Profile tips

JOURN 300/SPRING 2013/ Possible questions to ask your profile subject:


• The reader wants to know what makes your subject so unique or interesting that you want to write about him/her. Ask the other people you interview for your story to help you with this. For instance, the omelet lady is unique, because she 1) interacts with the students so closely, 2) keeps up a steady stream of banter, which not all DC employees do and 3) seems so proud of her job.



• Provide examples that illustrate/SHOW the qualities you think make your subject so interesting. So, SHOW the omelet lady talking to a particular student at a particular time about a particular subject. Don’t just sum up what she USUALLY talks about, or if you do ALSO add a PARTICULAR example. How do you show she is proud of her job? Ask her why she is. Mention that she has a Facebook page. (It turns out her husband started the FB page; interview him! Ask him if she has always been so invested in all of her jobs. Have them met a lot of people through her job? What does she say about it to him? Has she told him of any particularly memorable things that happened on the job? )



• Once you’ve established that this person is unique or otherwise interesting, ask questions about his or her background to discover things that LED to him/her being the interesting person he/she is. For instance, the basketball player SC is shown in his room amid a LOT of clothes, but it is apparent he keeps all his clothes well organized and that he takes care of them. *Ask him WHY he thinks he is neat? *Were his parents neat? *What did they do? *What kind of a house did he grow up in? *Does he value orderliness? If so, does he think it is because the value of it was ingrained in his childhood? Or is he neat because his childhood was kind of chaotic, for instance? *Ask him who has been a big influence in his life and why? *Can he remember any particular instances of this person helping or guiding him or any particular advice this person offered him? You don’t have to go on at great length about his in the piece. Just a couple of sentences would help us “picture” the subject and where he came from.



• Ask some “evergreen” questions that will help you paint a multi-dimensional picture of your subject that goes beyond the main thing you’re concentrating on in the piece. For instance, Angela McMahon is a lacrosse coach at UMass where she once was a player. She is well-respected by her players for her strong work ethic. Ask what else she does besides lacrosse? Does she bring this strong work ethic to everything she does, would she say? (Maybe she’ll say she’s got a dog, but she’s totally undisciplined when it comes to training her dog and she lets the dog run all over the house and knock things over, for instance.) Where does she think she got this strong work ethic she brings to coaching lacrosse? When did she first start playing lacrosse? Was it her first choice of a sport to play? Did someone encourage her? How?

GOOD EXAMPLES FROM SOME OF THE PAPERS:

“At the beginning of class Lamb walks over to her desk – her gait is punctuated by a preference for her right leg – and places what looks like thousands of paper down with a thud. She eases herself up onto the desk and it momentarily tilts forward and supports Lamb with only two pegs. She doesn notice, pounding the desk and calling out for “offerings for the gods.” – Araz

“When Keller was moved to Berkshire while Hampshire is renovated, she was excited that she got new omelet pans. But the excitement wore off quickly, as she had trouble adjusting to life at Berk. “The stir fry lad who has my space after me always comes over and tells me she has to start at 11, but I end at 11!” said Keller in frustration to a group of students. – Shannon