Project 2

Note that these are just a few sample questions; you’ll want to come up with others as you begin researching the person you’ve chosen to profile.

PROJECT 2 profiling and presenting: writing a profile of a person involved in social entrepreneurship projects (individual) Overview and Goals

For Project 2, you will produce a 2–page magazine-/journalistic-style profile of an individual involved in social entrepreneurship. Project 2 should engage you in:

• reviewing profile pieces and identifying how they’re written (including style, tone, approach, etc.);

• identifying and researching a specific person involved in social entrepreneurial work; and • writing a profile piece laid out like a magazine article and written in a journalistic style.

Getting Started

First, identify a person who is involved in social entrepreneurship. This might be an MSU alum you admire, someone you’re connected to on LinkedIn, a prominent blogger, the founder of a philanthropic organization, someone we’ve read about thus far for class, or someone else entirely.

If you personally know someone engaged in such projects, you might interview them and write an interview-based profile. If you are interested in someone we’ve read briefly about for class and want to dig further into the work they do, you might read their Twitter feed, find and read articles about them, and find and read articles by them to write a research-based profile.

Once you’ve chosen the person you want to profile, use reporter-style questions to start digging into their background and researching the work they do:

• Who is this person and how are they engaged in social entrepreneurship? (Where do they work? Where did they go to school? What attracted this person to their career? Who or what communities are they advocating for? What sorts of change are they attempting to make in the world?)

• Where does this person work? (What sort of organization/s? With what sort of affiliations?)

• What does this person do? (What are some of the things they do as part of their work? Who do they interact with? How do they spend their days?)

• What are some of the impacts of their work? (Has their social

entrepreneurial work resulted in change in the world, media attention, securing funds, etc.?)

Again, if you have access to the person and can interview them, you can do an interview-based profile. If not, however, you can write more of a research-based profile based on what you’ve researched, read, and gathered about and by them.

Some Helpful Materials and Examples

Carefully review the “Project 2 Examples” file on D2L, in the “assignments and dropboxes” folder. This includes some specific suggestions and some excellent examples. Pay close attention to the week 3 case by Josh Steimle, “Social Entrepreneur Profile: David Bishop of Soap Cycling.” This is another good example of a profile-focused, journalistic-in-style article. You might consider looking for other example profile pieces and reading them carefully to see what moves the writers are making, what content they include, and what features they offer (e.g., look specifically at the titles and subtitles, analyze how they introduce and conclude the piece).

Writing Up Your Article

Your Project 2 product will be a magazine-style article about 2 pages long; feel free to lay the piece out as such and to include photos, graphics, samples, examples, and materials that help you show who this person is and what they do. Your article should be written in a general journalistic style. In the profile:

1. include elements that a typical profile piece includes (e.g., snappy, descriptive title; byline);

2. introduce the person, for instance: who they are, where they went to school (or where they go to school), what they do professionally, what they write/do/create personally, etc.;

3. describe the work they do and how it is social entrepreneurship in nature;

4. review or explain or describe some of their work (include examples!);

5. conclude by discussing the impact their work has had or that they want it to have on the world; and

6. include a works cited section where you provide complete citations for all of the work you

summarized, quoted from, paraphrased, and otherwise used in your Project 2 work. Turning in Your Article

Save your article as a PDF file (this will allow you to “lock” your design and formatting work). Upload your profile article to the Project 2 dropbox on D2L by noon on Sunday, June 10.