J203 Midterm Profile assignment

Due date: Friday, May 7, in lab

Length: 1,000-1,200 words max.

Form: A prose piece, with quotes; not a Q&A (question & answer)

Your publication: Media Savvy (TSJ).

TSJ is a fictitious, national monthly magazine serving journalism majors. On sale at college bookstores and by subscription, TSJ is written by students and carries profiles, interviews, and articles on journalism careers, trends, ethics, technology, skills, etc. TSJ’s articles are serious and meticulously researched, their style familiar and friendly without being sophomoric or flippant.

Your profile subject: a media professional.

Author Peter Jacobi writes: "Cities can be profiled. So can streets. So can buildings. So can institutions. Mostly, however, we profile people."

That’s what you’ll be doing in this assignment: Profiling a person, specifically a media professional. You may well want to profile someone actively engaged in the profession (or sequence) you wish to pursue yourself — public relations, newspaper, radio, television, advertising, magazine, etc.

Where to look: For starters, look beyond the obvious personalities (the on-air anchor person, the editor in chief, the reporter with the familiar byline). Often the most fascinating profiles are written about people who work behind the scenes. Good places to start: a newspaper’s masthead, a magazine’s masthead, a broadcast news program’s list of credits. Look at names and job titles. Bring ideas to lab, submit proposals, ask questions.

A profile reveals the subject: By the time your reader is into the first couple of paragraphs or so, he or she should know what makes your subject worthy of a profile in the first place.

Your job is to answer that question, and in so doing make your subject come alive on paper. Give your subject meaning. Facilitate your reader’s understanding about the nature, the depth, and the significance of this person.

Although your reader will want at least a sense of time and chronology, a profile is more than a mere laundry list of dates and events — where and when your subject was born, where she was raised, went to school, what she did, etc. It’s more than a case history. Go deeper than that. One good way to approach answering the question of why your subject is worthy of a profile is to reveal lessons that can be learned from your subject’s life, experiences or achievements. What’s in it for the readers? What do they learn?

Writing a profile entails much research. You’ll end up with far more information than you can use, not just about your subject’s job description or claim to fame, but perhaps information about a hobby, or a childhood experience that somehow molded her outlook, or a tough decision she had to make that taught her something about herself. Being thorough doesn’t mean being long-winded. You’ll have to make critical judgments about the value and relevance of many bits of information. You’ll have to sift through them with a critical eye: Which of those bits reveal something important? Which are the elements that make the person stand out?

Aside from making decisions about which information to use, you’ll also need to decide when to use description, when to use narrative, when to use exposition.

Writing a profile also entails telling a story — not the entire story of your subject’s life but some aspect of it. So you’ll select not only a person to profile but also a focus (because your subject is a media professional that focus will likely be that person’s career, or some aspect of it). Then use stories or anecdotes that reveal the subject’s significance in the context of that focus.

A description of your subject is in order — your reader may get an erroneous impression otherwise — but effective descriptions are often accomplished in a single sentence. Use your precious space to describe in depth the person’s substance rather than physical aspects (unless such aspects are essential to your theme).

Another tip: don’t start with the subject’s birth (unless again, there’s something about it that introduces your theme). Instead, start with a fact or an anecdote or an opinion or a characteristic that sets your subject apart from everyone else.

Think of yourself as a journalist, writing with PACE (precision, accuracy, clarity, and economy); also think of yourself as a portraitist who works with words rather than paint.

You don’t have to follow a formula, but here’s an outline you might consider. It’s worked many times for many writers:

1. opening anecdote that conveys the essence of the person, which is the focus or theme of your profile;

2. "nut graf" or establishing section that summarizes where you’re heading; the profile’s parameters;

3. a paragraph or so on credentials/significance [in a way, section 2 or 3 "justifies" or explains to your reader why your subject is worthy of a profile];

4. continue with points and subpoints that reveal character and develop theme; anecdotes are often effective. You may want to order them in such a way as to allow your story to build or progress, almost like the actions of a character in a play;

5. conclusion; again often an anecdote that reveals the subject’s essential quality. It should either look ahead (sort of a "where she goes from here" conclusion) or resonate with significance, and help bring the whole piece into focus; it may tie back to the lead.

Parting thought: In class we’ll discuss an essential concept in feature writing: "Show, don’t tell." Be sure to put it to use in this assignment.

I found dozens of profiles on political figures, entertainment celebrities, athletes, authors, and others in magazines such as Time, George, People, and Vibe (as well as many very obscure titles). Not all of them are of use to us in J203, but reading profiles in credible magazines is a good place to start.

Check newspapers, many of which run profiles as regular features.