The first key to writing a profile essay is mastering how to begin it. No one will benefit from your academic work if you don’t polish on this. But before you learn this, you need to understand what a profile essay is and how to write a profile essay.
Defining the Term Profile Essay
It’s probably something we know, as students and otherwise that there are different categories of essays one can encounter in the course of studies. And inasmuch people claim to be familiar with all the essay types that may be requested by the teacher; we can guarantee that there are some kinds of write-ups that people would still feel clueless about when faced with them. There are certain basics and tips they might not know about. Usually, everyone assumes that all essays have the same basics and tips for hassle-free writing. But that isn't the case most times. Hence people end up being unaware of these basics and helpful tips, as well as their value in aiding the writing process.
One of such types is profile essay. Categories like reflective, argumentative and narrative are well known among students; however, this particular one is not often used by teachers and hence, not very known.
Let’s get started on the basic issues - what is a profile essay? In simple terms, this refers to a very detailed description of a place, person, event, thing or entity, e.g., the description for notable past USA president or a well-known civil rights activist, an ancient city, etc. Consequently, as the name suggests, a profile essay is intended to create a detailed profile of the entity, event, process, offering the reader a comprehensive perspective and a chance to make informed judgments on the subject.
This type of essay is not your average surface description of the subject in question; it is designed to answer all questions that may arise in a bid to identify or describe something.
To have a detailed description for the subject of interest, we must have all the necessary information about it. Furthermore, we need to make sure this information is made presentable enough and doesn't raise any room for confusion. This brings us to the next part of this article.
Read Also: What is a Literary Analysis Essay?
Structure of a Comprehensive Profile Essay
Like every other essay, a profile essay would have
- An opening paragraph
- The main body
- A closing paragraph
When describing someone, it is essential we remember that every person deserves respectful treatment and manner of addressing. Hence, it would be an inappropriate act if you write condescendingly about them. This is one among generally known but seldom used basics and tips. Withholding respect when you write about anyone makes your work invalid.
How Do I Start Writing My Profile Essay?
The question most would like to ask is “how to start a profile essay.” This is expected since to carry out a task you must know how you go about it. When writing a profile essay, ideally, you should read a few sample essays first - this would allow not only familiarizing with the basic layout and important elements, but also taking the best from each of these and deciding on the structure you want to follow.
We will outline a few basics and tips below that can be helpful in carrying out this task:
- 1. Get the necessary information
To get a ‘detailed as possible’ description of a thing or person, you must get your information right. This could be from several trusted sources – professionals, online articles, up-to-date library materials, etc. It usually helps to use a verified source with American origin if writing on President Bush, for example. One among helpful tips in this aspect is using verification sites that help to differentiate outdated from updated web pages.
- 2. Check for information validity
In other words, you should check when last this information was released, as well as its comprehensiveness. This is to avoid using outdated data to provide a description. This applies especially in describing a person or thing. Helpful tips on this include checking date and publishing times, as well as any updates.
- 3. Get an outline to follow
No matter how much detail you have at hand, it’s easy to get confused without a profile essay outline. The outline would serve as the map for your major task - arranging your gathered data appropriately.
If you're looking for a profile essay example, EduBirdie helps you. Our platform provides many examples, allowing you better understand the structure and approach for profile essays.
What to know about Profiling and How to Write A Profile
Before one can attempt this essay type, it is important to understand how profiling works. Having a good knowledge of how it's done would make anyone’s work very easy and fast. Profiling for a person is different from profiling an object, event or any other thing.
One basic feature of profile essays is their focus on providing detailed information on the subject (avoiding general descriptions). This typically makes use of multiple methods (for a person, it could include providing biographic data, describing their work/ contribution, providing interview data, etc.).
Usually, we begin with the person’s appearance. Details like name, age, ethnicity, weight, height, skin shade, etc. are important in profiling a person. They are basics used in establishing a person's identity. For example, you must include that specified person went to an American university – it’s part of creating a good profile. For a city, one would want to include the name, location, neighboring places, geographical coordinates, population, date of origin, etc. These are very useful tips and are part of basics. Hence, it’s important knowing how to write a profile.
If you are writing a profile feature article about a person, it is a good idea to ask open questions that allow interviewed subject to choose themselves what to expand on. Obviously, yes/no questions or other specific questions also might be important in digging out the truth/ specific info or requesting answers to avoided questions, however, open questions are often the ones that reveal who the interviewed subjects truly are - their thoughts, attitudes, concerns, etc., while allowing an interview to proceed (since the interviewed subject has more control over it).
Students are sometimes advised to check out profiling samples done by professionals. This is because they get to see how it’s done and get a better understanding of what is expected of them in this essay. Like earlier mentioned in the article, having the necessary basics and tips at hand for the right literary work is very essential. These are things we see as minor, yet they help students in more ways than one. Hence, these basic are essential.
By definition, it is a piece of literary work that deals with description of an individual, place, or event. Here are some rules on how to write a profile essay.
A profile is a descriptive write-up that allows author to exhibit more literary prowess than in persuasive or expository writing. However, it is important to plan ahead of time and organize the ideas into a logical structure so that facts remain straight. Initial objective of this paper is to inform readers. It, therefore, functions as journalism piece which is both descriptive and factual. Every paragraph must maintain the qualities of literary work while introducing writer’s perspectives on the subject matter with immersive and exciting experience. A profile essay outline is different from other types of papers like an argumentative or narrative essay. Writing someone’s paper takes a less rigid structure whereby the writer can use their own approaches.
Read also: Topics for Expository Writing
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Respecting the subject
You will often be given an assignment to create a profile of somebody or something. Whether you adore or dislike the subject is something you must disregard. Put aside your preconceived ideas and emotions because they might block important facts you could be having. In case of an interview, you should allow participant to get your ideas in advance. When attending an event, contact the organizers first to gather prerequisites and determine the indispensable information.
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- The tone
While a profile takes a professional voice which is expected in the world of academics, it is more flexible when compared to different types of essays. The use of second person pronoun should be avoided while the first person voice might be acceptable in certain areas. Interviews are some of Profile essay examples that require the use of first person tone. Nonetheless, too much use of the first person may distract reader from the subject matter as it tends to focus more on authors.
- Organization
Any academic homework requires organization. There are two strategies for organizing a paper namely thematic format and chronological order. When following thematic format, you simply structure your paper according to a specific theme. An individual’s profile should be organized by experiences. For example, one paragraph can touch on personal life while another one can focus on public life. If you follow chronological order, early parts of the subject should come first, and the later aspects should follow. Each paragraph needs to cover different aspects of the subject.
What Else Needs to be Remembered in Writing a Profile essay
Below are useful basics and tips that will guide every student in essay creation:
- Check grammar and edit errors.
- Use online plagiarism checker.
- Use simple language.
- Use appropriate terms where needed (units of measurement, for instance).
- Use paragraphs.
- Stick to a given outline for your profile essay.
Conclusion
A properly-crafted paper has a vivid picture of a person, place, event, organization. It is not only balanced and sensory but also comprehensive, capturing every detail that makes the audience feel as if they understand the subject matter.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that many students don’t know how to write a profile on a person. But EduBirdie.com can help with such an academic task. The company has been in the limelight for many years, and their writers understand exactly how an excellent profile paper should be written. As a student, you must always produce quality work and meet the deadlines. But when you don’t have enough time or knowledge, you can buy an essay online. EduBirdie team is ever ready to give round-the-clock assistance in writing creative essays, you can even order editing or proofreading your college assignments. Their professional services encompass useful features that make students feel secure and comfortable.
