Essay Two: The Profile

Important Dates:

2/24 Due: Topic Proposal
3/3 Due: Rough Draft (3 copies to group).
3/3 Due: Interview/Observation notes (to Instructor)
3/5 In-Class Workshop Due; End Comments to group (2 copies of each)
3/10 DUE: Profile Essay (Revised. Manila folder with: Final, workshop

Assignment Description:
Write an essay about an intriguing person, place, or activity in your community. Observe your subject closely, and then present what you have learned in a way that both informs and engages readers.

From Axelrod and Cooper, “A profile is an informative and entertaining report based on a writer’s firsthand observations and interviews…It asks students to rely not on their memories or books they’ve read, but on their abilities to attend to what they see and hear” (bedfordstmartins.com). Profiles take the familiar and show its unique and exotic character. Profiles take the exotic and introduce it to us in a manner that makes it more familiar.

For the Narrative Essay, you relied on your memories of events and your ability to narrate those memories so that the reader lived through them with you and was thus allowed to consider something larger (at your bequest) from this experience. In the Profile Essay, however, you won’t use memory, but your own primary research to compile the necessary information to present an essay that invites the reader to see your subject in a new way. A good profile reveals feelings, exposes attitudes, and captures habits and mannerisms. The finished story should be as entertaining as it is informative.

To this end, this assignment will require that you perform at least one (probably more like two) detailed observation/interview (or both).

Seek out unusual/interesting activities, people, or places and AVOID topics with which you are overly familiar (e.g., the summer job they you had for the last four years, your apartment, etc.). Unless otherwise approved by me, relatives, your house, your dog, your boyfr./girlfr., your workplace, etc. are off limits. If you have limited transportation please consider choosing a subject from the campus community (ie an organization, the cleaning personnel, etc.). Two problems with selecting a profile topic are those of accessibility and security. Subjects that may sound exciting in theory may not be possible or appropriate in practice: A doctor or scientist may not be available for interviews; a military installation or a nuclear power plant may be off-limits to the general public. Similarly, you should only explore topics that will NOT jeopardize your safety.

In summary, for this project you will:
A) Conduct an interview/observation (Ch. 20) of a person, place, group, etc.
B) From that observation/interview prepare a cleanly written, two-to-five page, interesting profile of your subject.

Ideas:
A hospital waiting room, an American Legion hall, a great/quirky restaurant, someone who lived through the Great Depression, a midnight basketball league, a soup kitchen, an online “reality” like Second Life, something interesting in your community, someone interesting in your community.

NOTE: DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS OF THIS CLASS it is imperative that you chose a subject for this essay as soon as possible and schedule an interview or observation.

Requirements:
2-5 pages, Typed, MLA format, Work’s Cited (if necessary).

ENGL 121 Narrative Essay Peer Review/Revision Guidelines

Subject• The essay does not meet the criteria for an event essay, but seems more like a personal essay, reflection essay, or some other type of writing.
• The topic is too broad (“my childhood,” “our championship season”).
• The event does not seem important to the writer.
• The essay either trivializes a major event or overstates a minor one (this second case can be effective if handled humorously).

Narrative Structure of the Event
• The event sprawls over too much time or space.
• The event is not clearly framed for the reader; it should begin or end at another point.
• The narrative drags in places, or skips over important episodes too quickly.
• The narrative lacks dramatic tension or suspense.
• The dialogue is undramatic and uninteresting; it does not move the action forward.

Anecdotes and Scenes• They are either too brief or much too extended.
• They do not seem to relate well to the event, or are poorly chosen or badly framed.
• The essay lacks telling details to build a dominant impression.
• The writer has not selected relevant details, or includes too many trivial, irrelevant ones.
• People do not seem believable in their actions or dialogue.

Significance to the Writer• There is no apparent significance, stated or implied.
• The significance is heavy-handed, inflated, oversimplified, or sentimentalized; the writer moralizes about the event.
• The essay is not very thoughtful in exploring the event’s significance; the writer may come off as a hero or a blameless victim.
• The essay does not give the reader a vivid impression of the writer.

Language
• What language problems do you repeat. Use pages 60-61 to help.

End Comments

Here are the guidelines for completing a peer review.

1st: Read the paper once to get an impression of the work
2nd: Read it again, this time with a pen and mark your suggestions/corrections to the work. Be sure to give advice, not criticism.

3rd: Write end comments.
I. I a letter to the author detail:
A. Three to four positive comments, specifically detailing what the author is doing that you find effective. No "I thought it was good." Yes: "The scene when your father comes home really slows down and describes the narrative action effectively. This helped build the suspense of the story."
B. Three to four suggestions (not criticisms) to the author that reflect your ideas for how the essay can be more effective. Use pages 58-59 as a reference since that is what I will use to grade the essays.

ENG 121
Schedule Spring 2009

New Due Dates:
Essay 1 = 2/17
Essay 2 =3/10
Essay 3 =4/7
Essay 4 =4/28
Essay 5 (in class final) = 5/5

SMG= St Martin’s Guide to Writing


Week 1 1/20 - 22
T: Writing Sample

TH: Introductions/ General Information
Read: SMG CH. 1


Week 2 1/27 – 29

T: Narratives
Read SMG: Dillard

TH: Narrative
Read SMG: Wolf and Bragg

Week 3 2/3 – 5

T: Narrative Drafting
Read: SMG: pgs. 625-633
Due: Topic Proposal

TH: Narrative Drafting
Read Ch. 13

Week 4 2/10 - 12
T: Student Samples
DUE ROUGH DRAFT of NARRATIVE ESSAY (3 copies)

TH: In-Class Workshop
Due: Typed End Comments (two copies of each)

Week 6 2/17 – 19

T: Intro. To Profile
DUE: NAR. ESSAY (Revised. Manilla folder with: final, workshop drafts).

TH: Profile Brainstorming
Read: SMG pgs100-102; 85-97

Week 7 2/24 – 26
T: Profile Brainstorming / Drafting
Read: SMG pgs 75-85, Ch. 20
Due: Topic Proposal

TH: Drafting
Read: SMG Ch. 13 AND SMG pgs103-112


Week 8 3/3 – 5
T: Student Samples
Due: Rough Draft (3 copies to group)

TH: In-Class Workshop
Due: End Comments to group (2 copies of each)

Week 9 3/10-12
T: Intro. To Analyzing Causes
DUE: Profile Essay (Revised. Manila folder with: Final, workshop drafts)

TH: Analyzing Causes
Read: SMG CH. 9

Week 10 3/17 - 19

T: Library Tour (meet at Auraria Library lobby)
Read: SMG CH. 21
Due: Topic Proposal

TH: Meet in Library
Read: Documenting Sources Ch. 22

SPRING BREAK 3/23 to 3/27 NO CLASS

Week 11
3/31-4/2
T: Student Samples
Due: Rough Draft
TH: Trend Paper Workshop
Due: End Comments

Week 12 4/7-9
T: Writing Arguments
DUE: Trend Essay (Revised. Manila folder with: Final, workshop
drafts)
TH: Arguments
Read: Ch. 6

Week 13 T: Arguments
4/14-16 Read: Ch 7
TH: Arguments
Read; Ch 19

Week 14 T: Sample Essay
4/21-23 Due Rough Draft of Argument Essay
TH: Workshop
End Comments

Week 15 T: How to Take In-Class Essays
4/28-30 Read: SMG Ch 23
DUE: Argument Essay (Revised. Manila folder with: Final, workshop drafts)
TH: No Class

Week 16 T: In-Class Essay Final
5/5

• this schedule can (and almost certainly will) change