English 8123 Digital Media Production
Overview
The purpose of this particular assignment is for you to carefully think through who you are professionally, how you want to represent yourself in your field, and how you want people to look at you.
What is a professional profile?
A profile is basically a short biographical sketch of yourself. A professional profile is a selective summary of your professional credentials that tells a coherent story.
Key aspects of a professional profile
- A coherent story: if you have to sum up about yourself in a few words, what would it be? Digital humanist? Classical rhetorician? Service learning specialist? Whatever it is, does your story support that profile?
- A consistent research agenda: show your readers that you have a good research focus, that you’ve been consistently engaged in research in this area.
- Promising academic potential: this is a little tricky. How do you demonstrate that? Everybody’s case is different and calls for different strategies. You may demonstrate that with your publications, your conference presentations, your connections with the field, your active service record in your profession…
What to include in your profile?
There are many things that could potentially go into your profile. It certainly depends on who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish with your portfolio. For example, if you’re a PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition looking for a tenure-track position at the college level, your professional profile could include the following:
- Your educational background–Your field? Your concentration? Have you been studying consistently in the same field? Or have you been in different fields from the Bachelor’s to the Master’s and to the PhD program? If you indeed have been in different fields through these programs, do you have a good explanation for it? And in what way does it make it a strength for you?
- Your work experience–Do you have any work experience? Full-time work experience? TA? RA? All in your field?
- Your research focus–This is of critical importance. What’s been your research area? Do you have a consistent research agenda? Do you have any publications.
- Your service experience–Are you involved in any professional service? At the national level? At the university level? Or at the department level?
Think of your digital profile as something similar to a self introduction at the beginning of a job interview. You want to present the most important credentials about yourself, but you also don’t want to bore your readers with insignificant details. Be informative but be concise.
How long should your digital profile be?
Well, think about how much you can typically say in about two to three minutes in your self introduction in an interview. So, I would say it should be somewhere between 100 and 300 words. That’s just a ballpark figure. Decide for yourself what’s appropriate in your case.
How do you turn it in?
Simply upload your profile on your website, and shoot me an email when it’s ready.