It’s the beginning of the semester, and you’re excited to take your first journalism class. You’ve always wanted to see how the news is produced and possibly even work in the field someday. Everything was going smoothly until the professor assigned a profile essay. She stressed that profile essays are an important part of the journalism field and that they may be one of the most difficult types of essays to write.
At that point, you could feel your heart sink. Your dreams of majoring in journalism seemed to be fading. But don’t worry; this doesn’t have to be the end of your journalism career. In fact, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be the beginning of a great profile essay writing experience!
Keep reading this article to learn how to write a profile essay. I’ll cover the following topics:
- What is a profile essay?
- How to prepare to write a profile essay
- How to start a profile essay
- An example of what a good profile essay outline looks like
- How to write a profile essay on a person
- How to write a profile essay on a place
- How to write a conclusion for a profile essay
In addition to those topics, I’ll also discuss some good profile descriptive essay topics to consider. Finally, I’ll offer some tips that are applicable to all essay writers, which you’ll be able to use to bring your profile essay writing to the next level.
What Is a Profile Essay?
A profile essay is an essay whereby the writer describes a person, place, thing, or event. Profile essays are commonly assigned in journalism, political science, and psychology courses because they rely heavily on description and details.
The tone of profile essays can vary depending on the discipline, from highly academic to more conversational, with most being somewhere in the middle. Generally speaking, no matter what’s being profiled, profile essays share some fundamental qualities.
How to Prepare to Write a Profile Essay
Once assigned to write a profile essay, your first task is to develop a topic. We’ll assume that your professor has given you the choice of topics, so let’s start with brainstorming. The first step is to determine what you want to write about.
Person, Place, Thing, or Idea
By far, the most common topics of profile essays are people or places. Depending on the details of the assignment, the person can be someone you know, an expert on something, or it may be a famous or influential person. If it involves someone you know or an expert you can contact, then you’ll probably conduct an interview. But if your subject is famous or a historical personality, then you’ll have to do some research.
If you choose to write about a place, thing, or idea, it should be a place you’ve visited or a thing or idea you know about. Remember, a profile essay involves plenty of descriptions and is full of details.
Look at Examples
Because you’re new to writing profile essays, you should read some examples as you prepare your essay. Popular magazines are a good source for determining how profile essays should be written. Travel magazines often have great profile articles about specific places, while human-focused periodicals like People can give you a good example of how to write a profile essay about a person.
Now that you know how to prepare to write a profile essay, let’s move on to the next step.
How to Start a Profile Essay
With your topic chosen and your research done, it’s time to get to the fun part – the writing! Before you sit at your desk and start typing, though, there are a few essential things you need to consider. Doing so will separate your profile essay from the crowd.
Determine Your Style and Tone
Unfortunately, this is often overlooked. Perhaps the primary factor that separates profile essays from other types of essays you’ve previously written is the style and tone. Profile essays tend to be lighter and less academic than other essays. With that said, profile essays are also flexible depending on the subject – an interview with a comedian will take a fun, light tone, while a battlefield profile will be more somber.
The next step is to put your thoughts into writing in the form of an outline.
Profile Essay Outline
Even if you’ve taken excellent notes, it’s difficult to just start writing. Writing a detailed outline is important for a number of reasons.
- A detailed outline helps you organize your thoughts
- The outline gives you a roadmap for your essay
- An outline can be edited before the writing process
It might help to look at an outline as the “blueprint” of your essay. It provides the bare bones of your essay and should be consulted at every step.
What’s the Best Type of Outline?
This is a pretty common question, but the answer depends on you. There are different styles of outlines, including bullet points or a more traditional outline. The more you write outlines, the more you’ll quickly find the style that suits you. I prefer the more traditional outline. Let’s take a look at what one would look like.
For my profile essay, I’ve decided to write about the Pyramids of Giza. Here’s what my working outline will look like. You’ll see that it follows the traditional format. Major points are marked by upper-case Roman numerals. Sub-points are marked by upper-case letters and Arabic numerals. The more detailed sub-points are marked by lower-case letters and lower-case Roman numerals.
- Hook (the Pyramids of Giza have captured the imagination of millions of people for centuries)
- Two to three sentences describing the general fascination with the pyramids
- Stress the importance of the pyramids in the sentence (this is the equivalent of the thesis statement in other types of essays)
- The Pyramids of Giza have influenced scholarly studies, tourism, and even science fiction, and a visit to these monuments reveals why.
- Stress the importance of the pyramids in the sentence (this is the equivalent of the thesis statement in other types of essays)
- Two to three sentences describing the general fascination with the pyramids
- Main body paragraph one
- Description of the general characteristics
- General impressions
- Description of the general characteristics
- Main body paragraph two
- Description of more specific details
- More detailed impression
- Description of more specific details
- Main body paragraph three
- If needed
- Conclusion paragraph
- This is where everything is wrapped up
- Write a secondary hook at the beginning of the paragraph
- It can be similar to the primary hook
- i. "The Pyramids of Giza have inspired millions for centuries, and they will certainly continue to do so for many more centuries."
- It can be similar to the primary hook
- Write a secondary hook at the beginning of the paragraph
- Restate the importance of the site
- Summarize the essay
- Depending on the required length of your essay, the conclusion should be about five sentences
- Summarize the essay
- This is where everything is wrapped up
Always remember that this outline, and any outline, is a work in progress. The main body paragraphs may only be two for your essay, or they could be more than three. The great thing about a profile essay is that there’s plenty of leeway to engage your personal creativity. You can change things as you go to fit your essay. Also, try using different outline styles until you find one that works for you.
How to Write a Profile Essay on a Person
If you are assigned to write a personal essay about a person or have chosen that, you have a couple more decisions. You can write about either a famous person/historical personality or someone who isn’t well known.
Writing about a Famous Person
This may seem like the easier route, but your research material will be limited to what’s been published about this person. Books, magazine articles, YouTube videos, and other social media can be a good place to start. Famous people and historical personalities will draw more interest from your reader, which is good, but it’s likely that the reader will also know something about the person.
This leaves you with the other option.
Writing about a Lesser Known Person
This can be a friend, family member, or someone influential in your community. If you choose a lesser-known person, your research will primarily be interviewing this person, so make sure to ask engaging questions.
Whichever one you choose, there are some general rules you should follow.
- Describe the person’s physical attributes
- Details such as a person’s height, weight, complexion, hair color, voice sound, and age will all help create an image in the reader’s mind.
- Describe how the person makes others feel
- Good profile essays employ plenty of adjectives and adverbs. So, don’t be afraid to tap into your emotions for this type of essay!
- “My mom has always made me feel safe, warm, and loved.“
- Describe how the person makes others think
- Whether you’re writing about someone famous or your mom, this person is impactful enough to make you think about some things. Describe those thoughts vividly with plenty of superlatives. Also, tie the feeling in with the thinking.
- “My mom always made me think about my actions and how those actions make others feel.“
- Describe the person’s personality
- This is the overall goal of a profile essay on a person. Once you describe how they make others feel and think, describing some of the person’s personality traits should be easy.
There are a number of different ways you can format a profile essay about a person. The easiest way is to follow the general outline I provided. The first paragraph of the main body can be a general description of the person, while the next one or two paragraphs will be more detailed prose about how the person makes others think and feel.
How to Write an Essay on a Place
If you choose to write a profile essay about a place, it should probably be somewhere you’ve visited that impacted you. National parks, historical monuments, and even amusement parks are popular subjects of profile essays. The place you choose to write about should be thought-provoking and invoke emotions.
As with writing a profile essay on a person, a profile essay about a place can follow a similar pattern.
Description of the Place
For most profile essays, this will be the first paragraph of your main body. Starting with a more general description usually works, but remember to use plenty of adjectives and adverbs. Let’s use the example from the outline.
- “At first glance, the massive pyramids made me feel infinitesimal.“
You can then write about more specific details.
- “As I entered Khufu’s pyramid, I could smell and feel a mustiness over 4,000 years old. It was strangely assuring as I journeyed further into the pyramid closer to the king’s resting place.“
- “The pyramid silence of the pyramid brought me to a level of serenity I’ve never before experienced.“
Whether you’re writing about a person or place, it’s important to write from the perspective of your senses. How did you see, hear, smell, feel, or taste the subject of your essay?
How to Write a Conclusion for a Profile Essay
I’ve already covered the conclusion a bit in the outline section; let’s take a more detailed look at this vital part of the essay. You want to leave your reader with a good impression, and a strong conclusion is the way to do it.
A conclusion for a good profile essay not only wraps everything up, but it’s also where you state how you’ve achieved your goal. So, you re-stress the importance of the person or place you’re writing about. For my example, I would write something like this: “The Pyramids of Giza have clearly influenced scholars, travelers, and others for generations. Once you stand in front of the awe-inspiring majesty of these monuments, which seem to speak to us today, it’s clear why.”
Final Tips for a Strong Profile Essay
Now that you’ve gone through the steps of the profile essay writing process, let’s look at some tips that will help your writing reach its potential.
- Describe feelings; don’t name them. As I’ve stressed throughout this article, profile essays are descriptive and should come from the heart.
- Because you’re using descriptive words, use plenty of adjectives and adverbs. It might help to keep a thesaurus at your side when writing a profile essay.
- Writing in the first person is fine. With that said, avoid using terms like “I think” or “In my opinion.” Your descriptions should be self-explanatory.
- Be aware of redundancies. When writing descriptions, you may tend to repeat certain words and phrases.
- Avoid writing a transcript. If you’re doing a profile of a person, don’t write the essay as an interview. Your interview of that person should serve as the material for the essay but not the essay itself.
- Always proofread your work. As you proofread your work for typos, make sure to keep all of these points in mind as well.
Profile Your Future!
With this knowledge in mind, you’re ready to start your writing journey. If you follow the format and tips in this article, your profile essay writing will quickly improve. It may be one of the most challenging forms of academic writing, but it’s also one of the most rewarding.
Once you successfully complete your first profile essay, you can use that experience to improve your future essays. And in no time, you’ll be writing top-tier essays.
Just relax, keep your mind open, and have fun. You might be surprised how enjoyable profile writing can be!
