Write a profile magazine article about a member of your community: Choose a person in your community who you think represents some of its characteristics and goals, and then write an article that informs your intended audience about this person and their involvement in the community. This person can certainly be a family member or friend, but you should think of yourself as a reporter for this project, so you will need to remain objective while writing.
You will need to interview this person to collect the information for this profile, using questions that will reveal their role and involvement in the community. For instance, you might ask: how they got started in the community, how their life has been influenced by the community, what concerns or problems they see within the community, their thoughts on issues related to the community, what activities they do within the community, their favorite moments/memories in the community, important mentors or role models, etc. Be sure to include concrete details about your subject and direct quotes from your interview in order to “bring them to life” for the reader. Also, try to provide an interesting and limited angle on this person. So, do not give us this person’s entire life story—stick to their involvement and thoughts about the community, or a related angle that comes up during the interview.
While you write, keep in mind the qualities/conventions of effective informative writing:
1) A focused topic for a specific audience
2) Definitions of key terms
3) Trustworthy information
4) Appropriate organization and design
5) A confident, mostly objective tone
Chapter 15 in Everyone’s an Author (pp. 301-310) contains more information on the genre conventions of profiles. There are also examples of professionally-written profile articles in that chapter and in the Week Four – Second Half Module on Canvas.
Audience/Genre:
Choose an online publication (like a magazine, newspaper, or blog) that could potentially publish your profile based on the content of your topic and the interests of the publication’s target audience. For instance, if your community has something to do with sports, you could write your article for the readers of ESPN, The Bleacher Report, or Deadspin, etc. These are all geared toward people who like sports, but they have slightly different tones and content.
Therefore, once you choose your publication, you should tailor your profile for its readers (but you are not required to actually submit your article to this publication). Your tone, level of diction and formality, use of references, and what information you include/exclude will all be determined by this intended audience.
Other Guidelines:
• Since observing your subject's mannerisms/expressions can add detail to profile articles, conducting your interview in person or via FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, or some other video chat forum is ideal. However, a phone interview is fine as well if needed.
• Your article should not look like an MLA-formatted essay. Instead, it should be designed the way an article from an online publication looks, so think about the choices you will make in regard to font, paragraph length, overall design/layout, byline, etc.
• Your article must include at least two images that add to the depth of the profile, so perhaps they reveal something about the subject’s personality or a glimpse into their community involvement. These can be images that your profile subject provides to you.
• You should use your interview with the profile subject like a source, incorporating concrete details, direct quotes, and paraphrases from it into the body of your article. See the note in bold below and the Week Five and Six Modules for more on this.
• Using sources beyond your interview is not required, but if you do use sources they must be cited the way an online publication would cite sources (usually through hyperlinks or signal phrases).
Sample Solution