When we write a biography, we are retelling the story of a person’s life. Usually this is based on several resources including books, websites and articles.  Never copy material directly from a source.  Always use the information, give credit to whatever source it comes from and put it in original words.  Otherwise, cut and pasting is called PLAGERISIM. It is illegal and disrespectful to the author of the original source.

 

         Study someone interesting and become involved with telling the important facts first.  Marriages, divorces, numbers of kids, vacations, birthdays, anniversaries and all the other life changes are wonderful to tell in a novel.  This is a short piece about the contributions of one person.  Keep the details important to how the person changed the world. Details that include birthday, marriages and childhood are interesting to add in a later paragraph, but keep the paper focused on contributions.  Why is this person noteworthy?

​

As we write biographies, let’s work on these important elements to create an engaging piece:

​

• The first paragraph must grab the reader’s attention with facts about the subject’s contributions to the world.   NEVER start with “so-in-so was born in whatever year.”  The reader isn’t interested in celebrating the guy’s birthday.  They want to know why they should read the paper. What is so interesting about the person that makes the paper worth reading?

 

• Don’t allow your research paper to become a boring list of facts.  Keep each paragraph as a discussion on one topic of the person’s life. Organize the information in a way that puts the best or most exciting facts first. 

 

• Use interesting transitions to move through the paragraphs.  “The following year,”  “After college,”  “Once the research was completed.”   See what fits naturally with the topic and help the reader understand the passage of time through your word choice.

 

• Always list all resources.  For this class, list the website, authors and year of publication.  Citing resource will become more complicated in higher grade levels.  For this class, simply remember to cite at least three sources. Cite everyone used.  If that means more than three, that's fine. 

 

• Conclusions should wrap up the biography with an interesting fact or a summary statement of the individual's contributions to the world.