firsthand research

Assignment: For this assignment you’ll be writing a profile. A profile essay is an analytical, informative, and through-provoking portrait of a person or a place. This type of essay requires firsthand research, which will require you to interview at least one person.

Some clarification about the interview: this interview must be conducted after you have received this assignment. This cannot be a conversation you had with a friend last summer, or a story about an event that happened to you and a family member. This interview must be a series of questions you ask someone specifically for this assignment.

Who or where should you writer about? This is entirely up to you. Maybe there’s someone in your family you find inspirational, and you’d like to write about this person. Or perhaps, there’s a place you spend a lot of time at and you’d like to talk about what it is about that place that makes it meaningful to you and others. Or maybe there’s a place you spend a lot of time-like a coffee shop where you do all your homework, or the VA hospital- and you’d like to learn more about that place. All of these are excellent candidates for a profile essay.

Requirement:

1. 1000-1500 words, plus a Works Cited page.

2. no less than three sources

3. you MUST incorporate an interview into your essay

4. The profile you write. MUST tie into a larger issue than just the person or place you’re writing about. For example, if you’re writing a profile essay about the VA hospital you spend time in, the larger issue you should be discussing might be the importance of taking care of our veterans.

5. this essay must have college level grammar.

6. this essay should have nearly flawless MLA. Please use the Purdue OWL website for correct formatting.