For this assignment, you will write a journalistic profile of a historical figure from Chicago

– I already picked Michelle Obama ( please write about her 🙂 )

Your subject can still be alive, but their heyday should be in the past. (Please ask me if you have someone in mind and are not sure if they qualify.) A list of suggested subjects will be provided later.

You have two goals in this assignment. First, to inform your readers about what your subject has accomplished and why it is important, and second, to bring your subject to life and give your readers a sense of knowing them as a person.

Write as if your intended audience were readers of a newsmagazine such as the Chicago Reader, Chicago Magazine, NewCity, The New Yorker, or The New York Times Magazine. You can assume that they are generally well-informed and interested in Chicago history.

Steps to Completion:

First you will complete a short prewriting assignment to help you brainstorm. This assignment has its own instructions which will be provided later. I will give you feedback on this assignment, which you should take into account as you complete the following steps.

Next you will give a short presentation about your subject to a group of your classmates, followed by a question and answer session. Instructions for this presentation will also be provided later. Your peers will give you informal feedback, which you should take into account as you write your rough draft.

Then you will submit a rough draft of the profile for peer review. You will receive formal feedback from your peers and from me.

In a brief reflective assignment, you will summarize the feedback you have received and indicate how you will respond to it.

Finally, the final draft should show that you have responded thoughtfully to all the feedback from the first three steps.

Evaluation Criteria:

Your profile will be graded according to the following criteria:

• Do you inform the reader about the important facts of your subject’s life?
• Are these facts logically organized into paragraphs with clear topic sentences?
• Do you link these facts to an overarching theme?
• Do you reinforce this theme with memorable anecdotes about your subjects, or interesting things that they said?
• Does your first paragraph offer an intriguing glimpse of your subject?
• Does your final paragraph include a story or saying that seems to “sum them up?”
• Is your writing clear and concise?
• Do your revisions show that you have responded thoughtfully to peer and instructor feedback?