Profile Animal Control Staff free essay sample

â€Å"Write an essay about an intriguing person, place, or activity in your community. Observe your subject closely, and then present what you have learned in a way that both informs and engages your readers. † (103) Basic features (100-101) †¢Vivid description of people and places. The writer uses graphic sensory detail to bring the reader to the scene. †¢Information on the subject interwoven with description and narration. The writer employs explanatory strategies to teach the reader something surprising or useful. †¢Effective organizational pattern, either topical or narrative. The organization supports the content. †¢Clear writer’s role, either as detached observer or participant observer. The writer does not dominate the subject. †¢Insight into the subject. The writer’s perspective may be either stated directly or implied, but should be clear. Assessment. The teacher may consider the following when assessing a profile essay: †¢Purpose and audience: Does the writing meet the assignment requirements and engage the audience in the person, place, or activity? †¢Idea development: Does the paper show that the writer has first hand information on the topic? Is there sufficient information – which may include quotations, research, and definitely description? Does the physical description bring a reader into the situation; is it focused on the topic and used to create an impression? Does the writer have a clear perspective on the topic, without dominating the subject? †¢Organization: Does the title capture the central focus? Does the introduction capture attention and convey the topic? Do transitions and the overall organizational pattern (either narrative or topical or a mix) provide a smooth flow? Does the conclusion provide a sense of closure? †¢Style: Are the sentence and word choices appropriate to a college essay? Are words vivid, exact and correct? Does the sentence structure add impact? Are sentences complete, smooth, clear, correct and efficient? †¢Conventions: Are there few, if any, mistakes in following the conventions of Standard Written English? †¢Citing Sources: If sources are used, is the material properly cited and documented in a standard format? Profile Essay Ideas Sample Assignment â€Å"Hometown Hero† The purpose of this essay is to provide a profile to college readers about a person who has made a significant contribution to a person, a family, a group, or a community. Choose a person whose actions have made a difference in the life of an individual, a family, a group, or your hometown or larger community. You are taking a snapshot of an individual and should use vivid description and sensory detail—especially visual detaill to capture the essence and significance of the person’s life and actions. You should use narrative to tell the story of this individual’s contribution to another’s well-being, and may use direct quotations and paraphrase to convey what you have learned in doing research. Essay Conventions and Structure You may choose to write the essay in the THIRD PERSON, avoiding the use of â€Å"I, WE, and YOU. † Most academic essays are written in the third person (He, She, It, They, Noun Phrases, Proper Nouns such as place names and persons’ names). The writer’s stance when writing in the third person is more objective reporting and description. You will use narrative and reportage strategies that you used in the narrative essay to describe the individual and to describe his or her significant actions and contributions. You should also include an explanation of the significance and effect of the Hometown Hero’s actions on a person or a group, interwoven with the narrative and description in your profile. Writing more objectively is good preparation for writing Essays 3, 5, and 6. You may write in the FIRST PERSON, using â€Å"I† and â€Å"We. ’ Your writer’s stance in the first person makes you part of the action and scene that you describe. You are an involved participant as well as an observer, and you are reporting from a more personal and subjective narrative point of view, building on the strategies you employed in Essay 1. Example Essay Plan Phyllis Stein, Founder of the Chesapeake, Virginia Humane Society—My Personal Hero Title: Woman Warrior Wins the Battle to End Animal Cruelty Framing Quotation: Self Description: â€Å" I was a timid housewife. But when I saw with my own eyes how the Animal Control Officers at what was supposed to be a shelter were torturing animals, I lost my mind and became a crazy, wild woman. And I’ve never recovered from the madness! † Idea Sequence: Narrative: Transformation from Timid Housewife to Woman Warrior to Hometown Hero Phyllis—a physically handicapped polio survivor with a terrible spinal curvature, is a devoted animal lover and timid, stay at home mom, goes to Animal Control to Adopt a Dog and becomes a national and international hero She sees Animal Officers using dogs and cats as targets for pistol practice She sees Animal Control Officers killing dogs and cats horribly and inhumanely by burying them in an earthen pit, covering it with heavy plastic tarps, and running a hose from a semi truck exhaust pipe into the pit to suffocate the animals Quote: â€Å"This was the Ninth Circle of Hell. I could hear the dogs and cats screaming. I still hear them in my dreams, even 35 years later. I grabbed the keys out of that truck ignition and threw them into a field. The guys never found them. The sheriff came to my house. I was too mad to be scared, and the next day Tony started to write his article and I took 10 people with me to the Mayor’s office for the five year—or is it 35 year fight of my life. I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t done this. Even when my children—who I love more than life begged me to stop, I couldn’t. † She goes home, cries, screams, and tries to make her husband, Tony, a reporter with the large metro daily paper solve her problem He helps, writing an expose article, but tells her that she must take action Quote: Phil, I can only do so much for you. This is your war, and you have to put on your armor and fight for the changes you know need to be made, here. And you can’t do this alone. Get all our friends to help Go to City Hall. And be ready, because it’s gonna be war. She becomes a Woman Warrior Recruits 25 neighbors and friends, goes to the Mayor, City Council, National ASPCA fighting for change, for what becomes a lifelong battle. In two weeks, she gets the Chief of Animal Control and the eight l abusive Animal Control Officers fired Is chosen to be Chief of Animal Control. He accepts very reluctantly, thinking she can do it for a year and hand over to someone else once changes are made. It takes five years Goes to New York City, is trained by National ASPCA Returns to Chesapeake. Recruits and trains new Animal Control staff herself She has taken responsibility for humane treatment of animals in Chesapeake, V irginia, a city with a population of 750,000 people and three to four million pets Vivid Description of Heroic Action: Makes Humane Calls for three years, initiates humane euthanization and puts dogs and cats down with humane injections herself, goes undercover and breaks illegal dog fighting rings and abusive long-distance horse steeplechase races that run horses to death. She endures the heartbreak of all these responsibilities and remains a passionate animal lover Quote: All the things I saw stayed with me when I went to bed. I cried every night, with tears running into my ears for three years. Tony was with me, or I truly would have lost my mind. But I did what I had to do—for the animals. I was, as Bill Ward said, a pain in the ass down at City Hall, and people I’d known for decades avoided me when they say me at the grocery store. I made enemies. The dogfighting people and horseracing gamblers shot at me. Threatened to kill my children. Thank God the City Police protected us. Some friends said I was obsessed, but it was a war I had to fight and win. I couldn’t have lived with myself, otherwise. Founds the Chesapeake Humane Society. Plans to have the Humane Society assume responsibility for Animal Control Endures a spinal injury, surgery, body casts for two years—and she continues to make humane calls despite the terrible physical and emotional pain Virginia Law must change for the Humane Society to run Animal Control. Phyllis and Andrew Sachs write the first model legislation. The law is passed in Virginia and over 15 years in 17 other states. Canadian Provinces have adapted and passed the law. Phyllis is recognized by the Humane Society and by the City of Chesapeake for her hard work. A new Animal Shelter is constructed. The Mayor wants it to be called the Phyllis Stein Memorial Animal Shelter. But buildings in Chesapeake, VA can only be named for deceased individuals. Phyllis smiles and declines the honor†¦ 20 years later, Phyllis and Tony are still working for the welfare of animals. They write grants for spay and neuter mobile clinics, and are important members of the Bob Barker Foundation and the ASPCA Phyllis is still the woman warrior, traveling the country at the age of 81 and bringing together and teaching community organizations, animal control staff, and animal welfare groups to work together Quotes from family members Son, Robert â€Å"I saw my Mom suffer at seeing animals abused. I saw her get mad, get off her tuckus, and do something. Back then, before she started with humane work, she was just my Mom. She cooked for us, drove us around, and kept us in line. Then she became this force of nature. Nothing could stop her, not even a broken back. And she still made all those humane animal control calls. She has a will and a backbone made of steel. Literally. I’m proud of her and proud to be her son, and I admire her more than any woman I know. Just look at how she stopped so much horrendous animal suffering and insane human cruelty. My little Momthis hunchbacked, four-foot eleven scaredy-cat who turned into the Caped Anti-Animal Cruelty Crusader. And the law that she and Andy wrote is used all over the United States and now in Canada to put animal control into the hands of gentle, humane people. This has been her life, and it’s a life that really matters. How many kids can say that about their Mom? † Daughter Tracy, â€Å"As a kid, I saw all these different kinds of people meeting at our house, getting mad, all the yelling, going to City Council. Mom started taking over at the Shelter. She went undercover with those pit bull rings and horse races. People shot at her in the car, and they shot at our house—with us in it!! I was scared and wanted her to quit. But later, when I really understood what she was doing, I was so proud of her. Even though my friends did make fun of the cops sitting outside the house. † Quotes from Chesapeake Mayor Bill Ward â€Å"At first, I thought she was the biggest pain in the ass crusader I ever met. She drove me nuts on a daily basis. But I saw her passion and understood that it came from the love she has for animals and the commitment to protect them. As a Black American, I appreciate her dedication and activism. She has made this community, and this world, a better, kinder, safer, and more compassionate place. She is a true heroine. † â€Å"Phyllis and Tony Stein have done more than any couple I know to advance the interests of the people of Chesapeake. Today, we honor them with the Mayor’s Medal for Community Service for their dedication and hard work in animal welfare and in building Chesapeake Hospital. Well done! † Research—Virginian Pilot and Ledger Star articles ASPCA press releases ASPCA magazines Virginia Law Review Commentaries Model Profile: CNN Hometown Heroes