This assignment asks you to describe a person, place, or event from your immediate experience.
In choosing a subject for your profile, also remember that you are not just informing your readers, but entertaining them as well. So choose carefully: avoid the obvious or overly-familiar. This assignment also expects you to do a bit of research: either interviews or observations or both. This is not a profile you are to write from memory.
To get started, consider these questions:
1. How do I create a dominant impression?
2. What techniques and practices might I use to accomplish this?
This assignment is our first together. So even though I want you to write creatively but with a purpose, I understand some of you may feel unsure about the current state of your writing. Let's not make too much of this assignment, but rather practice good diction and syntax, and write as if performing for your audience. We can move forward from there.
One essay model we will discuss is available here. It is E.B. White's essay, "Once More to the Lake." Read this in anticipation of our class discussion, watching how White uses detailed descriptions, how he uses verbs, and how he organizes the entire descriptive piece to make a dominant impression apparent.
If conditions warrant, I might also have you warm up before drafting this assignment by practicing a little writing by commenting on the writing process in general, using your experience as illustration. This will allow you to play with language and, at the same time, allow me to see how comfortable you are with the writing process.