Portrait sketch example. Portrait sketch about an interesting person

What is an essay and why is it interesting? Firstly, this is one of the genres of literature - a small work that describes events or a person. Secondly, this genre is a symbiosis of artistic and journalistic styles. Thirdly, it is desirable to write it if there is an example of an essay at hand. For a better understanding of the genre, you can re-read “Notes of a Hunter” by Turgenev or “Sakhalin Island” by Chekhov. The famous travel essays of Radishchev or Pushkin will also become wonderful examples.

Features of the genre

An essay is a type of story that is written in a semi-fiction, semi-documentary genre and describes real people and real events. In a word, fantasy does not run wild here. It is difficult to write such a work, even if there is an example essay, because you need to take into account the main structural components, genre features and a penchant for truth. It has some traditional distinguishing characteristics:

Written in short narrative form.
Describes only real people and events.
Focuses on social issues.
It is 80-90 percent a description from nature.
Adheres to undeniable facts.
Allows the writer to express his opinion and engage in dialogue with the reader.

Thus, an essay is a text that talks about a real event or person, while paying attention to a certain social problem(if possible, the reader is also involved in the discussion). All this is presented as an artistic text, saturated with elegant images. Even if you have a sample essay with you, it is difficult to write a decent piece the first time.

Varieties

There are several types of essays in literature. They can be:

Portrait.
Problematic.
Travel ones.
Sociological.
Journalistic.
Artistic.

What are their features?

Essays originated during the Renaissance. It was then that morally descriptive writings first appeared on the pages of English satirical magazines. Several decades later, such essays became widespread in European literature. Big success they had in France. Honore de Balzac and Jules Janin were the first representatives of this genre in French literature.

In Russia, the first essayist to lay the foundations was N. Novikov, who was published in the satirical magazines Truten and Zhivopiets. The heyday of this type of creativity came in the 1840s. Already in the next decade, essays became a leading genre in literature. The most outstanding authors in Russia are M. Saltykov-Shchedrin and V. Sleptsova. Therefore, there are many examples of essays in the literature. You can use them when writing your own work.

How to write a text correctly

Before moving on to looking at sample essays, it’s worth giving some practical advice to aspiring authors. Where to begin? How to finish? These questions will torment performers even if they review all the examples available in the literature. How to write an essay?

The first thing you need to do is choose a topic. Need to find fascinating story, which the author himself will like. Research it, find out additional facts, and decide on the type of essay. For example, you can develop the situation and compose interesting text, which will arouse sympathy in the reader. It can also be a biographical or educational essay, historical, travel or revealing. The main thing is that the text can captivate the reader.

Next, you need to decide who this essay will be intended for, that is, target audience. It depends on her what words the text will be written in. If all these stages have been completed, you can prepare to write.

The second important point is to decide on the format of the text. Essays do not have a strictly regulated format, which greatly facilitates the work of authors. For example, you can start by describing a dramatic moment, use a story-within-a-story format, or write from two points of view that find common ground. The next thing is size. Sample essay texts range from 250 to 5000 words. You can do less, you can do more. The main thing is to fully disclose the topic.

Having decided on organizational issues, you need to think about how to attract the reader’s attention, interest him and intrigue him. Some essayists believe that for this it is necessary not to tell, but to show - more emotions, more images, more intrigue. When creating a text, do not get carried away with quoting. As a rule, readers do not appreciate this, and you need to create exclusively in their language. This is a step-by-step example of how to write an essay. Now you can move from theory to practice.

Portrait sketch

As mentioned above, this type of creativity is the most artistic. That is, it can provide the reader with some interesting details from the life of the person being described. In an example of a portrait sketch, you can talk about your contemporary, friend or historical figure. Regardless of who we are talking about, it is worth touching on some problem. She can touch modern society or groups of specific people. An example essay about a person might look like this.

“I’m all in a handful of brains, but I devour so many books that the world cannot contain them. I can't satisfy my ravenous appetite. I’m dying of hunger all the time,” Tommaso Campanella. The son of a shoemaker, a failed lawyer, a monk and a criminal who spent 27 years in the prisons of the Inquisition.

Renaissance portraits depict an ordinary man. On his face is a network of deep wrinkles, a sharp straight nose, dark hair and black eyes. Looking at this image in the portraits, you can feel the indomitable desire to know, tell, explore and write that our hero has experienced all his life.

Until the age of 34, he wandered around monastic cells and spent 27 years in prison. While in captivity, he studied intensively literary creativity. The prisoners were not given parchment and ink, but Campanella managed to find them. His works were confiscated, but he stubbornly restored them from memory and translated them into Latin himself.

City of Sun

During his imprisonment, Campanella managed to write several fundamental works on philosophy, theology, astrology, astronomy, medicine, physics, mathematics, and politics. In total, 100 treatises with a total volume of 30 thousand pages came from his pen. The main one among them is considered to be the “City of the Sun”.

Our hero has been writing for 27 long years about a world in which a blessed utopia reigns. There people work only 4 hours a day, and devote the rest of the time to their hobbies. There are no disagreements, wars or repressions. It was this treatise that was largely considered heresy, and it was because of it that Campanella spent half his life in the clutches of the Inquisition. He was repeatedly asked to abandon his thoughts about utopia, but he stubbornly insisted on his own. Until the very end, until last breath he believed in his beliefs.

For some time he was an honored guest at the royal court, but the whole world turned against him. Campanella never backed down from anything. Torture, hunger, cold, dampness, and illness did not break him. He had something to tell the world about.”

This is one example of a portrait sketch. There is a description of the person, his fate, character and the problem is mentioned. Now you can move on to the next example of text, a problematic essay.

Problem essay

This is a rather difficult type of creativity. You can take it, only up to the smallest details delving into the problem presented to the judgment of readers. Otherwise the author will look funny. We provide one example of the text of a problematic essay that touches on the problem of family. Previously, everyone wanted to get one. Modern people became completely different. They value their own freedom more than a stamp in their passport. Let's see what an example of a problem essay looks like.

“Does modern man need a family? If you look at the statistics of divorce proceedings, you can doubt this. Modern girls are in no hurry to get married. They can provide for themselves while remaining free from obligations. Why do they need marriage? To take care of the man living under the same roof with them? Cook for him, wash his socks and shirts, iron his trousers and handkerchiefs? The husband is unlikely to give flowers and expensive jewelry, endure whims and fulfill any desire in order to spend the night with his wife. It’s a completely different matter when a woman is free and a man plays the role of a lover.

About happiness and meaning

Why are families created? For some, this is the meaning of life. A family is created when love appears in the heart, when you want to take care of your loved one and be responsible for him.

People strive for spiritual joy and intimacy. A happy family is a place where you restore strength, relieve stress and have fun. Leo Tolstoy once wrote: “Happy is he who is at home!” This is true. Isn’t it happiness to run home, knowing what’s waiting there? Family is the basis of a happy couple's life.

Should I have a wedding and get a stamp in my passport, or should I live for my own pleasure, caring only about myself? Everyone must decide for themselves what is more important to them.”

Road

As for the travel essay, an example text might look like this.

"A journey, even a very short one, is like a sip fresh air. Every time you return from another city, you seem to change, become a slightly different person. I don’t have a clear schedule that would indicate when and where I should go. Just from time to time I have a desire to go somewhere. Then I go to the station and take a ticket for the next train to the fifth stop. After getting off the train, I can head to regular buses and go to the distant wilderness, or wander the streets of a big city that carries loud name metropolis.

That's what happened this time as well. I drove towards remote villages and accidentally came across an abandoned village. Strange, but many residents of the surrounding villages did not even suspect its existence. This village has not been on the map for a long time. Nobody remembers its name, even in the archives very little information about it has been preserved.

Light

There are practically no houses left here. Behind for a long time nature destroyed what man created. If you count, there are three more or less intact houses left in the entire village. Entering one of them, I expected to see empty rooms, broken furniture and mountains of garbage. This usually happens in abandoned buildings.

This house was very dirty; there was a thick layer of long-term dust on the floor, which rose into the air as soon as I took a step. But there was furniture here. Already completely rotten, falling apart, it stood the same as under its previous owners. The dishes were gathering dust in the cupboard, and there were two iron cups on the table. It was as if the people had no intention of leaving here, but suddenly disappeared, leaving behind everything they had. It seemed that even the rustling sounds had gone with them. Never in my life have I heard such silence. Listening to her, I could hardly believe that somewhere in this world there were still people, cars, somewhere life was in full swing.”

These examples of essay essays can be used as a basis for your own work. But still, it’s better not to try to imitate anyone’s texts. The main thing is to truly feel the problem under consideration and put your feelings into the text. This is how you can touch the reader.

An essay is an artistic and journalistic genre that combines logical-rational and emotional-imaginative ways of reflecting reality to address certain aspects of the concept of a person or public life. This is the scientific definition of the genre. What does it mean?

First of all, the essayist artistically embodies real historical figures and events, forming an opinion about them on the basis of a systematic study of the object. Judgment is achieved through analysis, and the conclusion and conclusion are its logical conclusion.

In short, the essay is both a documentary-scientific understanding of reality and an aesthetic exploration of the world. It is no coincidence that an essay is compared with works of art and even with painting, emphasizing: if a story is a picturesque picture, then an essay is graphic drawing or a sketch for a painting. It seems to be on the verge between a document and a generalized artistic image. If historians today had no other sources other than essay literature, then even in this case they would be able to correctly imagine past life: the Russian essay contains enormous artistic and educational material, reflecting many important points development of the country over several decades.

After all, the essay has been known in the history of Russian journalism since the end of the 18th century. And it was distinguished not only by its breadth of coverage and thematic diversity, but also by its presentation of exciting, pressing problems of our time. That's why cognitive value Russian essay literature is inseparable from its active role in history liberation movement. Throughout its history - from its appearance to modern development - the essay sought to acquaint the reader with new, emerging forms of life and its daily course, to awaken public opinion and to form an understanding of the right to put forward and defend advanced thoughts, combining an objective assessment of reality with subjective opinion, comparisons and parallels between them. Only when a publicist shows himself to be a competent researcher and a subtle analyst can he convince the reader of the correctness of his assessments and judgments.

The essay appeared in Russian journalism thanks to V.G. Korolenko, A.P. Chekhov, G.I. Uspensky and others.

In Soviet journalism, the concept of essay is associated with such names as A.M. Gorky, M.E. Koltsov, B.N. Polevoy, K.M. Simonov, A.A. Beck, A.A. Agranovsky, V.V. Ovechkin, G.N. Bocharov, etc.

Today, the essay is considered the “king” of artistic and journalistic genres, but from the point of view of preparing it, it is one of the most labor-intensive. And this is true, since a journalist can write a good essay only if he is confident in various methods of depicting reality.

The essay merges two directions of methods - visual-figurative and analytical - a kind of fusion of reporting and analytics.

Explanatory Dictionary of S.I. Ozhegova gives a twofold understanding of this word:

Feature article 1. Small literary work, short description

Life facts

2. General presentation of some. question.

Essayist- is a writer, journalist, writing essays.

From this definition we see that S.I. Ozhegov divides the concept of an essay into two subtypes, and in modern journalism, as we have already said, these interpretations are mixed.

But there is another point of view this issue about the system and essence of this genre, L.I. Kroychik believes that the genre nature of the essay is determined by the syncretic combination of three principles - sociological (scientific), journalistic and artistic.

Sociological the beginning of the essay is expressed in its focus on research public relations and problems, in considering the social aspects of an individual’s activity, in the author’s desire not for an arbitrary choice of individually unique characters, but for identifying the objective reasons that gave rise to certain social characters and situations. An essay is an analytically based figurative picture of reality: the system of evidence in it is based on the development of the conflict, on the interaction of characters, on the special nature of the narrative, which includes both a description of the actions of the characters and the author’s reasoning.

journalistic the beginning of the essay is manifested in its reliance on fact. In a documentary essay, real events are the starting point for the development of the plot. The author groups facts in such a way that they give social vitality significant character. In a fictionalized essay, the situation looks as generalized as possible, the boundaries of fact are blurred: the place real events and people are occupied by the action created by the fantasy of the publicist. It should be noted that the once popular fictionalized essay (remember V. Ovechkin, E. Dorosh, G. Radov) has almost completely disappeared from everyday media practice. But in a documentary essay (as, indeed, in a feuilleton), speculation plays a significant role. Speculation is a necessary element of a publicist’s creativity. Strictly speaking, it is also possible in other genres, where, out of necessity, the author is engaged in the reconstruction of a fact or situation (the journalist was not an eyewitness to the event, but considers it necessary to restore it in the text as it actually happened). In an essay (and feuilleton) text, the figurative transformation of reality inevitably leads to its conjecture. It reveals itself in the introduction of conceptual time and space, in special ways of developing conflict, the use of significant details and remarks of characters, etc.

The journalistic principle is also manifested in the author’s desire to present facts in their social context, to maximally actualize the problem being raised, to express his attitude towards it, relying on a system of artistic and journalistic images. In an essay text, the idea is concentrated in a system of images - both specific persons, exponents and bearers of the idea, and in a system of image-concepts. This is exactly how A. Agranovsky, in particular, worked, creating the essays “Vastlands”, “Fairings”, “The Owners”. The exposure of thought in an essay is an aesthetic law that determines the specifics of journalistic imagery, which is based on inviting the reader to co-think.

Artistic beginning is determined by the desire of the publicist to create a reliable and convincing picture of reality with the help of imaginative thinking, in which pictures, situations, phenomena and characters are socially typified. In an essay (and in a feuilleton too) two types of typification are possible - collective and selective. In the first case, in a fictional character (event) signs of a certain type of social behavior, character or phenomenon are indicated. In the second, in a real, individual character or action, traits and properties belonging to this type people or events. But in both cases, facts and situations are transformed into a system of artistic and journalistic images.

A modern essay is most often characterized by documentary richness, often to the detriment of artistry. This is obviously due to the fact that the source material, i.e. the actual events reported by the essayist are often so dramatic, their plots are so unpredictable, the revealed secrets are so tempting and sensational that they themselves are capable of attracting the reader’s attention and being perceived by him at the level of information drawn from the most interesting works of art. In this case, the need for intensive artistic processing of the original information often becomes unnecessary.

As for the types of essays, there is a wide variety of them, for example D.V. Tumanov distinguishes problem, portrait and travel sketches.

And Kim M.N. - physiological, who began his march from “Physiology of St. Petersburg”. main feature physiological outline - this is an acute social orientation.

Portrait sketch, in the center of which is an individual or a group of individuals, the character of a person.

Judicial essay. Characteristic feature This type of essay is a reconstruction of the crime committed by a specific person or group of persons. Judicial essays do not give a legal assessment of the crime (this is the prerogative of the court), but a moral assessment. The task of a journalist is to help people understand the phenomenon of human evil, and most importantly, to show the conditions and circumstances that led a person to commit a crime. The main substantive elements of a judicial essay include an outline of the moral character of the criminal and an analysis of the motives for the crime. It can consider various author's versions in explaining the elements of the crime, details and particulars of the criminal act, witness testimony, etc. All this multifaceted material is united in the judicial essay by the author's intention and idea of the work.

Essay-investigation. This type of essay is aimed at exploring the hidden sides of various phenomena of reality and human activity. The investigative essay uses a sociological methodology for collecting primary information, which involves developing the goals and objectives of the study, putting forward various hypotheses and versions, checking initial data, etc. Journalistic investigation, as defined by American scientists, is based, as a rule, on own work and initiative journalistic material on important topic that individuals or organizations would like to keep secret. Journalistic investigation requires the writer to have certain qualifications not only in collecting primary information. Unlike an analyst, who, having developed a particular topic, gives a detailed description of the phenomenon he has discovered, an essayist, in addition to this, needs to create a certain image of a person.

Problem essay. This type of essay is aimed at revealing complex and contradictory human relationships. Central location This is where a problem or conflict situation occupies. The essay can examine the most diverse conflicts: interpersonal, intergroup, industrial, moral, etc. Any conflict is dramatic in nature. It encourages a person to act, to make important decisions, which ultimately allows him to outline the character of the hero or his action. An essayist can analyze a conflict situation, starting from its inception and ending with its resolution; concentrate attention on a person’s self-analysis of his own actions, or, conversely, show the different positions of the conflicting parties, consistently explaining the essence of the events taking place; reveal motivational and personal factors that encourage a person to confront ideological opponents, etc. In all these cases, his most important task is to show the essence of the individual goals of the hero of the work, to substantiate the motives of his behavior, to identify opposite and mutually exclusive trends in the development of the event, and most importantly, to outline the subjective and objective prerequisites for the conflict. The subjective prerequisites include the characterological features of the personality: stable qualities, character traits that predispose a person to a collision with others.

3. Features of a portrait sketch

The term "portrait", originally meaning "description of a person's appearance", over time was transformed into a more voluminous concept. In journalistic work, he began to designate not only external, but also internal features of a person - everything that is connected with. spiritual life of the individual. Therefore, the objects of display in a portrait sketch can be: social relations a person with his immediate environment (sociological aspect), and internal psychological processes occurring in the life of an individual. Sociological analysis personality, supplemented by psychological, of course, expanded the possibilities of a portrait essay in terms of a holistic image of a person.

A portrait essay is a compressed story about someone's life. It’s not easy to write, and it’s also not easy to understand another person in a few hours of communication. Famous journalist Yuri Rost said about this: “I try to feel my interlocutor. I ask him what he regrets most in life, what he is proud of. My interest is sincere, and it helps me create, first within myself, and then on paper, the image of my hero.”

There is a question: can an essay be written about every person?

A portrait sketch develops a certain aspect of the concept of a person, reveals the inner world of the hero, the socio-psychological motivation of his actions, the individual and typical in character. The essayist is looking in real life a personality that embodies the basic typical features his social environment and at the same time she was distinguished by the originality of her character traits and originality of thought (as D.V. Tumanov believes). And only then he creates not a photographic image, but an artistic and journalistic reflection of an individual image.

This is not a simple biographical note. A person's life cannot be revealed in its moral beauty, in the richness of her creative manifestation, replacing the story about her with a statement of personal data or a description of the hero’s labor technology.

In a successful portrait sketch, the character of the hero is given, as a rule, in a non-trivial situation. Therefore, it is very important for the author to discover such a “site” on life path hero, who contains some extraordinary difficulties, has dramatic character. It is here that one can discover specific manifestations of the hero’s character, his talent, perseverance, hard work and other qualities that are significant from the point of view of achieving the goal. In the case where such a “site” cannot be found, it is more difficult for the author to count on creating interesting material. This is what researcher A.A. believes. Tertychny. Writer and journalist Konstantin Paustovsky has a different opinion about whether you can write about every person portrait sketch, - To write a good essay, you must have the ability to open up human heart something that may have long been forgotten has been drowned in the hustle and bustle of daily worries. A good essay makes readers remember who they are at their core, what they want, what they dream of.

A natural question is: is it possible to write an essay about every person? Yes. The main thing is to be able to find some kind of “zest” in your interlocutor, emphasize the peculiarity of his profession or hobby, and talk about his unusual views. In a word, create a living image that will not leave the reader indifferent. Remember that a portrait sketch should not look like summary biographies. This essay arises from artistic analysis the personality of the hero and is similar to a short story or short story.

The main purpose of the essay is to introduce readers to the person. Before you start writing an essay, you should have a conversation with this person, talk with people who know him. A portrait sketch is a story about a person (or a group of people); you should not limit yourself to just listing facts from his (their) life, interests and successes, or just an interview with him (them).

For a portrait sketch to take up an entire newspaper page, you need a personality that would be very significant. After all, a journalist outlines a portrait of his hero only in detail, with strokes. However, an essayist is unlikely to keep it to less than 300-400 lines: the relative laconicism of the genre is combined here with a journalistic elaboration of an actual problem, an analysis of the psychology of the hero.

We have figured out how to write a portrait sketch, now we will look at the types of portrait sketches and more detailed specifications on this matter.

Journalists pay attention to the most important milestones in the fate of the hero (meaning biographical information), on his spiritual quest, life experience, and finally, on the characteristics of his professional activity. Concrete human life represents a multi-level formation, so the author is faced with the ultimate task of showing the hero not just as a bearer of certain social roles or functions, but in close relationship with socio-political, economic and socio-psychological processes in society. Such concepts as environment and circumstances, upbringing, character, etc. are taken into account, the influence of which on a person’s life is of exceptional importance. But, you must agree that it is impossible to show all the “multi-story depth” of human nature in an essay due to its small volume. The versatility in the depiction of a person determined the diversity of the portrait sketch. Among them are: biographical portrait sketch, portrait-problem, psychological and political portrait. Each type of portrait sketch has specific tasks, its own forms of journalistic biography, specific possibilities in showing the hero of the work, methods of psychological and social characterization, typification of human natures, and finally, techniques compositional construction works. Let's consider what underlies this or that type of portrait sketch.

Biographical portrait sketch. Here leading place occupies a biography. By turning to it, a journalist can obtain varied information about the most significant stages of a person’s life, about his life experience, about the change social statuses, about life priorities and goals, etc. Through this subjective material, the life story of one person is ultimately recreated. So that it does not resemble an expanded curriculum vitae, journalists try to select the most typical and characteristic facts for the hero of the work, revealing the internal dynamics spiritual growth man, his moral quests, social orientations and relationships with the outside world. In addition, the essay shows the relationship between the individual history of a person’s life and the history of society, correlates the social experience of an individual with the experience of his generation, and identifies the specific features of the individual life of the hero.

Using biographical information, the essayist can describe the complex processes of socialization of an individual in a changing world, explain the nature of a person’s psychological and social behavior, talk about the genealogy of the hero, reconstruct certain historical events and so on. Here, as we see, the connection between biography as a subjective construction and biography as social reality is clearly visible. When a biographical portrait is created in this relationship, it tends to arouse the greatest interest, prompting readers to co-think.

Anniversary portrait sketch. The reason for writing such a work is the celebration of the anniversary famous figure culture, art, literature, science, etc. In this case, it is important to show the positive contribution that a person has made to the life of society. To ensure that the essay does not turn out “ceremonial”, special skill is required from the publicist. Anniversary date should only be a reason to think about the fate of a person. The main thing a publicist should concentrate on is the spiritual quest of the individual.

As practice shows, essays about writers, cultural figures, artists and scientists are especially popular among readers. And this is understandable. It is always interesting to read about people in creative professions, because their lives represent a constant creative search. But in this case, the interest for readers is not the analysis of artistic, art history or scientific works, but the personality of the creator, his individual portrait. The range of descriptions of the hero can be the widest, starting from characteristics of his artistic or scientific activities and ending with information about creative plans and biographical facts. In an anniversary portrait sketch, we can talk about both the hero’s already established worldview and his new creative aspirations and plans. Essayists in this kind of work tend to focus on various aspects creative activity of a person, identify the most significant moments in the spiritual development of a person, evaluate his creative path, and finally, consider a person’s works in the context of the spiritual life of society.

The aesthetic objectives of an essay, even an anniversary one, do not include an ordinary retelling of a person’s fate. The bar is much higher here. To tell people something new about a well-known personality, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with archival materials, correspondence, testimonies of contemporaries, etc. All this will allow the essayist to comprehend in a new and unconventional way the fate of a person, his affairs, actions and accomplishments, and most importantly, to identify various manifestations of the human soul.

Now let's consider artistic elements portrait sketch, which help to most fully create the image of the hero.

Scenery. Availability of deployed landscape sketches in portrait sketches the exception is rather than the rule. After all, the essayist’s attention is largely directed to the biographical aspects of a person’s life, to revealing his character, showing his spiritual characteristics, etc. Therefore, landscape components, if present in the work, usually act as a background characterizing the scene of action. The introduction of landscape elements into a portrait sketch is necessary only in cases where, without these means of expression it is impossible to convey the atmosphere of what is happening, to penetrate into the essence of the human worldview, to find out a person’s attitude to the world around him, etc. In this case, the landscape becomes a meaning-forming element.

In portrait sketches, landscape is used:

As a contrasting comparison between the internal state of the hero and the nature surrounding him;

As a means of revealing human character;

As a background for a hero's portrait;

As a technique in revealing the hero’s ideological positions, etc.

Detail. The part also serves effective means typification of sketch images. So that the detail takes its rightful place in the work, becomes “key”, and contributes to the creation artistic image, characterization of heroes and artistic and aesthetic understanding of reality, the journalist must master various methods of playing out details.

Techniques for playing up details in an essay can be very diverse. In some cases, details are used for figurative interpretation of certain events, in others - to create a symbolic image, in others - for associative connections, in fourths - to convey the characteristics of external and internal human manifestations.

Portrait characteristics. A portrait in journalism often acts as a kind of analogue of the hero’s character. It makes it possible to clearly, visibly see the hero and in this regard it stimulates the reader’s imagination. Its other function is to help, by highlighting some external details, to look into the world of a person’s soul, into the world of his emotions and feelings. Portrait characteristics are directly related to psychological characteristics personality. Indeed, the appearance of a person, his manner of dressing, habitual postures, gestures, facial expressions, etc. With a careful look, they can tell a lot about a person. The main requirement for any portrait characteristic is the documentary accuracy of the display. In this case, the essayist does not have the right to invent something in the depiction of a person's appearance, but one should not refuse to show a typical one either. It is the combination of strict documentalism and artistic generalization that gives rise to a full-fledged essay image.

In portrait characteristics, journalists actively use the achievements of modern psychology. For example, having found out what psychological type this or that person belongs to: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric or melancholic, they can determine how certain qualities are manifested in the appearance and behavior of the individual. This is how, based on certain psychological characteristics, a portrait of a person is recreated. Various portrait touches are also used in describing the appearance. They are necessary when a journalist needs to emphasize something psychological condition the hero, his usual gestures and facial reactions, and finally, the way he dresses and behaves with people.

Artistic means of depiction are necessary not only for depiction external environment, but also internal state person. In modern journalism, the psychological principles in the show are strengthened spiritual world personality.

The essay is a genre that most clearly demonstrates journalisticism in media texts. Here there is the education of morality, culture, not dry facts. In addition, the essay, in addition to its constant information function (which we will not talk about for now), had an additional social function - an award. Publishing an essay about a person was equivalent to placing his portrait on an honor board; it was an award of fame. And readers are accustomed to the fact that the essay provides an example to follow.

Resources of artistic journalism: a) the image as an emotionally enlightened thought actively influences the audience, encouraging it to actively cooperate; b) the image as a generalized picture of reality significantly expands the possibilities of semantic comprehension of reality; c) the image as a system of signs, as a certain code, creating a certain model of the surrounding world, intellectually enriches the audience with ideas about the aesthetic possibilities of reproducing reality. The artistry of journalism is embodied both in a holistic image of a person and an image-thesis (image-concept), and in "talking" details - a substantive description of nature, replicas of characters, details of reproducible situations.

The fantasy element in the essay (and in the feuilleton) does not contradict the working feature of a journalistic text - its focus on a certain result, calculated on the impact on the audience.

The last point raises questions - where are the limits of what is permitted, can fantasy be combined with reliability, objectivity, or is it better not to take risks? We will try to consider this using the example of the Biography magazine.

The term "portrait", originally meaning "description of a person's appearance", over time was transformed into a more voluminous concept. In journalistic work, he began to designate not only the external, but also the internal features of a person, everything that is connected with. spiritual life of the individual. Therefore, the objects of display in a portrait sketch can be both the social relations of a person with his immediate environment (the sociological aspect), and the internal psychological processes occurring in the life of an individual. A sociological analysis of personality, supplemented by a psychological one, certainly expanded the possibilities of a portrait sketch in terms of a holistic image of a person.

A portrait essay is a compressed story about someone's life. It’s not easy to write, and it’s also not easy to understand another person in a few hours of communication. Well-known journalist Yuri Rost said about this: “I try to feel my interlocutor. I ask him what he regrets most in life, what he is proud of. My interest is sincere, and it helps me create, first within myself, and then on paper, the image of my hero.”

There is a question: can an essay be written about every person?

A portrait sketch develops a certain aspect of the concept of a person, reveals the inner world of the hero, the socio-psychological motivation of his actions, the individual and typical in character. The essayist is looking for a person in real life who would embody the main typical features of his social environment and at the same time be distinguished by the originality of character traits and originality of thought (as D.V. Tumanov believes). And only then he creates not a photographic image, but an artistic and journalistic reflection of an individual image.

This is not a simple biographical note. A person’s life cannot be revealed in its moral beauty, in the richness of its creative manifestation, by replacing the story about it with a presentation of personal data or a description of the hero’s labor technology.

In a successful portrait sketch, the character of the hero is given, as a rule, in a non-trivial situation. Therefore, it is very important for the author to discover such a “section” in the hero’s life path, which contains some extraordinary difficulties and has a dramatic character. It is here that one can discover specific manifestations of the hero’s character, his talent, perseverance, hard work and other qualities that are significant from the point of view of achieving the goal. In the case where such a “site” cannot be found, it is more difficult for the author to count on creating interesting material. This is what researcher A.A. believes. Tertychny. The writer and journalist Konstantin Paustovsky has a different opinion about whether a portrait sketch can be written about every person. “To write a good sketch, you must have the ability to discover in the human heart something that may have long been forgotten, drowned in the hustle and bustle of daily worries. A good essay makes readers remember who they are at their core, what they want, what they dream of.

A natural question is: is it possible to write an essay about every person? Yes. The main thing is to be able to find some kind of “zest” in your interlocutor, emphasize the peculiarity of his profession or hobby, and talk about his unusual views. In a word, create a living image that will not leave the reader indifferent. Remember that a portrait sketch should not look like a summary of a biography. This essay arises as a result of an artistic analysis of the hero’s personality and is similar to a short story or short story.

We have figured out how to write a portrait sketch, now we will consider the types of portrait sketch and more detailed characteristics in this regard.

Journalists pay attention to the most important milestones in the hero’s life (meaning biographical information), to his spiritual quest, life experience, and finally, to the features of his professional activity. A specific human life represents a multi-level education, so the author is faced with the ultimate task of showing the hero not just as a bearer of certain social roles or functions, but in close connection with socio-political, economic and socio-psychological processes in society. Such concepts as environment and circumstances, upbringing, character, etc. are taken into account, the influence of which on a person’s life is of exceptional importance. But, you must agree that it is impossible to show all the “multi-story depth” of human nature in an essay due to its small volume. The versatility in the depiction of a person determined the diversity of the portrait sketch. Among them are: biographical portrait sketch, portrait-problem, psychological and political portrait. Each type of portrait sketch has specific tasks, its own forms of journalistic biography, specific possibilities in showing the hero of the work, methods of psychological and social characterization, typification of human natures, and finally, methods of compositional construction of the work. Let's consider what underlies this or that type of portrait sketch.

Biographical portrait sketch. Here the biography takes the leading place. By turning to it, a journalist can obtain varied information about the most significant stages of a person’s life, about his life experience, about changes in social status, about life priorities and goals, etc. Through this subjective material, the life story of one person is ultimately recreated. So that it does not resemble a detailed biographical information, journalists try to select the most typical and characteristic facts for the hero of the work, revealing the internal dynamics of a person’s spiritual growth, his moral quest, social orientations and relationships with the outside world. In addition, the essay shows the relationship between the individual history of a person’s life and the history of society, correlates the social experience of an individual with the experience of his generation, and identifies the specific features of the individual life of the hero.

Using biographical information, an essayist can describe the complex processes of socialization of an individual in a changing world, explain the nature of a person’s psychological and social behavior, talk about the hero’s genealogy, reconstruct certain historical events through the life of one person, etc. Here, as we see, the connection between biography as a subjective construction and biography as social reality is clearly visible. When a biographical portrait is created in this relationship, it tends to arouse the greatest interest, prompting readers to co-think.

Anniversary portrait sketch. The reason for writing such a work is the celebration of the anniversary of a famous figure of culture, art, literature, science, etc. In this case, it is important to show the positive contribution that a person has made to the life of society. To ensure that the essay does not turn out “ceremonial”, special skill is required from the publicist. The anniversary should only be an occasion to reflect on the fate of a person. The main thing a publicist should concentrate on is the spiritual quest of the individual.

As practice shows, essays about writers, cultural figures, artists and scientists are especially popular among readers. And this is understandable. It is always interesting to read about people in creative professions, because their lives represent a constant creative search. But in this case, the interest for readers is not the analysis of artistic, art history or scientific works, but the personality of the creator, his individual portrait. The range of descriptions of the hero can be the widest, starting from characteristics of his artistic or scientific activities and ending with information about creative plans and biographical facts. In an anniversary portrait sketch, we can talk about both the hero’s already established worldview and his new creative aspirations and plans. Essays in this kind of works, as a rule, focus on various aspects of a person’s creative activity, identify the most significant moments in the spiritual formation of a person, evaluate his creative path, and finally, consider a person’s works in the context of the spiritual life of society.

The aesthetic objectives of an essay, even an anniversary one, do not include an ordinary retelling of a person’s fate. The bar is much higher here. To tell people something new about a well-known personality, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with archival materials, correspondence, testimonies of contemporaries, etc. All this will allow the essayist to comprehend in a new and unconventional way the fate of a person, his deeds, actions and accomplishments, and most importantly, to identify various manifestations of the human soul.

Now let's look at the artistic elements of a portrait sketch, which help to most fully create the image of the hero.

Scenery. The presence of detailed landscape sketches in portrait essays is the exception rather than the rule. After all, the essayist’s attention is largely directed to the biographical aspects of a person’s life, to revealing his character, showing his spiritual characteristics, etc. Therefore, landscape components, if present in the work, usually act as a background characterizing the scene of action. The introduction of landscape elements into a portrait sketch is necessary only in cases where, without these expressive means, it is impossible to convey the atmosphere of what is happening, to penetrate into the essence of the human worldview, to find out a person’s attitude to the world around him, etc. In this case, the landscape becomes a meaning-forming element.

In portrait sketches, landscape is used:

 as a contrasting comparison between the internal state of the hero and the surrounding nature;
 as a means of revealing human character;
 as a background for a portrait of a hero;
 as a technique for revealing the hero’s ideological positions, etc.

Detail. The detail also serves as an effective means of typifying sketch images. In order for a detail to take its rightful place in a work, to become a “key one”, to contribute to the creation of an artistic image, characterization of heroes and artistic and aesthetic understanding of reality, a journalist must master various methods of playing with a detail.

Techniques for playing up details in an essay can be very diverse. In some cases, the details are used for the figurative interpretation of certain events, in others - to create a symbolic image, in the third - for associative links, in the fourth - to convey the features of external and internal human manifestations.

Portrait characteristics. A portrait in journalism often acts as a kind of analogue of the hero’s character. It makes it possible to clearly, visibly see the hero and in this regard it stimulates the reader’s imagination. Its other function is to help, through highlighting some external details, to look into the world of a person’s soul, into the world of his emotions and feelings. Portrait characteristics are directly related to the psychological characteristics of the individual. Indeed, the appearance of a person, his manner of dressing, habitual postures, gestures, facial expressions, etc. With a careful look, they can tell a lot about a person. The main requirement for any portrait characteristic is documentary accuracy of the display. In this case, the essayist does not have the right to invent something in the depiction of a person's appearance, but one should not refuse to show a typical one either. It is the combination of strict documentalism and artistic generalization that gives rise to a full-fledged essay image.

In portrait characteristics, journalists actively use the achievements of modern psychology. For example, having found out what psychological type this or that person belongs to: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric or melancholic, they can determine how certain qualities are manifested in the appearance and behavior of the individual. This is how, based on certain psychological characteristics, a portrait of a person is recreated. Various portrait touches are also used in describing the appearance. They are necessary when a journalist needs to emphasize any psychological state of the hero, his usual gestures and facial reactions, and finally, his manner of dressing and interacting with people.

Artistic means of depiction are necessary not only for depicting the external environment, but also the internal state of a person. In modern journalism, psychological principles are strengthened in showing the spiritual world of the individual.

Resources of artistic journalism: a) the image as an emotionally enlightened thought actively influences the audience, encouraging it to actively cooperate; b) the image as a generalized picture of reality significantly expands the possibilities of semantic comprehension of reality; c) the image as a system of signs, as a certain code, creating a certain model of the surrounding world, intellectually enriches the audience with ideas about the aesthetic possibilities of reproducing reality. The artistry of journalism is embodied both in the holistic image of a person and the thesis image (image-concept), as well as in “speaking” details - a substantive description of nature, replicas of characters, details of reproduced situations.

The fantasy element in an essay (and in a feuilleton) does not contradict the working characteristic of a journalistic text - its focus on a specific result, designed to influence the audience.

The last point raises questions - where are the boundaries of what is permitted, can fantasy be combined with reliability, objectivity, or is it better not to take risks? We will try to consider this using the example of the Biography magazine.

What it is?

Such a concept as a portrait sketch is special kind journalistic genre, a feature of which is the description of the very personality of a person, external features, outlook on life, type of activity, character traits. In addition, an outside opinion is expressed. In a portrait essay (examples are essays that are written at school), one can see a similarity with a description of a person's biographical activity. But there is distinctive features. When describing biographies, they mainly relate to the topic of human activity and occupation, but, for example, living, detailed description appearance or character traits and the attitude of other people towards him, is omitted. The essay is also somewhat reminiscent of a story. An essay on the topic of a portrait sketch can reveal the inner world to the reader and convey the general mood of the story. Thus, in a brief and concise form, an explanation and description of such a concept as a portrait sketch was provided. The next point in the story will be a kind of story on how to write a portrait sketch. So let's continue.

Portrait sketch of a friend

In this section we will give an example of a portrait sketch and break it into parts. As an example, let us present to your attention a sample of writing a portrait sketch. Here it should be noted that the narrative also has similarities with the story: “Her name was Lena, but she loved us to call her Alena. Due to circumstances, we are now living in different cities, to say more - in different countries, but this fact does not prevent me from remembering her with tenderness and gratitude, because best time A person's life, such as childhood, largely depends on his friends. I was lucky to have such a friend. So, her name was Alena. Her older sister introduced us. One day when I was at home the phone rang front door, Irina stood on the threshold, holding her hand younger sister. “Get to know each other, girls, I hope you become friends,” she said. And we became friends. Alena was a tall, strong and fearless girl, she was especially distinguished by the expression of her green eyes. Nature gifted her with such bold and big eyes. Her movements were impetuous, with difficulty she restrained herself, as if an inexhaustible flow of energy filled her all. The bangs constantly interfered with her, and one could see how she often stabbed her invisible, but she did it hastily, which is why she often looked ridiculous, which, however, did not bother her at all. In this part of the proposed example, pay attention to the details of the description of the girl's appearance, to the transfer of character traits, as a result of which a "live" image is obtained.

As can be seen from the above example of a portrait essay, the description of amusing incidents also reflects the essence and character of the selected character. All these points take place to be given in the essay.

Comes from childhood

The influence of friendship

Each of us needs friends, each person appreciates friendship and friendly relations. This is help, support, devotion and interest in each other, spending time together. You can ask a friend for help Hard time. I would like to wish you, reader, to look around your life and try to write your own portrait essay, an example of which is presented in this material.

Conclusion

In conclusion, summing up what has been said, I would once again like to note the peculiarity of writing a portrait sketch. This inner world person. Also in a portrait sketch you need to show your attitude towards the character you are describing. This can be not only a portrait sketch of a friend, but also a father, mother, teacher, sister.

To the question, write an essay about a person given by the author Dasha Romanova the best answer is Portrait sketch "Best Friend".

Feature article

In travel essays, the author talks about facts, events, people whom he happened to observe during his trip. A travel essay is always a story from the scene of events, even if the author visited these places a long time ago.

Answer from Zom-_-Zom[active]
I don’t understand it’s too big we need to write

Answer from Deliberate[newbie]
One of the genres of writing is an essay, in which the student should focus not on a literary phenomenon, but on a life one (meeting an interesting person, covering a real situation, some kind of travel, etc.). In such an essay, the student needs to describe not only his feelings, emotions, experiences, but also draw a conclusion about the social significance of the events described. What are the stages of work on creating an essay?
1
Choose a character for the essay. When reading your essay, it should arouse interest for the reader, that is, a person who has achieved something in life, fulfilled his destiny, demonstrated his qualities in the current situation. Choice negative hero carries difficulties for you, because there is a need to reasonably criticize his words, actions, and deeds. For portrait sketches, it is not recommended to choose stars, relatives, dead people, villains and criminals, or closest friends. With the help of your friends, find a hero whom you can meet in person.
2
Make a selection of materials. Sources of receipt may be different: the Internet, knowledgeable people, rumors, books, newspapers and magazines, etc. From all this you can make up brief description hero for an essay on the following points: name (nickname, title, nickname, etc.), his age, origin, nationality, Family status, children, lifestyle, education, awards and diplomas, property and fortune. Find out which Interesting Facts are missing, because they are the ones that can attract the reader. For a travel essay you will need to study ethnographic, historical and geographical materials.
3
Formulate questions and prepare for a conversation with the hero. You should not ask tricky questions, as any person will not be happy to undergo harsh interrogation. Keep your questions to a minimum because the meeting is unlikely to last many hours. The best option would be a conversation consisting of three to seven logically related questions. You can pass them on to your interlocutor in advance so that he can think about the answers, and discuss them together during a personal meeting. Perhaps the hero will offer to replace something or add his own questions to your list. This will also allow you to make your essay more interesting.
4
During the conversation, win over the hero and make him your ally. Since you made an appointment in advance, you should not start the conversation with the words: “Please introduce yourself.” The general atmosphere should be friendly and comfortable for both of you. Record the conversation in a notepad or voice recorder.
5
Based on the data obtained about the hero (quotes and thoughts of other people about him, biographical information, occupations and work, achievements, problems he solves, life principles, plans for the future), write an essay, where the main paragraph should be the formulation of the idea of the essay. Express your thoughts logically, give full description the person being studied, the realization of the meaning of the hero’s life. Strive for the uniqueness of your text so that it does not look like short biography or resume.
Source: Good luck. I have known this man for three years now. Of all the people close to me, he is especially dear to me. At first glance, this is a typical student who does not stand out from the crowd. Short stature, pleasant features, blond hair of a wheaten-golden hue and blue-blue eyes. And yet they are special to me. This is my best friend Andryushka.
An inextinguishable light shines in his eyes - this is his desire, the desire for something new, the thirst for life. He never misses the opportunity to listen to interesting lectures and seminars, as well as learn a new craft. This unstoppable desire helped him in his 20s to achieve a lot in life, in his studies, where he became the "Student of the Year 2000". But those around him are drawn to him not at all because he is quite famous in his environment and enjoys great prestige, but because

Answer from chevron[newbie]

Answer from spread[newbie]
I wrote about my uncle, a surgeon.
I would like to tell you about an extraordinary person - my relative.
Panov Yury Alexandrovich - surgeon with many years of experience and deputy chief physician of the Sosnovoborsk city hospital. A surgeon is a noble, responsible and one of the most necessary professions on earth. The surgeon can save the most valuable - human life. Not everyone can become a surgeon. Except deep theoretical knowledge and a firm hand, one more quality is necessary - sincere compassion and a desire to help.
Yu. A. Panov is a good specialist because he is completely immersed in the study of this difficult science. He has a higher medical education. My uncle is constantly practicing, improving and getting acquainted with new methods and techniques of treatment. He always strives to replenish his knowledge in the field of medicine, to develop and continue to be a worthy example of a surgeon.
It is no secret that the work of doctors is self-sacrifice for the sake of people. At the first call, they must come to the aid of people day and night. How many worries about patients, operations and sleepless nights there are countless things that happen in their lives.
Doctors are “guardians of health.” They save people and protect life on Earth. And how often do representatives of this difficult profession have to save lives and everything depends on their ability to make the right and timely decision. But you cannot make a mistake, since the price of a mistake is human life.
It is difficult to even imagine what would happen to the planet if there were no doctors. In my opinion, doctors perform heroic acts every day. After all, they save people, their lives, and prolong the existence of all humanity.
Doctors carry out most time at work and my uncle is no exception. His distinctive features: a certain psychological attitude, intuition and accuracy. He also has excellent health, both physical and psychological, and is always ready for serious stress and stressful situations. Because the work of a surgeon involves night shifts and work on weekends. At work, my uncle is a competent and sensitive doctor, and in life he is an interesting conversationalist, sociable and positive person.
I decided to write about him because he not only radically changed the lives of thousands of people, but also saved several hundred. Every day, my dear uncle does everything possible, and sometimes impossible, to help people return to normal and familiar life again.

Answer from Kkkk kokk[newbie]
I have known this man for three years now. Of all the people close to me, he is especially dear to me. At first glance, this is a typical student who does not stand out from the crowd. Short stature, pleasant facial features, wheat-golden blond hair and blue-blue eyes. And yet they are special to me. This is my best friend Andryushka.
An unquenchable light shines in his eyes - this is his desire, the desire for something new, the thirst for life. He never misses an opportunity to listen to interesting lectures and seminars, as well as learn a new craft. This uncontrollable desire helped him, at the age of 20, achieve a lot in life and in his studies, where he became “Student of the Year 2000.” But those around him are drawn to him not at all because he is quite famous in his community and enjoys great authority, but because he has a lot of positive energy, which he shares with people.
By nature, he is a strong, strong-willed, very optimistic and cheerful person who knows how to set goals and achieve them. But at the same time, he is a little childishly naive and emotional. The combination of these qualities helps him better understand and understand people. You can trust him in any situation, knowing that he will always listen, give advice or simply say kind word. He finds it easy mutual language complete strangers to him. And people, in turn, are attracted by his liveliness and originality.
Of course he is not always like this. After all, sometimes you just want to relax and observe life from the outside. It is at these moments that he goes to the theater. It's like he's not there auditorium, and on stage he gets used to the role of the characters, lives the moments of their lives, and then returning home, he likes to talk about today's production.
And the most important thing is that this serious young man appreciates and respects ordinary human friendship, where, despite the age difference, he still remains his little brother - Andryushka.
Feature article
1) B fiction one of the varieties of the story, which is more descriptive, deals primarily with social problems.
2) A journalistic, including documentary, essay presents and analyzes real facts and phenomena of social life, usually accompanied by a direct interpretation by their author.
The subject essays include portrait and problem. Portrait tells about some interesting person: scientist, athlete, musician, artist, rural worker, etc. In general, the author is faced with the task of drawing the living features of the hero using all available speech means, communicating about something unusual than this person different or distinguished from others.
In problem essays, instead of individual facts or events, portraits of people drawn in a specific situation, generalized images of heroes are given. In such essays, the reader’s attention is focused on solving pressing problems, and for this the journalist needs to give an artistic and journalistic analysis of reality in which the phenomena of life, the facts themselves, are selected and presented in the light of national problems.
Descriptive essays include event and travel essays. Event - most often dedicated to some important event in the life of a fairly large group of people, for example, national holiday, launch spaceship, military parade, etc.
In travel essays, the author talks about facts, events, people whom he happened to observe during his trip. A travel essay is always a story from the scene of events, even if the author visited these places a long time ago.