Profile Assignment
Audience and Purpose
The audience is your English 150 instructor and other members of the class. The purpose is to interview at least one person in a career within your major and to interweave observations, paraphrases, and quotes into the interview story and to include some type of visual portraying either the career or the individual. The goal is for you to learn new aspects about a career. If you have an open-option major, select a career field you are considering.
Assignment
Prior to the Interview
- Read Chapter 2: Profiles in Writing in a Visual Age. Note examples of profile stories: “From Welfare to Washington” (Senator), “E.R. Unscripted” (emergency technicians), “Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?” (Mr. Rogers), and “Behind a Plain White Lab Coat” (biology lab technician).
- Read in class “Friday Night at Iowa 80” (truck drivers and waitresses) and discuss.
- Brainstorm individuals you could interview in your proposed career: career individuals, professors, or students. You only have to interview one person, but interviewing more than one person would make your story even richer.
- Review the procedures used before, during, and after an interview (see Assignment 2).
- Compose a list of interview questions for your specific individual. Then look at the questions on page 28 of your textbook and see if you wish to add any of these questions. Share your questions with a classmate or friend and see what other questions your peer suggests. Remember to ask open-ended questions. Note: It’s important to ask about salary, but avoid personal questions such as “How much do you make?” and instead ask, “What would be a beginning salary for this career? What would be a typical salary? What would be an advanced salary for an experienced worker?”
- Rearrange the interview questions so they are in a logical order.
- Determine how you might use a visual: photo scanned or photocopied, digital photo imported, Internet photo of career image imported, subheadings, etc.
- Arrange the interview.
During the Interview
- Interview the individual and take notes (tape recorder is optional) asking questions about the career.
- Ask if the interviewee wants to add anything you haven’t asked.
- Take a photo or request a photo (if possible).
- Ask if it’s OK to call or return with any follow-up questions.
- If you’re at the career site, jot down notes about your observations–use your senses (sights, smells, sounds, tastes, touches). Be specific—for instance, use color in describing the surroundings.
After the Interview
- Add observational notes such as the individual’s dress, body language, facial features, uniqueness, etc.
- Highlight quotes that you might use.
- Decide upon an organizational format. An essay with a chronological or time format might move from education to beginning a career to advancing in a career, or from the beginning to the end of a typical work day. An essay with a site or spatial format for a waiter might move from greeting the customer at the door, to taking the order at the table, to giving the order to the chef in the kitchen, etc. An essay with a task organizational format, in the case of an administrative assistant, might move from phone calls, to filing, to setting up a meeting, etc. Other formats are also possible (such as dividing the essay into advantages and disadvantages to the career). Decide which format best fits your interviewee or your career.
- Take notes from other interviewees or other information (for instance, you might work in some of the information from your diagnostic essay about your career choice).
- Compose a rough draft, using paraphrases, quotes, and facts. Add one or more visuals. Compose a Works Cited page listing your interview.
- Share your essay in class during a peer response time.
- When you turn in your polished essay, attach your interview questions, notes, and rough drafts.
Some Evaluation Criteria
- features an attention-getting lead sentence.
- includes a variety of paraphrasing, partial quotes (phrases, and full quotes (sentence quotes).
- provides a description of the interviewee and of the job (required education, necessary skills, job responsibilities, beginning and advanced salary, possible advancement, disadvantages to the career, etc.)
- uses an appropriate organizational format with transitions.
- creates an appealing context (provides anecdotes as well as facts and lets us get to know the interviewee, as well as provide information about the career).
- uses appropriate conventions so the essay is not confusing or distracting to the reader.
- includes an appropriate visual that enhances the information and appearance of the essay.