others’ responses influence your writing?
• What would you do differently next time?