How to Write a Profile Essay | Steps, Types and Format of a Profile Essay

How to Write a Profile Essay: What is a Profile Essay? The form of essay used to describe a person, place, or anything detailed is known as profile essay. It is a type of an informative essay and is supposed to be factual and descriptive.

Students of journalism usually write this type of essay. An effective profile essay can be written by researching a topic, event, or interviewing a person. A comprehensive and balanced essay can be written by in-depth research and knowledge about the student’s subject.

The first and foremost goal of a profile essay is to be informative. It is a literary work that focuses on the description of a person, place, or event. Besides being factual and descriptive, literary work traits, such as presenting your point of view on the subject and providing interest to the readers, should be held on to.zaw

Writing a profile essay is a difficult task. This is because just in a few pages, you have to inaugurate a character, talk about their environment, what bothers them, and your opinion about it.

Even though this work is difficult, it is fulfilling for many, as authors get to exercise their writing skills.

You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more

Types of Profile Essays

Profile essays are descriptive types of essays. Interview of persons or the description of a place or event followed by post analysis is the structure of a profile essay. Here are a few examples of profile essays:

  • Describe the structure of an animal house that you know of.
  • Explain how recovery centers help in recovery by the recovery centers that you know of.
  • Talk about an art house around your locality functions.

Steps for writing a Profile Essay

A profile essay is a type of descriptive write up, allowing writers to exhibit literary powers. It is important to learn and research about the topic that you are planning to write on. Since a profile essay can be descriptive of a person, place, or event, extensive research on the subject allows you to learn about it, making the writing process easier.

The following steps should be followed when writing a profile essay:

  • Learn About What You Are Writing: Since profile essays are not very popular among students, and as mentioned earlier, it is a bit difficult to write; it can best be learned by reading other profile essays. When reading a profile essay from any magazine or newspaper, remember to notice what are the key points that make the article interesting to the readers.
  • Choose a Subject: When choosing an issue, try and choose a topic which is famous such as a famous person, place, or event. It could be a renowned cricketer or politician, a historical event, or a monument or site with historical background, etc. Typically, a famous topic draws more readers’ interest as people are keen to know about its significance.
  • Find Valid And Detailed Information: First-hand pieces of information are always the most preferable because those details are not to be found elsewhere, which in turn makes your write up unique. Interviewing a person, event organizer, care person of a specific place turns out beneficial. Try and ask questions that seek more in-depth information. In a famous person or place, try and find detailed information about the person or the site from books, websites, interviews, etc.
  • Creating an Outline: Even though creating a strategy is not mandatory, it helps organize your thoughts and information. Also, creating an overview helps in the points not being overused or repeated. Creating an outline gives a visual representation of all the information that you and how you want to organize it. Like any other essay, a profile essay has three main parts, the introduction, body, and conclusion.
  • Introduction: An introduction should be written in a way to grab readers’ attention. The opening is the hero of your essay, as it will either draw or dismiss your audience. Start with the critical issues which will later be explained in the piece. Starting a profile essay with a conversation can always be a good idea, including monologues or between a couple of people. You can also begin the piece an element of surprise that the readers did not already know about the topic. At the end of the introduction, adding a thesis statement helps to clarify your point of view in the essay.
  • The Body Paragraph: Once you have an outline with all the information that you have collected and have already penned down the introductory paragraph, it’s time to write the body, the meat of the essay. When writing the body, the following basic points should be kept in mind:
    • Mentioning sensory details such as, if you are talking about a person, then say the name, height, age, looks, and so on. Whereas if you are writing about a place, then mention the weather, surroundings, etc.
    • You are adding the questions that you asked while the interview with the person or the organizer of the event or care person of a place keeps the readers interested.
    • Connect each paragraph to the points mentioned in the thesis statement.
    • Go in detail with your profile that you present. This makes the reader feel as they are there with you.
    • The body paragraph should be divide into several subsections, with each section talking in detail about different topics related to the topic.
  • Get to an Impactful Conclusion: Finally, you conclude the essay. It is a few sentences concisely summing up all the information provided in the profile essay. Sometimes authors add a hook, in the end, to keep their readers thinking. In this part, you need to remind the readers of the essay’s purpose and talk about whether they have been fulfilled.
  • Pay Attention To The Tone And Styles Of The Essay: While crafting a profile essay, try and keep the piece’s toneless academic style. If it is an interview, the report should be in a first-person narrative. Remember to mention all the small details; this will make your essay stand out.
  • Revise and Edit: After finishing the essay, the next step is to revise the essay. This step is one of the easiest, yet one of the most important steps. While editing, remember to read the entire passage from the beginning to the end. This practice allows you to make sure that you have not missed out on any points. Make the potential changes that will help you increase the quality of the writing.

Profile Essay Writing Format

When writing a profile essay, the following pattern should be maintained:

  • A Precise Introductory Paragraph Including A Well-Crafted Thesis Statement: The introduction is the preview of the essay giving the readers a subsequent idea of what the essay holds. The sentences used in the introduction should be informative and descriptive about the person or the place the essay is written on. It is the leading statement that creates an interest in the reader’s mind. The introduction of the essay gives a preview of what is going to be talked about in the body. The introduction paragraph should be ended with a strong thesis statement representing the purpose of the essay.
  • The Body Of The Essay: The body is the part of the essay where you provide all your researched information. The body shouldn’t be boring or monotonous. To keep the readers interested throughout the passage, it should be the intention of the essay.
  • List the Main Points, Followed By A Detailed Explanation: The author should describe the details collected from the interview with examples to make the essay more interesting for the readers. If the passage is in the form of an interview, then each question asked with the answer should be written in a separate paragraph. This will help the readers to end every point with a comprehensive understanding.
  • Write The Passage In An Enjoyable And Focused Manner: Avoid making the essay too short, and only mentioning the points without any explanation. The paragraphs’ style should be maintained throughout the essay according to the answers given to the questions asked during the interview.
  • Be Consistent and Maintain a Proper Flow Throughout the Passage: Make sure to connect the paragraphs to the statements you provided in the introductory section. Transitions should be properly maintained, generally one by giving a hint about what will come up in the upcoming paragraph.
  • Sustain the Balance: The essay that you are writing should be a comprehensive picture of the person, place, or event you are writing about. Any confusing points or unclear details should be avoided to make the passage understandable by the readers. Each sub-head should be properly explained to make the reader’s concept of the essay clear by the end. The body of a profile essay should be divided into several paragraphs with every describing a question asked during the interview.

Conclusion On How to Write a Profile Essay

This part is the reflection of the points mentioned in the body. Along with stating whether the objective was achieved in the essay, it also reminds readers of the report’s purpose again.

FAQ’s on How to Write a Profile Essay

Question 1.
What are the few first things that you notice in a profile essay?

Answer:
Take note of the following points

  • Style and tone of the write-up.
  • The format used and the paragraph style.
  • Special introduction techniques.
  • Interesting details included by the author.
  • How the ending works out.

Question 2.
What are the things to be remembered before interviewing a person?

Answer:
When interviewing someone, remember the following points,

  • Before starting the interview, introduce yourself to whoever you are interviewing, whether a famous person or the manager of an event.
  • Explain the purpose of the interview with the person you are interviewing.
  • Ask questions according to the topic of your item. Ask questions about their life story, experience, and journey.

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