Profile Critique

I am critiquing this profile.

Doug Goodnough chose an excellent candidate for profiling right out of the gate. Mr. Sessions, the 18-year-old mayor is in a position that teenagers rarely find themselves in and it is worth describing the processes that led him there.

That being said, I think Mr. Goodnough barely scratches the surface Mr. Sessions' psyche with his profile. Technical work aside, Goodnough gets quotes that are not surprising nor insightful from Sessions and others and gets too hung up on the novelty of a mayor who has to work from his parents' living room. He fails to really dig in to what made Sessions want to become mayor, what drove the people of Hillsdale to invest in Sessions and what Sessions is actually accomplishing. Most of it is similar to political rhetoric one would hear during a campaign.

His first quote is very weak. A victory would have likely been a surprise because he is 18, and the only nod toward a reaction to winning Goodnough gets is "I've always been interested in politics."

It was a good move to point out the irony in losing in his student body elections before winning as mayor.

The Beck quote, about Sessions knocking on every door during his campaign should have been something that Goodnough presented to Sessions for an in-depth response. Aside from Sessions being so young, it's apparent he campaigns in a completely different way. The reasons he is out there like that are not adequately explored.

Goodnough is sure to include what an average day is like is Sessions' life, which humanizes him a bit for the reader.