How to Write a Biography Paper

A biography is defined as a written history of a person's life. A biography paper can focus either on that person's entire life, a specific section or events, or just the highlights. What a biography should not be is a dry recitation of facts that offers little insight into the importance or significance of the subject. An effective biography also is one that recognizes the value of choosing the most influential aspects of the subject's life, making it clear why a biography is being considered in the first place.

Things You'll Need

• Research material (books, magazines, websites)

Instructions

Writing a Biography

1. Research the person's life in any way you can, but with an eye toward reliability and usefulness. This means looking through books, websites, and magazines, of course, but also things such as letters, diaries, and interviews. If the person is still alive and you have access, you should always at least try to wrangle an interview yourself. Primary sources are those sources directly attributable to the person. Secondary sources are things that have been written about the subject by other people. You definitely want to find the most useful information. Above all, you want to make sure that the sources you use provide reliable information. For this reason, many teachers and educators will not accept Internet sources unless you can back up the information you find there in more respectable sources.

2. Gathering facts and data can often lead to a dull and uninteresting recitation of dry information that provides no insight. The next step, therefore, is best described in a term gained from journalism: finding an angle. What finding an angle means is finding a single overriding aspect of the person's life upon which to focus, and aligning all that factual information to support your thesis. The important thing to remember is that you must be able to use the objective facts of the person's life to back up your own subjective interpretation.

3. Organize your information to make writing easier. This could mean writing an outline, but since not everyone works well from an outline, don't commit yourself to that idea. More important than outlining is organizing the information to suit your angle. Decide if you are going to write your paper from a chronological perspective in which the paper follows the person's life as she ages, or will you take a more complex approach in which you should reveal cause and effect in a more non-linear fashion. An essential component to writing a biography is knowing how you want to lay out the progression of the paper before you begin writing.

4. Write the paper without thinking about the required word count, if you have one. When writing a biography the tendency is usually to write over the word count goal rather than under it, because you will have such a wealth of information at your disposal. It is usually easier to cut information out than add it; so feel free to add as much detail as you want. Complete the paper before editing.

5. Edit the paper down to the required word count. The best way to cut down down when editing refers back to the step of organization. When organizing before you write, arrange the most vital information first, with the least important information at the bottom of the list. This way when you begin to edit, you will immediately know which information can be jettisoned first. In addition to editing for content, don't forget to edit for mistakes in spelling and grammar.

Tips & Warnings

• Allow another person to read the paper to check for errors and mistakes that may have slipped past you.