Open the image to see the first page of Crystal Borne's profile of Ernest Hemingway. I'm still processing my thoughts on the profile assignment we completed yesterday, but already I can feel some of the constraints wrought by thinking about textbook publishing and its genres. The textbook favors the essay profile, of which I received many that seem good. But Crystal's improvisation engages me more.

My thinking is that writing is many times about trade-offs, having to compose what's required. The key is to push it at least until it becomes something that sustains your interest. A textbook that features profiles must have essays in it, but why not also projects like Crystal's? Today we'll make voice-mail messages as a final gesture in capturing the essence of a person, and then we'll try to sort out what works best and what compromises might be required to create a textbook section on profiles. The bigger questions about why the compromises must be made will probably remain open.