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 topically organized profile.

 

The material in a topically arranged profile is arranged according to topics. For an example of a well written topical profile, see "I'm Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing" by John T. Edge in Axelrod & Cooper's Concise Guide to Writing.

 

Typically, profile writers choose to organize their essays topically when their research concentrates more on information than interaction. If your research is more action-oriented, you may want to consider organizing your essay narratively (see Student Writing Coach's "Profile-Narrative" writing session).