My presentation on profile writing to the JEA/NSPA national high school journalism convention in Denver in April 2015.

1. B R I A N B A R O N
N E W TO N S O U T H H I G H S C H O O L
N E W TO N , M A
@ B R I A N B A R O N 1 3
B R I A N _ B A R O N @ N E W TO N . K 1 2 . M A
. U S

2. MAIN GOAL: HELP YOU BRING THE PROFILES IN
YOUR PUBLICATION TO LIFE.
What you’ll learn:
How to apply the ladder of abstraction to your
writing
How to think visually to bring your writing to life.
How to apply the ladder of abstraction and visual
thinking to profile writing and issue stories
specifically
What you’ll take away:
A general plan for one profile you can start on

3. THINK OF THREE ISSUES THAT
THE STUDENTS AT YOUR SCHOOL
WOULD BE INTERESTED IN
READING ABOUT.

4. The Ladder of
Abstraction
Concrete
Bloody knives, rosary beads,
wedding rings, baseball cards
Abstract
Freedom, literacy

5. FOR EXAMPLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001906071/miseducation.html

6. THE BUMPY ROAD OF A SELF-EMPLOYED ARTIST
AMANDA LIU, 2012
From afar, the light blue exterior of
Lyn Brown’s house looks just like any
other residence in Somerville. Upon
closer inspection, however, one can
catch a glimpse of her personality: a
strange and straggly bush has taken
over the front yard, and on her screen
door is a sign that reads, “DON’T LET
THE CATS OUT!”

7. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 62 percent of artists are self-
employed like Brown. Working without
ties to a stable industry or corporation,
however, can make finances a concern.
For Brown, it’s a puzzle to calculate
which shop to sell her pieces at to
maximize profit. “Sometimes there’s that
one ornament that just sits there in the
store for weeks,” Brown [said.]

8. SOME PARENTS OPPOSE STANDARDIZED TESTING ON
PRINCIPLE, BUT NOT IN PRACTICE
BY KYLE SPENCER, NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 13, 2015
This past winter, Nicholas Gottlieb, the
father of a third grader and a sixth
grader in Manhattan, helped organize a
citywide forum against standardized
testing during which more than 200
parents and teachers talked about ways
to “attack the issue from different
angles.”

9. But on Tuesday, when more than a
million third through eighth
graders in New York State sit for
the first of six English and math
testing sessions, Mr. Gottlieb’s two
daughters, who attend Public
School 3 in the West Village and
the Clinton School for Writers and
Artists in Chelsea, will be opting in.

10. “I would like to think that I would
have the courage of my
convictions,” he said. “But can I
really do that when it means I’m
gambling with my kids’ futures?”

11. New York has become a center of the
nationwide anti-testing movement,
and this could be a crucial year in
determining whether it breaks out of
the realm of rallies and Facebook
pages to become a significant
educational force. But for various
reasons, even parents who are
uncomfortable with the exams are
discovering it is hard to push the
button on the nuclear option —
refusing to have their own children

12. FIRST-GEN.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/first-generation-
students-unite.html

13. FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS UNITE
BY LAURA PAPPANO, NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 8. 2015
Ana Barros grew up in a two-family
house built by Habitat for
Humanity, hard by the boarded-up
buildings and vacant lots of
Newark. Neither parent attended
college, but she was a star
student. With a 2200 on her SATs,
she expected to fit in at Harvard.

14. Yet here she was at a lecture for
a sociology course called,
paradoxically, “Poverty in
America,” as a classmate
opened her laptop and planned
a multicountry spring break trip
to Europe.
(Ms. Barros can’t afford
textbooks; she borrows from
the library.)

15. On the sidewalks of Cambridge,
students brush past her in their
$700 Canada Goose parkas and
$1,000 Moncler puffer jackets.
(Ms. Barros saved up for two
years for good boots.)

16. On an elite campus, income
inequality can be in your face.
Weary of trying to pass as middle
class, Ms. Barros decided to
“come out,” borrowing the
phrase from the gay community.
She joined and now leads the
two-year-old Harvard College
First Generation Student Union,
which has 300 on its email list.
“This is a movement,” she said.
“We are not ashamed of taking on
this identity.”

17. On the nation’s most prestigious
campuses, first-generation-in-
college students like Ms. Barros are
organizing, speaking up about who
they are and what’s needed to make
their path to a degree less fraught.

18. MIDNIGHT THREE AND SIX
http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003468854/midnight-three-
six.html

19. What is the abstract story you
want to tell? Is it about
diabetes? Parents and kids?
Dogs and cats? Sum it up in
one sentence.
Write the lede; which concrete
details will you use to exemplify
the abstract idea you want to
write about?

20. NOW YOUR STORY…
-- Choose one of the three from the
beginning.
-- What’s the one-sentence abstract?
-- What concrete details will you need
to exemplify that idea? Who will you
talk to to get those details?

21. MAIN GOAL: HELP YOU BRING THE PROFILES IN
YOUR PUBLICATION TO LIFE.
What you’ll learn:
How to apply the ladder of abstraction to your
writing
How to think visually to bring your writing to life.
How to apply the ladder of abstraction and visual
thinking to profile writing and issue stories
specifically
What you’ll take away:
A general plan for one profile you can start on