Profiles

Profiles can be the most revealing form of journalism. Profiles—5,000-word magazine long forms; 2,500-word celebrity covers; 750-word Q+As; even 150-word one-question Q+As—are an opportunity to step inside someone’s life (their world, really) and experience their ambitions, fears, joys, tragedies, guilty pleasures and more. At the end, if you’re lucky, you leave the page with an understanding of not just the subject, but the world and how you experience it.

This course will examine what makes for a compelling profile: from preparing and strategizing for the interview (or the write around), to story structures and editing. We will dissect a selection of profiles (ranging in type), peer edit, sharpen our reporting skills, and hear from guest speakers who’ve written some of your favorite profiles. Oh, and we’ll write, a lot.