In reading the Trethewey profile itself, we can return to the questions at the start of this lesson:
What is the purpose of the profile?
How is it published and in what ways does publication shape what it can do?
Recalling week one, we might otherwise ask: what is the rhetorical situation?
Who is the reader and how do we know?
What is the common theme or value system upon which this piece is built?
Another way to think about this is to ask: in a word (or a few words), what is this story “about”?
Bentley calls this “boiling things down” to an idea. What does the author want the reader to “do” after reading this profile?
And we can also ask more directly analytical questions:
How does the author tell the story? Think about chronology, character, detail.
How is the profile organized? Think about the elements of a good story arc.
Where is the inciting incident?
What is the conflict?
How does the author create an ethos for the subject?
How do they use pathos or logos to lend detail/credibility to the story?