Profile Narrative

College students are often asked to write reports on subjects that they have observed first-hand. These reports belong to a journalistic genre of essays we call profiles. Student Writing Coach’s “Profile” sessions are designed to walk you through the process of writing this kind of essay.

You will know that you are writing a profile if . . .

  • You have conducted interviews and observations as a significant part of your research.

  • You are asked to describe or report on a subject with which you have personally interacted.

  • Your writing prompt refers to or is based on the “Writing Profiles” chapter from Axelrod & Cooper’s Concise Guide to Writing.

Your first-hand research, or “field research,” on your profile subject (a person, place, or activity) will likely have produced many pages of notes. However, profile essays are notoriously difficult for college students to structure and organize. This writing session will help you with this task as you mold your research notes into an informative, interesting essay.

There are two major ways to organize a profile essay: narratively and topically. This particular Student Writing Coach session provides assistance with a narratively organized profile.

A narrative profile is arranged chronologically, following the time order of your interaction with your subject. For an example of a well-written narrative profile, see "The Last Stop" by Brian Cable in Axelrod & Cooper's Concise Guide to Writing. Typically, profile writers who organize their essays narratively choose an interaction with their subject that contains enough action to support a narrative (also known as a story). So, for example, a strong narrative profile might be about a backstage experience at a concert or a tour around a busy restaurant.

If you feel that your research would be best organized topically, for now see Student Writing Coach’s “Review – Live Subject” session. A new “Profile – Topical” session is coming soon!