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Crafting Compelling Profiles: A Writer's Guide

Learn how to write engaging profiles of both celebrities and ordinary individuals, exploring different methods and perspectives. Includes sample profiles for analysis and writing assignments.

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Crafting Compelling Profiles: A Writer's Guide

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  1. Chapter 7 Profiles: Creating a Dominant Impression

  2. Overview • Introduces the genre of the profile • Profiles focus on celebrities and ordinary people alike • Addresses the reasons for writing profiles as well as the methods used to gather information for them • Reminds us that profiles present the writer’s point of view, or dominant impression

  3. Readings The chapter includes a number of sample profiles. • Buhle, “Insurgent Images” • O’Neill, “A Surgeon’s War” • Rose, “I Just Wanna Be Average”

  4. Buhle, “Insurgent Images” • Buhle is a historian of labor and popular arts who teaches at Brown University. • He profiles Mike Alewitz, a muralist painter. • Several examples of Alewitz’s work are included. • See pages 210-215 for the essay. • An analysis follows, page 215.

  5. O’Neill, “A Surgeon’s War” • O’Neill writes for The New York Times. • Profile of Dr. Susan M. Love, a surgeon at the U.C.L.A. Breast Center • See the essay on pages 216-220. • An analysis follows, breaking down the essay into sections. • Series of questions, pages 220-221.

  6. Rose, “I Just Wanna Be Average” • Rose is a teacher, poet, and professor of education at UCLA. • He talks about his experiences taking vocational classes, and includes mini-profiles of several other students. • See pages 222-224 for the essay. • Analysis follows, along with a set of questions, pages 225-226.

  7. Folk Songs for the Five Points • Program in response to an invitation for “works that explore contemporary immigrant experience in New York City” (226). • Section directs students to the Web site http://www.tenement.org/folksongs/

  8. Visual Design, Public Campaigns • See the photo essay on pages 228 and 229. • Richard Marsch’s photographs and Jason Berry’s essay on the American desert combine for one ad campaign on nuclear testing, pollution, and bombing ranges.

  9. Writing Assignment • Write an essay that profiles a person; the text gives five ideas to help you select someone to interview. • Your instructor will let you know whether your class will be doing this particular assignment, and provide you with additional guidelines.

  10. Invention • Make a list of people you know. • Pick one that seems promising and contact the person to set up an interview. • See pages 232-233 for help with clarifying your purpose and doing background research.

  11. Planning and Drafting • Decide on the dominant impression you want to create, and choose details that will help you do so. • Consider using figurative language, as well as compare and contrast, to help readers see your main points.

  12. Peer Commentary and Revising • Exchange drafts with another student. Use the questions on page 236 to write a commentary about your partner’s draft. • See page 236-237 for a list of five questions to guide you in your revision. • See page 237-238 for techniques to help establish your perspective in the opening of your essay.

  13. Quitadamo, “A Lawyer’s Crusade” • See the sample profile on pages 238-41. • His commentary about his essay follows, on page 241-242. • This student plans to become a lawyer, and so chose to interview one. He wanted to understand more about what it is that lawyers do who are working in the public interest.

  14. Student Companion Website • Go to the student side of the Web site for exercises, chapter overviews, and links to writing resources for this chapter: http://college.hmco.com/pic/trimbur4e

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