Writing a biography

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Writing a Biographical
Narrative Essay

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3. Writing a biography
 Biography: a story about a person's life.
 Short Vs. Long biographies.
 Biographies can range in size and detail from just the basic details
about a person, their birth and death and what they accomplished
or did all the way.
 It is a written account of the series of events that make up a
person’s life.
 Biographies analyze and interpret the events in a person's life.
 They try to find connections, explain the meaning of actions, and
make arguments about the significance of the person's
accomplishments or life activities.
 They are often about historical figures, but they can also be about
people still living.
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4.  While researching the subject, you should collect all
the basic facts of your subject’s life experience.
 These include:
 Date and place of birth and death
 Family information
 Lifetime accomplishments
 Major events of life
 Effects/impact on society, historical significance
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5.  In researching simply to find an individual to create a biography,
you should first look to find an individual that is interesting to you.
 The more you are interested in the individual the more apt you will
be to recreate this individual's life in a manner which is engaging to
the reader once your biography is complete.
 Be sure to look into not only the obviously important facts.
 Depending on the amount of information you have you may
display your findings simply in chronological order of the
individual's life, or you may choose to travel out of chronological
order and explain events in a piecemeal fashion to back up logic or
reasoning as to why other events occurred within the person's life.
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6.  You will choose your person because you think he or she is interesting,
so you certainly do not want to burden your paper with an inventory of
boring facts. The last thing you want to do is bore your teacher. Your
goal is to impress your reader.
 As always, you will want start off with a bang and captivate your reader.
 It is a good idea to begin with a really interesting statement, a little
known fact, or really intriguing event.
 After all, your teacher has probably read other biographies concerning
your subject.
 You should avoid starting out with a standard but boring line like:
"Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in 1774."
 It is possible to start like this:
Late one afternoon in October, 1809, Meriwether Lewis arrived at a
small log cabin nestled deep in the Tennessee Mountains. By sunrise on the
following day, he was dead, having suffered gunshot wounds to the head and
chest. His body was also slashed several times with a shaving razor.
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7.  The following questions should be considered in
your biography:
 Was there something in your subject’s
childhood that shaped his/her personality?
 Was there a personality trait that drove him/her
to succeed or impeded his progress?
 What adjectives would you use to describe
him/her?
 What were some turning points in this life?
 What was his/her impact on history?
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9. Writing guidlines
 In a biographical essay, you write about the life and
personality of a person who actually lived.
 A biographical essay should have the following
characteristics:
 a real-life subject,
 a thesis statement that states a specific idea about that
person’s life and achievements,
 an account of one or more major events in the
subject’s life,
 a description of the subject’s key character traits.
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10. Prewriting
 Choose your subject:
 Choose a person whose life seems especially appealing
to you.
 Once you have decided on a subject, take notes about
what you already know- about his or her life and
personality.
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13.  Gather information:
 Once you have reviewed what you know, think about
what areas of this person’s life you would like to focus
on.
 Then, write down some questions to help you direct
your research.
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14.  Draw conclusions:
 Based on your research, make some decisions about
your subject’s personality.
 What did he or she value most? Is there a connection
between your subject’s character traits and his or her
role in history?
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15.  Write a thesis statement:
 You have learned more about your subject and
reflected on his or her life and personality.
 You are ready to write a thesis statement.
George Washington was not a very imaginative
man, but he had a practical, steady mind—a quality
that was necessary to give stability to our new
nation.
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16. Drafting
 Decide how to organize your writing.
 The simplest way to organize a biographical essay is to
cover the main events of the subject’s life
chronologically.
 Another type of organization focuses on a few
important events in the person’s life, building up to
the one that you think is most important.
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18.  Write an introduction.
 The first paragraph of your essay introduces your subject.
 The introduction leads up to the thesis statement, which expresses
the idea you will develop in your essay.
 Write the body paragraphs:
 Support your thesis with examples and details.
 Use the information you have gathered to support and develop
your idea about your subject.
 Use an informative, lively tone:
 As you write your draft, enliven your writing with vivid language
and colorful details that appeal to the senses.
 Write a strong conclusion:
 In your final paragraph, restate your view of the person about
whom you are writing.
 Tell the reader what this individual has contributed to the country.18

19. Revising
 Revise to strengthen your thesis:
 Do the introduction and thesis statements create a clear,
unified impression of the person about whom you are writing?
 Do the body paragraphs develop this impression?
 Revise to meet written English-language conventions:
 Are all sentences complete, with a subject and a verb?
 Are all the words spelled correctly?
 Are all proper nouns capitalized, including names of people
 and places?
 Did you use proper punctuation?
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20. Rubric for Self-Assessment
Score 1 Score 2 Score 3 Score 4
Organization Shows lacks of
organizational strategy
Chooses an
organization not suited
to the topic
Uses a reasonably
clear organization
which but
occasionally includes
less relevant
information
Supports the thesis
with a series of
logically
ordered paragraphs
creating a clear
impression of a real-
life
person, organized
chronologically, by
order or importance,
or by character trait
Presentation Does not provide
any facts, details, or
examples about the
subject’s life and
personality
Does not discuss the
life and personality
adequately in any
detail; does not link
supporting information
to the thesis
Discusses the life and
personality adequately
with several facts,
details, or examples;
links most supporting
information to the
thesis
Discusses the life and
personality of the
subject in a way that
develops a clear
impression of the
person with facts,
details, and anecdotes
from the subject’s life;
links all information
to the thesis
Use of Language Writes incomplete
sentences; uses
language poorly;
sounds confused;
includes many
Uses the same types of
sentences without
varying them; repeats
words; includes many
mechanical errors
Uses some variety in
sentence structure and
vocabulary; includes
few mechanical errors
Varies sentence
structure and
vocabulary successfully;
includes no or very
few mechanical errors

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