"A Formula for Writing the Business Profile Article"
This is not an article about business, it is about a person. So begin
with the person. Your opening should give an immediate sense of the presence
of that person, like the opening shot of a documentary. But this is an article
about a person in business, so do not start with the subject's past or hobbies
or home or philosophy; start with the subject firmly located where she does
business. Show her at her desk, in her car talking on the cellular phone,
leaning over a counter to help a customer, inspecting the structural steel
of a new building--or whatever she does.
A "status statement" must follow soon after the business opening.
In some respects, the status statement is the most important part of the
article, because it establishes, for the readers, why they should continue
reading about this person. The status statement tells, in business terms
that business readers can understand, what significant positions the subject
holds, how much money he had made, what kind of success he has achieved,
or some other way to indicate how important he is--where he stands in the
pecking order of other businesses in the area. Business readers are looking
for substantial information, and they are comfortable with facts and figures.
Example (occurring immediately after the opening):
"He has increased sales tenfold--from $100,000 in 1976 to $1 million and counting today--making Benchmark Shutters one of the biggest manufacturers of this custom window treatment in Florida."
In the next section--the longest of the article--you describe how the subject
handles herself inside the firm.
The ideal way to write this section, and the hardest, is to observe the
subject at work for a day. Show what she does well. If this is not possible,
use quotes from colleagues that give a detailed characterization of the
subject's specific, individual way of going about business. This is the
place for revealing anecdote, good description, scenes and dialogue that
reveal the person who is the subject of your article.
An example:
"But if the silver-haired Barnes is an exacting taskmaster and an aggressive marketer, another picture also emerges: one of a generous boss who's been known to lend his Cadillac to an employee's teenager for a senior prom; of a grandfatherly figure at church whom the children call 'the candy man' because of his pockets filled with treats; of an anonymous philanthropist who frequently underwrites youth projects and provides a scholarship for a Northwestern University student."
Notice how this sentence compactly summarizes the results of several lines
of questioning pursued with several sources.
The Personal History Loop provides a place to sketch the subject's past
and make the transition to talking about his personal life. The Loop starts
from the present (you were just describing how the subject does business
now) and makes a leAP Test, To the distant past--often to birth: "Born in
1938 in Cincinatti, Ohio, he was raised around the automobile industry."
The leap may land on some other spot from which we can learn important things
about his personality: early childhood, high school, college, or even early
career. But once the starting point has been established, the Loop tends
to follow the same pattern: Highlights of the subject's life are given,
in chronological order, leading up to and ending again in the present.
This structure organizes the subject's early biography into a clear-cut
sub-section that starts with a point in the subject's past, moves forward
through important events, then returns to the same time frame the article
was in before the loop began. The return to the present makes the Personal
History Loop a satisfyingly self-contained subsection of the overall article.
Through the personal history loop, you have moved from the "now"
of the business environment to the "now" of the home environment.
Now you can tell about your subject's personal life.
Ideally, you should go home with your subject, describe where she lives,
the car she drives, the decor. Treat the home as a huge mirror of your subject's
personal life; use it to show more deeply who they are. This is the place
to tell about spouses, children, pets, grandchildren, hobbies, fitness,
gardening. This is also the place to tell about her civic involvements,
church activities and philanthropic positions and give a glimpse of her
personal philosophy (in contrast to her business philosophy, which you covered
earlier).
If you can't go home with her, ask her about her home and family life. Look
for her values and commitments. Ask her colleagues for insights into this.
Is she an outgoing activist and frequenter of a tennis club? Or does she
spend her evenings reading devotional literature and doing volunteer work
through the church? These things matter; they tell you what kind of person
lies behind the business person described in the first part of the article.
Although you could interweave personal information into the "business"
section, you may get a more dramatic effect by keeping them separate.
The end of the "personal" section is a natural place to offer
a glimpse of your subject's future plans. It signals a change from the article's
emphasis on the present tense. It makes a good transition to the ending.
Unless your subject is planning major changes, keep the future glimpse down
to a few lines.
In nearly all cases, this section will be short and upbeat. It contains
your subject's answer to questions like: "What are your plans for the
future?"
Feature articles cannot merely trail away; they have to end. Throughout
the research and interviews, you should always be listening for possible
endings (Fensch, 1989, gives a particularly good catalog of endings). The
best ending for the business profile is probably a quote from the subject
herself that sums up, in a fresh way, the essence of the person we have
been reading about. A quote by someone else about the subject can also work.
If you have to write the ending yourself, that usually means you forgot
to listen for it as you carried out your research.
Another kind of ending circles back to repeat something from the opening
of the article. One article started in the man's office, moved through his
life and activities, then returned to the office, zooming in on a manuscript
sitting on his desk to end with his plans for a book. The article had a
satisfying circularity.
Reference
Fensch, Thomas. (1989). Writing Solutions: Beginnings, Middles, &
Endings. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Contents
Diagram of the formula