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The Title is Key

For paper #2 write something more along the lines of literary journalism, sometimes called a synthesis paper or profile. Profiles share many features with autobiographical writing: they use recollection, observation, narration, anecdote, description, and dialogue. But, profiles differ significantly from memoir. Whereas the personal essay should reflect on a remembered personal experience, the profile presents and synthesizes newly acquired information, and keeps a safe critical distance from its subject. You observe something (take field notes like a naturalist or anthropologist) and analyze and organize it so that it is both informative and interesting to readers.

For example, instead of describing the death of a loved one and reflecting on what it means to you, you might do a profile of a funeral home ("The Last Stop") and analyze the "business" of dying. You might attend an unusual event, and write up your observations of the people, place and the activity; or, you might interview a person who has an unusual hobby or job and write a profile based on your notes.

People: local personality, distinguished teacher, beekeeper, rasta biker, aviary guy

Places: municipal court, emergency room, delivery room ("stackin' em' up like firewood"), physical therapy center, psychiatric ward, local diner, a general store, a pawnshop, airport, art center, flea market, bingo hall, tattoo parlor (Hippy?)

Activities: an unusual sports event, festival, dance, rock climbing, chair caning, or some other complex natural (biological, mental, physical) or technical process,

Seek out these people, places and activities. Expand your horizons some. Stretch beyond the familiar and take a risk. Analyze: your interpretation and insights into your subject are what will take this paper beyond an exercise in description and narration. You must spend time "in the field" with your subject. Ask yourself some of these questions:

¨ What do I know about the subject’s parts? How will I define or describe it?

¨ Why is the subject intriguing? What might be amusing about it?

¨ How do my preconceptions about the subject compare with other peoples?

¨ What makes my point of view unique?

¨ How will I organize the information? Chronologically, by narrating the journey? Topically, to bring out the issues, contrasts, juxtapositions, and incongruities?

¨ How can my introduction or opening grab the reader? How could my conclusion repeat an image or phrase from the beginning, or otherwise state the theme or point? Should I end with action, dialogue, or an anecdote?

In this expository paper, you explain something and make it understandable to someone else. Expository (explanatory) writing commonly uses an objective perspective; that is, it focuses on the reader’s need for information rather than the writer’s need for self-expression. However, you could be detached observer or participant observer in this piece. This kind of writing often presents factual detail about the subject, but it will be interspersed into the essay, in bits and pieces, conveyed through dialogue and description, rather than in one large chunk. And note that, while its primary purpose is to inform readers, it also manages to engage them. Be careful though: profiles broaden our view by presenting unusual people or places, but they should not concentrate on only the bizarre, dramatic or colorful, ignoring the humdrum, everyday, or ironic aspects of the activity.