ABSTRACT
Observer portraiture covers the principles required to bring third parties to the attention and acquaintance of readers. Much as a painting portrays a subject on a canvas, observer portraiture focuses on the portrayal of another person-neither writer nor reader but a third party-through a text. Observer portraiture is a useful palette option any time a writer needs to acquaint a reader with third parties. This option becomes a dominant choice when the writer’s purpose is focused on profiling an individual. Yet, the option is also useful across a variety of writing contexts when the writer’s purposes are mixed and include acquaintance with a third party only as part of a more complex design.
