Usually, profile essays are written by students who study journalism. To write a good essay, they need to research their topic or even conduct a few interviews. The success of a profile essay always depends on the quality of research and the student’s knowledge. Learn more about profile essays at college-writers.com blog.
The Purpose of a Profile Essay
A profile essay is aimed to describe a certain subject. The description should be interesting for readers and engaging. To write a successful essay, you should find an original topic. Think about the general knowledge of your audience and make sure that your essay will actually tell them something new because your readers may be familiar with the subject already.
Preparation
We recommend that you prepare for any writing assignment that you get because you should clearly understand what you’re going to write about and what your essay will look like. Writing a profile essay is a step-by-step process which includes preparation, writing, editing, and proofreading. In this article, we will consider every step of the writing process in detail.
Read Profile Essays
The easiest way to learn to write profile essays is to find successful examples and learn from them. Read profile essays and search for interviews on the internet. Check out interviews in magazines and try to read as many essays of this type as you can.
While reading successful essays, pay your attention to the used language, structure, headings, and the way writers develop their thoughts. We also recommend that you pay your attention to the vocabulary that is commonly used in such essays. Take notes and use effective approaches in your own essays, later. The more you read, the better you will understand what makes a good profile essay, while also improving your knowledge of different subjects.
Choose Your Subject
The subject of your essay is extremely important so we recommend that you choose it carefully. However, you may or may not be able to select any topic you want. Sometimes, professors suggest available topics, and sometimes you can come up with your own ideas.
If you’re writing about a well-known person, such as a politician or celebrity, it will be easier for you to write a profile essay because people are interested in this person and there’s a lot of information available. However, if you’re writing about something less popular, it may be difficult for you to write an interesting subject line that will catch your readers’ attention. We recommend that you read successful essays and not the length of subject lines and their styles. Besides, if you can choose a topic for your essay, we recommend that you find something that’s really interesting to you. We also suggest that you don’t write about a person who you cannot meet personally.
Choose the Right Style and Tone
Although profile essays are academic by nature and professional, they imply using a more flexible style than other essay types. We recommend that you write your essay in the first person, especially if this essay includes an interview. In this case, the essay will describe the subject from the writer’s perspective so we recommend that you reflect it in your writing style.
This type of essays makes using the first person more natural than the second person pronoun. However, it doesn’t mean that you should use the first person wherever you can. Make sure that the first person pronoun doesn’t distract your readers from the subject because they shouldn’t focus on you more than on the person you’re writing about.
Writing a Profile Essay
A good profile essay must attract readers. It will be impressive and effective if you have an engaging subject line and a great first sentence that makes your readers want to keep reading. The first impression is crucial so make sure that your essay is engaging and interesting from the very beginning.
Grabbing attention and motivating your readers to read more is the main purpose of the introduction. However, the introduction should also fulfill your audience’s expectations. You should introduce the subject matter in a clear and understandable manner. You can use an anecdote or quote, making your introduction thought-provoking, informative, or funny. These all are good ways to raise a curiosity in the minds of your readers.
The Structure of a Profile Essay
A profile essay must include several key sections. It must start with an introduction, followed by the main body, and the conclusion. The introduction should be several sentences long and very interesting. The body of the essay is its biggest section where you discuss the points that you’ve mentioned in the introduction. Your essay must end with a conclusion that summarizes the key points. To learn more about the structure of profile essays, you can look for such essays online.
The Introduction
This section must serve as a preview of the whole essay, explaining what the essay will be about so that your readers can get some idea of what they’re going to find in the following paragraphs. Make sure that your introduction is descriptive and informative. It must have a thesis statement that presents your points, and we recommend that you introduce your points in the same order as you’re going to discuss them in the body.
Your readers want to learn something interesting about a person you’ve invited for an interview, and your goal is to fulfill your audience’s expectations. You can start your essay in different ways. For example, you can start with a striking fact or interesting quote. The thesis statement must be strong, explaining the purpose of the interview and helping your readers understand what the rest of the paper will be about.
The Body Section
This is the main part of a profile essay where you actually provide the information that you’ve mentioned in the introduction. Don’t make this section overcomplicated and make sure that it isn’t boring. Your goal is to keep your audience interested throughout the whole essay.
- Write your main points and explain them
You should present the answers of the person, along with the necessary explanations and details, and don’t forget about the point you want to make. We recommend that you create the same structure in all the parts of the body section. Present the main point of the paragraph, and then describe it.
Thus, your main points, or questions, will be written in their own paragraphs. Your readers must be able to link information from the paragraph to the main point easily. In addition, we recommend that you write a brief summary of each paragraph. This way, your readers will move to the next paragraph easily. - Make your writing enjoyable and focused
Don’t make your explanations too short. For example, when writing about an interesting event or when describing the atmosphere of the interview, focus on interesting details so that your readers can imagine the whole picture. Make sure to use a consistent style for all the paragraphs.
The paragraphs of the body section must relate to the thesis statement that you’ve presented in the introduction. Connect paragraphs to each other using transitions. Transitions will help your readers focus on the next paragraph while keeping in mind the main point of the previous one. - Balance is important
A profile essay must provide a detailed image of the person interviewed. It must present information creatively so you need to balance between facts and imaginary. Besides, you must make sure that your essay is easy to understand. Avoid including information that may be confusing or raise unnecessary questions. We recommend that you properly explain every question and answer in the corresponding paragraph. Your goal is to make your readers understand the subject completely after reading your essay.
The Conclusion
Like any other essay, a profile essay must have a conclusion that summarizes the content and reflects the most important points about the subject. A good conclusion summarizes the key points of the essay in just a few sentences. After summarizing the key points, write something meaningful about the subject so that your readers can think about it after they finish reading the essay. For example, wrap things up with a meaningful quote or interesting thought.
Keep in mind that the conclusion must be logically connected to the thesis statement. An effective conclusion not only provides a quick recap of the content but also reminds your readers what the purpose of the essay is. Rewrite the thesis statement, mention the key points of the discussion, and the very topic of your essay so that your readers can paint a complete picture in their minds.
Editing and Proofreading
Not only should your essay be interesting, but it must also have the right structure and be grammatically correct. Even if your essay is interesting but full of spelling mistakes, it will lose its effectiveness. We recommend that you read your essay a few times before submitting it.
However, proofreading your essays is a challenging task because you may not be aware of some mistakes, and some awkward sentences may sound so familiar to you that you won’t notice that something is wrong. Thus, we recommend that you give your essay to a friend or relative who is good at writing and use their feedback. You can also order professional editing and proofreading on College-Writers.com so that you can be sure that your essay is spotless in terms of style, grammar, and structure.
When it comes to the structure, we recommend that you also check the length of your sentences. If your sentences are too long and complex, the essay will be hard to understand so your readers will be unlikely to appreciate it. Making your essay easy to read and to understand is necessary if you want to get a good grade.
Follow our tips and you will write a great profile essay!