Portrait of a Writer Assignment Sheet

University of Memphis / ENGL 1010

Portrait of a Writer

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment–which requires you to compose a study of another writer–is to help you more fully understand

the processes of writing and how our experiences, perceptions, and attitudes affect our writing.

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Description

This writing task requires you to compose an interesting, insightful portrait of another writer. The subjeet 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 professional writer you may know). You will gather information about your subject by

conducting interviews and reading examples of his/her writing. Your portrait will present details, examples, explanations, and

analyses of that writer’s writing process and the writing it produces. Your final draft should be 1500 words.

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Getting Started

Collecting Information

Your research wiltrev on two primarv strategies. interviews of vour subject and analvsis of his or her writing. As is a ways true

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Collecting Information

Your research will rely on two primary strategies; interviews of your subject and analysis of his or her writing. As is always true

when conducting research, the more information you gather, the better. You will not use every bit of information you collect, but

having a wealth of information to analyze provides vou more to draw from and tends to make your conclusions more reasonable

and persuasive.

To analyze your subject’s writing, ask the writer to share with you as much writing as she or he is willing to share. Listed below is

some of writing it will be useful for you to read, analyze, and ask your subject to comment upon:

You should conduct a series of interviews with your subject so that you can ask follow-up questions, get clarification about

questions that arise as you read the writer’s work, and collect additional explanations about the writer’s processes, attitudes, and

writing.

Analysis of Information

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As you gather and review information about the subject of your study, what catches your interest most about that writer? What

stands out to you about the writer’s writing? What surprises you about that writer’s writing, background, and attitudes? What

strikes you about that writer’s struggles and accomplishments? What seems unusual (and typical) about that writer’s writing

process? In what ways is the writer most unlike you? Writing down your answers to these questions as well as other impressions

can helo vou record

insights and prepare you to begin writing your portrait.

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Planning and Drafting

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compose an interesting, insightful portrait of another writer, you will use the

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