Everything That Moves: Writing a Profile of Someone Who Serves the Community

25 min

Let's begin

Newspapers and school magazines often publish profiles: short portraits of a real person and their work. Writing one is a demanding exercise, because it combines everything in this unit: describing a job, telling a short history, showing change, and explaining why the work matters to a community. In this lesson you study a model profile, then write your own about someone whose work serves the people around you.

Definition

profile (n): a short article that describes one person, their work and their character, usually with a few of their own words. The magazine published a profile of the school's cook.
apprentice (n): a person who learns a trade by working for a skilled worker for a period of time.
direct quotation: the person's exact words, inside quotation marks: "A mistake with brakes is not a small mistake," he says.

A model profile

Jean-Paul Ndayisaba is an imagined person. Read the profile once for what you learn about him, then a second time for how it is built. (275 words)

Wheels and Patience: Gatare's Mechanic
By seven every morning there is already a bicycle upside down outside Jean-Paul Ndayisaba's workshop, its wheel turning slowly in his hands while he listens for the tick of a bent spoke. Ndayisaba, 46, has repaired bicycles and motorbikes at the edge of Gatare's market for nineteen years, and most people in the trading centre have ridden something he has fixed.
His job involves far more than mending punctures. He replaces brakes and chains, straightens wheels, and services the motorbikes that the moto drivers depend on for their income. He is also responsible for training two apprentices, who watch every repair before they are allowed to touch a customer's machine. "A mistake with brakes is not a small mistake," he says.
Ndayisaba learned the trade as a teenager, when he carried tools for an older mechanic in exchange for meals. He saved for six years to buy his first set of spanners, and he opened his own workshop with a single bench and a borrowed pump.
Today the work is changing. Motorbikes are becoming more complicated, and spare parts are more expensive than they used to be, so he is learning to repair electric motorbikes from videos on his phone. The hardest part of the job, he says, is not the repairs but the customers who promise to pay "next week".
Without him, Gatare would slow down. Pupils would walk further to school, farmers would struggle to bring their maize to market, and the moto drivers would lose days of earnings. Ask him why he stays, and he points at the road. "Everything that moves here," he says, "passes through my hands sooner or later."

How the profile is built

Figure 1.4 The five-paragraph plan of the model profile.

Language for describing a job

Purpose	Useful language	Example
what the work includes	involves + -ing; consists of	His job involves servicing motorbikes.
duties	is responsible for + -ing; is in charge of; deals with	She is in charge of the repair fund.
skills and qualities	requires, calls for, you need to be …	The work requires patience and steady hands.
training	trained as, qualified as, learned the trade, served an apprenticeship	He learned the trade as a teenager.
conditions	works long hours, works shifts, is self-employed, earns	As a self-employed mechanic, he sets his own prices.
value to others	without him/her, … would …; depends on; makes it possible for …	Without him, Gatare would slow down.

Notice the second conditional in the last row and in paragraph 5 of the model: Without him, pupils would walk further. It imagines a situation that is not real, and it is the strongest way to show how much a person's work matters. You will study conditionals fully in Unit 2.

Worked example

From notes to a profile paragraph

Interview notes: Aline, 29, SACCO teller, 5 years. Counts cash, opens accounts, explains loans. Speaks 3 languages. "People bring me their savings and their worries."

Turn the notes into the present simple and job language. counts cash → She counts and records every deposit; explains loans → she is responsible for explaining loan conditions.
Add a detail that shows, not tells. Instead of She is kind, write what she does: she switches to Kinyarwanda, English or French for each customer.
Place the quotation at the end, where it has most force.

Result: Aline Uwimana, 29, has worked as a teller at the SACCO for five years. She counts and records every deposit, opens new accounts and is responsible for explaining loan conditions to first-time borrowers, switching between Kinyarwanda, English and French for each customer. "People bring me their savings," she says, "and very often their worries too."

Warning

A profile is not a CV. Do not list facts in note form (Age: 46. Job: mechanic.); write connected paragraphs.
Do not invent quotations from a real person. If you interview someone, write down their exact words and check them; if the person is imagined, say so.
Keep the tense logic: present simple for the job now, past simple for the story, present continuous for changes in progress. Do not switch tense inside a paragraph without a reason.
Ask permission before you publish a profile of a real person, and do not include private details such as a phone number or home address.

Your writing task

Your school magazine is running a series called People Who Keep Us Going. Write a profile of 250 to 300 words of a person whose work serves your community: for example a community health worker, a teller, a market vendor, a tailor, a cook, a security guard or a driver. If you can, interview the person for ten minutes first, with their permission. Give your profile a headline and follow the five-paragraph plan.

Checklist: before you hand it in	Tick
A headline that makes a reader want to read on
An opening scene that shows the person at work before naming them
At least three duties, described with involves, is responsible for or is in charge of
A short history in the past simple
A change in progress (present continuous) and at least one comparative with much, far or than … used to
A closing paragraph on why the work matters, with a second conditional (Without … would …)
At least one direct quotation, correctly punctuated
Between 250 and 300 words; spelling of ea words checked

✦

Practice

Rewrite in the style of a profile, as one sentence: Mukamana. Health worker. Weighs babies. Visits homes three days a week.
Complete with one word: (a) Her job involves ___ (visit) homes. (b) He is in ___ of the cleaning rota. (c) She trained ___ a nurse.
Punctuate this quotation correctly: everything that moves here he says passes through my hands
Write the second-conditional sentence: without the teller / customers / travel to the district town.
Find the paragraph of the model profile that uses the past simple most, and give two of its verbs.
Write the opening scene (two or three sentences) for a profile of a person in your community. Show them at work before you name them.

Show answersHide answers

For example: Three days a week, community health worker Mrs Mukamana visits homes, weighing babies as she goes.
(a) visiting (b) charge (c) as
"Everything that moves here," he says, "passes through my hands."
Without the teller, customers would have to travel to the district town.
Paragraph 3: learned, carried, saved, opened (any two).
Open answer. Check that the first sentence shows an action, and that the name comes only after it.

1A model profile

2How the profile is built

3Language for describing a job

4Your writing task

A model profile

How the profile is built

Language for describing a job

Your writing task