Profile Assignment
Be sure to consult The Call To Write, pages 260-269, for ideas and directions for doing assignment. Some pointers follow.
Observation: Check the person's surroundings (pictures on walls, desk accessories, furniture, bookcase items, titles of books on bookcases and in office, office papers and materials, trophies, awards, room decorations, computer work, nature of material in file folders, work-related materials, organizational devices, handwriting, etc.). Check the person's movements (body language: sitting, walking, use of hand movements) and voice (speed, quality). Look at what the person wears from hand to toe (including jewelry, other accessories, hairstyle, hair accessories, writing tools). Observe how other people act in the person's presence. Observe the area surrounding the person's immediate work area, such as the hallway area nearby or the general area where the person works. Record sensory details before, after, and during the interview. See if you can get a photograph/picture of the person to help you recall physical details.
Background information: Check for printed information you can get about the person before the interview. Ask for some at the end of the interview as well. Find out about the person by asking questions of other people who work with the person. See if the person has a newspaper article that was written about him/her. Perhaps, the person will give you a copy of his/her resume.
Interview: See the many suggestions in your text. Some excellent general questions are listed on p. 261. You might find it helpful to get some background information on the person (family; hometown; place of birth; hobbies; interests; or favorite book, movie, television show, play). However, remember to focus on the person's work (e.g., job responsibilities, attitude toward work, general career path, educational preparation, work goals, likes and dislikes about work, job strengths and weaknesses). See The Call to Write, pages 262-264, sections entitled, "During the Interview," "After the Interview," and "Guidelines for Interview Notes."
Remember: You will need to quote the person. You can also quote what others say about the person. Leave yourself at least 30 minutes after the interview to fill in notes and to start writing your ideas based on the interview. You need this time to get down information that might be hard to recall later. You also want to get down your first impression. The next day, add to your notes and draft. Perhaps, your impression will have changed overnight. Think about the dominant impression you want to create. Consider whether you need another visit or interview to get more information.
Think about:
Using metaphors, analogies, and similes
Collecting lots of quotes and selecting the best ones to
use
Including some humor if appropriate to the tone you want
to set
Using vivid details and a strong narrative voice
Achieving a blend of narration, description,
explanation, and analysis
Starting the essay by zooming in on the person in a
specific setting
Selection of details:
You will have collected more details than you will use. Select the best details to use. These will be ones that keep your Profile focused on the dominant impression you want to create. Later when you revise, you can decide about eliminating some details.
Organization:
Figure out how to order all of your notes. Where do you want to start your Profile? Look to see how the writers of the Profiles in Call to Write started, and also check the The New York Times profiles and other ones provided in class. Note how these Profiles tend to set a scene before actually bringing the person into focus. Think about where to go with your Profile after you get started. What should you tell next? Perhaps, you just want to free-write the whole piece, and then order the material once it is all written down. There is no one way to order a Profile or to go about writing it. However, once you have a decent first draft, you should analyze how you ordered the piece, and think about how you might reorder it to make it easier for a reader to read. See in The Call to Write pages 262-268, regarding the Planning stage, including "Establishing Perspective from the Beginning," "Arranging Your Material," "Paragraph Development: Comparing and Contrasting," and "Beginnings and Endings: Framing with a Metaphorical Anecdote."
Dominant Impression:
Remember to create a dominant impression by using selected details. Also, include analysis and offer commentary, which should aid you in creating a dominant impression. Your piece needs to move beyond narration and description. Occasional comments and analysis will give direction to your piece, helping your readers get a dominant impression of the person. Remember how Profiles differ from biographies. Keep your work focused; do not try to cover the person's whole life. This assignment is excellent practice for learning how to revise your work to keep a main point in focus.
Models:
Return to the models in your book and to The New York Times articles. Take note of the techniques these professional writers used. To some extent, feel free to mimic their devices. At times, consider the use of analogy (comparing the person to something or someone else) and similes and metaphors. These techniques can enliven and round out your Profile.
One key to success for this assignment:
You should be enthused about the person you are writing about and want to convey to your readers your enthusiasm for this person. You should find yourself enjoying this piece of writing. Certainly, the effort to revise and edit the piece will be time consuming, but you should feel that you want to perfect the piece because you truly want your readers to get to know this person.
Reminder about permission:
Please check with the person you wrote about to make sure he/she is comfortable with the final piece being placed in a class publication that will be read by all members of your English class. You should give the person a final copy to insure there will be no problems. If the person does not want the piece published in a class book, it is still acceptable to use the piece for this class. However, make sure we know that the piece cannot be included in the class book. Also, check in the event that you want to put your Profile on your web site if this is acceptable with the individual.
Purpose and audience:
Remember your purpose and audience. Your purpose is to create a lively, focused impression of a person. Your Profile needs to contain a good mix of description, narration, analysis, and commentary. Your Profile will be put in a class publication. The readers of the publication will be our class as well as other people on campus. For now, forget about this piece being a paper that you have to write for a college course. Think of the piece as a way for others in your class to get to know about people at the College. You might want to think of yourself as a newspaper reporter writing a feature article on a person for a local newspaper.
Evaluation criteria:
The following are qualities that will make for
an impressive Profile:
Creation of
a dominant impression
Use of
adequate details and specifics to bring the person to life
Inclusion of
enough analysis and elaboration to promote one dominant impression
Full
development of ideas
Effective
sequencing of material (see models and suggestions in textbook)
Effective
use of techniques such as similes, metaphors and sensory imagery
Use of
vivid, concrete, and precise words (e.g., active verbs and clarifying
adjectives)
Correct
usage and mechanics
Suggestions for perfecting the piece:
Work successive drafts through some tutorial
sessions at the ARC.
Submit work early and have it graded in advance
if you want to determine if you are on target. You then can redo the piece if you
want in time for the final due date.
Have peers review your work and give you honest,
constructive feedback.
Consider an ARC email tutorial to get additional
feedback to your drafts.
To email paper:
- In Word, go to Edit Menu and take the option, "Select All." You can also hit Control-A to select all of your text.
- Once all of the text is selected, copy it. T copy text, do one of the following three: go to Edit and select "Copy," hit the Copy (clipboard) button, or hit Control-C.
- Go into the email program and type in the email address.
- In the body section of the email, type in a brief message to let the recipient know you are emailing your paper for response. Then skip a line and paste in your paper. To paste in the text that you copied, which is still in the computer's memory (assuming you did not shutdown the computer), do one of the following: hit the Paste button, use Paste on the Edit Menu, or hit Control+V.
- Hit the Send button to send the email.
- Check you email later for a reply.
- Thank the person for responding and confirm you received the feedback.
You can also email a paper using the Attachment feature. If you use this method, you will not need to copy your document into your email. Instead you will put an Attachment in the email, which will enable the recipient to open the file as a Word document.
Course Syllabus | Course Schedule | Journal 10
Last revised August 15, 2001
J. Arzt