Assignment Prompt
Professional Profile
For this project, you will need to contact and interview in person someone who is
currently working in your professional or academic field. Ideally, this individual holds a
job that you would like to have when you graduate.
Your interview will be written as a profile article for a department
newsletter distributed to other students in your discipline.
The purpose of the article is to describe the working life of someone in your field for
other students in your discipline. As part of this description, your article should give
details about the role of writing in your interviewee’s work.
Your feature article will need to include the following:
1. A catchy headline
2. An appropriate introduction that identifies and creates a dominant impression
of the person you interviewed, conveys a sense of the interviewee and his or
her work, and states the purpose of the article. We will discuss appropriate
types of introductions in class.
3. A description of the nature of the work the interviewee does. This could
include a description, for example, of a typical day (or typical duties,
responsibilities), the most stressful part of the job (or the most rewarding,
most difficult, most boring, etc.).
4. A description of the role of written language in your interviewee’s work.
o What kind of writing does your interviewee have to do in order to be
successful on the job? How much writing is involved and what kind
is most frequent or most important? 5. Advice from your interviewee for students planning to enter the field.
6. A suitable conclusion to the profile that may tie back to the lead at the
beginning.
7. Effective use of colorful quotations from your interviewee.
8. Writing that shows rather than tells about the subject of the profile (as
discussed in class).
9. Format: Your profile will be formatted like the samples we looked at in class
(single-spaced and in columns with short paragraph, you may write a
headline, add a photo of the person, use pull quotes, etc. to have an
attractive layout). We will use Adobe InDesign to do this.
10. Your profile will be about 750-1000 words.
11. You will submit your profile as an InDesign Project (web url). You will also
submit your profile to Turnitin in a format that can be checked for originality.
currently working in your professional or academic field. Ideally, this individual holds a
job that you would like to have when you graduate.
Your interview will be written as a profile article for a department
newsletter distributed to other students in your discipline.
The purpose of the article is to describe the working life of someone in your field for
other students in your discipline. As part of this description, your article should give
details about the role of writing in your interviewee’s work.
Your feature article will need to include the following:
1. A catchy headline
2. An appropriate introduction that identifies and creates a dominant impression
of the person you interviewed, conveys a sense of the interviewee and his or
her work, and states the purpose of the article. We will discuss appropriate
types of introductions in class.
3. A description of the nature of the work the interviewee does. This could
include a description, for example, of a typical day (or typical duties,
responsibilities), the most stressful part of the job (or the most rewarding,
most difficult, most boring, etc.).
4. A description of the role of written language in your interviewee’s work.
o What kind of writing does your interviewee have to do in order to be
successful on the job? How much writing is involved and what kind
is most frequent or most important? 5. Advice from your interviewee for students planning to enter the field.
6. A suitable conclusion to the profile that may tie back to the lead at the
beginning.
7. Effective use of colorful quotations from your interviewee.
8. Writing that shows rather than tells about the subject of the profile (as
discussed in class).
9. Format: Your profile will be formatted like the samples we looked at in class
(single-spaced and in columns with short paragraph, you may write a
headline, add a photo of the person, use pull quotes, etc. to have an
attractive layout). We will use Adobe InDesign to do this.
10. Your profile will be about 750-1000 words.
11. You will submit your profile as an InDesign Project (web url). You will also
submit your profile to Turnitin in a format that can be checked for originality.
Profile Final Draft in InDesign
You will lay out your profile using Adobe InDesign.
Here are the two templates I have created for you to use: Profile layout 1.indd
and Profile layout 2.indd
If you do not have any photos of your profile subject, you can use Adobe Stock photos.
1. Go to File > Search Adobe Stock. This will open in your web browser.
2. Click on Photos on the top menu.
3. Type in some search criteria, for example "person writing."
4. Click on the magnifying glass at the right side of the search bar.
5. Click on the x to get rid of the box that pops up.
6. Select the blue button that says License. The photo should download to your
computer.
7. Save the photo to your assets folder with your profile so you know where it is.
Make sure you design your profile so that everything fills the two pages of the layout
completely. This may mean adjusting sizes or adding information to your profile.
Grading
Content -- 40 points (includes length, inclusion of all sections, quotes, dominant
impression)
Organization -- 20 points (paragraphing, cohesion, flow of writing)
Language -- 20 points (grammar, vocab, mechanics)
Design -- 20 points Use of Adobe InDesign to create an attractive layout
Here are the two templates I have created for you to use: Profile layout 1.indd
and Profile layout 2.indd
If you do not have any photos of your profile subject, you can use Adobe Stock photos.
1. Go to File > Search Adobe Stock. This will open in your web browser.
2. Click on Photos on the top menu.
3. Type in some search criteria, for example "person writing."
4. Click on the magnifying glass at the right side of the search bar.
5. Click on the x to get rid of the box that pops up.
6. Select the blue button that says License. The photo should download to your
computer.
7. Save the photo to your assets folder with your profile so you know where it is.
Make sure you design your profile so that everything fills the two pages of the layout
completely. This may mean adjusting sizes or adding information to your profile.
Grading
Content -- 40 points (includes length, inclusion of all sections, quotes, dominant
impression)
Organization -- 20 points (paragraphing, cohesion, flow of writing)
Language -- 20 points (grammar, vocab, mechanics)
Design -- 20 points Use of Adobe InDesign to create an attractive layout
Rubric
Student Example #1
Student Example #2
Stephanie Frame is a lecturer in the Dept. of Linguistics and teaches in the composition program for English language learners and a course for students who want to teach language learners. She's also the assistant director of the ELL composition program.
