Portrait of a writer

University of Memphis / ENGL 1010
Portrait of a Writer
Rough Draft Due for Peer Review: Sunday, April 3
Final Draft Due: Sunday, April 10
Length: 1500-1600 words
Description
The goal of this assignment is to compose an interesting,
insightful portrait of a writer in order to more fully understand
the processes of writing and how our experiences and attitudes
affect our writing. The subject of your portrait must be someone
who regularly engages in writing for academic or professional
purposes (e.g., a student, someone working in an area or career
that interests you, or even a protessional writer you may know).
Collecting Information
As with most research projects, the more information gathered,
the better. Your research will rely on two primary strategies:
1) Conduct a series of interviews with your subject so that
you can ask follow-up questions. Ask about the writer’s
processes and attitudes when it comes to writing.
2) Analyze your subject’s writing samples–ask the writer to
share as much as possible.
Analyzing Information
As you gather and review information about the subject of your
study, what stands out to you about the writer’s attitudes and
processes when it comes to writing? What do the writing
samples reveal about the writer’s attitudes and processes? What
strikes you about the writer’s struggles and accomplishments?
Planning and Drafting
A portrait is your interpretation of all the information you
collect. Strive to make sense of everything you learn about the
writer and convey that to the reader. Adopt the impartial,
analytical stance of a researcher conducting a study. Provide
important background and analyze the writer’s own work and
words to develop your portrait, quoting/paraphrasing from
the writing samples and interviews.
There are many ways you can arrange your material, You could
arrange your material by topic: memories, attitudes, struggles,
successes, processes, nonacademic Whiting, etc. Another way of
arranging material would be to construct a chronological history
of the writer. Or, you could organize by aspects of the writing
process (e.g., invention, drafting, revising, editing).
What Makes It Effective?
An effective portrait is vivid: rich with details, examples,
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