A Business Profile Formula
Introduction
In a variety of ways, formulas are useful both to readers and writers.
Readers recognize formulas, adapt their reading methods to them, and use
the parts of the formula in comprehending and remembering what is read.
Writers use formulas to organize stories--and so do not have to invent a
new structure with every article. Working backward from the formula, the
writer can write the interview questions needed to elicit the kind of information
necessary to fulfill the formula's demands.
A recurring set of formulas embodies a magazine's purpose, subject matter,
and relationship to its audience. Formulas help select and cultivate the
audience for the publication. The how-to article, the self-help article,
the inspirational article, the business profile, and others codify a set
of methods that authors and editors have devised to reach a particular set
of readers. Readers, in turn, learn how to read material expressed through
these formulas and build expertise in decoding such articles.
Writing to a Formula
The formula for an article is not meant to be followed with step-by-step
precision. Rather, it is a detailed rule of thumb that is not merely intended
to guide your actions but also to lead you to understand the underlying
purpose that the form is intended to serve. Professionals re-invent solutions
from underlying principles. It is this re-inventing that enables professionals
to respond flexibly and creatively--as it enables writers to revivify what
could otherwise become dead form.
A story formula functions more like a skeleton than like a suit of armor.
In the hands of good writers, articles gain structure from the formula and
grow from it, rather than being imprisoned by it.
But formulas are more than suggestions: They imply a set of procedures you
can follow to develop a story. Formulas are well-worked-out suggestions
for how to solve the inevitable, recurring problems of narrating a particular
kind of story for a particular magazine's audience and purpose.
Guidelines
The guidelines presented here will help you research, organize, and write
a 1500- to 2500-word profile of a business person, for a publication with
an audience of business people. The object of the profile is to present
not trends or statistics or analysis but a person who is one of the moving
forces behind the business activities that are of interest to the readership.
Until you can improve upon the formula, do as it says. Adapt it, of course,
to fit unique material. The formula is especially helpful as a way of deriving
good questions to ask in an interview.
Show your readers enough that they have some feeling for whether they would
like to do business with this person. This is not an exposé, so be
tactful; but it is business, so be accurate and truthful. If your subject
has been involved in criminal charges, trials, or bankruptcies, say so.
In researching your subject's personal life, check for information on divorce,
personal scandal, religion, altruistic activities, overwhelming personal
preoccupations, or serious health conditions, so you won't publish a profile
that omits some central personal fact. You can tick off divorces as dispassionately
as business statistics, and many highly-motivated, successful people will
candidly reveal insights about their personal lives.
Don't leave readers to speculate about the nature of the business person
any more than you would leave them to speculate about the nature of the
business. Present not just a successful business person, but a real, rounded
human being as well. (It may be difficult as a student to obtain this level
of detail, but as a professional you will be expected to do so.)
The Formula
Contents