How to Write a Good Profile Essay? – Steps to Follow

A profile essay is a piece of writing, which focuses on describing a person, place, or event, and its main goal is to be informative. Such essays function as a journalism work – they are descriptive and factual but still provide an interesting and catchy story to the reader.

Writing profile works is quite difficult, so people are often searching tips for persuasive speech writing or for creating a solid profile essay. The biggest challenge is that in several pages, you need to introduce a character and his environment and explain what makes the subject important.

However, such papers are a great way to improve your writing skills, and you shouldn`t neglect such an opportunity. Want to get a narrative writing essay help? Go on reading!

What is Profile Essay? Profile Essay Purpose

Did you ever have a chance to interview a person on a certain topic or event? If the answer is yes, then you already have some ideas about a profile essay. We have already explained how to do a compare and contrast essay, so now it is the right time to assist you in writing a profile paper!

It is a descriptive assignment, which aims to depict a person, event, or place. Such an essay is usually sensory and comprehensive and has a certain balance between useful information and an interesting plot. It is a great way to show your knowledge on the subject and your writing skills. In the majority of cases, profile essays are assigned to journalism students, who need to investigate a particular issue.

Through profile writing, students explain the topic, introduce readers to a certain person or group of people, and tell about issues that stir up the minds of society.

Prepare for the Interview Essay

In the majority of cases, you will need to interview the chosen person in order to write your profile essay. Before you do that there is a need to prepare questions. Try to stick to open-ended and broad questions, such as who, where what and why. There shouldn’t be many ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, because your subject may remain quiet for most of the time and will simply nod instead of giving full answers. Collect as much information as possible, and you will have lots of material for your essay. If you doubt whether you can cope with such a task, you can always get help in writing an essay for college.

Writing the Profile Essay

A great profile essay can attract the audience and grab its attention at once. Two aspects, which make your essay outstanding, are a good choice of the subject and an engaging plot.

Don’t forget that you need to make a positive first impression in order to grab the attention of your reader. This can be reached by an interesting introduction, where you familiarize your audience with the topic. Further paragraphs will fulfill expectations, which you have created.

If you are willing to know how to write a profile essay, you should include a thesis statement to your work. It can be an anecdote, interesting fact, quote, or a rhetoric question: everything that may grab the audience’s attention.

How to Start a Profile Essay

As any other written assignment, your profile essay must catch the interest of the audience from the very first line. Remember how important the first impression is? The same applies to your essay: you create a lasting picture of the story and get an opportunity to impress the reader at once.

Your profile essay on a famous person, place, or event should start with an introduction and a thesis statement. Don’t forget to provide background information on the matter, explaining to your readers why you find the chosen topic so important and interesting.

Structure of a Comprehensive Profile Essay

Structure of your essay is similar to any other written assignment you may get:

• Introduction;
• Main paragraphs;
• Conclusion.

However, profile essay is unique, and when writing about a person, you should remain respectful even if you don’t share the same opinion. Only with respect, you will make an objective and useful work.

How to Conclude a Profile Essay

When all of your profile essay questions have been discussed, it is the right time to write final paragraphs. Summarize all of the key elements of your essay and convince the audience that this information is important. Your reader must feel satisfaction from the paper, so it is crucial to restate your thesis and include a call-to-action if you are willing to make the audience examine the topic further.

What to know about Profiling and How to Write a Profile

Before explaining how to create such an essay, it is important to have a clear picture of how profiling works. It is quite different from other sorts of assignments, and describing a person is not the same as describing an issue or your own experience. That is when a descriptive profile essay example may come in hand.

We recommend starting with describing a person’s appearance. This includes name, age, weight, height, ethnicity, and so on. These features are very important, because of help in depicting the identity of the person.

For example, you can tell that the subject attended Harvard University, and it will immediately draw a good profile. If you are describing a location, it can be its name, situation, coordinates, neighboring towns, date of founding, population, etc. Such elements create the basis of profiling, so if you want to succeed it is important to master all of them!

Very often, students are advised to get familiar with a sample student profile essay. It is a great way to see how the work can be done and to understand what is expected from different types of essays. Such samples are another useful tool for writing a profile essay, so you shouldn’t neglect it.

Writing a profile essay should follow a set of rules if you want to improve your grade and to draw a great picture of a discussed person. They include:

• Be honest and stick to facts. If you describe a person, you need to render his words without making anything up. It is very easy to check whether you have written the truth. So even if you want to make up any details for a better picture, avoid such a common mistake!
• Organize information and ideas beforehand. This will help you to save time and to achieve the results you want;
• Follow a clear structure. To make the readers interested, you need to make sure that the story is consistent and logical. Connect paragraphs using transition words and reveal your arguments in a certain order (either in a chronological way or in the order of relevance).

The biggest challenge is that your profile essay must be a combination of factual and descriptive information. This means that your paper should be a literary work but still contain facts and clear data on the discussed person or topic.

Choose Your Subject Carefully

One of the most difficult but yet important aspects is choosing the right subject to discuss. Most of the people think that such a person should be a celebrity, an academic writer, or a veteran. However, writing about a less famous person can also be exciting.

Everything is in your hands, and the quality of the story depends on your writing skills, not on the achievements of the discussed person. If you are writing a simple college essay, it is better to write about a subject you know personally. Not about a president or a movie start.

The Tone and Manner of Writing

When writing a profile, you need to avoid short explanations. For example, the street was full of people. Instead try to make your story interesting and engaging, making readers a part of the story.

Every paragraph of your story must follow the same style and must be based on the questions, asked during an interview. Remain logical and interlink paragraphs, using statements from your introductory section and transition words. Such simple instruments will help readers to keep track of the story and to understand your general ideas.

Organization: Maintain the Balance

Your essay should be a thorough picture of a person, event, or place. It should both present accurate information on the topic and introduce the reader to a world with bright colors and interesting plot twists.

Apart from maintaining such a balance, you need to be sure that your text is readable and clear. This means that you shouldn’t include unclear information and confusing points. Give enough explanation for every question in the main paragraphs of your essay.

Your main goal is to make the audience understand your ideas by the end of an essay without any questions left.

An Outline Sample for a Profile Essay about a Person

If you have never completed such an assignment before, here is a common profile essay outline.  All you need is to personalize it and adjust to your topic!

1. Introduction

Make sure you provide interesting details about a person, place, or event you are going to discuss. Start with a quote, joke, or statistics to grab the attention of the reader. Don’t forget to include the main information on the things you will discuss in your paper.

Consider introduction as a preview to what will be discussed later in work. Never neglect transition words, because they help to connect your introduction to body paragraphs.

2. Body Paragraphs

Start every paragraph with the main idea and then support it with answers from an interview. The quantity of such paragraphs depends on the number of arguments you want to discuss. You can finish every paragraph with a summary or with transition words that will connect parts of the story together.

3. Conclusion

The final section of your essay should summarize the key points of the story, relating to your thesis statement.  Make sure you remind the audience your main goal, explaining why the topic is important and valuable.