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Practical Instructions On How To Start Off A Profile Essay
Profile essays are a common kind of paper that you may be assigned. Typically they entail profiling a person by presenting background information on them such as their life story, and when appropriate, presenting their views or stance on certain issues. In many ways the purpose and tone of profile papers will vary with the subject of the profile. For instance, a profile on your grandparent would be very different from a profile on a famous figure in history, not only in what it would cover but in its tone.
Profile essays can be very interesting to write, but they can also be overwhelming because it can be difficult to know what to include in them. Follow these practical instructions on how to start off writing a profile essay:
- Collect information or conduct an interview
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To complete a profile paper you will need to collect information about the person you are going to write about. If it is a person that you know and can access, you can interview the person to collect this information, which can be a very interesting experience. When interviewing them be sure to ask a range of questions so that when it comes time to write you have lots of options about what to write about. If the person you are writing about is someone you know or is dead, you’ll need to collect information about them from other sources such as books or interviews with people who knew them.
- Decide on an angle for your paper
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Generally in a profile paper you will want to pick a certain angle to write about. Most of the time, especially with well known figures, there is a certain thing that the person is known for or a specific way that most people think of them. Your profile paper will be more interesting if you can find an angle, either within what the person is known for, or with something they’re not well known for. For instance, if you are writing about a president, it can be interesting to profile them about something other than their 4 or 8 years in office.
- Decide on the time frame to cover
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To further narrow down your topic you may also need to decide on a time frame in the person’s life to focus on, otherwise there would just be too much material to cover.