Profile essays are a common assignment in composition courses, journalism, and other different disciplines. You are definitely here to learn more about how to write a profile essay, and we will not fail you. However, we must state that you have to master the six-step academic writing process (check out the guide). It is a concept that makes your writing process seamless.
If you have interviewed someone or read their autobiography, you can proceed to write a profile essay about them as a subject. Sounds easy, right? However, there are things you need to do.
In this guide, we take you through everything you need to master to write a profile essay that will guarantee higher scores. We have also included video resources and sample essays to show you how to do profile essay writing. Let’s get started.
A profile essay is a common assignment in composition courses and entails a vivid description of a place, person, event, era or epoch, activity, or any item of choice. If you are pursuing journalism, a profile essay often only entails specifically writing about a person. Therefore, it is common for journalism students to encounter it as a term paper, coursework, or assignment. Students from other disciplines might also write profile essays.
It could be an essay about the richest man on the planet, the leadership skills of a famous person, such as Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, etc., the Russian-Ukrainian War, or a national or international hero. An interview essay written by an interviewer about the interviewee counts as a profile essay.
If you are to write an essay that describes a notable past feminist, civil rights activist, philanthropist, organization, or medieval city, think profile essay first. It should be a deeper-level description that is objective and one that responds to the questions of anyone trying to understand the subject.
If you are writing about a city, focus on facts about demographics, world rankings, awards, geography, name, and other notable features.
An academic profile essay is written and formatted in the most common academic writing styles, such as APA, MLA, Harvard, Turabian, Chicago, or whatever citation format your professor or teacher prefers. You can write a profile essay using the first-person perspective or a narrative tone, depending on the subject or topic you have selected.
The best approach overall is to give a vivid description that comprises:
Do not confuse a profile essay for a descriptive essay. While a profile essay is a type of descriptive essay, it focuses more on giving the specifics of the subject or new information without any personal opinions. A descriptive essay, on the other hand, might contain personal opinions. This way, a profile essay is objective, unlike a descriptive essay, which can be both objective and subjective.
After a careful analysis of more than 300 profile essay assignments and examples from notable universities and colleges, we can safely say that profile essays describe a place, thing, occurrence, era, events, person, or place. The essay demonstrates the use of adjectives to describe the subject.
A profile essay achieves the objectives below:
Many students often find writing profile essays a confusing endeavor. A profile essay can be an essay about yourself, where you objectively explore your appearance, achievements, and encounters. The same way you would write about other people is the same way you should approach a profile essay about yourself.
Like other conventional essays, a profile essay has a hierarchical layout, starting with the introduction, which flows into the body paragraphs and into the conclusion.
A typical profile essay begins with a catchy introduction that features an attention-grabber to entice the readers to read more, a sentence or two about the selected subject, and a thesis statement to announce to your readers your overarching goal in the essay.
Here is a breakdown of a profile essay:
Rules are rules; these are just some guidelines for writing a profile essay.
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Template Outline for a Profile Essay
Having looked at the main parts of a profile essay, here is a breakdown or a scaffold of what to include in your profile essay.
Organizing your essay using the outline above can save you a lot of time and ensure that your points flow well.
Writing a profile essay is such an exciting encounter once you have the bolts and nuts in the right places. Our custom essay writers, who have written thousands of profile essays, have highlighted these steps if you want to be successful.
Unlike other essays that heavily rely on academic sources for evidence, you can write a profile essay based on an interview with a subject. This means that you can write it purely based on your knowledge of the subject, but you can also use external sources to substantiate facts about the subject.
We encourage you to look at examples of profile essays online for inspiration before you begin attempting yours.
If you want to write a profile essay, here are some of the steps to take to guarantee you a great grade.
Choosing broad subjects makes it more difficult to write thoroughly, unlike having a specific subject. Therefore, instead of writing about a football club, you can elect to write about a specific player or coach of that football club.
If you are to select a subject, go for a specific one that you have firsthand knowledge of. You can also select a subject that has quality information available online.
As you select the subject or as you work with a subject assigned by your professor, think of something exciting, extraordinary, or exceptional about the subject. Ensure that your subject resonates with your personal interest so that you can pour your heart out.
Your subject depends on the prompt. Here is an example of a prompt:
Your assignment is to use the writing process to compose a 3-5 page profile essay about an intriguing person, place, or celebrity in your community (Omaha, NE). DO NOT WRITE ABOUT WARREN BUFFET, famous celebrities, politicians, athletes, religious figures, historical figures, vacations, etc.
This prompt is straightforward. You are required to go down to the community level. In this case, you have to expose the local place, person, or celebrity. Your professor probably does not know about them, but through your essay, they should. Using local news articles, interviews with people, etc, can be of great help in getting primary information about the subject.
One last thing: after selecting the profile essay subject, ensure that you develop a strong, reflective title for your essay that reflects its main purpose. It should be less than 10 words long, concise, and clear.
As soon as you begin your research, you will realize that there is so much to share about your subject. Rather than trying to include all the information about your subject in a profile, even when the subject is specific, you should focus on one thing about them. Have a limited focus on the subject so that your essay is niched down and comprehensive.
You can write a three-pronged thesis statement that ascribes abstract traits to your subject. For example, you can say Tom is social, insightful, and ambitious. With this, you have more to write about compared to focusing on concrete qualities.
At this point, you would have decided on the angle of focus of your profile essay. You know what you have to highlight to your readers.
If you are doing a research-based profile essay, ensure that you gather enough information online. Focus on news magazines, articles, and other relevant materials that give details about your subject.
Similarly, prepare for and conduct interviews and observations (if applicable) so that you can uncover meaningful details about your subject. If your subject is a person, focus on personal background, professional experiences, motivations and inspirations, and challenges and achievements. You should request permission from the relevant authorities. If possible, record interviews to capture all the information accurately.
We advise that you collect as much information as possible so that you are not short of what to write when you sit down to type your essay.
With everything set, you need now to plan your essay.
Outline your essay, planning the introduction, body, and conclusion:
Using the outline you developed in the previous step, write the first draft of your profile essay. Instead of writing as you edit, focus on writing first and editing later. Capture the essence of your subject and provide a vivid and engaging narrative.
Ensure that your body paragraphs extend the thesis of your essay. As you develop the paragraphs, remember to use personal experiences, such as anecdotes or mini-stories of specific events, instead of general descriptions.
Besides, use cited materials when you are not allowed to use first-person perspective in the essay or if you are profiling a subject that you are not familiar with. Include in-text citations whenever you borrow ideas from other sources to support your point.
A point to note when writing is that you should show and not tell. This means that you should use vivid descriptions, examples, and anecdotes to illustrate your points.
You should also balance subjectivity and objectivity by ensuring that you give personal opinions or observations but supplement them with evidence from credible external sources. Your essay should also have a consistent tone to match the nature of the subject.
Most importantly, when profiling a person or place, ensure that you stay within ethical and legal bounds, respect privacy, and portray the subject accurately and fairly.
Review your draft critically. Check for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Ensure that your descriptions are vivid, and your quotes are accurate.
Revise sentences and paragraphs for better flow and impact. You should also carefully proofread your essay for grammatical errors, typos, and inconsistencies.
Consider reading it aloud to catch any awkward phrasing or rhythm issues. If possible, get feedback from peers, mentors, or your subject (if appropriate).
Use their insights to refine your essay further. Make any final adjustments based on feedback and your own critical review. Ensure that your final draft is polished and ready for submission or publication.
It has been a long time coming, but let us face it. Typically, a profile essay must be comprehensive, attractive, and presentable. In this regard, you must set very high standards for first impressions for a lasting readership.
So then, what do you write in the introduction of a profile essay? The introductory/opening sentence must be an attention grabber or an essay hook that engages the reader. Besides, your subject matter must be reflected in the essay's thesis statement.
Profile essays must include a well-thought-out and crafted thesis in the opening paragraph. Tell the audience why they need to stay tuned in reading the essay.
Anecdotes, quotes, or adages could be an excellent beginning of the introductory sentence. To an allowed extreme, you can include humor to engage and intrigue the readers.
Every person is unique in their own accord. Therefore, you must show total respect to individuals when writing an essay about that someone. For this reason, it is preferred that you take a condescending tone. No one will tell you this, but such a tone produces the best essay on a person. Disrespect makes a profile essay lose taste. Do we need to tell you the consequences?
Students and professionals alike always wonder how to conclude a profile essay. Well, not our professional essay writers. You have been successful in writing the entire essay. Now, in conclusion, you have to convince the readers. Writing a good conclusion is mandatory for an essay.
Always restate the thesis statement. Restating does not mean introducing new concepts. However, it means using different words but maintaining the message (more of paraphrasing the thesis). When writing an effective conclusion, you should answer “What next?” or “So what?”
The focus of the conclusion should only be on stuff relevant to the readers.
It would help to summarize each body paragraph in the chronology or order of the essay. Ultimately, your conclusion should leave the readers yearning for more on the chosen profile essay topic.
High-quality essays have short and eye-catching titles. When choosing a title for your profile essay, consider these facts:
The title of your profile essay should be descriptive, reflective, clear, and concise. Mainly, it should have the name of the subject. Besides, it should reflect the central idea of the essay or the angle you have selected.
If you are writing an essay about someone, the title should be striking and form the theme of the entire essay. For example, Bill Clinton: The Best President America Never Had can be a catchy title for a comprehensive profile essay.
You asked how to write a profile essay; we have given you more than that. The best is even yet to come. Now, we also have some tips to help you further refine your essay to score the best marks.
Since we have written winning profile essays for students to use as model essays and the feedback has been great, we are well aware of some tips that you can use.
Here is a sample profile essay on a famous person. The person of interest is Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple company.
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If you are struggling with writing a profile essay, you can use our profile essay writing services anytime. We accommodate urgent essay writing service requests from clients who want their essays written at the last minute. We also allow you to order your essay in advance before the deadline and communicate with the writer how you wish it to be done. You will get a 100% original and non-AI-generated paper.
Our writers understand what a good profile essay looks like. You can buy our essays online or look up our offering on descriptive essays. Our committed team of writers works 24/7 to ensure that even urgent essays are delivered. So, if you want someone to type your profile essay with, choose us!
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