reporting information

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“Just the Facts, Ma’am” Reporting Information

any Americans associate the line “Just the facts, ma’am” with Dragnet, a 1950s TV crime drama, and more specifically with Sgt. Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, who used this expression when interviewing women as part of an investigation. Or so people think.

In fact, Sgt. Friday never uttered these exact words. He sometimes said, “All we want are the facts, ma’am” or “All we know are the facts,” but the expression “Just the facts, ma’am” actually had its origins in a 1953 comedy routine that parodied the show. In the end, however, this line is linked forever with Sgt. Friday and Dragnet in the American popular imagination.

This story can be seen as a kind of very short report, and it dem- onstrates an important aspect of reports: they present information to audiences made up of individuals with varying degrees of knowledge. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “Just the facts, ma’am” but had no idea where it came from. Perhaps you’ve never heard of Dragnet. Now you have, and you know a few things about it. Even if you were familiar with both the program and the expression, you now likely have a new bit of information: the assumption that the expression came directly from the program is not borne out by fact. Thus, this very short report demon- strates how reports are written with a range of readers in mind.

It also reminds us of one of our favorite bumper stickers:

14

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Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) in Dragnet, a TV series that ran in the 1950s.

Reports are built of information that is factual in some way. As you no doubt realize, separating what is factual from what is opinion can be a challenge, especially when the topic is controversial. Whatever Sgt. Friday may have said, as a police investigator he was trying to establish factual information so that he could write an effective police report, one that would help solve a case and document how he had done so.

The primary goal of a report is to present factual information to ed- ucate an audience in some way. The stance of those who write reports is generally objective rather than argumentative. Thus, newspaper and tele- vision reporters—note the word—in the United States have traditionally tried to present news in a neutral way. Writers of lab reports describe as carefully and objectively as they can how they conducted their experi-

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ments and what they found. Perhaps even more than authors in other genres, therefore, writers of reports aim to create an ethos of trustworthi- ness and reliability.

This chapter offers guidelines for composing reports, including profiles, a kind of report often assigned in college. As you’ll see, writing effective re- ports requires you to pay careful attention to your purpose, audience, and stance as well as to whatever facts you’re reporting.

.REFLECT. Think about reports you’ve read, heard, seen, or written recently,

and make a list of them. Your list may include everything from a lab report you wrote

for a biology class, to a documentary film, to a PowerPoint presentation you and

several classmates created for a course. What similarities do these reports share—and

in what ways do they differ?

Across Academic Disciplines

Reports are found everywhere in academic life. You’re certainly familiar with book reports, and you’re probably familiar with lab reports from sci- ence courses. Students and practitioners in biology, psychology, engineering, and most fields in the physical sciences, social sciences, and applied sciences regularly write reports, generally based on experiments or other kinds of systematic investigation.

Many scientific reports share a common format—often labeled IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion)—and a common purpose: to convey information. The format mirrors the stages of inquiry: you ask a question, describe the materials and methods you used to try to answer it, report the results you found, and discuss what they mean in light of what you and others already know.

Another kind of report students often write, especially in courses that focus on contemporary society in some way, is the profile, a firsthand report on an individual, a group, an event, or an institution. A profile of a person might be based on an interview, perhaps with an American soldier who served in Iraq, for example, or the first female professor to receive tenure in your college’s economics department. Similarly, a profile of an institution might report on the congregation of a specific house of worship, an organi- zation, or a company; such reports often have a specific audience in mind, whether it is donors, investors, members, or clients.

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Across Media

When reporting information, you’ll find that different media offer you radi- cally different resources. Throughout this chapter, we’ll refer to reporting by the New York Times on the “double-full-full-full,” an especially challenging aerial skiing maneuver involving a triple back flip and four body twists. Just before the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Times reported on this jump in three media. It was the subject of a news article by Henry Fountain that appeared in the Science section in print and online. It was also the basis of a video feature on the Times website in which Fountain explains the physics of the flip, as demonstrated by U.S. Olympic skier Ryan St. Onge. Finally, it was the focus of part of a science podcast featuring interviews with both St. Onge and Fountain. Two of these reports use images, two use spoken words, and one relies primarily on written words.

In studying these three reports, you’ll get a clear idea of how medium influences not only how information is reported but also what kinds of in- formation can be covered. For an example of how much the medium affects the message, consider Twitter: imagine what Fountain could have reported about the double-full-full-full in 140 characters.

Across Cultures and Communities

Wherever you find formal organizations, companies, and other institutions, you’ll find reports of various kinds. For example, a school board trying to maintain the quality of education in a time of shrinking budgets will surely rely on information in reports written by parents’ organizations, community groups, teachers’ unions, or outside consultants. Odds are that the reports from each of these groups would differ in focus and tone. Some of these reports might be based primarily on statistical data while others might feature personal testimonies. Those created by outside consultants would likely be very formal and data-driven and might include a PowerPoint presentation to the school board followed by a question-and-answer period. In contrast, a report from a parents’ group could include a homemade video consisting primarily of conversations with schoolchildren.

As a student, you’ll be working in various academic communities, and you will need to pay attention to the way information is reported across disciplines—and to what is expected of you in any reports that you write.

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WATCH THE VIDEO of U.S. Olympic skier Ryan St. Onge performing a double-full-full-

full, a triple back flip with four body twists. Then listen to the podcast on the physics of

aerial skiing. Pay attention to how some of the technical terms are defined (and keep in

mind that in the video, definitions may include images as well as words). Describe the

double-full-full-full using words alone. Then add an image. Do you need to alter your

original description once you add the image? Go to everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com to

access the video and podcast.

T H I N K BEYOND WORDS

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Across Genres

While reports are a common genre of writing, you’ll also have occasion to report information in other genres. narratives , analyses , reviews , arguments , and many other kinds of writing contain factual information often presented as neutrally as possible—and you will often report factual evidence to support your claims.

On the other hand, some documents that are called reports present more than “just the facts” and cross the line to analyze or interpret the in- formation presented, to make a proposal , and so on. For example, a report on economic development in Austin, Texas, concludes with recommenda- tions for the future. Those recommendations follow many pages of carefully reported information (as well as considerable analysis of that information). When you’re assigned to write a report, you will want to determine exactly what the person who assigned it has in mind: a text that only reports infor- mation or one that is called a report but that also requires you to analyze the information, make some kind of argument, and so on.

.REFLECT. Analyze the purposes of the reports that you listed on p. 254. Who

is the intended audience for each? To what degree does each simply report information,

and to what degree does it use information to serve some larger goal, for example, to

take a position on an issue? Can you distinguish clearly between a report that only

presents information and one that presents information and also argues a point?

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES While you can expect differences across media and disciplines, most of the reports you will write share the following characteristics:

• A topic carefully focused for a specific audience

• Definitions of key terms

• Trustworthy information

• Appropriate organization and design

• A confident, informative tone

Sometimes the genre itself becomes part of the story. The humor of the Onion article on p. 1025 is that such trivial information could even be reported.

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A Topic Carefully Focused for a Specific Audience

The most effective reports have a focus, a single topic that is limited in scope by what the audience already knows and what the author’s purpose is. For example, in 2008, Liveable City, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the quality of life in Austin, Texas, released a report on economic development in Austin. Liveable City’s website offers this summary of the report’s content and structure:

[T]he report [looks at] where Austin’s economic development strategy comes from, how it is implemented, and what institutions shape our economic development policies and programs. Focusing on tax incen- tives and how they (t into broader economic development activities, the study examines why incentives are used, how much the city is giving, and what the taxpayers are getting from the public investment. The study also identi(es reforms needed to create a uni(ed, sustainable economic strategy, embraced by the community, to better position Austin for fu- ture economic challenges and opportunities.

—)*+,-&. "/&', “Building a More Sustainable Economy”

Notice how the report’s author, Michael Oden, a local professor of urban planning, focuses his report on economic development strategies and tax incentives, and then three related topics: “why incentives are used, how much the city is giving, and what the taxpayers are getting.”

Oden assumes that he is writing for people who care about Austin (notice that he refers to “our” policies and programs). His intended readers would have included members of the board of Liveable City as well as indi-

The title page of Michael Oden’s report includes three images that capture the essence of his plan for Austin: green industries, transportation, and the arts.

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vidual and corporate donors. Because such reports are often cited in news stories and opinion pieces in the local media, we can assume that the in- tended readers also included Austinites more broadly. But Oden is also writ- ing for audiences beyond Austin, especially those interested in how tax incentives fit into “broader economic development activities.” Although the report was distributed as a print document, likely to local members of the intended audience, it is available to anyone with internet access.

In their four-page 2012 annual report for Proud Ground, a nonprofit group that seeks to provide affordable housing for first-time home buyers in Portland, Oregon, the authors have a very different purpose: to show the achievements of the organization over the past year. They do so with mini- mal text—on page one, a single-paragraph greeting from the executive di- rector and the board chair looks back on the past year and thanks supporters of the program; on page two, a list of all the major accomplishments in 2012 and photographs of new homeowners; on the third page, two pie charts breaking down the year’s revenue and expenses; and on the final page, a list

From Proud Ground’s annual report, a list of the year’s major accomplishments.

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From Proud Ground’s annual report: Natalie and Lisa, two new homeowners.

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acknowledging “community investors” (donors and volunteers). The most notable part of the report is the photographs of the families, all visibly hap- py to have their own homes. These color images and the statements below them about the impact of owning a home appeal to readers’ emotions and visually represent the accomplishments of Proud Ground.

In composing this report, the authors were obviously thinking about their primary audience: those who have donated to Proud Ground in the past and those who might do so in the future, and who want to be informed about the work the organization does—what it accomplishes and how eco- nomically it does so.

In both the Liveable City and Proud Ground reports, the topic is carefully focused, and the authors approach their task with a keen eye toward the in- tended audiences and their organization’s goals. You’ll want to do the same in the reports that you write: to consider carefully whom you’re addressing, what they know about your topic, and what information they expect.

Definitions of Key Terms

Effective reports always define key terms explicitly. These definitions serve several functions. Some audience members may not understand some of the technical terms. And even those familiar with the terms pay attention to the definitions for clues about the writer’s stance or assumptions. Here’s an example of a definition from Michael Oden’s report for Liveable City:

What Are Economic Incentives? In addition to . . . general economic strategies, Austin—like most other cities—provides (nancial incentives designed to encourage speci(c economic outcomes, such as a desired company locating its headquarters here. Incentives may take many forms including tax abatements or rebates, fee waivers, expedited site approv- al process, up-zoning, or other types of grants or guarantees. Direct incentives are used to change the economic landscape by attracting new economic activities or new types of physical development that would not be generated by the private sector without speci(c inducements. In Austin, incentives can be generally categorized in one of two ways: “(rm- based” or “project-based.”

Notice how Oden explains the purpose of financial incentives (“to encour- age specific economic outcomes, such as a desired company locating its

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headquarters here”), gives examples (“tax abatements or rebates, fee waiv- ers, expedited site approval process, up-zoning, or other types of grants or guarantees”), defines “direct incentives” (those “used to change the econom- ic landscape by attracting new economic activities or new types of physical development that would not be generated by the private sector without spe- cific inducements”), and finally divides incentives into two subcategories (“firm-based” and “project-based”). He then devotes a paragraph to defining and illustrating each of these subcategories of incentives.

It’s also worth noting how Oden introduces his definitions. Partly be- cause his report is lengthy, he uses headings to help structure it. Here he introduces his definition by posing a direct question—“What are economic incentives?”—and then answers that question in a paragraph.

In the New York Times article on aerial skiing mentioned on page 256, Henry Fountain uses a number of strategies to provide readers with defini- tions they might need. As a newspaper journalist, Fountain writes for a general audience, and he can safely assume that some readers of the Sci- ence section will have a great deal of knowledge about physics. He can likewise assume that some readers will know something about aerial ski- ing, but he also anticipates that other readers will know little about either. Here’s one definition Fountain offers:

The (rst time you watch skiers hurtle o0 a curved ramp at 30 miles per hour, soaring six stories in the air while doing three back 1ips and up to (ve body twists, you can’t help but think: These people are crazy. . . .

Freestyle aerialists, as these athletes are known, are not actually throwing caution, along with themselves, to the wind.

—,&'$2 !"#'%-*', “Up in the Air, and Down, with a Twist”

Here the short phrase “as these athletes are known” refers back to the ski- ers Fountain has described earlier, and this explains the term “freestyle aerialists.”

A few paragraphs later, Fountain explains torque, the concept in phys- ics that allows freestyle aerialists to do somersaults, without explicitly de- fining it:

“The forces are pretty simple,” said Adam Johnston, a physics professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. . . . “There’s the force of the ramp on his skis, and the force of gravity on him,” Dr. Johnston said, after Ryan St. Onge, the reigning world champion in men’s aerials and a mem-

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ber of the Olympic team, zipped down a steep inrun, leaned back as he entered the curved ramp until he was nearly horizontal and 1ew o0 at a 70-degree angle. “That’s all there is.”

But it is enough to create torque that sends Mr. St. Onge somer- saulting backward as he takes to the air, arcing toward a landing on a steep downslope that the skiers and coaches have chopped and 1u0ed for safety.

Later in the article, Fountain writes: “In this training jump, Mr. St. Onge adds a full twist in both the second and third flips—a lay-full-full in the language of the sport.” Here Fountain provides a technical term used by experts—a “lay-full-full”—immediately after explaining what the term means. In a subsequent paragraph, Fountain uses another strategy, providing a defini- tion of a “double-full-full-full” in a subordinate clause (italicized here): “And when doing a double-full-full-full, which requires four full twists, includ- ing two in the first flip, he will use all three methods at takeoff.” Note that none of the definitions shown here quote a dictionary, nor do they use the formula “the definition of X is Y”—and that each of the experts offers memo- rable examples that help readers understand the subject.

Trustworthy Information

Effective reports present information that readers can trust to be accurate. In some cases, writers provide documentation to demonstrate the verifiabil- ity of their information, including citations of published research, the dates of interviews they have conducted, or other details about their sources.

In a report for a writing class at Chapman University, Kelley Fox pre- sents information in ways that lead readers to trust the details she presents and, ultimately, the author herself. The report describes how Griffin, Simon, and Andy, three roommates in Room 115 of her dorm, create their identi- ties. Beginning with Muhammad Ali’s line “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” which is the caption on a large poster of Ali on Griffin’s wall, Fox seeks to characterize Griffin as someone who floats at “the top of the pecking or- der” and who seems “invincible”:

In a sense, Gri3n is just that: socially invincible. A varsity basketball ath- lete, Gri3n has no shortage of friends, or of female followers. People seem to simply gravitate toward him, as if being around him makes all

Larry Gordon reports on Wiki- pedia, a site some people associate with the essence of untrustwor- thiness. See on p. 952 how he inspires trust in both his report and his topic.

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their problems trivial. Teammates can often be found in his room, hang- ing out on his bed, watching ESPN. Girls are certainly not a rarity, and they usually come bearing gifts: pies, CDs, even homework answers. It happens often, and I have a feeling this “social worship” has been going on for a while, although in myriad other forms. Regardless, the constant and excessive positive attention allows Gri3n to never have to think about his own happiness; Gri3n always seems happy. And it is because of this that, out of the three roommates, it is easiest to be Gri3n.

—4&..&2 !"5, “Establishing Identities”

Fox’s description demonstrates to readers that she has spent considerable time in or around Room 115 and that she knows what she is writing about. Her use of specific details convinces us that Griffin is real and that the things she describes in fact occur—and on a regular basis.

In a report on early language development in children written for a linguistics class at Portland State University, Katryn Sheppard demon- strates the trustworthiness of her information differently, citing both published research and her own primary research on a speech transcript of one-year-old Allison.

One feature of Allison’s utterances that did adhere to what is expected for a typical child at this age was related to her use of negatives. Although she used only one negative word—“no”—the word was repeated frequently enough to be the fourth most common category in the transcript. Her use of “no” rather than any other negative conformed to Brown’s (1973) (nding that other forms of negation like “not” and “don’t” appear only in later stages (Santelmann, 2014). In Allison’s very early stage of linguistic development, the reliance on “no” alone seems typical.

—4-%$2' 6,&77-$/, “Early Word Production”

By citing both published research and examples from her own primary research, Sheppard demonstrates that she has spent considerable time re- searching her topic and can thus make informed observations about Alli- son’s speech. These citations not only let readers know that Sheppard can support her claims, they also indicate where readers can go to verify the in- formation if they so choose; both strategies demonstrate trustworthiness.

Although Fox and Sheppard use different techniques, both of them con- vince readers that the information being presented and the writers them- selves can be trusted.

For the full text of Katryn Sheppard’s

report, go to p. 620.

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Appropriate Organization and Design

There is no single best strategy for organizing the information you are re- porting. In addition to defining (as Henry Fountain does), you’ll find your- self describing (as Kelley Fox does), offering specific examples and data (as the report from Proud Ground does), analyzing causes and effects (as Michael Oden does), and so on. The specific organizational strategies you’ll use will depend on the information you want to report.

In many cases, you’ll want to include visuals of some sort, whether photographs, charts, figures, or tables. See, for example, the two pie charts from the Proud Ground annual report. The information they convey would be much harder to understand and thus far less effective if it were presented in a paragraph or even as a table. And as noted on page 261, Proud Ground also uses color photos to make the report more interesting and appealing. Similarly, see on page 256 the way that Henry Fountain uses images in his discussion of aerial skiing.

Sometimes the way in which you organize and present your infor- mation will be prescribed. If you’re writing a report following the imrad format, you will have little choice in how you organize and present informa-

Pie charts from Proud Ground’s 2012 annual report.

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tion. Everything from the use of headings to the layout of tables to the size of fonts may be dictated.

Some disciplines specify certain format details. Students of psychol- ogy, for example, are expected to follow apa style . On the other hand, a report for a composition class may have fewer constraints. For example, you may get to decide whether you will need headings and whether to use per- sonal examples.

A Confident, Informative Tone

Effective reports have a confident tone that assumes the writer is present- ing reliable information rather than arguing or preaching. Michael Oden and Henry Fountain both sound like they know what they’re writing about. In both these cases, we as readers are by and large getting just “the facts,” though it is clear that Oden has strong convictions about what the city of Austin should be doing in the future and that Fountain delights in both the beauty and the science of what freestyle aerialists can achieve.

The line between informing and arguing can become fuzzy, however. If you read reports on any number of hot-button issues—climate change, the economy, gay marriage, abortion—you’ll find that they often reflect some kind of position or make recommendations that betray a position. But the authors of such reports usually try to create an informative tone that avoids indicating their own opinions.

You may sometimes find yourself struggling with this line, working to present information while stopping short of telling readers what to think about or how to feel about a topic. Here we can offer two pieces of advice. First, keep in mind that you’re aiming to explain something to your audi- ence clearly and objectively rather than to persuade them to think about it a certain way. You’ll know you’ve succeeded here if someone reading a draft of your report can’t tell exactly what your own opinion about the topic is. Second, pay special attention to word choice because the words you use give subtle and not-so-subtle clues about your stance. Referring to “some- one who eats meat” is taking an objective tone; calling that person a “car- nivore” is not.

James Sanborn’s report on Marine

Corps body standards is acces-

sible to a general audience, but his

tone is thoroughly professional. See

how he does it on p. 1043.

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REPORTING INFORMATION / An Annotated Example

WIKIPEDIA, the free online encyclopedia that “anyone can edit,” has be- come one of the most-visited sites on the web since it was launched in 2001. Like any encyclopedia, the primary purpose of Wikipedia is to report infor- mation. Below is the opening section of the entry on same-sex marriage, as it appeared on August 17, 2015. This article offers a good example of how authors negotiate the challenges of reporting information fairly and from a neutral perspective. Wikipedia provides many examples of reporting on controversial topics, and the site has explicit policies about the writing of entries and even offers an entry on writing from a “neutral point of view.” Readers can also tab over to “Talk,” “Edit,” and “View History” to read about or report information that is controversial—and Wikipedia explicitly ac- knowledges problematic aspects of an entry, noting when the neutrality of an article has been disputed and pointing out sections that need “additional citations for verification.”

Same-Sex Marriage W I K I P E D I A

S!"#-$#% "!&&'!(# , also known as gay marriage, is marriage between people of the same sex, either as a secular civil cer-

emony or in a religious setting. Same-sex unions are recorded in the history of a number of

cultures, but marriage or similarly formalized same-sex unions were rare or nonexistent in other cultures.[specify][when?] In the late 20th century, religious rites of marriage without legal recognition became increasingly common. The (rst law providing for marriage

. A de!nition of the topic followed by a history of its development.

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of people of the same sex in modern times was enacted in 2001 in the Netherlands. As of 26 June 2015, eighteen countries (Ar- gentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,[nb 1] France, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,[nb 2] New Zealand,[nb 3] Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom,[nb 4] the United States[nb 5] and Uruguay) and certain sub-jurisdictions allow same-sex couples to marry. Similar laws in Finland, Ireland and Slovenia are not yet in force. Polls show rising support for legally recognizing same-sex marriage in the Americas, Australia, and most of Europe.[1][2][3] However, with the exception of South Africa and Israel, no country in Africa or Asia recognizes same- sex marriage.

Introduction of same-sex marriage laws has varied by juris- diction, being variously accomplished through legislative change to marriage laws, a court ruling based on constitutional guaran- tees of equality, or by direct popular vote (via ballot initiative or referendum). The recognition of same-sex marriage is a political and social issue, and also a religious issue in many countries, and debates continue to arise over whether people in same-sex re- lationships should be allowed marriage or some similar status (a civil union).[4][5][6] Same-sex marriage can provide those in same- sex relationships who pay their taxes with government services and make (nancial demands on them comparable to those a0ord- ed to and required of those in opposite-sex marriages. Same-sex marriage also gives them legal protections such as inheritance and hospital visitation rights.[7] Various faith communities around the world support allowing those of the same sex to marry, while many major religions oppose same-sex marriage. Opponents of same-sex marriages have argued that recognition of same-sex marriages would erode religious freedoms and undermine a right of children to be raised by their biological mother and father.

Some analysts state that (nancial, psychological and physical well-being are enhanced by marriage, and that children of same- sex parents or carers bene(t from being raised by two parents within a legally recognized union supported by society’s institu- tions.[8][9][10][11][12] Court documents (led by American scienti(c associations also state that singling out gay men and women as ineligible for marriage both stigmatizes and invites public discrimi-

.

.

.

.

Underlining signals links to more information.

The tone is con!dent and avoids taking a stance on this controversial topic.

Footnotes link to evidence that demonstrates the trustworthiness of the information.

Notice the organization: de!nitions !rst, a brief history, a statement of the issue or controversy, and a review of the major arguments o"ered by either side.

Wikipedia / Same-Sex Marriage [ 269 ]

nation against them.[13] The American Anthropological Associa- tion avers that social science research does not support the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon not recognizing same-sex marriage.[14]

.REFLECT. Analyze a Wikipedia entry on a topic of your choice to see how

focused the information is, how key terms are defined, and how the entry is organized.

How trustworthy do you find the information—and what makes you trust it (or not)?

How would you characterize the tone—informative? informative but somewhat

argumentative? something else? Point to words that convey that tone.

Go to everyonesan author.tumblr.com to link to the full Wikipedia article.

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PROFILES Profiles provide firsthand accounts of people, places, events, institutions, or other things. Newspapers and magazines publish profiles of interesting sub- jects; college websites often include profiles of the student body; investors may study profiles of companies before deciding whether or not to buy stock. If you’re on Facebook or LinkedIn, you have likely created a personal profile saying something about who you are and what you do. Profiles take many different forms, but they generally have the following features.

A Firsthand Account

In creating a profile, you’re always writing about something you know first- hand, not merely something you’ve read about. You may do some reading for background, but reading alone won’t suffice. You’ll also need to talk with peo- ple or visit a place or observe an event in some way. Keep in mind, however, that while a profile is a firsthand account, it should not be autobiographical. In other words, you can’t profile yourself. In his 2002 New Yorker profile of soul singer James Brown, Philip Gourevitch describes Brown’s performance as he saw it firsthand as a member of the audience.

There he is: arms out from his sides as if to welcome an embrace, den- tistry blazing in a beati(c grin, head turning slowly from side to side, eyes goggle-wide—looking down-right blown away to (nd himself the focus of such a rite of overwhelming acclamation. He lingers thus for several seconds, then, throwing his head back, he lets out a happy scream and rips into the song “Make It Funky.” Within seconds, he has sent his mi- crophone stand toppling toward the (rst row of orchestra seats, only to snatch the cord and yank it back, while spinning on the ball of one foot in a perfect pirouette, so that his mouth returns to the mike and the mike to his mouth in the same instant. He howls. The crowd howls back.

—7,*.*7 8"#$&9*%+,, “Mr. Brown”

Here the author gives readers information about Brown’s performance that he could only have gathered from seeing him live, and it’s those details of Brown’s actions on stage that make the profile come to life.

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Detailed Information about the Subject

Profiles are always full of details—background information, descriptive de- tails (sights, sounds, smells), anecdotes, and dialogue. Ideally, these details help bring the subject to life—and persuade your audience that whatever you’re writing about is interesting, and worth reading about. What makes the excerpt from the New Yorker piece so successful is the kind of details about Brown that the author provides. We can almost see him “spinning on the ball of one foot in a perfect pirouette.” Here’s another example with dif- ferent but similarly detailed information about Brown’s early musical train- ing (or lack thereof).

He claims to have mastered the harmonica at the age of (ve, blowing “Lost John,” “Oh, Susannah,” and “John Henry,” and one afternoon, when he was seven, he taught himself to play the organ by working out the (ngering of “Coonshine Baby.” Before long, he was picking up guitar licks to such songs as “(Honey) It’s Tight Like That” from the great blues- man Tampa Red, who was dating one of Aunt Honey’s girls. By the time he was twelve, the young prodigy was fronting his own group.

Much of this information comes from the interviews that Gourevitch con- ducted while following Brown on tour and visiting his childhood home. The specific details, from the names of songs he sang to the ages when he sang them, go a long way toward establishing his credibility as a writer—and make his profile of Brown even more believable.

Another way that writers of profiles bring their subjects “to life” is by including photos, letting readers see their subjects in action. In the photo on the next page, James Brown seems larger than life, leaping into the air, let- ting us see what Gourevitch describes.

An Interesting Angle

The best profiles present a new or surprising perspective on whatever is be- ing profiled. In other words, a good profile isn’t merely a description; rather, it captures something essential about its subject from an interesting angle, much as a memorable photo does. When you plan a profile, try to come up with an angle that will engage readers. That angle will dictate what infor-

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mation you include. One thing that makes Gourevitch’s profile of James Brown so interesting is the angle that he takes on Brown’s life and career, starting with his improbable musical genius.

He was a middle-school dropout, with no formal musical training (he could not read a chart, much less write one), yet from early childhood he had realized in himself an intuitive capacity not only to remember and reproduce any tune or ri0 he heard but also to hear the underlying structures of music, and to make them his own.

James Brown performing on Saturday Night Live, 1980.

[ 273 ]

PROFILE / An Annotated Example

BILL LAITNER covers local news for the Detroit Free Press, specializing in social and political issues and human interest stories like the one below. The following profile, published in the Free Press in January 2015, inspired a nationwide response.

Heart and Sole: Detroiter Walks 21 Miles in Work Commute

B I L L L A I T N E R

L#!)'*( +,"# '* -#.&,'. at 8 a.m., James Robertson doesn’t look like an endurance athlete. Pudgy of form, shod in heavy work boots, Robertson trudges

almost haltingly as he starts another workday. But as he steps out into the cold, Robertson, 56, is steeled for

an Olympic-sized commute. Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he’ll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he’ll also walk an astounding 21 miles.

Five days a week. Monday through Friday. It’s the life Robertson has led for the last decade, ever since his

1988 Honda Accord quit on him. Every trip is an ordeal of mental and physical toughness for

this soft-spoken man with a perfect attendance record at work. And every day is a tribute to how much he cares about his job,

. The pro!le opens with descriptive details that introduce readers to the subject—and make us want to read on.

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his boss and his coworkers. Robertson’s daunting walks and bus rides, in all kinds of weather, also re1ect the challenges some metro Detroiters face in getting to work in a region of limited bus service, and where car ownership is priced beyond the reach of many.

But you won’t hear Robertson complain—nor his boss. “I set our attendance standard by this man,” says Todd Wilson,

plant manager at Schain Mold & Engineering. “I say, if this man can get here, walking all those miles through snow and rain, well I’ll tell you, I have people in Pontiac 10 minutes away and they say they can’t get here—bull!”

As he speaks of his loyal employee, Wilson leans over his desk for emphasis, in a sparse o3ce with a view of the factory 1oor. Before starting his shift, Robertson stops by the o3ce every day to talk sports, usually baseball. And during dinnertime each day, Wilson treats him to (ne Southern cooking, compliments of the plant manager’s wife.

“Oh, yes, she takes care of James. And he’s a personal favor- ite of the owners because of his attendance record. He’s never

James Robertson commutes 23 miles to and from his job every day— most of it on foot.

.

.

.

Another interesting angle: Robertson’s extraordinary work ethic in spite of the challenging circumstances.

Interviews with Robertson and his co-workers provide detailed !rsthand information.

Placing Robertson’s chal- lenging commute in the context of the struggles faced by other Detroiters gives it an interesting and meaningful angle.

Laitner / Heart and Sole [ 275 ]

missed a day. I’ve seen him come in here wringing wet,” says Wil- son, 53, of Metamora Township.

With a full-time job and marathon commutes, Robertson is clearly sleep deprived, but powers himself by downing 2-liter bot- tles of Mountain Dew and cans of Coke.

“I sleep a lot on the weekend, yes I do,” he says, sounding a lit- tle amazed at his schedule. He also catches zzz’s on his bus rides. Whatever it takes to get to his job, Robertson does it.

“I can’t imagine not working,” he says.

“Lord, Keep Me Safe”

The sheer time and e0ort of getting to work has ruled Robert- son’s life for more than a decade, ever since his car broke down. He didn’t replace it because, he says, “I haven’t had a chance to save for it.” His job pays $10.55 an hour, well above Michigan’s minimum wage of $8.15 an hour but not enough for him to buy, maintain and insure a car in Detroit.

As hard as Robertson’s morning commute is, the trip home is even harder.

At the end of his 2-10 p.m. shift as an injection molder at Schain Mold’s squeaky-clean factory just south of M-59, and when his coworkers are climbing into their cars, Robertson sets o0, on foot—in the dark—for the 23-mile trip to his home o0 Wood- ward near Holbrook. None of his coworkers lives anywhere near him, so catching a ride almost never happens.

Instead, he reverses the 7-mile walk he took earlier that day, a stretch between the factory and a bus stop behind Troy’s Somer- set Collection shopping mall.

“I keep a rhythm in my head,” he says of his seemingly mechan- ical-like pace to the mall.

At Somerset, he catches the last SMART bus of the day, just before 1 a.m. He rides it into Detroit as far it goes, getting o0 at the State Fairgrounds on Woodward, just south of 8 Mile. By that time, the last inbound Woodward bus has left. So Robertson foots it the rest of the way—about 5 miles—in the cold or rain or the mild summer nights, to the home he shares with his girlfriend.

“I have to go through Highland Park, and you never know what

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you’re going to run into,” Robertson says. “It’s pretty dangerous. Really, it is dangerous from 8 Mile on down. They’re not the type of people you want to run into.

“But I’ve never had any trouble,” he says. Actually, he did get mugged several years ago—“some punks tuned him up pretty good,” says Wilson, the plant manager. Robertson chooses not to talk about that.

So, what gets him past dangerous streets, and through the cold and gloom of night and winter winds?

“One word—faith,” Robertson says. “I’m not saying I’m a member of some church. But just before I get home, every night, I say, ‘Lord, keep me safe.’ ”

The next day, Robertson adds, “I should’ve told you there’s another thing: determination.”

A Land of No Buses

Robertson’s 23-mile commute from home takes four hours. It’s so time-consuming because he must traverse the no-bus land of rolling Rochester Hills. It’s one of scores of tri-county communi- ties (nearly 40 in Oakland County alone) where voters opted not to pay the SMART transit millage. So it has no (xed-route bus service.

Buses provide sparse service on Robertson’s long work commute, leaving him to walk most of the way on foot.

. Detailed information about Robertson’s commute, including a graphic with time stamps, helps read- ers understand it more clearly—and why it’s so incredible.

Laitner / Heart and Sole [ 277 ]

Once he gets to Troy and Detroit, Robertson is back in bus country. But even there, the bus schedules are thin in a region that is relentlessly auto-centric.

“The last (ve years been really tough because the buses cut back,” Robertson says. Both SMART and DDOT have curtailed service over the last half decade, “and with SMART, it really af- fected service into Detroit,” said Megan Owens, executive direc- tor of Transportation Riders United.

Detroit’s director of transportation said there is a service Robertson may be able to use that’s designed to help low-income workers. Job Access and Reverse Commute, paid for in part with federal dollars, provides door-to-door transportation to low- income workers, but at a cost. Robertson said he was not aware of the program.

Still, metro Detroit’s lack of accessible mass transit hasn’t stopped Robertson from hoo(ng it along sidewalks—often snow- covered—to get to a job.

At Home at Work

Robertson is proud of all the miles he covers each day. But it’s taking a toll, and he’s not getting any younger.

“He comes in here looking real tired—his legs, his knees,” says coworker Janet Vallardo, 59, of Auburn Hills.

But there’s a lot more than a paycheck luring him to make his weekday treks. Robertson looks forward to being around his co- workers, saying, “We’re like a family.” He also looks forward to the homemade dinners the plant manager’s wife whips up for him each day.

“I look at her food, I always say, ‘Excellent. No, not excellent. Phenomenal,’ ” he says, with Wilson sitting across from him, nod- ding and smiling with a3rmation.

Although Robertson eats in a factory lunchroom, his menus sound like something from a Southern café: Turnip greens with smoked pork neck bones, black-eyed peas and carrots in a brown sugar glaze, baby-back ribs, cornbread made from scratch, pinto beans, fried taters, cheesy biscuits. They’re the kind of meal that can fuel his daunting commutes back home.

. The local angle on this story as an example of the struggles many face in Detroit leads Laitner to include information about the city’s transportation services.

GE N R E S OF W R I T I NG[ 278 ]

Though his job is clearly part of his social life, when it’s time to work this graduate of Northern High School is methodical. He runs an injection-molding machine the size of a small garage, care- fully slicing and drilling away waste after removing each (nished part, and noting his production in detail on a clipboard.

Strangers Crossing Paths

Robertson has walked the walk so often that drivers wonder: Who is that guy? UBS banker Blake Pollock, 47, of Rochester, wondered. About a year ago, he found out.

Pollock tools up and down Crooks each day in his shiny black 2014 Chrysler 300.

“I saw him so many times, climbing through snow banks. I saw him at all di0erent places on Crooks,” Pollock recalls.

Last year, Pollock had just parked at his o3ce space in Troy as Robertson passed. The banker in a suit couldn’t keep from asking the factory guy in sweats, what the heck are you doing, walking out here every day? They talked a bit. Robertson walked o0 and Pollock ruminated.

From then on, Pollock began watching for the factory guy. At (rst, he’d pick him up occasionally, when he could swing the time. But the generosity became more frequent as winter swept in. Lately, it’s several times a week, especially when metro Detroit sees single-digit temperatures and windchills.

“Knowing what I know, I can’t drive past him now. I’m in my car with the heat blasting and even then my feet are cold,” Pollock says.

Other times, it’s 10:30 or 11 p.m., even after midnight, when Pollock, who is divorced, is sitting at home alone or rolling home from a night out, and wondering how the man he knows only as “James” is doing in the frigid darkness.

On those nights, Pollock runs Robertson all the way to his house in Detroit.

“I asked him, why don’t you move closer” to work. “He said his girlfriend inherited their house so it’s easy to stay there,” Pol- lock said.

On a recent night run, Pollock got his passenger home at 11

Laitner / Heart and Sole [ 279 ]

p.m. They sat together in the car for a minute, outside Robert- son’s house.

“So, normally you’d be getting here at 4 o’clock (in the morn- ing), right?” the banker asks. “Yeah,” Robertson replies. Pollock 1ashes a wry smile. “So, you’re pretty early, aren’t you?” he says. Robertson catches the drift.

“Oh, I’m grateful for the time, believe me,” Robertson says, then adds in a voice rising with anticipation: “I’m going to take me a bath!”

After the door shuts and Pollock pulls away, he admits that Robertson mysti(es him, yet leaves him stunned with admiration for the man’s uncanny work ethic and determination.

“I always say to my friends, I’m not a nice guy. But I (nd myself helping James,” Pollock says with a sheepish laugh. He said he’s picked up Robertson several dozen times this winter alone.

Has a Routine

At the plant, coworkers feel odd seeing one of their team num- bers always walking, says Charlie Hollis, 63, of Pontiac. “I keep telling him to get him a nice little car,” says Hollis, also a machine operator.

Echoes the plant manager Wilson, “We are very much trying to get James a vehicle.” But Robertson has a routine now, and he seems to like it, his coworkers say.

“If I can get away, I’ll pick him up. But James won’t get in just anybody’s car. He likes his independence,” Wilson says.

Robertson has simple words for why he is what he is, and does what he does. He speaks with pride of his parents, including his father’s military service.

“I just get it from my family. It’s a lot of walking, I know.”

.REFLECT. Bill Laitner profiles an ordinary person whose extraordinary

commute brought nationwide attention to the challenges of getting to work without a

car or public transportation. Think about someone you know whose story might prove

significant in this way. If you were to profile this person, what details would bring the

person to life and what angle would make his or her story matter to others?

.

.

Laitner notes details such as Pollock’s “wry smile” and “sheepish laugh” that signal that he is providing details from conversations he heard, adding credibility to his writing.

The conclusion brings up another interesting angle to Robertson’s story, how he connects his walking to a strong work ethic he inherited from his parents.

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REPORTING INFORMATION / A Roadmap

Choose a topic that matters—to you, and to others

If you get to select your topic, begin by considering topics that you know something about or are interested in learning more about. Whatever your topic, be sure it’s one you find intriguing and can be objective about. If you’re a devout Catholic and believe that the church is wrong—or right— in its stance on birth control, you’re likely to have trouble maintaining the “just the facts” stance necessary for writing a good report.

The more controversial the topic, the more challenging it may be to re- port fairly and accurately on it because the facts themselves likely will be the subject of controversy. So if you’re going to write about a controversial topic, you might consider reporting on the controversy itself: the major per- spectives on the issue, the kinds of evidence cited, and so on.

If you’ve been assigned a topic, find an aspect of it that is both interesting and focused. Unless you’ve been specifically instructed to address a broad topic (for example, the consequences of World Bank policies for third-world economies), focus on a narrower aspect of the topic (take a single developing country that interests you and report on the consequences of World Bank policies for that economy). Even when you are asked to report on a broad topic, see if it is possible to start out with a specific case and then move to the broader issue.

Consider your rhetorical situation

Analyzing your audience, purpose, and other elements of your rhetorical situation will help you to make the decisions you’ll face as you write.

Address your audience appropriately. If you’re writing a report for an audience you know—your classmates, your instructor—you can some- times assume what they will and won’t know about your topic. But if you’re writing for a broader audience—all students on campus, readers of a blog—you’ll likely be addressing people with different levels of knowl- edge. Your challenge will be to provide enough information without in- cluding irrelevant details. For example, Henry Fountain didn’t explain what skiing is or waste his readers’ time by including information not di-

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rectly relevant to his topic. Here are some questions that might guide you in considering your audience:

• What do you know about your audience? To what extent are they like or unlike you—or one another?

• What background information will your audience likely need on your topic? Will their knowledge of it vary?

• What terms need to be defined or illustrated with examples? What sorts of examples will be most effective for your audience?

• What interest does your audience have in your topic? If they’re not al- ready interested in it, how can you get them interested—or at least to see that it matters?

Be clear about your purpose . Consider why you are writing a report on this topic for this particular audience. Odds are that you want your report to do more than merely convey information. If you’re writing it for a course, you likely want to learn something and to get a good grade. If the report is part of a large project—a campaign to encourage composting on campus, for exam- ple—a lot may be riding on the quality of your work. What short-term goals do you have in writing, and do they relate to any longer-term goals?

Consider your stance . Think about your own attitudes toward your topic and your audience: What about this topic captured your interest? Why do you think it matters—or should matter—both in general and to your audi- ence? How can you establish your authority on the topic and get your audi- ence to trust you and the information you provide? How do you want them to see you? As a fair, objective reporter? As thoughtful? serious? curious? something else?

Consider the larger context . What are the various perspectives on the top- ic, and what else has been said about it? What larger conversations, if any, is this topic a part of? For a report that’s part of a campaign to encourage com- posting on campus, for example, you’d need to become familiar with how such programs have been conducted at other schools, and what the main challenges and arguments have been.

Think about media . As the three reports on aerial skiing make clear, the medium you use to say something plays a big role in determining the mes- sage you convey. If you have a choice, will your text be presented in print? on

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the web? as an oral report? Which will be most effective for your subject and audience? If you’ve got audio of an interview, can you embed it in an online report or incorporate it into an oral report? If your report will be in print, can you summarize or quote from the interview? If your report will be oral, should you prepare slides to help your audience follow your main points?

Think about design . Consider what design elements are available to you and will help you convey your information in the clearest, most memorable way. For example, much of the effectiveness of Proud Ground’s annual re- port comes from the large color photos and testimonials from new home- owners. Black-and-white images or plain headshots would have been far less effective. Think about whether your report will include any elements that should be highlighted. Do you need headings? Would photos, charts, tables, or other visuals help you convey information more effectively than words alone? Do you have the option of using color in your text—and if so, what colors will set the right tone?

Research your topic

Your goal in researching your topic is first to get a broad overview of what is known about it and second to develop a deeper understanding of the topic. While most high school reports discuss the research of others, those you write in college may call on you to gather data yourself and then write about the data in light of existing research.

lab reports, for example, describe the results of experiments in engi- neering and the natural sciences, and reports based on ethnographic obser- vation are common in the social sciences. And whatever your topic or field, reading secondary sources will help you see how your findings relate to what people already know.

Thus, your first task is to read broadly enough to get a feel for the vari- ous issues and perspectives on your topic so that you know what you’re talk- ing about and can write about it authoritatively.

Begin by assessing what you know—and don’t know—about the topic. What aspects of your topic do you need to learn more about? What ques- tions do you have about it? What questions will your audience have? To answer these questions, you might try brainstorming or other activities

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for generating ideas. Such activities may help you focus your topic and also discover areas you need to research further.

Find out what others say. You can research others’ positions and perspec- tives in many different ways. If your topic is a local one, such as alcohol use at your college, you may want to conduct a student survey, interview ad- ministrators or counselors who deal with campus drinking problems, or do a search of local newspapers for articles about alcohol-related incidents. But it would also be a good idea to look beyond your own community, in order to gain perspective on how the situation at your school fits into national pat- terns. You could consult books and periodicals, databases, websites, or on- line forums devoted to your topic. If your topic doesn’t have a local focus, you will likely start out by consulting sources like these. You may also interview people at your school or in the community who are experts on your topic.

Decide whether you need to narrow your topic. What aspect of your topic most interests you, and how much can you cover given the constraints of your assignment? If your political science professor has assigned a five-min- ute oral report on climate-change legislation, for example, you will need to find a more specific focus than you would for a twenty-page written report on the same general topic. In the first case, you might (with your teacher’s permission) focus on one specific bill and its fate in Congress rather than try to cover all of the legislation that falls into this category.

Organize and start writing

Once you’ve narrowed your topic and have some sense of what you want to say about it, you need to think about how you can frame your topic to appeal to your audience and how you can best organize the information you have collected. As you draft, you may discover that you need to do some addition- al research as new questions and ideas arise. But for now, just get started.

Come up with a tentative thesis. State your topic and the gist of what you have to say about it in a tentative thesis statement, trying to make it broad enough to cover the range of information you want to share with your audi- ence but limited enough to be manageable—and keeping in mind that your goal is to report information, not to argue a position.

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Organize your information. Make a list of the information you want to con- vey, and think about what details you want to include. You’ll find that you need various strategies for presenting information—description, defini- tion, analysis, examples , and so on.

Then consider how to arrange your material. Some topics call for a chronological structure, moving from past to present, maybe even pro- jecting into the future, as the report on economic development in Austin does. Or you may find that a spatial organization works well—if you’re re- porting on the design of a new building, for instance—moving from exterior to interior or from top to bottom. There are any number of ways to organize a report in addition to these; you’ll just need to work out a structure that will help your audience understand your topic in a systematic way.

Don’t be surprised if you find that you do not need to use all of the infor- mation that you have collected. Authors often gather far more information than they finally use; your task is to choose the information that is most relevant to your thesis and present it as effectively as possible.

Draft an opening . Why do you care about your topic, and how can you get your audience interested in it? You will want to open by announcing your subject in a way that makes your audience want to know more about it. Con- sider opening with an intriguing example or a provocative question. Per- haps you have a memorable anecdote. It’s usually a good idea also to include the thesis somewhere in the introduction so that your audience can follow from the outset where your report is heading and don’t have to figure it out for themselves.

Draft a conclusion . What do you want your audience to take away from your report? What do you want them to remember? You could end by noting the implications of your report, reminding them why your topic matters. You could summarize your main points. You could even end with a question, leaving them with something to think about.

Look critically at your draft, get response—and revise

Try rereading your draft several times from different perspectives and imagining how different readers will experience your text. Will readers new to the topic follow what you are saying? Will those who know about the topic think that you have represented it accurately and fairly? If possible,

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get feedback from a classmate or a tutor at your school’s writing center. Fol- lowing are some questions that can help you and others examine a report with a critical eye:

• How does the report open ? Will it capture your audience’s interest? How else might it begin?

• Is the topic clear and well focused? Are the scope and structure of the re- port set out in its opening paragraphs? Is there an explicit thesis state- ment—and if not, would it help to add one?

• Is it clear why the topic matters—why you care about it and why others should?

• How does the draft appeal to your audience ? Will they be able to un- derstand what you say, or do you need to provide more background in- formation or define any terms?

• How do you establish your authority on the topic? Does the informa- tion presented seem trustworthy? Are the sources for your information credible, and have you provided any necessary documentation ?

• Is the tone appropriate for your audience and purpose? If it seems ten- tative or timid, how could you make it more confident? If it comes across as argumentative, how could you make it focus on “just the facts”?

• How is the information organized? Past to present? Simple to complex? Some other way? Does the structure suit your topic and medium ? What strategies have you used to present information— comparison , description , narration ?

• What media will the report be presented in, and how does that affect the way it’s written? You might consider including photos in a print re- port, for example, videos and links in an online report, or slides to go along with an oral presentation.

• Is the report easy to follow? If not, try adding transitions or headings. If it’s an oral report, you might put your main points on slides.

• If you’ve included illustrations, are there captions that explain how they relate to the written text? Have you referred to the illustration in your text? Is there information in your text that would be easier to fol- low in a chart or table?

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• Is the style appropriate for your audience and purpose? Consider choice of words, level of formality, and so on.

• How effective is your conclusion ? How else might you end?

• Does the title tell readers what the report is about, and will it make them want to know more?

Revise your draft in response to any feedback you receive and your own analysis, keeping in mind that your goal is to present “just the facts.”

.REFLECT. Once you’ve completed your report, let it settle for a while and

then take time to reflect. How well did you report on your topic? How successful do

you think you were in making the topic interesting to your audience? What additional

revisions would you make if you could? Research shows that such reflections help “lock

in” what you learn for future use.