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Profile Writing

Profile Writing. English 201. Describing the Subject.

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Profile Writing

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  1. Profile Writing English 201

  2. Describing the Subject • “In the middle of one morning, Vaillancourt left the shop, got into his car, drove two or three miles down the road and went into woods to cut a birch. The weather was sharp, and he was wearing a heavy red Hudson’s Bay coat. His sand-brown hair, curling out in the back, rested on the collar…His eyes—they were pale blue, around an aquiline nose over a trapper’s mustache—searched the woodlot for a proper tree.” John McPhee, The Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe

  3. Describing the Subject • “John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth. He has the posture of al dente spaghetti and the nervous intensity of someone who plays a lot of video games. Laroche is thirty-six years old. • Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief

  4. Describing the Subject • “A handsome, 38 year-old alpinist, with boyishly side-parted blond hair, close-set blue eyes, and a lantern jaw, Anker looks more like a high-strung surfer than a consummate mountaineer. With no hiker’s thighs or gym-pumped muscles, there’s a surprising lightness to his physique, and his head leans perpetually forward, as if straining into the future.” Daniel Duane, “The Climber Comes Down to Earth”

  5. Techniques for Describing Someone? • In physical descriptions, eyes may be most important. • Describe in action • Use apt comparisons • Move to interpret (“as if…”) character • Age • Avoid “stock” phrases (e.g. “soft-spoken”) • Do it early

  6. Writing Exercise • Write a four or five sentence description of yourself, using some of the techniques we discussed. • Share these in small groups

  7. Assignment for Tuesday • Compose a proposal for your choice of a profile subject. • Using the list of criteria that begin the “Judging What You’ve Got” section of Curious Writer, and the list of italicized questions in the “Questions about Purpose and Audience,” make a pitch for your profile subject as if I was an editor for a magazine. • Why should I commission you to write the piece?

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