“Amanda Burden Wants to Remake New York…” was a somewhat interesting read. However, I found that the profile lacked a lot of personable details. Julie Satow, author of the article, clearly illustrated effort but hadn’t quite hit the mark in my opinion.

In order to describe Amanda’s appearance and surroundings, Julie used a string of adjectives and direct statements. This straight-to-the-point approach did little for the piece and not only seemed forced but also insincere. Throughout the rest of the article, it seemed as though Julie was far more comfortable with facts and statistics than with personal description. Instead of helping readers along by unraveling details about Amanda’s past and present endeavors, she simply stated them one after the other in sequence and separated one part of the story from the other.

Writing a profile piece is a great way to engage readers and tug at their heartstrings. Thus, I believe that a successful profile should have a fair balance between personal interest topics and data. Without personality, sincerity, and flow, it’s a difficult thing to accomplish. And, although Satow makes the effort, she doesn’t quite grasp the personable aspects of Amanda’s life and seems to focus her piece solely on the projects and the business aspect. She struggles to make her writing flow freely and break through the tight constraints of journalistic writing just long enough to accomplish a well written piece.

Even so, I think that even her reporting could use a little work. It follows traditional guidelines but it’s somewhat rigid and lacks a bit of her own personality as well.