What does the Writing Process look like for a Profile Essay?

What is a Profile Essay?

Length: 900-1500 words

Sources: 2+ credible web sources
Assignment Guidelines

For your Profile Essay, you will answer the question “How can we fix this problem?”

This essay will continue your research project this term, building from your Analysis Essay. Hopefully, you were happy with the problem you chose for that paper, so you can appropriately build on that here; if not, revise your Analysis Essay, choosing a new topic, before you write your Profile Essay.

In our examination of Identity & Worldview this term, you are considering a problem bigger than yourself: What is being done in the world to solve this problem? Who is solving it? What are organizations doing to combat it and win/fix/solve/help it? This essay will “profile” one of these organizations, explaining their mission, what they are doing to solve/combat/advocate for, and how/why it is effective. You likely will research several organizations/groups/movements before settling on which one is best helping this problem.

Your goal with the Profile Essay is to introduce the organization, then explain how the organization is fixing the problem in your 3+ body paragraphs, using sources (including the group’s website) for support. Unlike your Expressive Essays, you will not use personal experiences, but instead, use credible web materials to explain the problem.What is a Profile Essay?

Just like your Analysis Essay where you defined a topic and used credible Internet research as your support/data, the Profile Essay asks you to build on this same topic.

Start by finding a group or organization that you think is effectively fixing this problem, explore, their website, and use that information as the basis of your paper. Think about what that one group or organization or person is doing to win/fix/solve/fix the problem.

It will be helpful to look at other sources, too, so you can see how others perceive their efforts. Look at this essay as “profiling” an organization or group that is seeking to solve the problem you addressed in the Analysis Essay.

Cite your sources using what you know from Module 3 about MLA format, in-text citation, and Works Cited. As in your Analysis Essay, I don’t expect you to be an expert on citation, but the more you document your sources for academic papers, the easier it will become.

Objectives
As you work through the Writing Process for this essay, you will develop the following:

Use effective transitions and topic sentences to orient readers to time, place, or topic.
Use effective internal arrangement of ideas to connect relevant evidence, including use of clear signal phrases to integrate textual evidence.
Utilize expert testimony and quotation gathered from interviews and/or textual research.
Annotate a text in order to demonstrate understanding and respond thoughtfully.
Identify connections between texts.

What does the Writing Process look like for a Profile Essay?

Pre-Writing

Read through the assignment guidelines and sample essays. Review “What does the Writing Process look like?” found under “Where to Start.”

Read through the prompt, then start researching organizations/groups/movements that support your Analysis Essay problem. In order to look for organizations in an unbiased manner, I suggest using DuckDuckGo as it will remove all the Algorithms Google uses for your results, removing any unconscious biases Google has collected on you. Give yourself a few days to consider the organizations you found and which one you think best solves the problem.

Research

This step can come either after the Pre-Writing, during Organization, or continue into Drafting and Revision; potentially at all stages. This depends upon your Research Process, how informed you want to be before writing, or later adding detail where your paper is lacking.

Be careful to use unbiased sources, or if you are looking to see various viewpoints on the topic, be aware of the bias to include this for your audience.

One of your sources will be the organization itself but use outside sources as well to show how others view the organization as successful.

Use Web Research found under “Research/MLA.”

Organization

You have already practiced writing structured essays, so this essay will use the same organization, including an Introduction, 3+ Body Paragraphs, & a Conclusion.

Start by writing a preliminary thesis statement that introduces the organization. From here, break that thesis into 3+ smaller ideas, which will become your body paragraphs. These may be 3+ ways in which the organization fixes the problem or 3+ specific examples of how the organization fixed the problem. Either using a formal outline structure or bulleted list, organize your thesis and 3+ smaller ideas. With these, start filling in your list with the research and support you found on the web to support the topic sentences.

Drafting

Focus on structuring the Body Paragraphs. Build on your Outline by making those 3+ bulleted items into your topic sentences and adding research to your examples–not personal examples. With your first draft, don’t concern yourself with being perfect–just get your ideas on paper.

Start adding in your research materials; click on “Incorporating Research” found under “Where to Start.” Don’t worry about correct MLA citation–just give it a shot as you can fix it up in the Revision stage. You may find yourself using excessive quotations on your first draft, and that’s okay for now, but as you revise, you will change most of these into paraphrases. However, make sure you note which quotation or paraphrase came from which source.

Once you have a solid paragraph structure, write your preliminary Introduction and Conclusion Paragraphs.

Remember that the Writing Process is recursive, so you will draft and revise many times before getting to the final project.

Consider making a TWP/Instructor appointment as you need to complete this at least once per module and it will help with your writing.

Revision

Look at the rubric, so you know how this Essay will be graded. Empower yourself by knowing how you will earn points.

Read through your paper for thesis, structure, and support concerns, using “Revision” techniques found under “Where to Start.”

Begin your revision by looking at the “big point-value” items, moving on to the lesser point-value items. I think it’s best to start with the thesis statement and topic sentences before moving on to the cohesion of paragraphs and clarity of ideas. You can then work to have transitions between and within your paragraphs and assess the effectiveness of support.

MLA prefers paraphrases over quotations as paraphrases are easier to seamlessly integrate into your writing as you don’t need to worry about fixing tense, hanging pronouns, or other irregularities. At least half of your source material should be paraphrases, meaning use far fewer quotations than paraphrases.

With any research-based paper, you may find that your body paragraphs include quite a bit of research, which is fine. Just keep your sources out of the topic and concluding sentences of body paragraphs, cite everything, and vary your sources within each paragraph, so you don’t appear too reliant on any one source.

Ask yourself if your paper answers the assignment question and fulfills the guidelines.Just like your Analysis Essay where you defined a topic and used credible Internet research as your support/data, the Profile Essay asks you to build on this same topic.