Leslie D. Hannah

Department of English

University of Oklahoma

English 1113    English 1213    English 2413

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The observational/profile essay is a description of a place you have gone to observe closely. It gives you a chance to write about people and activities in your community. You pick a special place that interests you and go there to learn as much as you can about it by watching what goes on there. You take notes while you are there. Later, from these notes and from memory, you write your impressions of the place.  As an alternative to profiling a place, a person who is of interest may be profiled.  Most students especially like this assignment because it takes them out into the community, and it lets them observe a place that interests or puzzles them.

This assignment is a real piece of writing in its own right. Many kinds of reports and travel writings are based mainly or entirely on observation. But this assignment is also the first step toward a much longer and more complex assignment called a profile. The profile involves interviews and documents, as well as observations.

This guide is written so that it can be used alone for a single observational writeup or together with interview and profile guides to produce a full profile.

Readings for this unit include chapters 2, 3, 4, 13, 18, 20, and 21 from The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing.  Essay requirements are a word count of 1,000 to 1,250.  A minimum of three sources is required: one personal interview, one Internet source, and one traditional book source.  Additionally, a proper MLA Works Cited page is required.

The following examples are not report assignments. They are just real-life situations in which people write up observations.

A claims adjuster for an insurance company visits the site of a large industrial fire to determine the cause and to assess the damage. He writes a report recommending that the claim be adjusted based on the findings of his observation.

In order to determine what type of automobile safety devices might be most effective, a researcher views a film of a crash test. She carefully observes the slow-motion replay of the crash, noting the head/neck action of the dummy, and writes a report based on her observations.

A student is interested in local history and learns that the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) buys Victorian homes for restoration where they can be viewed by the public at Old Town’s Heritage Park. He visits the park and, based on his observations, writes a description of the homes and the people who visit them.

A student who is interested in the arts of other cultures visits a Vietnamese theater. He observes the scene, the people, and their activities. He discovers that the theater is more than a source of entertainment; it is an important connection to cultural history for both the performers and the community. He writes up his observations, describing what he has learned.

A student interested in child development wants to learn about cooperative nursery schools in which parents and teachers work together to create a positive environment for children to play and learn. She visits such a school and writes up her observation for her social science class.

A student tours Scripp's Marine Biology Research Lab and observes graduate students making artificial sea water for research purposes. She writes up her observation describing the scene and activities for a career-planning bulletin put out by her high school.

1.    Observing the setting, scene, activity, objects, or    people.

2.    Recording quickly in writing what you observe (note taking).

3.    Reviewing this record, ordering and grouping the notes, and then writing out a coherent account of your observation visit.

What you want to try very hard for is an arresting, memorable visual presentation of certain features of your place. You may report sounds you heard or smells you noticed, but for the most part you will rely on what you saw—on visual features and details. Your readers should be able to produce their own visual images of your place.

Your aim is not only to describe the place, but also to analyze it. So you will want to be alert and aware of your own thoughts and impressions.

Since we experience the world primarily through our senses, most description conveys the writer's sense impressions. Skilled writers have acute powers of observation. They train themselves to take in everything and to make fine distinctions when they describe what they see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. You are not only looking for sensory detail, but facts—the dimensions of the place, the numbers and kinds of people, their interactions (overheard conversations and body language), and activities (what happened and how things were done).

What you observe and include in your notes will be greatly influenced by your motivation or reason for choosing the place you will write about. You may possibly approach the place in a completely naive and unbiased way, but that's unlikely. You'll probably have some expectations or some assumptions, and you'll certainly find that one particular scene or event stands out and captures your interest.

Some subjects invite multiple perspectives, whereas others seem to limit the observer to a single vantage point. Take advantage of every perspective available to you. Come in close; take a middle position; stand back. Study the scene from a stationary position, also try to move around the scene and through the scene. The more varied your perspectives, the more you are likely to observe.