A PROFILE
YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT will be a profile. A profile is an essay on a person focusing on his or her career, some background and setting (for example, the person's home where the interview took place) and including actual dialogue.
Because of the need to balance several elements (a person's present life, past life, career, future goals, description of the person and setting, and direct quotes of that person) it's a good way to practice all one's writing skills.
Writing a profile occurs in several steps.
First one chooses a person with an interesting career from the writer's point of view. It can be anything from doctor to cook to computer programmer.
Ideally, the person will speak English, even if not fluently.
That person will agree to be interviewed.
The student submits a set of interview questions for class evaluation and suggestions.
These questions will help the writer establish tentative focus. ("Tentative," because in good writing that focus may change as one "discovers" possibilities in one's subject.)
One will interview the subject and record the interview.
Classmates can listen to and evaluate at least part of the interview (we can't listen to an entire interview).
A follow-up interview may be required as one changes focus.
One of the challenges of writing a profile is balancing direct and indirect quotations, past (biography) and present (career goals), and setting and personality.
Unlike an interview, a profile includes descriptive prose and narration. A profile relies on a previous interview but presents it in a more polished way and with a point of view. The writer decides when to use direct quotes, indirect quotes, description, narration, and selective details about the subject's career and its distinction, as well as what to omit and what to include.
A profile is also different from a biography in that in biographies the subject is rarely interviewed by the writer and is often dead. A profile is based substantially on a personal interview with the subject during which a focus emerges through which to present this person.
For one model, go here.
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