Gross’s series is an example of using profile to examine larger social contexts or processes, in this case the college-admissions game. The style is airy, the content more weighty, the…

DeGregory chronicles the efforts of a 13-year-old devout Christian girl and her backstage mom to make the girl a pop star. DeGregory deftly writes for both believer and nonbeliever: Her…

Franklin leads his readers through the grisly, tense terrain of brain surgery, moment by moment. We experience the story as if it were live reporting: Franklin tells it in present…

In this final installment of the Times race series, a reporter turns her attention to another journalistic effort to address race in America. The Akron Beacon Journal won a Pulitzer…

This piece is about the making of “The Corner,” a TV series about black drug addicts, told from their perspective. The script was based on a book by a white…

Holmes spent a year reporting this story about two drill sergeants—one black and one white—in a company at Fort Knox, Ky. The piece chronicles their jockeying for power, advancement and…

Stabler’s series about a black music prodigy is well-reported and -written. We like the rich detail, the elegant descriptions, deft characterizations. What seems left out are more insights into why…

In this final, sad chapter of the series, a West African immigrant, Adama Camara, scrubs toilets and wipes tables for 16 hours a day. The world is a grimy, dreary,…

In this second installment of Hull’s series, you’ll find this small example of how even a newspaper article (the voice of which is usually straight and communitarian) can include irony:…

The subject of this profile is not like most of us. Is she crazy? A hustler? Or does she know things we can’t? We need the writer to make sense…