Assignment 2: Place Profile

Your second short writing assignment is a feature story that profiles a place, preferably a small community or neighborhood with which you are already familiar.

Read the Smithsonian story on "Galena, Illinois" and observe how the writer paints a narrative portrait of the town using details of its history, geography and present-day cultural life. Note the way people's individual views and attitudes are incorporated into the story in the form of paraphrases and quotations.

You may write your place profile in the style of a travel story, gearing it toward readers who don't know the place as well as you and might someday wish to visit it. Or you may choose to gear the story toward an audience that is familiar with the place, perhaps highlighting some often-overlooked or new aspect of the community.

The story must have a combination of quotations and paraphrased comments from at least two sources (by which I mean people). Textual sources (such as Web sites, reference books, published articles about the place, etc.) are also acceptable but won't count toward the two-person minimum.

We'll discuss your progress in class on Tuesday. That means I will ask each of you to briefly describe your topic and your angle. The finished assignment is due Thursday, June 14. It should be three or four pages long (stapled together), and it should be typed, double-spaced in 12-point font, and topped with the following:

1. The name of this course (JRL200z is fine), my name, and the date you give me the story
2. Headline
3. Your byline
4. Dateline

Here's an example of how to top a story:

JRL200z
For Bill Ackerbauer
June 14, 2007

Nebraska town's hotels cater to affluent goldfish fanciers

By AMANDA HUGINKISS

BUFF BLUFF, Neb. -- This is the first sentence of this hypothetical story.