Detailed Information
A Clear, Logical Organization
Writer’s Role
Perspective on the Subject
Use the following to help you analyze and evaluate how profile writers employ the genre’s basic features. The examples are drawn from the reading selections in this chapter.
DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUBJECT
Read first to learn about the subject. Much of the pleasure of reading a profile comes from the way the writer interweaves bits of information into a tapestry of lively narrative, arresting quotations, and vivid descriptions.
Examine the describing strategies of naming, detailing, and comparing to see how they create a vivid image, as in Brian Cable’s description of coffins on display:
Naming
Detailing
Comparing
We passed into a bright, fluorescent-lit“ display room.” Inside were thirty coffins. . . . Like new cars on the showroom floor. . . (Cable, par. 18)
Although most information in a profile comes from observation (and is therefore described), information may also come from interviews and background research. To present information from sources, profile writers rely on three basic strategies—quotation, paraphrase, and summary:
| QUOTATION | “We’re in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, along with another funeral home whose owners’ names are Baggit and Sackit,” Howard told me, without cracking a smile. (Cable, par. 14) |
| PARAPHRASE | Goodbody Mortuary, upon notification of someone’s death, will remove the remains from the hospital or home. They then prepare the body for viewing, whereupon features distorted by illness or accident are restored to their natural condition. (Cable, par. 6) |
| SUMMARY | I came across several articles describing the causes of a farmworker shortage. The stories cited an aging workforce, immigration crackdowns, and long delays at the border that discourage workers with green cards. (Thompson, par. 5) |
See Chapters 27 and 28 to learn about the conventions for citing and documenting sources in two popular academic styles.
Profile writers nearly always research the subject thoroughly. Convention dictates that selections published in popular publications like magazines, blogs, and general-interest books not cite their sources. Not so for academic or scholarly essays: Unless the information is widely known by educated adults, most instructors require you to cite your sources and provide a list of references or works cited.
A CLEAR, LOGICAL ORGANIZATION
To learn more about these narrating strategies, see Chapter 14.
Profiles can be organized narratively, as a guided tour of a place or as a story, or they can be organized as an array of topics. In narratives, look for time markers, such as narrative actions, which combine actors (nouns and pronouns) with action verbs; prepositional phrases, which locate objects in space or actions in time; verb tenses, which show how actions relate in time; calendar and clock time; and transitions of time and space.
| NARRATIVE ACTION | I climbed the stone steps to the entrance. (Cable, par. 4) |
| PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES | Half a mile down the road, behind a fence coiled with razor wire, Lionel Dufour, proprietor of Farm Fresh Food Supplier . . . (Edge, par. 3)On my first day . . . (Thompson, par. 6) |
| VERB TENSES | I bend over, noticing that most of the crew has turned to watch. (Thompson, par. 8) |
| CALENDER AND CLOCK TIME | It’s now 3:00. (Coyne, par. 19)His crew packed lips today. Yesterday, it was pickled sausage; the day before that, pig feet. Tomorrow, it’s pickled pig lips again. (Edge, par. 4) |
| TRANSITIONS OF TIME | When I chomp down . . . (Edge, par. 18)Next,, he . . . he then . . . (Thompson, par. 7) |
| TRANSITIONS OF SPACE | Across the aisle . . . Around the corner . . . (Edge, par. 4)Ahead of us . . . (Cable, par. 15) |
To learn more about cueing the reader, see Chapter 13.
In topical sections, look for logical transitions such as these that announce a
| CONTRADICTION | . . . but it’s widely assumed . . . (Thompson, par. 5)On the contrary, his bitterness . . . (Coyne, par. 13) |
| CAUSE | Because of their difference in skin color, there would be . . . (Coyne, par. 11) |
| CONCLUSION | So I am to be very careful and precise . . . (Thompson, par. 12) |
| SPECULATION | Perhaps such an air of comfort makes it easier for the family to give up their loved one. (Cable, par. 24) |
Whereas a narrative tour or story may be more engaging, a topical organization may deliver information more efficiently. As you read the profiles in this chapter, consider the writer’s decision on how to organize the information. What was gained and lost, if anything?
THE WRITER’S ROLE
Look also at the role that the writer assumes in relation to his or her subject:
Sometimes writers use both the spectator and the participant role, as John T. Edge and Amanda Coyne do in their profiles on pp. 69–71 and 75–78, respectively.
A PERSPECTIVE ON THE SUBJECT
All of the basic features listed previously—detailed information, the way the information is organized, and the writer’s role—develop the writer’s perspective on the subject, the main idea or cultural significance that the writer wants readers to take away from reading the profile. Profiles create a dominant impression through their description and narration. But they also analyze and interpret the subject, conveying their perspective explicitly through commentary as well as implicitly through tone (such as irony).