1. Basic Features of a Profile Essay

2. Basic Features: Writing Profiles
Detailed Information About the Subject
The essay should include:
Vivid descriptions, lively anecdotes, and quotations from the profile subject
Details about what people look like, how they dress, gesture, and talk
Descriptions of the observer’s experience from all five senses
Quotations, summaries, or paraphrases from the people interviewed

3. Basic Features: Writing Profiles
A Clear Organizational Plan
A narrative plan that interweaves the information with elements of a story OR
A topical plan that groups the information into topics and moves from one topic to another

4. Basic Features: Writing Profiles
A Role for the Writer
As a spectator or detached observer, the writer’s position is like that of the reader, an outsider looking in on the people and their activities.
As a participant observer, the writer participates in the activity being profiled and acquires insider knowledge.

5. A Perspective on the Subject
Basic Features: Writing Profiles
A Perspective on the Subject
All of the previous features support the writer’s perspective on the subject: the main idea or cultural significance that the writer wants readers to understand from the profile.
Profiles convey a thesis by creating a dominant impression using the descriptive details and other information, together with the writers’ thoughts and comments.