biography essay topics

How to write a biography essay

• March 29, 2022

A biography essay is a type of academic writing that tells the story of someone’s life, typically focusing on their achievements, struggles, and impact on the world.

In this article, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to write a compelling biography essay that engages readers and tells the story of a person’s life in a meaningful way.

Choose a person to write a biography

First you need to choose a person to write about. The person should have made significant contributions to his/her respective field. This person should also be well-known as you will need resources to find information.

For this guide, we will be writing our biography essay on French-Algerian philosopher and author Albert Camus . There’re some reasons why Albert Camus is a suitable topic for a biography essay:

• He is an influential person in his field.
• He has many works that we can refer to in our essay .​
• There are many reliable sources where we can find information about him. ​

Gather information on the person

You need some information about your the person you chose. While getting this information, pay attention to two main factors: the credibility of your source and what information you are putting in your essay.

Credibility of your source

• Does this source have any authors and/or editors listed?
• Does this source cite or link to trustworthy sources?​
• Is this source prepared professionally?​

If your sources check all the boxes, they are most likely reliable sources . However, if a source doesn’t have any authors, has no citation, or is poorly written, consider it risky.

Information included in the essay

• Is this information useful in the context of my essay?
• Is this development remarkable in my subject’s life story? ​

You can definitely add the information if they meet these criteria. If not, it’s best to keep them out.

Use of important information on the person

Now, we will be choosing information from Albert Camus’ life story to include in our biography essay. 

• Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in French Algeria. (We choose to include this information because it is reasonable to start with this line for a biography essay.)
• He published his essay The Myth of Sisyphus in the year 1942. (This information is essential because this essay explains his notion of “the absurd,” a philosophy he is widely known for.)​
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. (This event is a significant acknowledgment of his works; therefore, it should be included.)​
• He died on 4 January 1960 in France. (A reasonable ending point for a biography essay.) ​

Create an outline

Preparing an outline is essential for biography essays just like any other essay . You can follow our typical outline preparing process in this step because biography essays also adhere to the traditional essay structure.

Biography Essay Outline Example

Albert Camus Biography Essay

• Open with a curious quote by Albert Camus
• Explain how Camus contributed to his field
• Further explore Albert Camus' stance on the field
• Present your thesis statement
• Topic sentence of your paragraph
• Albert's accomplishments and more personal information
• Closing sentence
• Restate your thesis statement
• Mention the importance of Albert Camus
• Finish your essay with memorable concluding sentences by highlighting Camus' importance

Important reminder

Write an introduction.

The introduction paragraph is crucial. Because you need to grab the reader’s attention at this part. This is where a hook sentence is useful. With a hook sentence , you can start your essay in multiple interesting directions for you reader: 

• Start your introduction with a quote from your subject, especially one that reveals their personality.
• Start with an intriguing story or an interesting anecdote about your subject. ​
• Start by informing the reader about a significant accomplishment of your subject.​

Biography essay introduction example

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” This is a quote by French-Algerian philosopher, writer, and journalist Albert Camus. Camus was born in French Algeria on 7 November 1913. Opening: Intriguing quote that grabs the reader’s attention and summarizes Camus’ philosophy He is one of the most prominent writers of absurdist philosophical thought. Subject: A sentence which explains the subject’s contribution to their field. Through his works, Camus contributed to the rise of the absurdist philosophy, which was essentially a response to nihilism. Stance: Further explanation of the subject’s stance on the field He wrote works that conveyed an abiding faith in the human race’s displaced but still righteous situation. Thesis statement: You highlight your stand and main focus of the essay.

Biography essay body paragraphs

This is the section where the results of your research come in. Like other types of essays, body paragraphs are the central part of your biography essay (see biography essay example ).

Through these paragraphs, you will discuss the milestones in your subject’s life, their accomplishments, and their works.

Biography essay body paragraph example

During his literary career, Camus published his works in three cycles. In each cycle, he published a novel, an essay, and a play. The first cycle of his works was on “the absurd,” and they were published from 1942 to 1944. Topic sentence: Further exploration of the claim presented in the introduction. This cycle’s works were some of his most significant works: The Stranger as the novel, The Myth of Sisyphus as the essay, and Caligula as the play. Camus also explored the concepts “the revolt” and “the love” through the cycle structure. Subject’s accomplishments: Reveal of the subject’s extensive work on the field Through his major works, Camus earned the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he then published his work named Algerian Chronicles. This work revealed his pacifist tendencies. Personal information: Brief introduction into the subject’s personal reflections. After Camus’ death, two more works of his were released. One is his novel titled A Happy Death and an unfinished autobiographical novel named The First Man. Some of the significant themes Camus explores through his literary career are alienation, rebellion, and guilt. Closing sentence: Information on the subject’s identity.

Biography essay conclusion

In your conclusion paragraph , what you need to do is to bring in your final thoughts. Do not make the mistake (see common mistakes ) of only repeating the claims you made throughout the essay.

As an alternative, you can choose to tie your subject’s legacy into the current day . You can ask yourself these questions to figure out what to say in your conclusion paragraph:

• What was my subject’s contribution to the ideas/events that are relevant today?
• Are they still remembered? How do people honor their work?​
• Out of the people that are significant today, who did my subject influence?​

Biography essay conclusion example

Camus died on 4 January 1960, when he was only 46 years old. He died in a car crash, and many scholars point out the “absurdity” of his death. Restatement: Connection with the subject’s main works Since Camus himself had previously stated that the most absurd way of dying he could think of would be a car accident, people regard his death as ironic. Today, Albert Camus is still considered to be one of the most significant thinkers of Western philosophy. Importance of the person: The subject’s relevancy today He is acknowledged as one of the most critical contributors of the absurdist philosophy. He is referred to as one of the best literary writers of his genre and one of the best thinkers of his age. Closing statement: Concluding sentences by highlighting the subject’s influence

Now you know all the separate parts of a biography essay and how to create them.  Remember that these steps can be used in all academic essays.

Before closing this article, let’s have a look at an extensive biography essay example on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , you see below. 

5-Paragraph Biography Essay Example

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: The Modernizer of Turkey

Introduction

Body paragraphs, key takeaways.

• A biography essay should tell the story of a person's life, but also focus on their contributions and impact.
• Start by doing thorough research and organizing your information into a chronological outline.
• Use vivid details and anecdotes to bring your subject to life and make the essay engaging for the reader.
• Incorporate analysis and reflection to help the reader understand the significance of the subject's life and work.
• End with a strong conclusion that summarizes the key points and leaves the reader with a lasting impression.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you start a biography essay.

Start your biography essay by giving a general information about your subject, such as their profession or importance.

What is biography example?

Biography is a literary work in which a person’s life is narrated. They are based on facts, and the main purpose of them is educating people about well-known individuals.

How do you write an outline for a biography?

A proper biography outline should include details about the information that will be presented in the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Hero — Biography

Autobiography Essay Examples

A well-written biography essay not only informs but also inspires, providing readers with insights into the subject's character, challenges, and achievements. Below, we'll guide you through creating an engaging biography essay, from prompt samples to brainstorming tips, unique topic ideas, and writing inspiration.

Starting Points: Biography Essay Prompt Samples

Prompt 1: Analyze the early life of [Subject] and how it influenced their major accomplishments.

Prompt 2: Discuss the challenges [Subject] faced and how they overcame them, shaping their legacy.

Prompt 3: Examine the impact of [Subject]'s work on their field and beyond during their lifetime and in the present day.

Brainstorming and Selecting a Captivating Biography Essay Topic

To choose a compelling topic for your biography essay, start by considering subjects who have led interesting lives filled with notable achievements, challenges, and impacts. Look for less-explored angles or untold stories within their lives to bring a fresh perspective to your essay.

Unique Biography Essay Topics to Explore

• The Unsung Heroes of Science: The Life of [Lesser-Known Scientist]
• Behind the Pen: The Journey of [Influential Writer]
• From Shadows to Spotlight: The Story of [Pioneering Artist]
• Breaking Barriers: [Subject]'s Impact on Social Change
• Innovators in Silence: [Inventor]'s Contributions and Challenges

Inspirational Writing Samples for Your Biography Essay

"[Subject] was not born into greatness, nor did they stumble upon it by chance. From their early years in [Place of Birth], facing [specific challenges], they carved a path that was uniquely theirs. Their contributions to [Field/Industry] were not just advancements but were revolutionary, challenging the status quo and paving the way for future generations."

Phrases for Inspiration:

• "Amid adversity, [Subject] found their true calling in..."
• "Despite facing [obstacle], [Subject]'s resilience led to groundbreaking discoveries in..."
• "[Subject]'s legacy extends beyond their contributions to [Field], inspiring a new wave of [Professionals/Activists/Artists] to follow in their footsteps."
• "The turning point in [Subject]'s life came when..."
• "Dedicated to [Cause/Project], [Subject] demonstrated the power of perseverance and vision."

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How to Write a Biography Essay: A Comprehensive Guide

A biography essay is a powerful tool to reveal the essence of a person. It goes beyond mere facts, delving into the impact a person has had on the world. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of crafting a compelling biography essay that captures the spirit of the individual you're exploring.

Biography Essay Writing Guide

Writing a biography essay requires a thoughtful approach. It's not just about narrating a person's life but understanding their impact on the world. Follow these steps to create a meaningful and well-structured biography essay:

1. Choose a Compelling Topic

The first step is crucial. Select a person whose life and work resonate with you. Your passion will shine through in your writing, making the essay more engaging.

2. Research Thoroughly

Dive into the life of your chosen subject. Unearth interesting facts, anecdotes, and pivotal moments. A well-researched essay adds credibility and depth to your writing.

3. Craft an Engaging Introduction

Your introduction sets the tone for the entire essay. Create a captivating opening that introduces the person and sparks curiosity in the reader.

4. Develop a Chronological Narrative

Organize your essay chronologically to provide a coherent timeline of the person's life. Highlight significant events and their impact on the world.

5. Analyze Their Impact

Move beyond facts to analyze the person's impact. Discuss how their work, ideas, or actions shaped the world around them.

6. Conclude Reflectively

Conclude your essay by reflecting on the enduring legacy of the individual. Summarize their contributions and leave a lasting impression on the reader.

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Dos and Don'ts of Biography Essay Writing

• Choose a subject you are passionate about.
• Thoroughly research the person's life and contributions.
• Craft a compelling and engaging introduction.
• Organize the essay chronologically for clarity.
• Analyze the impact of the person on the world.
• Conclude with a reflective summary.
• Seek professional help from EssayTigers for custom paper writing.
• Choose a subject without sufficient historical or biographical material.
• Rely solely on one source of information.
• Start the essay with generic information.
• Present information in a disorganized manner.
• Neglect to analyze the person's broader impact.
• Rush the conclusion; take time to reflect thoughtfully.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: how do i choose the right person for a biography essay.

A: Choose someone whose life and contributions align with your interests. Passion for the subject will enhance the quality of your writing.

Q: Is it necessary to include both positive and negative aspects?

A: While it's important to be objective, focus on presenting a balanced view rather than dwelling solely on negatives.

Q: Can I use the first person in a biography essay?

A: It's advisable to maintain a third-person perspective for a more formal and objective tone.

Final Thoughts

Writing a biography essay is a rewarding journey into the life of a remarkable individual. Through thorough research and thoughtful analysis, you can create an essay that not only informs but leaves a lasting impact on your readers. Trust EssayTigers for the best in custom paper writing to ensure your biography essay stands out.

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How to write a biography essay

The complete guide on biographical storytelling

Anyone can learn how to write a perfect biography essay about someone else’s life by making sure to focus on true, objective facts about a specific person. First, determine the scope of the person’s life (years), pick a central theme, and write out the biography using the classic narrative arc.

Many college courses include an essay writing component, and a biography essay is one of the types of essays that you may encounter, especially if you are taking courses in liberal arts disciplines such as history or cultural studies. This guide from Ultius will provide you with a thorough overview of how to write an effective biography essay. The guide will include the following sections:

• purpose of a biography essay
• biography and culture
• elements of a good biography essay
• how to write a great biography essay
• samples/examples
• additional information

After reading this guide, you should feel confident in your ability to write a strong biography essay, or at least in your ability to find the right kind of help to write such an essay.

Purpose of a biography essay

"Biography" literally means the story of a life. So, when you write a biography essay, what you are trying to do is to write the story of someone's life. ( Autobiography is a related concept that refers to the story of your own life.) If your biography essay is successful, then by the end of reading it, the reader should have a clear idea of what your subject did in his/her life and why his/her life was interesting and/or important enough to be the subject of a biography essay.

According to the Ultius glossary, a biography is a detailed descriptions of a famous person’s life and accomplishments (as a genre). Biographies typically contain intricate details of the subject’s personal life and sometimes include an analysis of the person’s personality and attributes.

A biography essay is similar to other forms of essays, such as the narrative essay, insofar as it involves telling a story. A biography essay, however, is supposed to be rooted in historical fact, and it should describe your subject using objective tone and language.

Narrative essay how-to guide. Click here is you are interested in learning how to write a narrative essay instead.

There are two important things to remember about a biography essay.

1. It is a true story that describes the life of your subject. You are not allowed to just make things up, and there should be scholarly documentation confirming that what you are writing is valid.

2. It is a story about someone else, generally a famous historical figure . If you were writing about yourself, that would be a memoir, which for present purposes should be considered as different from a biographical essay.

Only use details and facts that can be verified through documents or existing sources. An important hallmark of biography essays is that they are true.

The importance of biography essays

The English writer Samuel Johnson had this to say about biographies:

"No species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more delightful or more useful, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irresistible interest, or more widely diffuse instruction to every diversity of condition.”

The main idea here is that my reading biographies, people can gain insight into the lives of other people who have done amazing things. This can be enchanting in its own right, and it can also provide the reader with inspiration for his own life and help the reader look at his own life with fresh eyes.

Stuck with writing? Essay services from Ultius can help with biography writing.

For example, are you interested in doing philosophy? If so, you may find it inspiring to read biographies such as:

• Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius , by Ray Monk
• Albert Camus: A Life , by Olivier Todd
• Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography , by Joakim Garff

A nice thing about the genre of biography is also that biographies are written about a huge range of different figures in different disciplines, meaning that you can find biographical subject that may specifically interest you or move your heart.

Biography and culture

Biographies play an important role in preserving human cultural memory: it is like history, except focused on the life of one person. People have been telling stories about heroes and other admirable figures since the beginning of the human species.

Modern biography, though, is somewhat different from the old heroic stories, in that modern biography is supposed to be objective and scholarly, and it is generally rooted in a secular view of time and history. In other words, modern biographies are based in reason more than imagination, and they are not supposed to include magical and/or irrational events.

Biography vs. legend

Biography is a modern scholarly discipline that has some similarities to the much older genre of the legend, but it is also different in some important ways.

So, the genre of biography carries on the old tradition of telling stories about the lives of admirable figures. But whereas the old legends were more imaginative and quasi-fictional in their tellings, modern biography is supposed to be based on reason and objective, verifiable facts about the life of the subject.

Elements of a good biography essay

In order to write a compelling biography essay, there are certain elements that you will have to include. Here are some of them.

Linear narrative arc

This may seem somewhat obvious, but a human life naturally resembles a story, starting with birth and ending in death, with various drama and events happening in between. This is the natural arc that you should follow when writing your biography essay. In general, you should begin your essay with the birth of your historical figure and then follow him/her through the events of his/her life until death.

Some biography essays might be able to get with innovations such as non-linear structure, but unless you really know what you are doing, that can get very confusing, and your biography essay would be difficult to follow. So, for all intent and purpose, we can say that following a linear narrative arc is a best practice for writing a biography essay.

Different types of narrative structures

These are some of the possible types of narrative structure. When writing a biography essay, you are strongly advised to stick to the linear structure.

The linear structure is the standard for most biographies; it starts at a specific point in the protagonist's life and moves forward in chronological order. Nonlinear structure is more complex as this style moves between time periods with time skips and flashbacks. Thematic structure strategically conveys given and new information to frame and insert specific themes.

Choose a compelling biography essay subject

For your biography essay, your subject will be the person whose life story you will be writing. In order for your biography essay to be effective, you will have to pick a subject who is interesting, important, or otherwise qualified to be the subject of a biography essay. You should ask yourself the question: why choose your subject, and what has your subject done that deserves to be recorded and remembered?

Of course, there's a sense in which every single human life is interesting and important. But for the purposes of your biography essay, you will want to dig deeper and consider why your subject is worthy of being remembered in the collective cultural memory.

An effective biography usually focuses on someone who has affected history, or someone who has achieved a high level of excellence within his/her discipline or field.

Søren Kierkegaard: A very important philosopher

Kierkegaard would be an example a good subject for a biography essay, because his works are generally considered a turning point in modern philosophy.

The subject of your biography essay does not necessarily need to be well-known. In fact, it can be a lot of fun to dig into the life of someone is not well known but should be. The important thing is that your subject must be compelling, and there must be a solid reason why his/her story should be told.

Also, when picking a subject, you may want to make sure that you actually like your subject. That can make writing a biography essay more fun, and your respect for the subject (or lack thereof) will also probably come across in your writing. If you want to convince others that your subject is compelling, then it would help if you find him/her compelling.

Choose biographical (life) events wisely

A lot can happen in a life, and it would probably be impossible for you to include everything there is to know about your subject within a single biography essay. So, you should choose the high point, or the most important points, and then focus on those.

Events in the life of Kierkegaard

These are key events that could be the focus of a biography essay on Kierkegaard.

Garff, Joakim. Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton U P, 2007.

How to write a great biography essay

Now that you know about the elements of a biography essay, you can follow these steps in order to ensure that your biography essay turns out to be a success.

Next, integrate the specific biography related aspects listed below.

Determine the scope of your biographical essay

Again, your biography essay won't be able to include everything there is to know about your subject. So, you will want to map out the scope of your biography essay before you get started. The birth and death of your subject are the logical starting and ending points for your essay. Then, you will want to select a few events or accomplishments in the life of your subject that are worthy of remembrance.

You can develop a full-fledged outline, or you can use a table like the one developed above. Either way, though, you will have to have a clear idea of where you will begin, where you will end, and the path that you will take from the beginning to the end.

Compile credible sources

Your biography essay has to be rooted in verifiable facts about the life of your subject. This means that it is important that you identify and document the sources of your information. The essay sources should generally be scholarly in nature, and you should avoid using websites to the greatest extent possible. This is because it is often difficult to tell whether the content on websites have been drawn from credible sources.

Questions to ask when compiling sources

If there are references listed on a website about your subject, then you should trace those references back to the original academic sources. Those are the sources you should use for your biography essay.

Write in a clear and compelling style

Remember: with your biography essay, you are at least partly trying to show your reader why your subject is interesting and why he/she deserves to have an essay written about him/her.

Your interest in your subject should come across in your writing style. After all, if you feel bored with your subject, then why should anyone else pay attention?

The language you use should be scholarly (but still filled with imagery ), but you should also focus on varying sentence structure, using excellent word choice, and other writing techniques that tell the life story of your subject in a compelling way that does justice to the importance of your subject.

Samples/examples

See the example biographical essay below for a clear example of how it needs to be written.

As the sample shows, it’s very important to be focused on true details. Please see the list of blog posts below for more examples of biography essays:

• Biography essay on Hillary Clinton
• Biography essay on Frank Rosolino
• Short essay on Edgar Allan Poe

If you need more help or would like something written for your own needs, consider buying custom essays from Ultius . Our talented writes can help you get something done in as fast as three hours.

Additional information

That brings us to the close of this guide on the biography essay. Here is a recapitulation of some of the best practices that have been covered here.

Develop a focused arc

You should use a linear narrative structure, starting with the birth of your subject, ending with their death, and focusing on selected key events and accomplishments in the subject's life.

Write in the scholarly mode

Although a biography essay is a kind of "story," it should still be written in a rational, scholarly way, and referencing in MLA or Chicago style is usually required for this kind of essay.

Love your subject

If you get to choose your subject, then you should pick a subject that you personally admire. This will make the writing process more fun, and your interest will also show in your writing and make the biography essay more enjoyable for the reader.

Find help if you need it

Finally, Ultius has plenty of resources that can help you write a successful biography essay and hone your skills as a writer. Please feel free to lean on us.

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How to Write a Biography Essay

You have likely composed tens, if not hundreds, of essays of various varieties as a high school or college learner. However, a biographical essay is unlike anything else you may have ever authored. Even though it can seem simple, writing a biography essay can be pretty challenging for newbie writers.

Nevertheless, what constitutes a good biography essay? What is the process of composing a factual but engaging biography? If you have such questions, you are in the right place. Please keep scrolling and learn how to write a biography essay.

Before understanding how to compose a biography essay, you must first discover what it is. In a biographical paper, you describe the course of someone’s life. You strive to establish a picture of the person by providing details than just their background, occupation, and important dates. Your essay should discuss the person’s goals, achievements, values, and philosophy of life.

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That person might be a famous actor, politician, musician, author, or entrepreneur, among other historical figures. The purpose of the biographical essay is to describe the individual in question and their impact on society.

Also see: Personal essay vs autobiography essay 

Below is a guide containing some of the most vital steps to follow when writing a biography essay.

Identify the Subject and Scope of Your Essay

You need to choose your audience, consider your views, and, most importantly, consider a solid subject when getting ready to write your biography essay. You may believe that the simplest task is identifying a person to write about the cover. However, it is one of the most challenging parts of the composition process.

The subject for your biography essay will be the individual whose existence you will be detailing. You must choose an intriguing, significant, or eligible subject to be the focus of a biography essay if you want your article to be successful. Select a subject from which you can quickly learn a vast amount of information from books, articles, periodicals, newspapers, and personal interviews.

The ideal candidate is someone you are personally interested in. In this manner, you will be inspired to investigate more about their life story and write passionately about them. Ask yourself, why pick the individual, and what have they accomplished that ought to be documented and commemorated?

Remember, after picking a subject of your choice, you are a step closer to authoring an excellent biography essay. You are now ready to proceed to the next step.

Establish Authentic Sources and Conduct a Thorough Research

You should devote enough time to researching. Sufficient research is the basis of any well-written paper. Your essay will appear more competent the more references you consult. Therefore, endeavor to locate as many books and articles that discuss them to get a comprehensive vision of the person’s story.

Below is a list of key points to consider when conducting your research. They will help you identify the correct sources and study the right information.

• Do not wait until the last moment to commence your research; give yourself enough time.
• Assess the essay’s topic to help you determine which part of the essay you should concentrate your research on.
• List all information you currently know, pinpoint your information gap, and make a strategy of the information to study and improve on.
• Set some time to read the books on your reading list and research the literature for your essay.
• Contact your instructor or the library for help locating relevant sources, and utilize the index rather than reading the entire book.
• Use caution while using internet resources because they could not be dependable or competent in their academic standards.
• Prepare your findings, then create an opinion. After doing so, you can formulate your essay’s structure.

Create Your Essay’s Outline

It’s time to organize the facts you’ve gathered after doing your research to create a compelling story. Therefore, it’s critical to consider the essay structure and create its outline. Typically, an outline will serve as the conceptual framework for organizing your article. The main objective here is to list the essential points you wish to make in the essay.

Create a five-paragraph structure for your essay, with an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Keep your writing within the allotted word count. The easiest method is to write the facts chronologically, focusing on each rubric’s major life events.

Below is a possible outline of a basic five-paragraph biography essay outline that you could use.

• Introduction:  Identify your subject in the introduction and declare the thesis statement you will sustain in the body paragraphs.
• Body Paragraph I:  Create a topic sentence that advocates for the thesis, then use illustrations and facts to support it while describing how they relate to the thesis.
• Body paragraph II : Here, you could add a new aspect or rationale about the
• person’s life, bolster it, and establish the connection.
• Body paragraph III : This paragraph has a similar form as paragraph two. However, it ought to make a distinct point and explain it.
• Conclusion:  Here, you restate the thesis statement, and you might include a call to action at this point if you like.

After coming up with a suitable outline, you are ready to get into the actual writing.

Write Your Draft

Always remember that when writing a biography essay, you are at least partially attempting to convince the reader of the subject’s interest and the deservingness of them being in a standalone essay. Your writing style should reflect how passionate you are about the subject. After all, why should anybody else give importance if you find your subject boring?

Your choice of language should be academic yet still evocative. However, you should also pay attention to changing up your sentence structures, making wise word choices, and other writing strategies that will help you tell your subject’s existence in a way that is captivating and accurate to its significance.

Below is a guide on how to maneuver the draft, starting with your introduction, the body, and finally, the conclusion.

• The Introduction

The introduction, which serves as the essay’s opening paragraph, should immediately grab the reader’s interest. You could begin by using a famous phrase or proverb said by your subject. This quote ought to give readers a clear picture of them and help them grasp their personality type.

Another choice is to use a personal tale or short story. This perfect narrative or anecdote should be brief, clear, and convey a strong message about the subject. This will retain the essay’s audience’s attention.

Proceed with the introduction by providing details on the individual’s basic identity. This includes their name, birthdate, birthplace, and information about their education, marriage, and occupation. Keep these details strictly on an introductory level. Finally, establish a thesis statement which is a one-liner that encapsulates the subject’s inherent character. It serves as the blueprint for the remainder of the essay.

You put the material from your study in the body paragraphs. Here, you must stay true to your essay’s core premise, expressed in the thesis statement. Remember to describe their childhood to adulthood information in chronological order. Furthermore, include fascinating details such as what their relatives, friends, and coworkers thought of them and what sort of effect they left on others.

Use a chronology to explain their achievements and the effects they have had or are still having on modern society. Furthermore, include memories from their pasts that affected the actions they made afterward to retain the reader’s curiosity peaked.

Any significant incident that significantly altered the course of their lives should be recounted in the body. Similarly, it is vital to discuss topics like how they addressed challenges. Remember, the included information must accurately reflect the complexity of their existence.

The essay’s conclusion is where you present your findings on the subject. You need your essay to conclude strongly. Simply restating your thesis or the ideas you stated in your body paragraphs is insufficient. Instead, surpass that by connecting their legacy to the present.

• You could ask yourself the following questions;
• What kind of impact did they have on their specialized field?
• How does their work still hold up today?
• What is left behind?
• How do people remember them?
• What or who did they significantly influence?

Completing the draft is a great achievement in writing a biography essay. However, it is not the last step.

Conclude the Composition Process

After authoring your essay’s draft, there are some vital requirements that you should complete before you submit the essay. They include;

• Proofread and edit your work to correct any errors.
• Cite your references and create a reference list.
• Request feedback from colleagues or other professional writers.

After completing these steps, your biography essay should be ready for submission.

As mentioned earlier, composing an excellent biography essay is not a walk in the park. The task calls for the writer to have the necessary basic writing skills and, even more, a passion for their subject. This article has taken you through how to write a biography essay. Please utilize this information to help you write factual and captivating biography essays.

All the best!

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Jun 30, 2023

How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template]

From time to time, nonfiction authors become so captivated by a particular figure from either the present or the past, that they feel compelled to write an entire book about their life. Whether casting them as heroes or villains, there is an interesting quality in their humanity that compels these authors to revisit their life paths and write their story.

However, portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires solid preparation. If you’re looking to write a biography yourself, in this post we’ll share a step-by-step blueprint that you can follow. 

How to write a biography: 

1. Seek permission when possible 

2. research your subject thoroughly, 3. do interviews and visit locations, 4. organize your findings, 5. identify a central thesis, 6. write it using narrative elements, 7. get feedback and polish the text.

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While you technically don’t need permission to write about public figures (or deceased ones), that doesn't guarantee their legal team won't pursue legal action against you. Author Kitty Kelley was sued by Frank Sinatra before she even started to write His Way , a biography that paints Ol Blue Eyes in a controversial light. (Kelley ended up winning the lawsuit, however).  

Whenever feasible, advise the subject’s representatives of your intentions. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get a green light to proceed, or potentially an offer to collaborate. It's a matter of common sense; if someone were to write a book about you, you would likely want to know about it well prior to publication. So, make a sincere effort to reach out to their PR staff to negotiate an agreement or at least a mutual understanding of the scope of your project. 

At the same time, make sure that you still retain editorial control over the project, and not end up writing a puff piece that treats its protagonist like a saint or hero. No biography can ever be entirely objective, but you should always strive for a portrayal that closely aligns with facts and reality.

If you can’t get an answer from your subject, or you’re asked not to proceed forward, you can still accept the potential repercussions and write an unauthorized biography . The “rebellious act” of publishing without consent indeed makes for great marketing, though it’ll likely bring more headaches with it too. 

✋ Please note that, like other nonfiction books, if you intend to release your biography with a publishing house , you can put together a book proposal to send to them before you even write the book. If they like it enough, they might pay you an advance to write it.  

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Once you’ve settled (or not) the permission part, it’s time to dive deep into your character’s story.  

Deep and thorough research skills are the cornerstone of every biographer worth their salt. To paint a vivid and accurate portrait of someone's life, you’ll have to gather qualitative information from a wide range of reliable sources. 

Start with the information already available, from books on your subject to archival documents, then collect new ones firsthand by interviewing people or traveling to locations. 

Browse the web and library archives

Put your researcher hat on and start consuming any piece on your subject you can find, from their Wikipedia page to news articles, interviews, TV and radio appearances, YouTube videos, podcasts, books, magazines, and any other media outlets they may have been featured in. 

Establish a system to orderly collect the information you find 一 even seemingly insignificant details can prove valuable during the writing process, so be sure to save them. 

Depending on their era, you may find most of the information readily available online, or you may need to search through university libraries for older references. 

For his landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow spent untold hours at Columbia University’s library , reading through the Hamilton family papers, visiting the New York Historical Society, as well as interviewing the archivist of the New York Stock Exchange, and so on. The research process took years, but it certainly paid off. Chernow discovered that Hamilton created the first five securities originally traded on Wall Street. This finding, among others, revealed his significant contributions to shaping the current American financial and political systems, a legacy previously often overshadowed by other founding fathers. Today Alexander Hamilton is one of the best-selling biographies of all time, and it has become a cultural phenomenon with its own dedicated musical. 

Besides reading documents about your subject, research can help you understand the world that your subject lived in. 

Try to understand their time and social environment

Many biographies show how their protagonists have had a profound impact on society through their philosophical, artistic, or scientific contributions. But at the same time, it’s worth it as a biographer to make an effort to understand how their societal and historical context influenced their life’s path and work.

An interesting example is Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World . Finding himself limited by a lack of verified detail surrounding William Shakespeare's personal life, Greenblatt, instead, employs literary interpretation and imaginative reenactments to transport readers back to the Elizabethan era. The result is a vivid (though speculative) depiction of the playwright's life, enriching our understanding of his world.

Many readers enjoy biographies that transport them to a time and place, so exploring a historical period through the lens of a character can be entertaining in its own right. The Diary of Samuel Pepys became a classic not because people were enthralled by his life as an administrator, but rather from his meticulous and vivid documentation of everyday existence during the Restoration period.

Once you’ve gotten your hands on as many secondary sources as you can find, you’ll want to go hunting for stories first-hand from people who are (or were) close to your subject.

With all the material you’ve been through, by now you should already have a pretty good picture of your protagonist. But you’ll surely have some curiosities and missing dots in their character arc to figure out, which you can only get by interviewing primary sources.

Interview friends and associates

This part is more relevant if your subject is contemporary, and you can actually meet up or call with relatives, friends, colleagues, business partners, neighbors, or any other person related to them. 

In writing the popular biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson interviewed more than one hundred people, including Jobs’s family, colleagues, former college mates, business rivals, and the man himself.

🔍 Read other biographies to get a sense of what makes a great one. Check out our list of the 30 best biographies of all time , or take our 30-second quiz below for tips on which one you should read next. 

Which biography should you read next?

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When you conduct your interviews, make sure to record them with high quality audio you can revisit later. Then use tools like Otter.ai or Descript to transcribe them 一 it’ll save you countless hours. 

You can approach the interview with a specific set of questions, or follow your curiosity blindly, trying to uncover revealing stories and anecdotes about your subject. Whatever your method, author and biography editor Tom Bromley suggests that every interviewer arrives prepared, "Show that you’ve done your work. This will help to put the interviewee at ease, and get their best answers.” 

Bromley also places emphasis on the order in which you conduct interviews. “You may want to interview different members of the family or friends first, to get their perspective on something, and then go directly to the main interviewee. You'll be able to use that knowledge to ask sharper, more specific questions.” 

Finally, consider how much time you have with each interviewee. If you only have a 30-minute phone call with an important person, make it count by asking directly the most pressing questions you have. And, if you find a reliable source who is also particularly willing to help, conduct several interviews and ask them, if appropriate, to write a foreword as part of the book’s front matter .

Sometimes an important part of the process is packing your bags, getting on a plane, and personally visiting significant places in your character’s journey.

Visit significant places in their life

A place, whether that’s a city, a rural house, or a bodhi tree, can carry a particular energy that you can only truly experience by being there. In putting the pieces together about someone’s life, it may be useful to go visit where they grew up, or where other significant events of their lives happened. It will be easier to imagine what they experienced, and better tell their story. 

In researching The Lost City of Z , author David Grann embarked on a trek through the Amazon, retracing the steps of British explorer Percy Fawcett. This led Grann to develop new theories about the circumstances surrounding the explorer's disappearance.

Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with jaguars and anacondas to better understand your subject’s environment, but try to walk into their shoes as much as possible. 

Once you’ve researched your character enough, it’s time to put together all the puzzle pieces you collected so far. 

Take the bulk of notes, media, and other documents you’ve collected, and start to give them some order and structure. A simple way to do this is by creating a timeline. 

Create a chronological timeline

It helps to organize your notes chronologically 一 from childhood to the senior years, line up the most significant events of your subject’s life, including dates, places, names and other relevant bits. 

You should be able to divide their life into distinct periods, each with their unique events and significance. Based on that, you can start drafting an outline of the narrative you want to create.  

Draft a story outline 

Since a biography entails writing about a person’s entire life, it will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can pick where you want to end the story, depending on how consequential the last years of your subject were. But the nature of the work will give you a starting character arc to work with. 

To outline the story then, you could turn to the popular Three-Act Structure , which divides the narrative in three main parts. In a nutshell, you’ll want to make sure to have the following:

• Act 1. Setup : Introduce the protagonist's background and the turning points that set them on a path to achieve a goal. 
• Act 2. Confrontation : Describe the challenges they encounter, both internal and external, and how they rise to them. Then..
• Act 3. Resolution : Reach a climactic point in their story in which they succeed (or fail), showing how they (and the world around them) have changed as a result. 

Only one question remains before you begin writing: what will be the main focus of your biography?

Think about why you’re so drawn to your subject to dedicate years of your life to recounting their own. What aspect of their life do you want to highlight? Is it their evil nature, artistic genius, or visionary mindset? And what evidence have you got to back that up? Find a central thesis or focus to weave as the main thread throughout your narrative. 

Or find a unique angle

If you don’t have a particular theme to explore, finding a distinct angle on your subject’s story can also help you distinguish your work from other biographies or existing works on the same subject.

Plenty of biographies have been published about The Beatles 一 many of which have different focuses and approaches: 

• Philip Norman's Shout is sometimes regarded as leaning more towards a pro-Lennon and anti-McCartney stance, offering insights into the band's inner dynamics. 
• Ian McDonald's Revolution in the Head closely examines their music track by track, shifting the focus back to McCartney as a primary creative force. 
• Craig Brown's One Two Three Four aims to capture their story through anecdotes, fan letters, diary entries, and interviews. 
• Mark Lewisohn's monumental three-volume biography, Tune In , stands as a testament to over a decade of meticulous research, chronicling every intricate detail of the Beatles' journey.

Finally, consider that biographies are often more than recounting the life of a person. Similar to how Dickens’ Great Expectations is not solely about a boy named Pip (but an examination and critique of Britain’s fickle, unforgiving class system), a biography should strive to illuminate a broader truth — be it social, political, or human — beyond the immediate subject of the book. 

Once you’ve identified your main focus or angle, it’s time to write a great story. 

While biographies are often highly informative, they do not have to be dry and purely expository in nature . You can play with storytelling elements to make it an engaging read. 

You could do that by thoroughly detailing the setting of the story , depicting the people involved in the story as fully-fledged characters , or using rising action and building to a climax when describing a particularly significant milestone of the subject’s life. 

One common way to make a biography interesting to read is starting on a strong foot…

Hook the reader from the start

Just because you're honoring your character's whole life doesn't mean you have to begin when they said their first word. Starting from the middle or end of their life can be more captivating as it introduces conflicts and stakes that shaped their journey.

When he wrote about Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild , author Jon Krakauer didn’t open his subject’s childhood and abusive family environment. Instead, the book begins with McCandless hitchhiking his way into the wilderness, and subsequently being discovered dead in an abandoned bus. By starting in medias res , Krakauer hooks the reader’s interest, before tracing back the causes and motivations that led McCandless to die alone in that bus in the first place.

You can bend the timeline to improve the reader’s reading experience throughout the rest of the story too…

Play with flashback 

While biographies tend to follow a chronological narrative, you can use flashbacks to tell brief stories or anecdotes when appropriate. For example, if you were telling the story of footballer Lionel Messi, before the climax of winning the World Cup with Argentina, you could recall when he was just 13 years old, giving an interview to a local newspaper, expressing his lifelong dream of playing for the national team. 

Used sparsely and intentionally, flashbacks can add more context to the story and keep the narrative interesting. Just like including dialogue does…

Reimagine conversations

Recreating conversations that your subject had with people around them is another effective way to color the story. Dialogue helps the reader imagine the story like a movie, providing a deeper sensory experience. 

One thing is trying to articulate the root of Steve Jobs’ obsession with product design, another would be to quote his father , teaching him how to build a fence when he was young: “You've got to make the back of the fence just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know. And that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect.”

Unlike memoirs and autobiographies, in which the author tells the story from their personal viewpoint and enjoys greater freedom to recall conversations, biographies require a commitment to facts. So, when recreating dialogue, try to quote directly from reliable sources like personal diaries, emails, and text messages. You could also use your interview scripts as an alternative to dialogue. As Tom Bromley suggests, “If you talk with a good amount of people, you can try to tell the story from their perspective, interweaving different segments and quoting the interviewees directly.”

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These are just some of the story elements you can use to make your biography more compelling. Once you’ve finished your manuscript, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback. 

If you’re going to self-publish your biography, you’ll have to polish it to professional standards. After leaving your work to rest for a while, look at it with fresh eyes and self-edit your manuscript eliminating passive voice, filler words, and redundant adverbs. 

Then, have a professional editor give you a general assessment. They’ll look at the structure and shape of your manuscript and tell you which parts need to be expanded on or cut. As someone who edited and commissioned several biographies, Tom Bromley points out that a professional “will look at the sources used and assess whether they back up the points made, or if more are needed. They would also look for context, and whether or not more background information is needed for the reader to understand the story fully. And they might check your facts, too.”  

In addition to structural editing, you may want to have someone copy-edit and proofread your work.

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Importantly, make sure to include a bibliography with a list of all the interviews, documents, and sources used in the writing process. You’ll have to compile it according to a manual of style, but you can easily create one by using tools like EasyBib . Once the text is nicely polished and typeset in your writing software , you can prepare for the publication process.  

In conclusion, by mixing storytelling elements with diligent research, you’ll be able to breathe life into a powerful biography that immerses readers in another individual’s life experience. Whether that’ll spark inspiration or controversy, remember you could have an important role in shaping their legacy 一 and that’s something not to take lightly. 

Continue reading

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How to Write a Biography Essay and Get an A+

03 July, 2020

7 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

Got a chance to write about your idol but need help with realization? Read our article to know the secrets of effective biography essay writing. Whoever you decide to write a biography essay about, don’t try to include random information at once. The person you describe would not like it. Instead, read our article about how to write a biography essay correctly and, more importantly, take pleasure in composing it. We’ll share some smart tips and tricks that you’ll find particularly useful for your writing.

What is a biographical essay?

Some tend to mistakenly attribute biographical essay to the process of writing about themselves. But actually, biography definition has nothing to do with you. It’s more about telling the engaging story about a person’s life. This individual can be anyone: a famous historical figure, a well-known actor, politician, dancer, musician, artist, writer, inventor – you get the point. Such task sounds intriguing and interesting, and indeed it is. A biographical essay is a great chance to dilute simple academic tasks with a pinch of new article full of interesting facts and opinions.

Biography essay outline

Before writing a biography essay, it’s important to pay attention to essay structure and build up a biography outline. An outline is generally a schematic plan that helps to organize biography essays in accordance with the writer’s preference. In this, the primary task is to create a list of the most significant facts you’ll want to develop in the essay. The easiest way of arranging an outline is to add a numbered list indicating the main points, and a list of sub-points marked with bullets. Also, don’t forget to include a biography thesis statement that’ll sum up the main idea of your essay in one sentence.

How to start a biography essay?

Before writing, you first need to understand what to include in a biography essay. An eloquent biography essay always starts with the introduction of a chosen person. The initial step of writing it involves the inclusion of such information as the person’s name, date of their birth, and the place they were born in. Of course, it’s not a uniform set of data necessary for this part. You can take the situation in your hands and write about some cultural or historical background surrounding one’s birthplace or the day they were born. Adding such information to the introductory part will help to create some context by connecting you and readers closer to the described character and broadening the common knowledge with more absorbing facts.

How to write a biography essay about someone else?

When people ask how to write a biography paper, the only thing they think of is a random flow of ideas about someone’s life. In fact, writing a biography paper is more complicated. The section following the introduction is devoted to life description. Here, you’ll need to feature early life and childhood of a chosen person. This part should cover general information about their parents, and divert readers’ attention to some facts related to their origin, education, and relationship status. Next, focus more on education and place where the person grew up. In this section, include more detailed information about the critical moments of their childhood life, like the name of the school they studied in or the point of moving to another city or town. Perhaps there are more facts worthy of note, such as family problems or health issues that revolved around one’s childhood. If there are such, include them as well.

The second section of your biographical essay will tell readers about someone’s adulthood. Depending on the person, this piece of story can be outlined differently. For example, you can write about their university or college life, or indicate their first job. The point here is to chronologically depict a period of moving from childhood to adult life. Then, talk about the formation of a person’s career path, starting with the first working experience and ending with the remarkable moment of revealing talents and skills that shaped their life. In the next paragraph, mention the person’s relationship during their adulthood. If applicable, describe how someone special helped them to become successful or motivated them throughout their career. Another significant aspect in this section has to do with the person’s success, in which readers could know about their notable accomplishments and achievements.

The final section of a biography essay will touch the person’s current or later life. If they are alive, include the overlook of their place of living and write about their activities. You can also add such information as to their current projects or career plans, along with other meaningful facts about their life.

If the person you’re writing about is no longer living, emphasize on the brightest moments at the sunset of their life. Mention the definitive moments and aspects, and write about the cause of their deaths.

Other tips on writing a biography

If you want your biography essay to leave a great impact on readers, don’t conclude it with a simple explanation of why this or that person died and what their latest works were. This is only factual information which brings no specific value to your essay and, more importantly, doesn’t breathe life into it. To wrap up your essay content with a memorable grabber, include a couple of sentences in which write about the person’s legacy. That is, add the opinion of why this individual’s activity became an exceptional contribution to the world’s history, and why they have changed some aspects of their field.

Biography essay writing is a responsible task that aims at showing a well-acclaimed person from the best light. Therefore, you need to write about one’s life as you would about your mother – with maximum details and showing respect for that person. So follow our advice to compose an A+ biography essay that you and your audience will enjoy reading.

Note that our company provides academic writing help. You can buy a Biography essay written from scratch by our  essay writer .

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Exploring 250 Essay Topics in Biographies: From Autobiographies to Cultural and Ethnic Stories

Biographies have long held a special place in the literary world, offering readers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of extraordinary individuals. From autobiographies and memoirs to celebrity biographies and historical accounts, these works provide us with a window into the experiences, achievements, and challenges of people from diverse backgrounds and fields. In this blog article, we will explore 25 essay topics for each of the following categories: autobiographies, memoirs, celebrity biographies, historical biographies, inspirational stories, political biographies, sports biographies, literary biographies, inspirational women, and cultural and ethnic biographies. Each category presents a unique opportunity to delve into the lives and stories that have shaped our world and influenced our understanding of humanity.

Autobiographies

Autobiographies are firsthand accounts of a person's own life journey, written by the individual themselves. They offer a unique perspective into the author's personal experiences, challenges, triumphs, and reflections, providing deep insights into their lives and the lessons they have learned along the way.

Autobiographies Essay Topics

• The Journey of Self-Discovery: Exploring Identity in My Autobiography
• Overcoming Adversity: My Triumphs and Struggles in Life
• Lessons Learned: Reflections on My Autobiographical Journey
• The Influence of Childhood: Shaping Who I Am Today
• From Rags to Riches: My Path to Success and Fulfillment
• An Unconventional Life: Breaking the Norms in My Autobiography
• Love and Loss: The Emotional Rollercoaster of My Life
• A Life of Service: My Autobiography as an Advocate for Change
• The Power of Resilience: Bouncing Back from Life's Challenges
• The Intersection of Cultures: Navigating Identity in My Autobiography
• Lessons from the Past: Wisdom Gained through Life Experiences
• An Extraordinary Journey: My Autobiography of Travel and Exploration
• Facing Fear: Confronting Personal Demons in My Autobiography
• Discovering Passion: Pursuing Dreams and Finding Purpose
• Lessons from Nature: Connecting with the Environment in My Autobiography
• Balancing Act: Juggling Personal and Professional Life in My Autobiography
• My Autobiography as a Trailblazer: Breaking Barriers and Inspiring Others
• The Healing Power of Art: Expressing Myself in My Autobiography
• Parenting Chronicles: The Joys and Challenges of Raising a Family
• Lessons in Leadership: My Autobiography as a Visionary and Influencer
• Through the Lens: My Autobi ography as a Photographer's Perspective
• Navigating Relationships: Love, Friendship, and Intimacy in My Autobiography
• Life on the Edge: Adventures and Risks in My Autobiography
• Autobiography of a Survivor: Overcoming Trauma and Rebuilding Life
• Lessons from Failure: Embracing Setbacks and Finding Redemption

Memoirs are similar to autobiographies but tend to focus on specific periods, events, or themes of the author's life rather than encompassing their entire life story. Memoirs often delve into personal experiences, emotions, and reflections, providing a more intimate and subjective exploration of the author's life.

Memoirs Essay Topics

• A Reflection on Memories: Exploring the Power of Memoirs
• Lessons Learned: Insights from My Memoir
• Revisiting the Past: Nostalgia and Reflection in Memoirs
• Life's Turning Points: My Memoir of Transformation
• Moments of Joy: Finding Happiness in the Pages of My Memoir
• Exploring Family Dynamics: My Memoir of Relationships and Heritage
• Memoirs of Resilience: Overcoming Challenges and Adversity
• Cultural Explorations: A Journey through Memoirs of Different Backgrounds
• The Art of Storytelling: Craft and Narrative in Memoirs
• The Power of Vulnerability: Sharing Personal Stories in Memoirs
• Memoirs of Travel: Discovering the World and Oneself
• Memoirs of Friendship: Celebrating Connections and Bonds
• Memoirs of Loss and Grief: Navigating Life's Darkest Moments
• Memoirs of Inspiration: Stories that Ignite Passion and Purpose
• Memoirs of Self-Discovery: Finding Identity and Acceptance
• Memoirs of a Changing World: Reflecting on Societal Shifts and Evolution
• Memoirs of Success: Lessons from Achievements and Triumphs
• Memoirs of Healing: Exploring Personal Growth and Recovery
• Memoirs of Parenting: Navigating the Joys and Challenges of Raising Children
• Memoirs of Adventure: Exploring the Thrills and Risks of Unconventional Paths
• Memoirs of Activism: Making a Difference through Personal Narratives
• Memoirs of Education: Lessons Learned Inside and Outside the Classroom
• Memoirs of Aging: Embracing Life's Transitions and Wisdom
• Memoirs of Resilient Women: Celebrating Female Strength and Empowerment
• Memoirs of the Human Experience: Stories that Illuminate the Shared Journey of Life

Celebrity Biographies

Celebrity biographies delve into the lives of well-known personalities from the realms of entertainment, sports, politics, or other public arenas. These biographies provide readers with a glimpse into the private lives, struggles, accomplishments, and influences of famous individuals, revealing the complexities behind their public personas.

Celebrity Biographies Essay Topics

• The Power of Influence: Analyzing the Impact of Celebrity Biographies
• Behind the Glamour: Exploring the Personal Lives of Celebrities
• Fame and Fortune: The Price of Celebrity in Biographies
• Celebrity Activism: Examining the Role of Celebrities in Social Change
• From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Tracing the Journey of Famous Personalities
• The Dark Side of Stardom: Unveiling the Challenges in Celebrity Biographies
• Celebrity Image and Identity: How Biographies Shape Public Perception
• Breaking Stereotypes: Challenging Conventional Notions through Celebrity Biographies
• Celebrities as Role Models: Assessing the Responsibility and Impact
• The Media's Role in Constructing Celebrity Narratives: A Critical Analysis
• The Evolution of Celebrity Culture: Insights from Biographies
• Celebrity Scandals and Redemption: The Complexities of Public Image
• Celebrity Biographies as Cultural Artifacts: Understanding Society through Personal Stories
• The Pursuit of Authenticity: Examining Truth and Fiction in Celebrity Biographies
• Celebrity Memoirs as Marketing Tools: Unraveling the Business of Personal Stories
• Celebrity Influence on Pop Culture: Exploring the Ripple Effect of Biographies
• The Intersection of Art and Celebrity: Analyzing Creative Lives in Biographies
• The Psychology of Fame: Insights from Celebrity Biographies
• The Celebrity Persona: Examining the Construction of Identity in Biographies
• Celebrity Biographies and the Art of Self-Branding
• The Biographer's Dilemma: Balancing Objective Narration with Sensationalism
• Celebrity Biographies and the Cult of Personality: Examining Fan Culture
• Celebrity Relationships and Love Lives: Intrigue and Intimacy in Biographies
• The Journey to Stardom: Success Stories and Strategies in Celebrity Biographies
• Celebrity Biographies as Historical Documentation: Capturing Moments in Time

Historical Biographies

Historical biographies shed light on the lives of notable individuals from the past, encompassing various fields such as politics, science, art, or exploration. These biographies explore the impact of historical figures on their respective societies, as well as their contributions, achievements, and the context in which they lived.

Historical Biographies Essay Topics

• Uncovering the Past: The Significance of Historical Biographies
• Illuminating Great Minds: Exploring Historical Figures through Biographies
• The Human Side of History: Personal Stories in Historical Biographies
• Courageous Leaders: Examining the Lives of Historical Icons
• Historical Biographies as Tools for Understanding Societal Transformations
• Forgotten Heroes: Resurrecting the Legacies of Overlooked Historical Figures
• The Power of Influence: Exploring Historical Figures' Impact on Society
• Historical Biographies and the Construction of National Identity
• Revealing Untold Stories: Unearthing Hidden Narratives in Historical Biographies
• Lessons from the Past: Extracting Wisdom from Historical Figures' Lives
• The Art of Historical Biographies: Balancing Facts and Narrative
• Historical Biographies and the Complexity of Human Nature
• Historical Women: Celebrating the Contributions of Remarkable Female Figures
• Historical Villains: Understanding the Motivations and Impact of Notorious Individuals
• Historical Biographies and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
• Biographies of Revolutionary Figures: Examining Catalysts for Change
• The Historical Context: Analyzing the Influence of Time and Place in Biographies
• Historical Biographies and the Shaping of Historical Narratives
• The Intersection of Politics and Personal Lives in Historical Biographies
• Biographies of Scientists and Inventors: Unveiling the Minds that Changed the World
• Historical Biographies and the Representation of Diversity
• Examining Historical Figures' Legacy: Assessing Long-Term Impact
• Historical Biographies and the Exploration of Power and Authority
• Historical Biographies and the Preservation of Memory
• Historical Biographies and the Continuity of Human Experience

Inspirational Stories

Inspirational stories encompass a wide range of narratives that uplift, motivate, and inspire readers. These stories often highlight extraordinary individuals who have overcome challenges, achieved greatness, or made a positive impact on others. They serve as a source of encouragement and provide valuable life lessons.

Inspirational Stories Essay Topics

• The Power of Inspiration: Exploring the Impact of Inspirational Stories
• Overcoming Obstacles: Lessons from Inspiring Individuals
• Stories of Triumph: Inspiring Narratives of Personal Achievement
• The Ripple Effect: How Inspirational Stories Ignite Change in Others
• Finding Strength in Adversity: Inspiring Tales of Resilience
• Empowering Through Words: The Role of Inspirational Stories in Motivating Others
• Inspiring Women: Celebrating the Achievements and Stories of Remarkable Females
• From Tragedy to Triumph: Transformative Journeys in Inspirational Stories
• Inspirational Stories of Social Change: Individuals Making a Difference
• Lessons from Legends: Inspiring Stories of Iconic Figures
• Inspirational Stories of Perseverance: Rising Above Challenges
• Inspiring Acts of Kindness: Stories of Compassion and Humanity
• Breaking Barriers: Inspirational Tales of Overcoming Limitations
• Inspirational Stories of Creativity: Unleashing the Power of Imagination
• From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Inspiring Tales of Everyday Heroes
• Inspiring Stories of Empowerment: Encouraging Personal Growth and Fulfillment
• Inspirational Tales of Courage: Bravery in the Face of Adversity
• Inspiring Stories of Philanthropy: Making a Difference in the World
• From Setbacks to Success: Stories of Resilience and Achieving Dreams
• Inspiring Stories of Mentorship: Guiding and Inspiring Others to Succeed
• Lessons from Inspirational Sports Stories: Achieving Greatness through Determination
• Inspiring Stories of Environmental Stewardship: Protecting and Preserving our Planet
• Inspiring Stories of Academic Excellence: Nurturing Intellectual Achievement
• Inspiring Tales of Forgiveness: Healing and Moving Forward
• Inspiring Stories of Volunteerism: Making an Impact through Service

Political Biographies

Political biographies focus on the lives, careers, and ideologies of political figures. They provide insights into the motivations, accomplishments, and challenges faced by these individuals as they navigate the intricacies of the political landscape. Political biographies offer a deeper understanding of the historical and social contexts that shape political decision-making.

Political Biographies Essay Topics

• Political Biographies: Understanding the Lives and Legacies of Influential Leaders
• Exploring Political Ideologies: An Analysis of Political Biographies
• The Making of a Statesman: Tracing the Journey of Political Figures
• Leadership and Decision-Making: Insights from Political Biographies
• The Influence of Political Environment: Examining Context in Political Biographies
• Political Biographies and the Power of Persuasion
• Political Families: Examining Dynasties and Succession in Political Biographies
• The Role of Charisma in Political Biographies: A Comparative Study
• Political Scandals and Corruption: Unveiling Dark Secrets in Biographies
• Political Biographies and the Dynamics of Power
• Political Biographies as Instruments of Propaganda
• The Evolution of Political Movements: Insights from Biographies
• From Activism to Governance: The Transition in Political Biographies
• Political Biographies and the Art of Diplomacy
• The Personal and Political: Analyzing the Intersection in Biographies
• Biographies of Revolutionary Leaders: Catalysts for Political Change
• The Impact of Political Biographies on Public Opinion and Discourse
• Political Biographies and Nation-Building: Examining Leadership in Transitioning Societies
• Political Campaigns and Strategies: Lessons from Political Biographies
• The Role of Women in Politics: Exploring Female Political Biographies
• The Significance of Leadership Style: Lessons from Political Biographies
• Political Biographies and the Evolution of Democracy
• Political Rivalries and Alliances: Interactions in Political Biographies
• The Role of Personal Background and Experiences in Political Biographies
• The Legacy of Political Leaders: Assessing Impact and Historical Significance

Sports Biographies

Sports biographies delve into the lives and careers of athletes and sports personalities. These biographies showcase the triumphs, struggles, and dedication of individuals in the world of sports. They explore the physical and mental challenges faced by athletes, their achievements, and the impact they have on their respective sports.

Sports Biographies Essay Topics

• Sports Biographies: Insights into the Lives and Achievements of Sporting Legends
• From Athlete to Icon: Exploring the Journey of Sports Figures in Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Art of Perseverance: Overcoming Challenges and Adversity
• Breaking Boundaries: Inspirational Stories of Diversity in Sports Biographies
• Sportsmanship and Character: Lessons from Sporting Icons in Biographies
• The Psychology of Champions: Understanding the Mindset of Elite Athletes in Sports Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Evolution of Sports Culture
• Sports Biographies as Inspiration: Motivating Success in Athletes and Fans
• Exploring Athletic Rivalries: Insights from Sports Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Impact on Youth Development and Aspirations
• The Role of Coaches and Mentors: Influential Figures in Sports Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Economics of the Sporting World
• Gender and Sports: Unveiling the Stories of Female Athletes in Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Intersection of Politics and Sport
• Sports Biographies and the Ethics of Performance Enhancement
• Overcoming Injury: Inspiring Tales of Rehabilitation and Comebacks in Sports Biographies
• The Legacy of Sports Icons: Examining their Impact on Sports and Society
• Sports Biographies and the Influence on Sports Journalism and Media
• Exploring the Sporting Spirit: Camaraderie and Sportsmanship in Biographies
• The Cultural Significance of Sports: Insights from Sports Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Business of Sports Endorsements and Sponsorships
• Sports Biographies and the Representation of Athletes' Personal Lives
• The Evolution of Sports Training: Innovations Explored in Sports Biographies
• Sports Biographies and the Psychology of Team Dynamics
• The Journey from Amateur to Professional: Tales of Athletic Development in Sports Biographies

Literary Biographies

Literary biographies delve into the lives of writers, poets, and authors, providing insights into their creative processes, influences, and the experiences that shaped their works. These biographies shed light on the personal and professional lives of literary figures, examining their contributions to literature and their lasting impact.

Literary Biographies Essay Topics

• Literary Biographies: Insights into the Lives and Works of Literary Figures
• Unraveling Literary Genius: Exploring the Minds of Famous Authors in Biographies
• The Creative Process: Insights from Literary Biographies
• Literary Movements and Influences: Tracing the Pathways in Biographies
• The Impact of Personal Experiences on Literary Works: Lessons from Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies and the Construction of Literary Canons
• Love, Loss, and Inspiration: The Personal Lives of Literary Figures in Biographies
• Literary Rivalries and Friendships: Interactions Explored in Biographies
• The Role of Editors and Publishers: Influential Figures in Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies and the Historical Context of Literature
• The Art of Translation: Exploring the Impact of Translators in Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies and the Exploration of Literary Themes and Motifs
• The Writing Life: Challenges and Triumphs in Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies as Testaments to Literary Influence and Legacy
• Literary Biographies and the Cultural Significance of Literature
• Literary Biographies and the Impact of Critics and Literary Circles
• Literary Biographies and the Representation of Gender in Literature
• Literary Biographies and the Evolution of Writing Styles and Techniques
• The Intersection of Life and Art: Examining Personal Mythologies in Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies and the Examination of Literary Conflicts and Controversies
• Literary Biographies and the Influence of Travel and Exile on Writing
• Literary Biographies and the Exploration of Writer's Block and Creative Slumps
• The Role of Inspiration and Muse: Insights from Literary Biographies
• Literary Biographies and the Preservation of Literary Archives and Manuscripts
• The Literary Afterlife: Assessing the Posthumous Impact of Literary Figures in Biographies

Inspirational Women

Inspirational women profiles extraordinary females who have made significant contributions and achievements in various fields. These biographies celebrate the strength, resilience, and accomplishments of women, highlighting their roles as pioneers, leaders, and catalysts for change. They serve as sources of inspiration and empowerment for readers of all genders.

Inspirational Women Essay Topics

• Women Breaking Barriers: Inspirational Stories of Female Trailblazers
• The Power of Resilience: Stories of Inspirational Women Overcoming Challenges
• Shattering Glass Ceilings: Inspiring Women in Leadership and Professional Fields
• Empowering Women: Stories of Courage, Strength, and Empowerment
• Inspirational Women in Science and Technology: Pioneers and Innovators
• Inspiring Women in History: Lessons from Remarkable Female Figures
• Women as Agents of Change: Making a Difference in Society
• Inspiring Women in the Arts: Creativity, Expression, and Influence
• Inspirational Women in Sports: Breaking Records and Inspiring Generations
• Women as Advocates for Social Justice: Fighting for Equality and Rights
• Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs: Building Businesses and Inspiring Success
• Women in Politics: Trailblazers, Leaders, and Champions of Change
• Inspiring Women in Education: Empowering Minds and Nurturing Potential
• Women as Philanthropists: Making a Positive Impact on Communities and Causes
• Inspirational Women in Media and Journalism: Amplifying Voices and Shaping Narratives
• Women in STEM: Inspiring Future Generations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
• Inspiring Women in Humanitarian Work: Dedication, Compassion, and Global Impact
• Women as Environmental Stewards: Protecting and Preserving our Planet
• Inspirational Women in Literature: Stories, Imagination, and Literary Legacy
• Women as Peacebuilders: Promoting Harmony and Conflict Resolution
• Inspiring Women in Health and Wellness: Transforming Lives through Care and Advocacy
• Women as Cultural Icons: Influence, Representation, and Identity
• Inspirational Women in Activism: Advocating for Change and Social Progress
• Women in Law and Justice: Upholding Rights and Equality under the Law
• Women as Mentors and Role Models: Guiding and Inspiring the Next Generation

Cultural and Ethnic Biographies

Cultural and ethnic biographies focus on the lives and experiences of individuals from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. They explore the unique perspectives, traditions, struggles, and contributions of individuals within specific cultural or ethnic contexts. These biographies promote cultural understanding, celebrate diversity, and shed light on the richness of different cultural heritages.

Cultural and Ethnic Biographies Essay Topics

• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies: Exploring the Lives and Legacies of Diverse Individuals
• Cultural Icons: Celebrating the Contributions of Influential Figures in Cultural and Ethnic Biographies
• Identity and Belonging: Personal Narratives in Cultural and Ethnic Biographies
• Cultural Resilience: Inspiring Stories of Survival and Adaptation in Biographies
• Cultural Pioneers: Trailblazers and Innovators in Cultural and Ethnic Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies as Windows to Understanding Diversity and Inclusion
• Cultural Revival and Preservation: Examining the Role of Cultural Leaders in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies as Catalysts for Social Change and Advocacy
• Representation and Empowerment: Amplifying Voices in Cultural and Ethnic Biographies
• Cultural Influences on Art and Literature: Insights from Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Interplay of Tradition and Modernity
• The Impact of Migration and Diaspora: Stories of Cultural Identity in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: Examining Activism in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies as Tools for Historical and Societal Understanding
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Exploration of Intercultural Exchanges
• Cultural and Ethnic Icons in Music and Performing Arts: Expressions of Identity in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Intersection of Politics and Culture
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies as Testimonies of Struggle and Triumph
• Cultural and Ethnic Influences on Fashion and Style: Examining Icons in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Representation of Gender and Sexuality
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Preservation of Oral Traditions and Folklore
• The Role of Language and Linguistic Identity in Cultural and Ethnic Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies as Sources of Inspiration for Social Justice Movements
• Cultural and Ethnic Icons in Film and Entertainment: Shaping Popular Culture in Biographies
• Cultural and Ethnic Biographies and the Continuity of Cultural Heritage

The world of biographies is a treasure trove of inspiration, knowledge, and cultural understanding. Through autobiographies and memoirs, we can explore the personal journeys and self-reflections of individuals. Celebrity biographies grant us access to the private lives of public figures, revealing the complexities behind their fame. Historical biographies offer insights into the lives of notable figures who have shaped our societies. Inspirational stories remind us of the triumph of the human spirit and the power of resilience. Political biographies shed light on the lives and ideologies of influential leaders. Sports biographies celebrate the achievements and dedication of athletes. Literary biographies allow us to dive into the minds of renowned authors. Inspirational women biographies showcase the incredible contributions and achievements of remarkable females. Cultural and ethnic biographies provide a lens into the rich tapestry of diverse cultures and traditions.

In exploring these 25 essay topics for each category, we open ourselves to a world of captivating narratives, thought-provoking themes, and profound insights. Whether you are a literature enthusiast, history buff, sports fan, or someone seeking inspiration, the realm of biographies offers something for everyone. By studying the lives of individuals who have left indelible marks on their fields, we gain a deeper understanding of the human experience and our shared humanity. So, grab a biography that resonates with you, embark on a journey of discovery, and let these remarkable stories inspire, educate, and enlighten you.

Jun 23, 2023

Biographical Essay Examples: Learn How to Tell a Compelling Life Story in Writing

Explore the art of storytelling through captivating biographical essays. Join us on a journey of discovery as we unveil inspiring examples that teach you how to craft compelling life stories. Step into the world of biography writing and learn how to engage readers with fascinating narratives. Get ready to bring extraordinary lives to life on the page!

The art of storytelling has been an integral part of human culture since the dawn of civilization. It is through stories that we learn about the lives of others, understand different perspectives, and gain insight into the human experience. Biographical essays, in particular, provide a unique opportunity to delve into the life story of an individual and share their journey with readers. In this article, we will explore biographical essay examples and learn how to tell a compelling life story in writing.

What Is a Biographical Essay?

A biographical essay is a piece of writing in which you narrate the life story of an individual. It provides an opportunity for you to conduct research and discover fascinating details and perspectives concerning someone. A biographical essay is also a written account of an individual's life, highlighting their achievements, experiences, and personal characteristics. It can be about historical figures, famous personalities, or even ordinary people who have made a significant impact on the world or those around them. Biographical essays are often used in academic settings to provide insight into a person's life and contributions, but they can also be written for personal, professional, or entertainment purposes.

One of the key elements of a compelling biographical essay is a well-crafted narrative. The narrative structure helps to engage readers and keeps them interested in the story being told. A 

A good biographical essay should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, just like any other story. It should have a strong opening that hooks the reader, a well-paced middle that provides details about the person's life, and a satisfying conclusion that ties everything together.

Biographical Essay Writing Tips

Writing a biographical essay requires careful planning, research, and storytelling skills to create a compelling narrative that captures the essence of a person's life. Here are some tips to help you craft an engaging biographical essay:

Choose a Fascinating Subject:

The first step in writing a biographical essay is to choose a subject whose life story is intriguing and resonates with your audience. Whether it's a historical figure, a famous personality, or an ordinary person who has made a difference, ensure that your subject has a compelling life story that is worth exploring and sharing.

Conduct Thorough Research:

Research is the foundation of any biographical essay. Conduct in-depth research on your subject, including their background, achievements, challenges, and contributions. Utilize primary and secondary sources, such as biographies, memoirs, interviews, and historical records, to gather accurate and reliable information. This research will provide the basis for your essay and ensure that your writing is well-informed and credible.

Develop a Clear Outline:

Before you start writing, develop a clear outline that organizes your ideas and provides a structure for your essay. Outline the main sections of your essay , such as the introduction, background information, key events or milestones, challenges faced, achievements, and conclusion. This will help you maintain a coherent and organized flow throughout your essay.

Tell a Story:

A biographical essay is not just a collection of facts, but a compelling story that engages the reader. Use storytelling techniques, such as vivid descriptions, dialogues, and anecdotes, to bring your subject's life to life on the page. Focus on key events or moments that shaped your subject's life and highlight their emotions, motivations, and experiences. This will create a personal connection between the reader and your subject, making your essay more engaging and memorable.

Be Objective and Balanced:

While it's important to be inspired by your subject, strive to maintain objectivity and balance in your writing. Present a well-rounded and nuanced view of your subject, including their strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures. Avoid bias or exaggeration, and ensure that your essay is based on factual information and credible sources.

Provide Context:

Provide context for your subject's life story by incorporating relevant historical, social, or cultural information. This will help readers understand the background and circumstances in which your subject lived and provide a deeper understanding of their life and achievements. However, be mindful of not overwhelming your essay with excessive background information, and focus on what is relevant to your subject's story.

Edit and Revise:

Like any other form of writing, editing, and revising are crucial in crafting a compelling biographical essay. After completing your first draft, take the time to review and revise your essay for clarity, coherence, and flow. Check for any factual inaccuracies, grammar, or spelling errors, and ensure that your essay follows a logical structure. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to gain different perspectives and improve your essay.

Show Respect and Empathy:

When writing about someone's life, it's important to show respect and empathy towards your subject. Avoid sensationalism or exploitation of their life story and strive to depict them in a dignified and compassionate manner. Acknowledge their achievements, challenges, and contributions with sincerity and respect, and be mindful of their privacy and personal boundaries.

Be Authentic:

Finally, be authentic in your writing. Share your voice and perspective while staying true to the facts and nuances of your subject's life. Bring your unique perspective and insights to the essay, and strive to make it a genuine reflection of your writing style and personal connection with your subject.

In conclusion, writing a biographical essay requires careful research, storytelling skills, and a respectful

Personal Essay

My Journey: Embracing Life's Adventures

Life is an unpredictable adventure, full of twists and turns that shape who we become. Throughout my journey, I have encountered challenges, triumphs, and everything in between. I have learned that

Resilience and perseverance are crucial in overcoming obstacles, and every experience, whether positive or negative, has valuable lessons to offer. I have also realized the importance of cherishing the present moment and embracing new opportunities with an open heart and mind. Life may be uncertain, but I am determined to make the most of it, explore new horizons, and continually grow and evolve along the way.

Essay Examples

"The Untold Story of Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President"

This biographical essay tells the life story of Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. The essay starts with an attention-grabbing opening that introduces the reader to Mandela's imprisonment on Robben Island and the hardships he faced during his time in captivity. It then delves into his early life, education, and activism against apartheid, painting a vivid picture of his journey from prisoner to president. The essay includes anecdotes, quotes, and historical context that provide a well-rounded portrayal of Mandela's life and legacy.

"The Power of Perseverance: The Life of Helen Keller"

This biographical essay tells the remarkable story of Helen Keller, an American author, political activist, and lecturer who was both blind and deaf. The essay begins with an engaging introduction that highlights Keller's disabilities and the challenges she faced from a young age. It then delves into her childhood, her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan, and her accomplishments as a writer and social activist. The essay uses vivid descriptions and sensory details to transport the reader into Keller's world and conveys the incredible strength of her character.

"Rising Above Adversity: The Journey of Malala Yousafzai"

This biographical essay tells the inspiring story of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and women's rights who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. The essay begins with a gripping prologue that describes the attack on Malala and sets the stage for her remarkable journey. It then traces her early life, her advocacy for girls' education, and the challenges she faced under the Taliban's rule. The essay includes anecdotes, quotes, and personal reflections that provide a compelling portrayal of Malala's courage and resilience in the face of adversity.

Writing Inspiration

Writing a biographical essay can be an inspiring and fulfilling endeavor. As a writer, you have the unique opportunity to delve into the life story of an individual and share their experiences, achievements, and personal characteristics with readers. Here are some sources of inspiration that can help you find compelling stories for your biographical essay.

Historical Figures:

Throughout history, there have been countless individuals who have made significant contributions to society, shaped the course of events, or left a lasting legacy. From political leaders and innovators to artists and activists, the lives of historical figures are often rich with intriguing stories that can make for compelling biographical essays. You can choose to write about well-known figures like Martin Luther King Jr. , Marie Curie , or Leonardo da Vinci , or explore lesser-known figures whose stories deserve to be told.

Famous Personalities:

Celebrities, athletes, musicians, and other famous personalities often have fascinating life stories that can make for compelling biographical essays. These individuals often face unique challenges, overcome obstacles, and achieve remarkable success in their respective fields. Writing about their journey, struggles, and achievements can provide insights into their lives beyond the public persona, and offer readers a glimpse into the realities of fame and fortune.

Ordinary People:

While historical figures and famous personalities may be popular choices for biographical essays, the lives of ordinary people can also be a rich source of inspiration. Everyday individual who have faced adversity, achieved personal milestones, or made a difference in their communities can have compelling life stories that resonate with readers. It could be a family member, a neighbor, a teacher, or someone you have come across in your community whose story has profoundly touched you. Writing about their life can shed light on the power of resilience, determination, and the human spirit.

Personal Experiences:

Another source of inspiration for a biographical essay can be your own experiences. Reflecting on your own life story or the lives of those close to you can provide unique insights and perspectives that can make for a compelling narrative. It could be a story of overcoming challenges, pursuing a passion, or learning from failures and successes. Sharing your personal experiences in a biographical essay can be deeply introspective and provide a genuine connection with your readers.

Researching various topics , events, or historical periods can also lead you to interesting life stories that can inspire your biographical essay. Exploring different eras, cultures, or social movements can uncover fascinating individuals whose stories are worth telling.

Essay Structure

The structure of a biographical essay typically follows a basic essay structure consisting of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, there may be slight variations depending on the purpose of the essay and the specific requirements of the assignment.

Here is a breakdown of the typical structure of a biographical essay:

Introduction

The introduction sets the tone for the essay and should grab the reader's attention. It should provide some background information about the subject of the essay and include a thesis statement that summarizes the main point of the essay.

Body paragraphs

The body of the essay contains the main content and should be organized into several paragraphs. Each paragraph should focus on a different aspect of the subject's life or accomplishments, such as childhood, education , career, or personal relationships. It should provide specific details, anecdotes, and examples to support the thesis statement and provide a clear understanding of the subject's life.

The conclusion ties everything together and should restate the thesis statement differently. It should summarize the key points made in the body paragraphs and leave the reader with a lasting impression. The conclusion may also provide some final thoughts or reflections on the subject's life and legacy.

Famous Personality

Allama Iqbal: A Visionary Poet and Philosopher

Allama Iqbal, also known as Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, was a prominent poet, philosopher, and politician who is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the history of modern South Asia. Born on November 9, 1877, in Sialkot, a city in present-day Pakistan, Iqbal grew up in a devout Muslim family and was deeply influenced by the teachings of Islam from a young age.

Iqbal's early education took place in Sialkot, and he later went to Lahore, where he completed his Bachelor's degree from Government College. He then traveled to England to pursue higher education, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Cambridge University and later completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Munich University in Germany. During his time in Europe, Iqbal was exposed to various intellectual and philosophical ideas, which would later shape his worldview and contribute to his renowned poetry and philosophical writings.

One of Iqbal's most significant contributions was his poetry, which is known for its rich imagery, deep philosophical insights, and powerful messages of spiritual awakening and social reform. Iqbal's poetry was deeply rooted in his love for Islam and his longing for the revival of Islamic values and principles in the face of colonialism, social injustices, and moral decay.

In his poetry, Iqbal emphasized the importance of self-realization, self-respect, and self-reliance, and called for Muslims to rise above their individual and societal challenges and strive for excellence. He actively participated in the struggle for the rights of Muslims in British India and advocated for the establishment of an independent Muslim state. Iqbal's famous Allahabad Address in 1930, where he proposed the idea of a separate Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent, laid the foundation for the creation of Pakistan as an independent nation for Muslims in 1947.

Despite his remarkable contributions, Iqbal's life was not without challenges. He faced criticism, opposition, and personal setbacks during his lifetime, but his unwavering commitment to his beliefs and his passion for serving humanity remained unshakable

Life Stories

Throughout history, countless individuals have left indelible marks on the world through their remarkable lives. From visionaries and leaders to artists and activists, their stories inspire and captivate us, showcasing the boundless potential of the human spirit. Here are three compelling biographical stories of individuals whose lives have had a lasting impact on society.

Nelson Mandela: The Courageous Anti-Apartheid Activist

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, born on July 18, 1918, in a small village in South Africa, grew up witnessing the oppressive system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation and discrimination. As a young man, Mandela became a vocal advocate for the rights of Black South Africans and joined the African National Congress (ANC) to fight against apartheid.

Mandela's activism and resistance against the apartheid regime led to his imprisonment for 27 years, during which he became an international symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. Despite the harsh conditions of imprisonment, Mandela remained steadfast in his beliefs and never wavered in his pursuit of justice and equality.

After his release from prison in 1990, Mandela continued his fight against apartheid and worked toward reconciliation and unity among all racial groups in South Africa. In 1994, he became the country's first Black president through the first fully democratic elections, and he served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Mandela's leadership and unwavering commitment to justice and equality continue to inspire people around the world, making him an iconic figure in the fight against oppression.

Frida Kahlo: The Resilient Mexican Artist

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, known as Frida Kahlo, was born on July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico. She is widely regarded as one of the most prominent and influential artists of the 20th century, known for her surrealist and vibrant self-portraits that conveyed her physical and emotional pain.

Kahlo's life was marked by immense physical and emotional challenges. At the age of 18, she was involved in a devastating bus accident that left her with severe injuries, including a broken spine and pelvis. She endured numerous surgeries and spent months in bed recovering, during which she turned to painting as a means of expressing her emotions and experiences.

Kahlo's art was deeply personal and often depicted her physical and emotional pain, her Mexican heritage, and her feminist ideologies. Her paintings often featured vivid colors, surreal elements, and symbolic imagery, which earned her international recognition and acclaim.

Despite her physical challenges, Kahlo's resilience and determination to pursue her passion for art never wavered. She continued to paint and create despite her chronic pain and multiple health issues, and her art continues to captivate and inspire audiences around the world to this day.

Malala Yousafzai: The Fearless Education Activist

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Swat District, Pakistan. From a young age, Malala was a passionate advocate for education and girls' rights in her native Swat Valley, where the Taliban had enforced a ban on girls' education.

At the age of 11, Malala began writing a blog for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym, where she documented her life under Taliban rule and her determination to fight for education. Her activism gained international attention, and she became a prominent voice for girls' education worldwide.

Embarking on the journey of life, we encounter a tapestry of experiences that shape who we are and add depth to our existence. From overcoming obstacles and celebrating growth to embracing new opportunities, we come to appreciate the captivating unpredictability of life's adventures. Each of us holds a unique journey, filled with invaluable lessons and cherished memories that fuel personal development. 

When it comes to writing biographical essays, tools like Jenni.ai can be a game-changer. With its AI-powered features, Jenni.ai offers invaluable assistance in developing strong thesis statements, and helping you produce high-quality articles. By leveraging this, you can save time and energy while producing exceptional work. 

Embrace the art of writing biographical essays, and unlock new avenues of academic and professional success by following the steps outlined in this article and harnessing the power of Jenni.ai. Seize the opportunity to become a skilled essay writer by signing up for Jenni.ai today , and embark on a transformative journey towards achieving your writing goals!

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How to Write a Biography

Learn how to write a biography with our comprehensive guide.

Last updated on Dec 8th, 2023

When you click on affiliate links on QuillMuse.com and make a purchase, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission—this helps us keep up with publishing valuable content on QuillMuse.  Read More .

Table of Contents

How to write a biography can be a fun challenge as you share someone’s life story with readers. You may need to write a biography for a class or decide to write a biography as a personal project. Once you’ve identified the subject of your biography, do your research to learn as much as you can about them. Then, immerse yourself in writing the biography and revising it until it’s best. What I am going to share with you in today’s post is how to write a biography. If you want to know the rules of how to write a biography correctly then this post of ours is essential for you. 

Introduction

While it’s true that most biographies involve people in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. But most of the time, famous or not, the person we’re talking about has an incredible life. Although your students may have a basic understanding of How to write a biography, you should take some time before putting pen to paper to come up with a very clear definition of biography.

Before knowing how to write a biography, let’s first understand what a biography is. A biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else. Although there is a genre called fictional biography, by definition biographies are mostly non-fiction. In general, biographies trace the subject’s life from early childhood to the present day or until death if the subject is deceased. 

Biography writing is not limited to describing the bare facts of a person’s life. Instead of just listing basic details about their upbringing, interests, education, work, relationships, and deaths, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of a person’s personality as well as that person’s life experiences.

Tips and Tricks For How To Write a Biography

1. ask the subject’s permission to write a biography.

Here are the first tips on how to write a biography. Before starting your research, make sure you get your subject’s consent to write their biography. Ask them if they’re ready to be the subject. Getting their permission will make writing a biography much easier and ensure that they are open to information about their lives.

If the theme does not allow you to write a bio, you can choose another theme. If you decide to publish a profile without the subject’s permission, you may be subject to legal action from the subject. 

If the topic no longer exists, you don’t need to ask permission to write about them. 

2. Research primary sources on the topic

Primary sources may include books, letters, photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, magazines, Internet articles, magazines, videos, interviews, existing biographies, or autobiographies on the subject. Find these resources in your local library or online. Read as much as you can about the topic and highlight any important information you come across in your sources. 

You can create research questions to help you focus your research on this topic, such as: 

What do I find interesting about this topic? Why is this topic important to readers? 

3. Conduct interviews with subjects and their relatives

Interviewing people will turn your research into reality: the people you interview will be able to tell you stories you can’t find in history books. Interview the subject as well as people close to them, such as spouses, friends, business associates, family members, co-workers, and friends. Interview in person, over the phone, or via email.

For in-person interviews, record them with a voice recorder or voice recorder on your computer or phone. You may need to interview the subject and others multiple times to get the documents you need.

4. Visit places important to the topic

Whenever you want to know how to write a biography, to understand the history of the subject, spend time in places and areas that are significant to the subject. This may be the subject’s childhood home or neighborhood. You can also visit the subject’s workplace and regular meeting places. 

You may also want to visit areas where the subject made important decisions or breakthroughs in their life. Being physically present in the area can give you an idea of what your subjects may have felt and help you write about their experiences more effectively.

5. Research the time and place of the subject’s life

Contextualize your subject’s life by observing what’s going on around them. Consider the period in which they grew up as well as the history of the places they lived. Study the economics, politics, and culture of their time. See current events happening where they live or work.

When you studying how to write a biography, ask yourself about time and place: 

What were the social norms of this period? 

What happened economically and politically? 

How has the political and social environment influenced this topic?

6. Make a timeline of a person’s life

To help you organize your research, create a timeline of a person’s entire life, from birth. Draw a long line on a piece of paper and sketch out as many details about a person’s life as possible. Highlight important events or moments on the timeline. Include important dates, locations, and names. 

If you think about how to write a biography You can also include historical events or moments that affect the topic in the timeline. For example, a conflict or civil war may occur during a person’s lifetime and affect their life.

7. Focus on important events and milestones

Major events can include marriage, birth, or death during a person’s lifetime. They may also achieve milestones like their first successful business venture or their first civil rights march. Highlights key moments in a person’s life so readers clearly understand what’s important to that person and how they influence the world around them.

For example, you might focus on one person’s achievements in the civil rights movement. You could write an entire section about their contributions and participation in major civil rights marches in their hometowns.

8. Cite all sources used in  biography

Most biographies will include information from sources such as books, journal articles, magazines, and interviews. Remember to cite any sources that you directly quote or paraphrase. You can use citations, footnotes, or endnotes. If the biography is for a course, use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations according to your instructor’s preference.

9. Reread the biography

Check the biography for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Circle all punctuation marks in the text to confirm they are correct. Read the text backward to check for spelling and grammar errors. 

Having a biography full of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors can frustrate readers and lead to poor grades if you submit your work to the class.

10. Show your biography to others to get their feedback

It is a momentous step of how to write a biography. Once you have completed your draft biography, show it to your colleagues, friends, teachers, and mentors to get their feedback. Ask them if they have a good understanding of someone’s life and if the biography is easy to read. Be open to feedback so you can improve the biography and make it error-free. Revise profile based on feedback from others. Don’t be afraid to trim or edit your biography to suit your readers’ needs.

11. Use flashbacks

Flashbacks happen when you move from the present to the past. You can start with the present moment, and then bring in a scene from the person’s past. Or you could have one chapter focusing on the present and one focusing on the past, alternating as you go.

The flashback scene must be as detailed and realistic as the present-day scene. Use your research notes and interviews with subjects to better understand their past to reminisce. 

For example, you can move from a person’s death in the present to reminiscing about their favorite childhood memory.

12. Outline Your Story Chronologically 

This is another important step in how to write a biography is to write an outline that describes your story in chronological order. An outline is a tool that helps you visualize the structure and key elements of your story. This can help you organize your story into chapters and sections. 

You can write your plan in a digital document or draw it with pen and paper. Remember to store your outline in an easily accessible place so you can refer to it throughout the writing process.

What citation style should I use for my biography?

Use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations based on your instructor’s preference when citing sources in your biography.

Should I include personal opinions in a biography?

No, a biography should be objective and based on facts. Avoid injecting personal opinions or bias into the narrative.

What’s the difference between a biography and an autobiography?

A biography is written by someone else about a person’s life, while an autobiography is written by the subject themselves about their own life.

Can I write a biography about a living person?

Yes, you can write a biography about a living person with their consent. Ensure you respect their privacy and follow ethical guidelines when writing about them.

Conclusion 

Other than creating a sense of closure, there are no set rules about how a biography ends. An author may want to summarize their main points about the subject of their biography. If the person is still alive, the author can inform the reader about their condition or circumstances. If the person has died, inheritance can be discussed. Authors can also remind readers how they can learn from the biographical subject. Sharing a closing quote or about a person can leave the audience with a point to consider or discuss in more detail.

For further insights into writing and to avoid common mistakes, check out our article on Most Common Mistakes in Writing . Additionally, explore the Best Writing Tools for Writers to enhance your writing skills and discover the tools that can assist you. If you’re looking to improve your typing speed and accuracy, our article on How to Type Faster with Accuracy offers valuable tips.

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• Dec 8th, 2023
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How to Write a Biography

Biographies are big business. Whether in book form or Hollywood biopics, the lives of the famous and sometimes not-so-famous fascinate us.

While it’s true that most biographies are about people who are in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. Primarily, though, famous or not, the person who is written about has led an incredible life.

In this article, we will explain biography writing in detail for teachers and students so they can create their own.

While your students will most likely have a basic understanding of a biography, it’s worth taking a little time before they put pen to paper to tease out a crystal-clear definition of one.

What Is a Biography?

A biography is an account of someone’s life written by someone else . While there is a genre known as a fictional biography, for the most part, biographies are, by definition, nonfiction.

Generally speaking, biographies provide an account of the subject’s life from the earliest days of childhood to the present day or, if the subject is deceased, their death.

The job of a biography is more than just to outline the bare facts of a person’s life.

Rather than just listing the basic details of their upbringing, hobbies, education, work, relationships, and death, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of the subject’s personality and experience of life.

Full Biographies

Teaching unit.

Teach your students everything they need to know about writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY and a BIOGRAPHY.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( 26 reviews )

Features of a Biography

Before students begin writing a biography, they’ll need to have a firm grasp of the main features of a Biography. An excellent way to determine how well they understand these essential elements is to ask them to compile a checklist like the one-blow

Their checklists should contain the items below at a minimum. Be sure to help them fill in any gaps before moving on to the writing process.

The purpose of a biography is to provide an account of someone’s life.

Biography structure.

ORIENTATION (BEGINNING) Open your biography with a strong hook to grab the reader’s attention

SEQUENCING: In most cases, biographies are written in chronological order unless you are a very competent writer consciously trying to break from this trend.

COVER: childhood, upbringing, education, influences, accomplishments, relationships, etc. – everything that helps the reader to understand the person.

CONCLUSION: Wrap your biography up with some details about what the subject is doing now if they are still alive. If they have passed away, make mention of what impact they have made and what their legacy is or will be.

BIOGRAPHY FEATURES

LANGUAGE Use descriptive and figurative language that will paint images inside your audience’s minds as they read. Use time connectives to link events.

PERSPECTIVE Biographies are written from the third person’s perspective.

DETAILS: Give specific details about people, places, events, times, dates, etc. Reflect on how events shaped the subject. You might want to include some relevant photographs with captions. A timeline may also be of use depending upon your subject and what you are trying to convey to your audience.

TENSE Written in the past tense (though ending may shift to the present/future tense)

THE PROCESS OF WRITING A BIOGRAPHY

Like any form of writing, you will find it simple if you have a plan and follow it through. These steps will ensure you cover the essential bases of writing a biography essay.

Firstly, select a subject that inspires you. Someone whose life story resonates with you and whose contribution to society intrigues you. The next step is to conduct thorough research. Engage in extensive reading, explore various sources, watch documentaries, and glean all available information to provide a comprehensive account of the person’s life.

Creating an outline is essential to organize your thoughts and information. The outline should include the person’s early life, education, career, achievements, and any other significant events or contributions. It serves as a map for the writing process, ensuring that all vital information is included.

Your biography should have an engaging introduction that captivates the reader’s attention and provides background information on the person you’re writing about. It should include a thesis statement summarising the biography’s main points.

Writing a biography in chronological order is crucial . You should begin with the person’s early life and move through their career and achievements. This approach clarifies how the person’s life unfolded and how they accomplished their goals.

A biography should be written in a narrative style , capturing the essence of the person’s life through vivid descriptions, anecdotes, and quotes. Avoid dry, factual writing and focus on creating a compelling narrative that engages the reader.

Adding personal insights and opinions can enhance the biography’s overall impact, providing a unique perspective on the person’s achievements, legacy, and impact on society.

Editing and proofreading are vital elements of the writing process. Thoroughly reviewing your biography ensures that the writing is clear, concise, and error-free. You can even request feedback from someone else to ensure that it is engaging and well-written.

Finally, including a bibliography at the end of your biography is essential. It gives credit to the sources that were used during research, such as books, articles, interviews, and websites.

Tips for Writing a Brilliant Biography

Biography writing tip #1: choose your subject wisely.

There are several points for students to reflect on when deciding on a subject for their biography. Let’s take a look at the most essential points to consider when deciding on the subject for a biography:

Interest: To produce a biography will require sustained writing from the student. That’s why students must choose their subject well. After all, a biography is an account of someone’s entire life to date. Students must ensure they choose a subject that will sustain their interest throughout the research, writing, and editing processes.

Merit: Closely related to the previous point, students must consider whether the subject merits the reader’s interest. Aside from pure labors of love, writing should be undertaken with the reader in mind. While producing a biography demands sustained writing from the author, it also demands sustained reading from the reader.

Therefore, students should ask themselves if their chosen subject has had a life worthy of the reader’s interest and the time they’d need to invest in reading their biography.

Information: Is there enough information available on the subject to fuel the writing of an entire biography? While it might be a tempting idea to write about a great-great-grandfather’s experience in the war. There would be enough interest there to sustain the author’s and the reader’s interest, but do you have enough access to information about their early childhood to do the subject justice in the form of a biography?

Biography Writing Tip #2: R esearch ! Research! Research!

While the chances are good that the student already knows quite a bit about the subject they’ve chosen. Chances are 100% that they’ll still need to undertake considerable research to write their biography.

As with many types of writing , research is an essential part of the planning process that shouldn’t be overlooked. If students wish to give as complete an account of their subject’s life as possible, they’ll need to put in the time at the research stage.

An effective way to approach the research process is to:

1. Compile a chronological timeline of the central facts, dates, and events of the subject’s life

2. Compile detailed descriptions of the following personal traits:

•      Physical looks
•      Character traits
•      Values and beliefs

3. Compile some research questions based on different topics to provide a focus for the research:

• Childhood : Where and when were they born? Who were their parents? Who were the other family members? What education did they receive?
• Obstacles: What challenges did they have to overcome? How did these challenges shape them as individuals?
• Legacy: What impact did this person have on the world and/or the people around them?
• Dialogue & Quotes: Dialogue and quotations by and about the subject are a great way to bring color and life to a biography. Students should keep an eagle eye out for the gems that hide amid their sources.

As the student gets deeper into their research, new questions will arise that can further fuel the research process and help to shape the direction the biography will ultimately go in.

Likewise, during the research, themes will often begin to suggest themselves. Exploring these themes is essential to bring depth to biography, but we’ll discuss this later in this article.

Research Skills:

Researching for biography writing is an excellent way for students to hone their research skills in general. Developing good research skills is essential for future academic success. Students will have opportunities to learn how to:

• Gather relevant information
• Evaluate different information sources
• Select suitable information
• Organize information into a text.

Students will have access to print and online information sources, and, in some cases, they may also have access to people who knew or know the subject (e.g. biography of a family member).

These days, much of the research will likely take place online. It’s crucial, therefore, to provide your students with guidance on how to use the internet safely and evaluate online sources for reliability. This is the era of ‘ fake news ’ and misinformation after all!

COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS USING GOOGLE SEARCH

Teach your students ESSENTIAL SKILLS OF THE INFORMATION ERA to become expert DIGITAL RESEARCHERS.

⭐How to correctly ask questions to search engines on all devices.

⭐ How to filter and refine your results to find exactly what you want every time.

⭐ Essential Research and critical thinking skills for students.

⭐ Plagiarism, Citing and acknowledging other people’s work.

⭐ How to query, synthesize and record your findings logically.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip #3: Find Your Themes In Biography Writing

Though predominantly a nonfiction genre, the story still plays a significant role in good biography writing. The skills of characterization and plot structuring are transferable here. And, just like in fiction, exploring themes in a biographical work helps connect the personal to the universal. Of course, these shouldn’t be forced; this will make the work seem contrived, and the reader may lose faith in the truthfulness of the account. A biographer needs to gain and maintain the trust of the reader.

Fortunately, themes shouldn’t need to be forced. A life well-lived is full of meaning, and the themes the student writer is looking for will emerge effortlessly from the actions and events of the subject’s life. It’s just a case of learning how to spot them.

One way to identify the themes in a life is to look for recurring events or situations in a person’s life. These should be apparent from the research completed previously. The students should seek to identify these patterns that emerge in the subject’s life. For example, perhaps they’ve had to overcome various obstacles throughout different periods of their life. In that case, the theme of overcoming adversity is present and has been identified.

Usually, a biography has several themes running throughout, so be sure your students work to identify more than one theme in their subject’s life.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip: #4 Put Something of Yourself into the Writing

While the defining feature of a biography is that it gives an account of a person’s life, students must understand that this is not all a biography does. Relating the facts and details of a subject’s life is not enough. The student biographer should not be afraid to share their thoughts and feelings with the reader throughout their account of their subject’s life.

The student can weave some of their personality into the fabric of the text by providing commentary and opinion as they relate the events of the person’s life and the wider social context at the time. Unlike the detached and objective approach we’d expect to find in a history textbook, in a biography, student-writers should communicate their enthusiasm for their subject in their writing.

This makes for a more intimate experience for the reader, as they get a sense of getting to know the author and the subject they are writing about.

Biography Examples For Students

• Year 5 Example
• Year 7 Example
• Year 9 Example

“The Rock ‘n’ Roll King: Elvis Presley”

Elvis Aaron Presley, born on January 8, 1935, was an amazing singer and actor known as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Even though he’s been dead for nearly 50 years, I can’t help but be fascinated by his incredible life!

Elvis grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a tiny house with his parents and twin brother. His family didn’t have much money, but they shared a love for music. Little did they know Elvis would become a music legend!

When he was only 11 years old, Elvis got his first guitar. He taught himself to play and loved singing gospel songs. As he got older, he started combining different music styles like country, blues, and gospel to create a whole new sound – that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll!

In 1954, at the age of 19, Elvis recorded his first song, “That’s All Right.” People couldn’t believe how unique and exciting his music was. His famous hip-swinging dance moves also made him a sensation!

Elvis didn’t just rock the music scene; he also starred in movies like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.” But fame came with challenges. Despite facing ups and downs, Elvis kept spreading happiness through his music.

Tragically, Elvis passed away in 1977, but his music and charisma live on. Even today, people worldwide still enjoy his songs like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Elvis Presley’s legacy as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll will live forever.

Long Live the King: I wish I’d seen him.

Elvis Presley, the Rock ‘n’ Roll legend born on January 8, 1935, is a captivating figure that even a modern-day teen like me can’t help but admire. As I delve into his life, I wish I could have experienced the magic of his live performances.

Growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis faced challenges but found solace in music. At 11, he got his first guitar, a symbol of his journey into the world of sound. His fusion of gospel, country, and blues into Rock ‘n’ Roll became a cultural phenomenon.

The thought of being in the audience during his early performances, especially when he recorded “That’s All Right” at 19, sends shivers down my spine. Imagining the crowd’s uproar and feeling the revolutionary energy of that moment is a dream I wish I could have lived.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical prodigy; he was a dynamic performer. His dance moves, the embodiment of rebellion, and his roles in films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock” made him a true icon.

After watching him on YouTube, I can’t help but feel a little sad that I’ll never witness the King’s live performances. The idea of swaying to “Hound Dog” or being enchanted by “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in person is a missed opportunity. Elvis may have left us in 1977, but he was the king of rock n’ roll. Long live the King!

Elvis Presley: A Teen’s Take on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Icon”

Elvis Presley, born January 8, 1935, was a revolutionary force in the music world, earning his title as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Exploring his life, even as a 16-year-old today, I’m captivated by the impact he made.

Hailing from Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis grew up in humble beginnings, surrounded by the love of his parents and twin brother. It’s inspiring to think that, despite financial challenges, this young man would redefine the music scene.

At 11, Elvis got his first guitar, sparking a self-taught journey into music. His early gospel influences evolved into a unique fusion of country, blues, and gospel, creating the electrifying genre of Rock ‘n’ Roll. In 1954, at only 19, he recorded “That’s All Right,” marking the birth of a musical legend.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical innovator; he was a cultural phenomenon. His rebellious dance moves and magnetic stage presence challenged the norms. He transitioned seamlessly into acting, starring in iconic films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

However, fame came at a cost, and Elvis faced personal struggles. Despite the challenges, his music continued to resonate. Even now, classics like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” transcend generations.

Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is undeniable. He was known for his unique voice, charismatic persona, and electrifying performances. He sold over one billion records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling solo artists in history. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including three Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elvis’s influence can still be seen in today’s music. Many contemporary artists, such as Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake, have cited Elvis as an inspiration. His music continues to be featured in movies, TV shows, and commercials.

Elvis left us in 1977, but his legacy lives on. I appreciate his breaking barriers and fearlessly embracing his artistic vision. Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is timeless, a testament to the enduring power of his artistry. His music has inspired generations and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING TEACHING IDEAS AND LESSONS

We have compiled a sequence of biography-related lessons or teaching ideas that you can follow as you please. They are straightforward enough for most students to follow without further instruction.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 1:

This session aims to give students a broader understanding of what makes a good biography.

Once your students have compiled a comprehensive checklist of the main features of a biography, allow them to use it to assess some biographies from your school library or on the internet using the feature checklist.

When students have assessed a selection of biographies, take some time as a class to discuss them. You can base the discussion around the following prompts:

• Which biographies covered all the criteria from their checklist?
• Which biographies didn’t?
• Which biography was the most readable in terms of structure?
• Which biography do you think was the least well-structured? How would you improve this?

Looking at how other writers have interpreted the form will help students internalize the necessary criteria before attempting to produce a biography. Once students have a clear understanding of the main features of the biography, they’re ready to begin work on writing a biography.

When the time does come to put pen to paper, be sure they’re armed with the following top tips to help ensure they’re as well prepared as possible.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 2:

This session aims to guide students through the process of selecting the perfect biography subject.

Instruct students to draw up a shortlist of three potential subjects for the biography they’ll write.

Using the three criteria mentioned in the writing guide (Interest, Merit, and Information), students award each potential subject a mark out of 5 for each of the criteria. In this manner, students can select the most suitable subject for their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 3:

This session aims to get students into the researching phase, then prioritise and organise events chronologically.

Students begin by making a timeline of their subject’s life, starting with their birth and ending with their death or the present day. If the student has yet to make a final decision on the subject of their biography, a family member will often serve well for this exercise as a practice exercise.

Students should research and gather the key events of the person’s life, covering each period of their life from when they were a baby, through childhood and adolescence, right up to adulthood and old age. They should then organize these onto a timeline. Students can include photographs with captions if they have them.

They can present these to the class when they have finished their timelines.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 4:

Instruct students to look over their timeline, notes, and other research. Challenge them to identify three patterns that repeat throughout the subject’s life and sort all the related events and incidents into specific categories.

Students should then label each category with a single word. This is the thematic concept or the broad general underlying idea. After that, students should write a sentence or two expressing what the subject’s life ‘says’ about that concept.

This is known as the thematic statement . With the thematic concepts and thematic statements identified, the student now has some substantial ideas to explore that will help bring more profound meaning and wider resonance to their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 5:

Instruct students to write a short objective account of an event in their own life. They can write about anyone from their past. It needn’t be more than a couple of paragraphs, but the writing should be strictly factual, focusing only on the objective details of what happened.

Once they have completed this, it’s time to rewrite the paragraph, but they should include some opinion and personal commentary this time.

The student here aims to inject some color and personality into their writing, to transform a detached, factual account into a warm, engaging story.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING BIOGRAPHIES

Teach your students to write AMAZING BIOGRAPHIES & AUTOBIOGRAPHIES using proven RESEARCH SKILLS and WRITING STRATEGIES .

• Understand the purpose of both forms of biography.
• Explore the language and perspective of both.
• Prompts and Challenges to engage students in writing a biography.
• Dedicated lessons for both forms of biography.
• Biographical Projects can expand students’ understanding of reading and writing a biography.
• A COMPLETE 82-PAGE UNIT – NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.

FREE Biography Writing Graphic Organizer

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To Conclude

By this stage, your students should have an excellent technical overview of a biography’s essential elements.

They should be able to choose their subject in light of how interesting and worthy they are, as well as give consideration to the availability of information out there. They should be able to research effectively and identify emerging themes in their research notes. And finally, they should be able to bring some of their personality and uniqueness into their retelling of the life of another.

Remember that writing a biography is not only a great way to develop a student’s writing skills; it can be used in almost all curriculum areas. For example, to find out more about a historical figure in History, to investigate scientific contributions to Science, or to celebrate a hero from everyday life.

Biography is an excellent genre for students to develop their writing skills and to find inspiration in the lives of others in the world around them.

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How to Write Biographical Essay: About Yourself or Other Person

Writing an essay is a usual task students are assigned on a daily basis. Since there are multiple types of essays, they differ in their structure, purpose, and requirements. A biographical essay is not a very common type of academic writing. Hence, not every student is aware of how to write it. Should I write about facts from a person’s life? How do I write an autobiography essay? If these and more questions bother you when you think about composing a bio essay, then you should definitely read our guide below on how to write a biography essay.

What Is a Biographical Essay?

Before you start writing an introduction to the biographical essay, you have to learn what it is. A biography essay is a type of academic writing in which a writer should tell the audience about a certain person’s life.

The main difference between a bio essay and other types of essays is that the author should provide an in-depth overview of someone’s history of life including much more facts than just the date of birth, childhood, and occupation.

When writing this type of essay, it is essential to analyze a person’s life, not just state the events in chronological order. Otherwise, it will be an informative type of academic writing that just states the information.

The Main Purpose of a Bio Essay

The goal of writing a biographical essay is to tell a story about a person’s life and highlight the significant achievements she or he did during the lifespan. Special attention should be given to the things that the subject is popular for. However, the writer should also focus on analyzing the facts, providing personal thoughts on what the person did right or wrong, and how the main character reached the results he is famous for.

Biography Essay About Yourself

It is also very common to be assigned to compose an essay about yourself. This type of academic piece of paper is called an autobiography. And while writing information about someone else sounds pretty easy, analyzing your own life might be more complicated.

An autobiography essay is always required when applying for college, different courses, or competitions. And the procedure of writing it is the same as writing a biographical essay but in this case, you become the main character of the story.

Biography Essay About a Person

The peculiarities of writing about someone else in the first place are hidden in making a choice on whom to tell about. Depending on the topic of your essay, this can be a famous person or someone you know as a friend. So whether you write about a celebrity or your relative, the approach to writing will be different.

In the first case, you will have to gather a lot of information from trusted sources. The more fascinating facts you gain, the better as it will help you to compose a perfect essay. In the second case, your knowledge about a person will be your main source of information.

How to Plan a Biography Essay Writing

Before you get an answer to a question: “How to write biographical essay?”, you should definitely seek information on how to start a biography essay. Since you will have to write about a person’s life in a logical and coherent way, it is crucial to prepare for this creative process. Below you will find the description of the main steps that will help you to get yourself ready for the writing.

Choose Your Biographical Essay Topic

The first and most important step to take is to choose the right topic. Unless you are given a specific person to write about by your teacher, you should make this choice wisely. Always consider picking up a character you are interested in. Then narrow down your selection by the availability of information about the person. Before you consider choosing one topic, look for credible sources that provide truthful information about the subject of your work.

Also, here you can find some examples of topics for a biographical essay:

• Marilyn Monroe: a fashion icon of all times.
• The history of the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
• Donald Trump: successful businessman and politician.
• Mother Teresa and her mission in life.
• Pope Francis: first American pope.
• Ludwig Beethoven and his eternal music.
• Malcolm X: a racism fighter.
• Elon Musk: the king of space.
• Greta Thunberg: young ecoactivist.
• Pele: a star of football.
• Albert Einstein: a face of science.
• Biography of my friend.
• A person in my life who inspired me.
• A history of the life of a member of my family.
• My autobiography.

Create a Biography Essay Outline

When you have chosen a perfect topic for your essay, it is quite a time to go to the next step and create a biography essay outline. In your structure, you have to cover the following paragraphs:

• An introduction.
• 1st body paragraph.
• 2nd body paragraph.
• 3rd body paragraph.

As you see, a biographical essay outline is the same as any other type of essay. Depending on the amount of information and your arguments, you can add more paragraphs to the body of your essay.

Conduct an Informational Research

An essential step in creating an A+ biographical essay is gathering information. However, you should not trust every link on the Internet since especially about famous people there is numerous fake news.

So in order to gather only real facts, you should look for authoritative publications, magazines, and books about the person you are analyzing in your work. All sources should have a reference list from where the information was taken. You can also get useful pieces of info from interview videos of celebrities if there are ones.

How to Start a Biography Essay?

When the preparation procedure is done, you are ready to start writing your biographical essay. Whether you wonder how to write a biography essay about yourself or another person, the instructions will be the same. The introduction of a paper is where a reader forms the first impression. So it should be very captivating and engaging. Learn what your opening paragraph should include.

Biography Essay Hook

Inserting a hook at the beginning of the essay is the perfect tactic to keep the audience motivated to read your work. This can be a quote from the person you are describing, an anecdote from his life, or a shocking fact.

A hook should be moderately exciting. Don’t try to create something unbelievably fantastic. This opening sentence should be real and catchy.

Biography Thesis Statement

The main purpose of writing a biography essay is in the thesis statement. Whether you write biography essay topics about famous people or yourself, you have to make your personal thoughts of what you think the character is recognizable for. A statement should be placed at the end of the introductory paragraph.

The statement is the main idea of the essay. Whether it is a positive or a negative trait of a person, your next paragraphs should fit it. It is not acceptable just to write general information. The whole text should correspond with the thesis statement written in the introduction.

Biography Essay Body Paragraph

The main scope of information is described in the body paragraphs of the essay. When following a standard instruction on how to write an essay on a person, the main part of the work should consist of three body paragraphs. All the info you will be sharing should go in a chronological way. Include interesting facts, intriguing stories, and clear examples from the person’s life. Here is how you can build your essay body.

1st Body Paragraph About Childhood

Write some info about a person’s early years of living. Guide the audience through the place of birth of the person, his parents, and the moments that shaped him as the person he is or was in maturity.

2nd Body Paragraph About School and College Period

Education is the most essential factor that influences a person’s life. So in your second body paragraph, you should focus on providing the facts about the character’s school and college life. Most likely, the talent of a person was revealed exactly at school times, so you might explain to the audience what the first steps to success were.

3rd Body Paragraph About Maturity

The main discoveries happen in life when you become an adult. So that is where you should focus on providing interesting facts about the person’s achievements, turning points, and growth. If there were major accomplishments made by the character, it is important to analyze their connection and impact on the current state of things.

Biography Essay Conclusion

The wrapping-up paragraph is what gives readers an aftertaste after reading your biography essay. And you definitely want to leave a perfect note at the end of the story. That is why just restating the thesis statement will not be enough. In this part of the work, your main task will be to cover the following.

Relevance of the Person’s Work

Imagine reading several paragraphs about a famous character who made some incredible discoveries in his life. Surely, at the end of the story, you will want to find out how these accomplishments can be applied in today’s society. And that is what every reader would like to see in the concluding part.

If the person was so significant, what did he leave for our generations? If this is a scientist, then we can rely on their discoveries; if this is a singer, we can listen to their music; if this is a fashion model, we can get inspiration from his character. Demonstrate in such a way what can be useful for us to get from the person you described.

The Major Achievements

In conclusion, you can focus again on the major accomplishments of the person. Draw a parallel to how these achievements affect and will affect humanity. Write how it is influenced the most by the character of your story.

How to Write a Good Biography Essay: Advanced Tips

You already know the main steps on how to write an essay about a person. But there is always room for improvement especially if you don’t write everyday biography essays. Besides following the instructions on how to start biography essay and write body paragraphs, there are more tips that will help you in this process. Here they are.

• Rely only on facts. Even though in the biography essay you should state your personal opinion about the character you are describing, everything that is related to the person’s life should be 100% true. So never write any information without double-checking it in the sources.
• Don’t spare time for conducting research. A bio essay is a piece of academic writing, so you need to provide exclusive information about another person. Thus, you have to conduct thorough research on that person’s life and dig deeper.
• Create a strong personal statement. In fact, everyone can go to the Internet and read about a famous person’s life and major events. But if you want to make an authentic and outstanding paper, you should make a solid thesis statement and shape the rest of the essay to it.
• Provide evidence. Nothing can make a better impression on a reader than supporting facts with real examples. So if you want the audience to remember your essay, try methods of visualization.
• Make smooth transitions. When you are jumping from different time periods, it is important to make it as smooth as possible. Thus, you have to insert transition words and phrases that will make the overall text sound coherent.

Need Help Writing a Biography Essay?

If you don’t want to waste time learning how to start a biography essay about yourself or how to start an essay about a person, you can turn to our essay service. We can write you an academic paper of any type and complexity within the shortest deadline.

As a professional argumentative essay writer , we offer the following services:

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If you need more information on how we help students achieve excellent results, check the reviews on our website.

How many paragraphs are in a biography essay?

If following a standard biography essay format, you will have to write five paragraphs: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

What is a biography essay structure?

A biography essay structure relates to the parts your work should consist of. This is the number of paragraphs you should build your bio essay on.

How to write an introduction for a biography essay?

If you wonder how to start a biographical essay, make these steps of preparation: begin with the topic selection, then create the outline for your essay, and conduct research on the person you are to describe.

How do you write a biography essay?

If you want to know how to write a biography paper, make sure to follow these instructions: get ready for writing by doing research on the topic you have chosen; start your essay with a hook and thesis statement; provide information in chronological order; and then conclude what you have written.

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Essay Samples on Biography

A journey unveiled: my autobiography.

Introduction Life is a voyage marked by milestones, challenges, and self-discovery. As I set my pen to paper, I embark on an introspective journey to chronicle the chapters that have shaped my existence. This autobiography is not a mere recollection of events, but a canvas...

• About Myself

Frida Kahlo: Exploring Her Biography Through the Film 'Frida'

In the 2002 film “Frida” directed by Julie Taymor, illustrates the life of Frida Kahlo based on the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Who is Frida Kahlo? Her biography in this essay is explored with the help of the film...

• Film Analysis
• Frida Kahlo

Biography Of Tom Clancy: Main Topics

 'Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die' .  This quote was not only spoken by the famous author Tom Clancy, but they are also words he lived by daily. Tom Clancy believed that everyday life provided lessons that an individual can learn...

John Hughes As An Author Of The Breakfast Club

John Hughes was an American screenwriter, film director and producer, and a well-regarded filmmaker. He started by writing jokes for comedians like Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield. Eventually, he began writing screenplays for the National Lampoon magazine. After his hit screenplays, Class Reunion in 1982...

Joe Biden: Good Or Bad Candidate

Joe Biden is a 76 years of age majority rule up-and-comer who is running for president in 2020. He was conceived in Scranton, Pa; lives in Wilmington, Delaware. Mr. Biden filled in as VP in the Obama organization during the entry of the Affordable Care...

• Affordable Care Act

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The Rise And Fall Of The Star That Was Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jeane Mortensen also known as Marilyn Monroe was born June 1, 1962 in the charity ward of the Los Angeles General Hospital. Monroe's childhood played a vital role in her strive for a career in show business. Monroe was one of the most iconic...

• Marilyn Monroe

Life Of Claude Monet And Analysis Of His Art Piece The Water Lilies

Claude Oscar Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris, France and died at the age of 86 on December 5, 1926 in Giverny, France. Claude was the oldest son of his family and became very fond of nature beginning at a very young...

• Claude Monet

David Mccullough'S "John Adams": A Historian'S Gem

In David McCullough’s 2001 book John Adams, the life of the famous founding father is told through Adams’ perspective the lenses of the people around him. The man known most for being the second president of the United States had much more impact on the...

Simon Bolivar'S Adherence To Freemasonry

Introduction Freemasonry is one of Europe’s oldest institutions, although the exact date of its foundation is not known. Historians claim that freemasonry possibly comes from the stonemasons, the oldest documents that refers to the masons date back to the 1390s. Freemasonry is a pseudo religious/social...

Herbert George Wells' Life And The Time Machine Review

Herbert George Wells was born on the 21st of September 1866 at Atlas House, 162 High Street in Bromley, Kent. Referred to as “Bertie” by his family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and Sarah Neal. An English author who gained...

• The Time Machine

Young Boy Struggles Against The Racist Society In Richard Wright's Memoir Black Boy

Black Boy is a classic of American autobiographical works written in 1945. It can be truly considered a narrative journey of the author Richard Wright from innocence to experience. As the strong and remarkable story of one male’s coming of age, the memoir Black Boy...

• Richard Wright

Biography Of Davy Crockett, One Of The Most Famous American Folk Heroes

Davy Crockett was born on August 17th in the year 1786 at 7:23 am in what is now the town of Limestone, Tennessee. At that time, this area was a part of North Carolina, which was one of the original twelve states. Davy's father was...

• Davy Crockett

Early Life Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Her Grand Achievements As The First Lady

No presidential wife served a longer period than Eleanor Roosevelt did as First Lady. She served a total of twelve years, one month, one week, and one day. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born October 11, 1884 in New York City, New York. Eleanor had a...

• Eleanor Roosevelt

Life And Legacy Of Eleanor Roosevelt: Heroine Of The Ages

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” Eleanor Roosevelt was a progressive woman stuck in a period that resisted change. As illustrated by her quote, she knew how difficult it was to...

Military Career Achievements And Presidency Of Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant, also known as Unconditional Surrender Grant, was known for his military services before his presidency. His presidency was interesting as he had no prior political experience. American Ulysses by Ronald C. White states that “..Lincoln commissioned Grant commander of all the Union...

• Ulysses Grant

The Remarkable Legacy of Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins was born on October 11, 1918, in Wisconsin, New Jersey, USA. He has a strong interest in dance since he was a child and is deeply fascinated by the art of expressing his inner rich emotional world through his body language, dreaming of...

• Fiddler on The Roof

The Biography and Story of Molly Ephraim, the Heroine of Paranormal Activity

She can be described as ‘beauty with brains’, she is a young and smart American actress, her name is Molly Ephraim. She is known for her appearance in the popular ABC TV show; Last Man Standing alongside others like Law & Order, Royal Pains, Hench...

• Paranormal Activity

William Morris: The Founder of Art and Craft Movement

Art and craft movement are to assert the individual craft people who are creativity independent, and to retuned to hand craftsmanship. Take the reaction of against the industrialised society that the boom in Britain during the Victorian period, also the organisation (artistic reform). Nowadays, Art...

• William Morris

The Life Story of the African-American Hero, Nat Turner

Today, the presence of the Black Liberation Army is obscure to many. Notwithstanding living through a time of psychological warfare, both worldwide and household history, this gathering helped formed various techniques for solidarity all through the African-American network. Before the Black Liberation Army there was...

The Life of Lauren Drain After Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church

A registered nurse, author, fitness icon, and online sensation, Lauren Drain's sexiest apparel is confidence and happiness. She is a prime example of determination over situation. Refusing to be boxed in by her former religious doctrines, Drain challenged the status quo and was consequently ostracized...

• Westboro Baptist Church

William H. Macy: The Biography of Fargo's Leading Actor

William H. Macy needs no introduction. The award-winning actor, and budding director, is one of the most consistent faces in Hollywood and has appeared in several unforgettable projects. Additionally, Macy is also better known as the husband of distinguished Hollywood actress, Felicity Huffman. Huffman garnered...

Ned Kelly's Demeanor and Lifestyle Habits

Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, convicted police murderer, and the face of the Colonial Australian Identity. This ‘identity’ being the ‘bushman’ identity- also known as the ‘noble bushman’. Edward 'Ned' Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) held this infamous repertoire. Kelly is synonymous with...

Analyzia of Federico García Lorca’s Use of Myth in Poems from the Romancero Gitano

To sufficiently understand Federico García Lorca’s poetry, the use of the stylistic devices, allusions to the Bible and mythology, it would be advisable to focus on the poet’s early life, his poetic inspirations, his childhood dreams, his youthful passions and the surroundings he grew up...

Life and Career of the Controversial Star, Sacha Noam Baron Cohen

The renowned and controversial British actor, comedian, screenwriter, director and movie producer, Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is estimated to have amassed a net worth of $130 million US dollars according to celebritynetworth.com. The 47 years old British actor is famous for his portrayal of funny...

• Cyrano De Bergerac

Biography of Louis Sachar, the Author of a Widely Recognized Book Holes

Louis Sachar is an award winning author he is mainly recognized for his book “Holes”. "Holes" book won the 1998 U. S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year's 'most distinguished contribution to American literature for children'....

Life and Reign of Catherine the Great

A young girl sits alone in a cold room in a house on the German coast and dreams of being a queen. That girl's name was Sophia. She was born in 1729 but her mother would never treat her properly for being a girl. Her...

Biography of Matthew McConaughey and an Overview of His Acting Career

Matthew McConaughey is a decorated TV and film actor and filmmaker who embraced fame after his portrayal of David Wooderson a1993 comedy film titled Dazed and Confused, directed by Richard Linklater. The stylish actor had abandoned his initial desire to be a lawyer and chose...

• Dallas Buyers Club

The Significance of Herman Melville on American Literature

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was born in New York. He was the son of a prosperous importer who went bankrupt and died young. He worked in a bank, as an elementary school teacher, and contributed to the local newspaper. He sailed as ship’s boy to Liverpool,...

The Achievements and Accomplishments of Noam Chomsky

The well-known linguist, activist and author Noam Chomsky is a person who I greatly admire. His work has influenced many people in many different fields, from linguistics to psychology to politics. Through all his many achievements he has still remained a humble and down to...

• Noam Chomsky

Exploring the Bibliography of Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is an erudite scholar who has rendered enormous support in the field of linguistics, philosophy, history, and cognitive science with his groundbreaking innovations which include the theory of transformational generative grammar. Besides his contributions in academia, he is also a prominent author and...

Graham Hands: Martha Graham's Creative Expression in Shapes

In this documentary, Acampora recounts Graham’s biography, recalling her most significant life events and personal influences - predominantly her father who used physical movements to heal nervous disorders. This source also thoroughly explains how Graham’s experience as a student at the Cumnock School of Expression...

• Martha Graham

The Career of Sasha Pieterse, The Star of Pretty Little Liars

To fans of the teen mystery thriller, Pretty Little Liars, Sasha Pieterse needs no introduction. On the Freefroem series, she portrayed one of the main roles - Alison DiLaurentis throughout the entire 7 year period that the show ran. The show earned her several award...

• Pretty Little Liars

The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild: The Real Highwayman

Jonathan Wild rose to power at a time in London where crime was prevalent, and a lot of people wanted something done about it. Wild became very well known to the people of London as well as befriending criminals and becoming a leader of the...

• The Highwayman

The Life and Achievements of Hunter Thompson, the Author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Gonzo journalism style, a journalism style that sees the journalist go against the common expectations of objectivity and write himself as a part of the story. The style was popularized by the famous journalist, Hunter S Thompson, who, other than creating the movement, was...

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Revolution of Science Brought by Marie Curie

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland, 1867, growing up in an environment that encouraged the seeking of knowledge – and that its importance was not to be underestimated. Although due to political instability, education prospects in Poland were not accessible to the female gender,...

• Marie Curie

The Life and Death of the Richest Man, John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller is by far the world’s richest man to have ever lived. He has monopolized the oil empire in the 19th century, making it both far more accessible and affordable. This may sound strange, because when you think about the world’s wealthiest people...

• John D. Rockefeller

Depiction of The Victorian Era Period in Monkey's Paw by William Wymark Jacobs

William Wymark Jacobs was born in 1863 in London, England. He is a short-story writer. In 1896, he created his first volume, Many Cargoes and it was a major success. However, he is best known for his horror story that is called “The Monkey’s Paw”...

• Victorian Era

The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

Introduction Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts On January 19, 1809. Edgar Allan Poe had imaginative way of storytelling, tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story. Poe never really knew his parents Elizabeth Arnold Poe, and his father...

• Edgar Allan Poe

What I Learned From Archimedes' Ideas

When I was a young child, I heard a saying from Archimedes: Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth. At that time, I thought it is interesting and sounded absurd. As I grow up, until I know what is...

Life and Career of Precious Cooper, a Famous Street Racer

If you follow American reality television, of which there are plenty to choose from, you are bound to stumble upon niche reality shows like Street Outlaws: Memphis, a street car racing show. On the show, which features an assorted array of personalities, you will find...

• Street Racing

The Life of David Chang, a Famous Korean-American Chef

David Chang is a famous Korean-American chef born in Vienna, Virginia but raised in Arlington with his two older brothers, his older sister, his mother and his father. Chang’s father, Joe Chang, was born in North Korea, while his mother, Sherri Chang, was born in...

• Pastry Chef

Audrey Hepburn'S Achievements And Influence In Hollywood

Audrey Hepburn is one of the most famous actresses in the world. She appears on many movies like “Roman Holiday”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “My Fair Lady” and so on. Even “after her death, she still captivates people” (Johnson 2). She is famous as great actress,...

• Audrey Hepburn

The Life of Edward Snowden: A Famous Whistleblower

Edward Snowden needs no introduction. The seemingly innocuous guy caused a major world upheaval when he released thousands of documents showing that the American government was not only spying on its citizens, but also on other world leaders who were supposed to be allies. These...

• Edward Snowden

The Leadership and Life of Quaid E Azam

History has seen many people who had an extraordinary characteristics. The main thing was their character which was pure and free from any false accusation. They had high moral values, respect and talent with logics. Their hearts and minds worked together like a team. Their...

• Quaid E Azam

The Life and Legacy of Albert Camus, a 19th Century Philosophical Writer

The first written example of literature was in Ancient Mesopotamia. Around 3400 B.C., the Sumerian civilization brought to life a world of emotions, knowledge, an expansion of our mind, critical skills, history, new culture and several more aspects to our society today by developing a...

• Albert Camus

Albert Camus & His Life in Atomic and Post-Atomic Era

Introduction War has always been a constant in the development of history since ancient times. The first documented war in history was the Sumer War, which occurred in Mesopotamia some 4, 500 years ago and which pitted the cities of Lagash and Umma. From that...

Analysis of The Principles of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill

Jeremy Bentham was born in London in 1748. He went to Westminster and Oxford and in 1769 he was called to the Bar. In response to the enigma of the law and the mayhem associated with it, Bentham challenged the entire composition of the law...

• Jeremy Bentham

My Personal Narrative of the Bad Boy of Acting Will Smith

The charming loving Willard Carroll Smith, Jr. (Will Smith) actor, rapper, and husband born September 25, 1968 straight out of Philadelphia. Mother Caroline bright his father Willard Carroll Smith sr., (Smiths) father was an U.S Air Force Veteran his mother work at a school. Will...

The Biography of Will Smith

In light of Willard Carroll (Will) Smith, Jr's. difficult work and devotion to being an entertainer, comic, maker, rapper, and lyricist, he became what they call, 'the most dominant entertainer in Hollywood.' He has delighted in achievement in TV, film, and music. Mr. Smith has...

Biography of Bernie Sanders American Politician

Bernie Sanders is 78 years old, born on September 8th, 1941 in New York. He attended James Madison High School, and later attended Brooklyn college then later transferred to the University of Chicago, graduating with a degree in political science (Lindsay, 2019). He participated in...

• Bernie Sanders

Short Lifestory of Sir Isaac Newton

Introduction For this project we chose the mathematician Sir Isaac Newton. He lived from December 25, 1642 to March 20, 1727. He was Born in Woolsthorpe Lincolnshire England. He was 84 years old at the time of his death. During the time he was alive...

• Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton: One of the Smartest Men That Ever Lived

Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton threatened to burn down his mother’s and step-father’s house with them in it, as a teen? My essay will inform you about the life and legacy of Sir Isaac Newton. In my opinion, Isaac Newton was one of...

Life And Contributions of Isaac Newton

I, Sir Isaac Newton, was born on January 4, 1643 in Woolsthrope, Lincolnshire, England. My mother told me that my father was a farmer but died three months before I was born. After my mother remarried, I spent most of my early years with my...

Biography of the King of Horror: Stephen King

Abstract Stephen King, also known as “The King of Horror”, is a famous American author that impacts the world today. His books that have been changed into movies and his books themselves are entertaining to a large portion of the American population. He was born...

• Stephen King

The Biography of Alexander Hamilton Put Into Songs

Alexander Hamilton experienced a rough childhood growing up on the Caribbean islands of Nevis and St. Croix. His parents were not married, making him an illegitimate child. They did not have enough money to send him to school, so he did not have a formal...

• Alexander Hamilton

Life and Legacy of Amelia Earhart

The young Amelia Earhart was a brave and adventurous young woman who became the talk of the world after being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She later challenged herself to be the first person to fly across the globe, but...

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The Cultural and National Heritage of William Butler Yeats

“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy” (Yeats). Yeats was an Irish poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit...

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The Stress and Worries of Elon Musk's Life

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Interesting Topics For Biography And The Best Ways To Write Them

• March 18, 2022

A biography, or biography essay, is the written account of a person’s life, written by someone else. A biographical essay is often written about a famous person, although it does not have to be. Not to be confused with an autobiography , which is the story of your own life—a biography, at its simplest definition, is someone else’s life story.

When writing about a subject’s life, it is easy to hit the high points, the important dates, and the events that the person lived through. It is often focused on important events in someone’s adult life. So you can write a full and rich biography essay or story about someone’s life, there are undoubtedly important and interesting facts and topics that you should cover. This article will discuss these, specifically the best topics for biography. Your next biography essay should be entertaining and interesting rather than dry and incomplete.

Interesting Biography Topics

Biographical essays and biographies do not have to be boring. A subject’s life story is more than what they lived through or accomplished. For example, if you are writing a biography essay about Franklin D. Roosevelt , you do not only want to discuss his leadership during World War II. While the historical context and significant events of a person’s life should be discussed in a biography essay, you want to accomplish more than listing accolades. You want the reader or target audience to know your subject, relate to, feel something, or develop an opinion. You can do this by including interesting facts and topics.

1. Family Members

Did the subject of your biography essay grow up with a parent who had an extraordinary career, background, hobby, culture, or story of their own? Were they raised by their grandparents? Were they an orphan? Discussing and including family makes the subject’s life seem more real. None of us would tell our story without discussing the role of family, so why would we leave that out?

Telling readers about the background and family dynamic of the subject of your biography helps the reader understand the person your paper’s subject grew up to be. For example, suppose you wrote about a notable soldier from the Civil War. In that case, you might include his family story and factual information like his rank in the army, his responsibilities in the army, and which battles he was a part of.

If his family had moved to the South from the North just a few years before the war began, his loyalties would have affected the cause. If his family were enslavers, that would affect his involvement. If his family were outspoken abolitionists, that would affect which side he fought for.

2. How They Have Influenced Present Day Life

Most biographies tend to stay in the era in which the story occurred. They stick to the basic facts of a person’s life rather than giving us insight into how that person impacted the lives of other people who are alive right now, in this day and age.

For example, if someone made a great discovery of some sort of useful medicine or technology, how has it contributed to the advancement of the world as we know it now? If Alexander Graham Bell had not come up with the telephone, would we have smartphones? Rather than pondering this and discussing it, many biographers go only a bit further than 1876, when his invention was brought to life when there is a much bigger and more exciting story to tell .

3. The Subject’s Early Life

Suppose you are writing about the heroes of the American Revolution, such as George Washington or Alexander Hamilton. In that case, it is important to note who they were as a child, rather than as simply the first president and the founder of our banking system, respectively.

Writing about people who are important to our history should include a discussion of how that person grew up, where they grew up, and who they were before they made a significant contribution to the world. Similar to how it is important to write a biography that includes family to give the reader a sense of who the subject is, the younger life of a subject is also important to include.

It is odd to imagine such a heavy name as Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton ever having been a teenager, but they both were. In fact, Hamilton was an immigrant who lived through his family’s illnesses, suicides, and poverty before he was sent to America by his own country. This sort of information is important to include when writing the history of a famous person. First, it normalizes the person and makes them relatable. And second, it helps the reader understand that because of his difficult life and the fact that his people believed in him, Hamilton most likely felt that he owed it to the world to make something of himself.

How to Write a Biography About a Famous Person

If you have to write or are considering writing the story of someone’s life, there are several steps that you can take to make the process easier. First, decide what moves you personally and what interests you. Then, choose a person who fits within those parameters. For example, if you care deeply about the Civil Rights Movement, you might want to write about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks. If you are interested in the Civil War, you might consider writing about Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis. Staying in your wheelhouse as far as your interests and passions lie will make your job as a writer easy.

Steps to Write a Biography

You can follow and take the following steps if you are writing about someone else’s life. Depending upon the length of your writing, you may not include every step, but generally speaking, the following is a great guideline.

1. Basic Information

It is a good idea, when writing a biography, to start with the key points and basic information. This way, someone can get the major points of your writing in reading just the first paragraph or two.

This includes things such as:

• When and where was the subject born?
• Where did the subject spend his or her childhood?
• What contributions to society did the subject make?
• What career did the subject have?
• What struggles or major events did the subject experience? (Civil Rights Movement, wars, the Great Depression, Hurricane Katrina, etc.)
• What is or was the subject’s relationship with society? (recluses like Poe or an orator like Winston Churchill?)
• What personality traits is the subject known for? (Churchill’s cigars, Robin Williams’ charitable demeanor)
• When and how did the subject die?
• Is or was there a memorial erected in their honor?
• How did the subject make a difference in the world?

2. Expand on Each of the Different Topics

If you write a biography that addresses the key points and still have space to tell more about the subject to the readers, it is a great idea to expand on each topic, adding things like anecdotes, quotes, and stories from the person’s more personal life.

For example, in your biography, you can expand on the personality of someone like Albert Einstein by saying that the story about the science and mathematics genius being illiterate and not speaking until he was four is simply a myth. You could discuss the childhood of Abraham Lincoln as a regular boy in Illinois. This gives a sense of entertainment to the biography and a real personality to the subject.

Writers can go through the words they have already written, focus on each different key piece of information, and add something personal or entertaining to it. This will show that you did your research and that you, as the writer, are invested in telling a whole story that will help students or readers identify with the lives of the people you are writing about.

3. Inspiration and Challenges

Most worthy subjects of biography had personal challenges or relevant issues to overcome. There are very few people who reach greatness without facing a struggle. Do your research, find out your subject’s struggle, opposition, and inspiration, and include them.

For example, Helen Keller had many disabilities that made life difficult for her. She had to learn to identify things without sight or hearing. While she did not experience this from birth, she was just an infant when an illness took her sight and hearing, and she had to adapt to a dark and silent world. Her amazing progress and grace have inspired the lives of teachers, students, advocates, and people with disabilities. Reflecting on her legacy, the world is better because she existed in it.

Another example of inspiration is Martin Luther King, Jr. His death inspired numerous speeches, articles, movements, and law changes. When we talk about MLK, it is difficult to do so without mentioning his dream for the society that inspired equality and education on things like racial discrimination, diversity training, and equal pay.

4. Photos, Relevant Tips, and Articles of Interest

Sometimes it is appropriate to include photos in biographies. This is especially true when the biography covers an artist. It is difficult to tell the tragic life and death story of Vincent Van Gogh without including a picture of a few of his paintings, especially his self-portrait and Starry Night. Students are often more eagerly drawn to such biographies when they have photos, diagrams, articles, and other extras that are attention-grabbing.

Remember that your goal for writing biographies should not just be to enrich the reader’s education or students with your essay. You should also use your words creatively to draw in and then grab people’s attention so they can focus on the person as a human, rather than just a name they have heard in school or as a part of history.

When writers of biographies can make the students or audience care about the cause, life, or contributions to society made by the essay’s subject, you create and influence minds that encourage them to know more about the person. Your essay could spark enough interest for people to do their research to learn more about the person you have put your focus on.

Fact Check Your Information

When you set out to write a biography, make sure that everything from childhood to politics and the subject’s quotes is accurate. Do not fall victim to reporting hearsay, gossip, rumors, or false information simply because it seems interesting or you think it may make for an entertaining anecdote. Do your research and be sure to fact-check everything you can to ensure that students, peers, and your audience will be genuinely interested in the subject of your work.

You are not obligated to only write about people who made positive contributions to society. In fact, some would go so far as to say that the life story of villains should be told, as well. Writers often write these biographies as a cautionary tale of sorts to make the reader aware of where the person potentially went wrong.

For example, Hitler was rejected from art school, illegitimate, and power-hungry. Charles Manson was evil, deranged, and institutionalized to the point that he knew what he needed to say to authorities to make himself seem harmless and trustworthy. Any person who impacted society in some way, good or bad, is a free game for a research paper or biography.

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How to Start a Biography Essay : Structure Tips

December 27, 2023

A biography essay is a form of writing that aims to provide a comprehensive account of someone’s life. It goes beyond mere facts and dates, delving into the person’s experiences, influences, and impact on society. A well-written biography essay not only educates and informs but also captivates the reader with a compelling narrative.

In a biography essay, the writer must showcase their subject’s personal and professional achievements, struggles, and significant milestones. It requires thorough research and an understanding of the subject’s historical and cultural context. The essay should offer valuable insights into the individual’s character, motivations, and contributions to their field or community.

The definition of a biography essay sets the foundation for crafting an effective introduction that hooks the reader and entices them to continue reading. Understanding the purpose and scope of a biography essay is crucial in determining how to craft an engaging and impactful beginning to your essay.

Different types of biography essays

There are different types of biography essays, each with its own unique structure and approach. Understanding these variations can help you tailor your introduction accordingly. Here are some of the commonly recognized types of biography essays:

• Chronological Biography: This type of essay follows a chronological order, presenting events in the subject’s life in the order they occurred. It provides a comprehensive overview of the person’s life from birth to the present day.
• Thematic Biography: Thematic biographies focus on specific themes or aspects of the subject’s life. The essay may explore their contributions to a particular field, their personal growth and development, or their impact on society.
• Autobiography: An autobiography is a biography essay written by the subject themselves. This type offers a unique perspective, allowing readers to gain direct insights into the subject’s thoughts, experiences, and reflections.
• Biographical Narrative: In a biographical narrative, the essay takes on the form of a story, using narrative techniques to engage the reader. It typically includes vivid descriptions, dialogues, and scenes to bring the subject’s life to life on the page.

The different types of biography essays have varying structures. While chronological biographies may follow a strictly chronological order, thematic biographies may organize information based on themes or topics. Autobiographies may follow the subject’s own chosen structure, and biographical narratives may incorporate storytelling elements to enhance the narrative flow. Understanding the type of biography essay you are writing will guide you in shaping your introduction to align with the chosen structure and approach.

Structuring your introduction

Structuring your introduction effectively is crucial for a biography essay. It sets the tone, captures the reader’s attention, and provides a roadmap for the rest of the essay. Here are some tips for structuring your introduction:

• Start with a hook: Begin with a compelling hook that grabs the reader’s attention. It can be an intriguing fact, a thought-provoking quote, a vivid anecdote, or a surprising statistic related to your subject’s life.
• Provide background information: After the hook, provide some context and background information about the subject. This can include their name, profession, historical period, or any relevant details that help situate the reader.
• Mention the significance: Highlight why this person’s life is worth exploring. Discuss their impact on society, their contributions to their field, or the reasons why they are renowned or influential.
• Craft a clear and concise thesis statement: Your thesis statement should succinctly state the main purpose or argument of your essay. It could be a claim about the person’s achievements, their lasting legacy, or the overarching theme you will explore in the essay.

By following this structure, you can provide an engaging and informative introduction that captures the reader’s interest and sets the stage for the rest of your biography essay.

What is a hook and why it’s important

A hook is the opening line or sentence in your introduction that serves to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to continue reading. It is a captivating and compelling element that sets the tone for the entire essay. The hook can take various forms, such as an intriguing fact, a compelling quote, a startling statistic, or a captivating anecdote related to the subject of your biography essay.

The importance of a hook in a biography essay cannot be overstated. It is your opportunity to make a strong first impression and pique the reader’s curiosity. A well-crafted hook creates interest and establishes a connection with the reader, motivating them to delve deeper into your essay. It helps you stand out from the start and sets the stage for the rest of your writing. By grabbing the reader’s attention with a compelling hook, you increase the chances of them staying engaged and invested in your biography essay.

Different types of hooks

When starting a biography essay, there are several types of hooks you can use to captivate your reader’s attention. Here are some examples:

• Anecdote: Begin with a short, intriguing story or anecdote related to the subject’s life that grabs the reader’s interest.
• Quotation: Start with a powerful or thought-provoking quote from the individual or someone who knew them, highlighting an important aspect of their life or character.
• Surprising fact/statistic: Present a surprising or lesser-known fact or statistic about the person that immediately grabs the reader’s attention and makes them curious to learn more.
• Vivid description: Paint a vivid picture by using descriptive language to set the scene or evoke emotions, bringing the reader into the world of your subject.
• Question: Pose a compelling question directly to the reader, inviting them to think about the significance of the subject’s life or an intriguing aspect of their story.
• Startling statement: Begin with a bold or controversial statement that challenges common beliefs or assumptions about the person, sparking the reader’s interest.

Choosing the right hook depends on the tone, subject matter, and purpose of your biography essay. Experiment with different types of hooks to find one that effectively grabs your reader’s attention and sets the stage for the engaging journey that lies ahead.

Biography essay hook example

“Behind every great mind lies a story of struggle, resilience, and triumph. In the case of Albert Einstein, his journey from a curious child with wild hair to a brilliant physicist who reshaped our understanding of the universe was nothing short of extraordinary. Picture a young Einstein sitting alone under a tree, contemplating the mysteries of space and time, unaware of the profound impact his ideas would have on the world. Embark on a captivating journey through the life of this iconic genius as we unravel the enigmatic persona and groundbreaking contributions that made Albert Einstein a legend in the realm of science.”

This hook blends vivid imagery with a sense of mystery and excitement. It introduces the subject, Albert Einstein, by highlighting his childhood curiosity and foreshadowing his extraordinary achievements in the field of physics. It captures the reader’s attention and creates a desire to learn more about the life and accomplishments of this renowned figure.

Background information

Providing background information in a biography essay is crucial for contextualizing the subject’s life and creating a comprehensive understanding for the reader. It sets the stage by offering the necessary historical, cultural, or social context that influenced the individual’s journey and achievements.

Background information may include details such as the time period in which the person lived, significant events that shaped their era, prevailing societal norms or challenges they faced, and any relevant historical or cultural influences. This information helps the reader grasp the broader context in which the subject’s life unfolded and enables them to appreciate the significance of their accomplishments.

Additionally, background information can include details about the subject’s early life, education, family, or any key experiences that laid the foundation for their future endeavors. By establishing this framework, the biography essay becomes more engaging and informative, providing a solid background that supports the subsequent exploration of the individual’s life and impact.

Mention the significance

Highlighting the significance of the subject in a biography essay helps emphasize their impact and why their life story is worth exploring. By acknowledging their importance, you can capture the reader’s interest and establish the relevance of the biography.

Mentioning the significance can be done by discussing their contributions, achievements, or the influence they had on their field or society. It is important to convey why their story matters and how it connects to broader themes or historical events. Whether it’s groundbreaking discoveries, overcoming adversity, or inspiring social change, the significance of the subject’s life should be articulated to demonstrate their lasting legacy.

By showcasing their significance, the biography essay becomes more than just a narrative of an individual’s life; it becomes a testament to the lasting impact they made, inspiring and enlightening readers about their endeavors and the mark they left on the world.

Crafting a Strong Thesis Statement

Crafting a strong thesis statement is essential in a biography essay as it serves as the guiding force for the entire piece. A well-crafted thesis statement not only conveys the main focus of the essay but also establishes the unique angle or perspective through which the subject’s life will be examined.

To create a strong thesis statement for a biography essay, consider the following tips and elements:

• Identify the main focus: Determine the central aspect or theme of the subject’s life that you want to explore in the essay. It could be their accomplishments, struggles, personal growth, or impact on society.
• Be specific: Avoid vague statements and strive for precision. Clearly articulate what makes the subject’s life noteworthy, significant, or compelling.
• Make it arguable: A strong thesis statement presents a debatable claim or argument that can be supported and explored in the essay. It should provoke thought and invite discussion.
• Consider the scope: Consider the length of the essay and the depth to which you can delve into the subject’s life. Ensure that your thesis statement is manageable and achievable within the given parameters.

Example thesis statement for a biography essay on Rosa Parks:

“Despite her quiet demeanor, Rosa Parks’ courageous refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, challenging racial segregation and inspiring a generation to fight for equality.”

This thesis statement is specific, arguable, and clearly highlights the significance of Rosa Parks’ action as a pivotal moment in history. It sets the stage for an essay that will explore her life, the societal impact of her act of defiance, and her contribution to the struggle for civil rights.

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60 Biography Topics For Students

A biographical essay is a good opportunity to delve into a particular person's life story and tell about all the important facts of his activities. The main task of such an essay is to tell what a particular person is known for and what he or she has done for the whole world.

This is a good chance to learn more about the biography of famous people. However, there are some important things you need to know before getting started. Here are some important steps to take. Choosing an interesting personality will help you make a good biography report.

Choose Your Subject

First of all, you need to make sure that the historical person can be known and interesting to the general audience. It is best to choose those people who are of interest to you or who have made the most significant contribution to history. However, you shouldn't go for the classic biographies that every student knows. Be original in your choice. Search for biography ideas on the Internet for related resources.

Do Research

Explore everything you can find on a particular historical person. The first thing you need to find is why your chosen person is known in world culture or society. This will allow you to understand better how to write a biography and what to focus on. Your biography research paper should be comprehensive.

Write an Outline

Famous people biography is an opportunity to learn a lot, so a good outline will help you adhere to a standard that your instructor will appreciate. Create a structure that matches the life story of a particular person. You should also choose which ideas you want to immerse in each paragraph. Your biographical research paper will be complete if you study the smallest details of the life of your chosen person.

Write Your Introduction Paragraph

The beginning of the text should always be exciting and motivating to read. A good introduction paragraph can lead to a higher score. The best biography topics will help you make your choice. You can also describe the main achievements of a military leader, scientist, or whoever you choose.

Develop Your Thesis Statement

A thesis is a key aspect of any research paper that will help develop the general thought and narrative of all biographical paperwork. You should choose the right words to present the historical personality to your reader's point. Then, your paperwork will be rated much higher. Make creative biographies with little-known facts.

Body Paragraphs

This point is also very important. You should divide the time intervals in biographical paper works in such a way as to tell about the birth, life, and formation of a particular historical person. For example, you can talk about a person's hobbies or specific life interests or lifestyle. All of this can be important if you are talking about a politician, military leader, celebrity, or religious person. Good biography questions are an opportunity to do detailed research and get high marks. Was this historical person important, and what actions made him or her so? You should add this information to your body paragraphs.

You need to complete your geographic work with some relevant thesis or summarize everything that you wanted to convey to the reader. You also need to try to answer the questions: was it helpful to the reader and how relevant is the biographical sketch of a particular person. You can also mention why other people remember this person and what his legacy is.

Biographies

On the one hand, preparing a biography is a fairly simple process. Many researchers have taken years to piece together all the biographical facts about a particular person. This way, you can quickly find key information and add it to your paperwork. Nevertheless, it is better to delve deeper into the topic and find the most interesting and exciting sources that can provide new facts for the biography.

World Leaders

Choosing world leaders, you can tell about the historical figures that are no longer alive. For example, you can touch on the topic of the US Civil War, world wars, or any other conflicts that shook the whole world. Try to find those historical figures that will be as interesting as possible in various wars and political achievements.

• William I the Conqueror
• Julius Caesar
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Winston Churchill
• George Washington
• Abraham Lincoln

Explorers of the lands are a separate category of historical figures who are a very interesting point to build your essays based on each person's achievements and various geographical discoveries. It will be interesting in the context of cognitive information and any little-known facts about people.

• Fernand Magellan
• Vasco da Gama
• Christopher Columbus
• Miklukho Maklay
• Amerigo Vespucci
• Erofei Pavlovich Khabarov
• Robert Falcon Scott
• Leif Eriksson

If you want to write a biography of an artist, then you should delve into his works. You can also mention interesting facts about the price of paintings at present and the person's recognition during his or her lifetime.

• Pablo Picasso
• Vincent van Gogh
• Salvador Dali
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Claude Monet
• Paul Gauguin
• Andy Warhole
• Henri Matisse
• Gustav Klimt

Inventors and Scientists

Do you know who invented the bubonic plague vaccine? Or maybe you are interested in the person who invented penicillin? Choose the researcher or scientist who has done something for the whole world. Explain how the person went to success and why he had to overcome many obstacles.

• Isaac Newton
• Albert Einstein
• James Maxwell
• Louis Pasteur
• Charles Darwin
• Maria Curie
• Nikola Tesla
• Galileo Galilei

Historical Biographies

Historical biographies are very interesting because we know little about people who lived many centuries ago. That is why a detailed study of the various kings of antiquity's biography can be interesting for you and your readers. The right questions to ask for biography helps you create expert material, so you should make the correct web quarry.

Ancient Greece

The heyday of Ancient Greece is marked by many historical figures worth mentioning in your paperwork. Luckily many famous people ruled Greece. Some of them have become famous for forward-thinking political decisions and profitable alliances. A lot of the historical figures in this country are known for their conquests.

• Aristodemus
• Alexander I
• Alexander III of Macedon
• Queen Olympias
• Queen Theodora

Ancient Shina

The number of Chinese emperors and dynasties is so great that Hollywood could film more than 15 seasons as a TV series. That is why you can choose any of the most famous Chinese rulers to tell about his legacy and deeds during his lifetime.

• Ji Shao Hao
• Si Shao-kan

Middle ages

Students know a lot about the middle ages through history lessons. Nevertheless, many real rulers have biographical facts that you will not find in ordinary textbooks. Thanks to this, you can create a really interesting biography that will interest even your teacher.

• Philip IV the Handsome
• Alexander Nevskiy
• Louis IX Saint
• Richard I the Lionheart
• Salah ad-Din

How to Write Good Biography?

First of all, you need to adhere to the recommendations that your teacher gave you. The main questions for a biography should concern all time intervals in the life of a person. Do not forget that your work should be structured and correspond to the modern stage of forming a particular personality that you have chosen.

You should tell not only about well-known facts but also some exclusive moments from your chosen person's biography. Then you can not only create good work but also surprise your teacher. If you choose interesting biography topics, you can surprise your teacher.

Your work should also answer basic biography questions about why historical personality is important for a particular country. It applies to political or economic factors. Well-chosen biography questions for students contribute to the creation of dissertation writers . If you add proven facts and links to authoritative sources, it will lead to a high grade.

An Inspiration List:

• Biography.com
• Biography Wiki
• Literary Devices
• List of Top 100 Famous People
• Short-biography

Biography - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Biography is a genre of writing detailing the life of an individual. Essays might discuss the impact of biographies on public understanding of historical or contemporary figures, the ethical considerations of biography writing, or compare differing biographical interpretations. A vast selection of complimentary essay illustrations pertaining to Biography you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

LeBron James Biography Facts, Childhood and Personal Life

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Albert Einstein’s Biography

Albert Einstein was a great physicist and mathematician and was known for his theories on relativity, and of matter and heat. Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879 in Württemberg, Germany. As a child, Einstein was mesmerized in music (he played the violin), mathematics and science. Einstein became religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and also singing religious songs on the way to school. After he read science books that opposed his religious beliefs. […]

Selena Quintanilla Perez

Selena Quintanilla Perez is a role model for me, not only for her music but because of how many people she has inspired through her music. She gave up her childhood to be a singer. At the young age of twelve, she began to sing with her family’s band. She quickly became the main attraction of the group and made a big impact on what people thought of the band. She gave the group more exposure to the world and […]

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Michael Jordan Biography

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Ruby Bridges Biography

Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown Mississippi. Ruby is currently sixty-four years old. Her husband’s name is Malcolm and her children's names are Craig, Sean, and Christopher Hall. Her mother and father's names are Lucille and Abon. When she was only six years old she was the first African American child to attend an all white school. She helped different races come together in school so everyone got along equally. Ruby lived with her mom (Lucille), […]

If you could Meet Anyone in History who would it Be?

I as of late watched The Big Bang Theory scene where Sheldon Cooper meets his object of worship, Stephen Hawking. That is in season 5 scene 21 which broadcasted on April fifth, 2012, demonstrating once more that I'm generally a year behind on the mainstream society scene however that is nurturing for you. At any rate, the scene started an intriguing discussion between my significant other and I about who we'd most need to meet in the event that we […]

Elon Musk – Education, Tesla & SpaceX – Biography

In pages 181-211 we see the financial struggles of SpaceX and Tesla. After SapceX' second failed launch they had begun to start rapidly loose money along with Tesla who was being torn apart by the press and was also loosing astronomical amounts of money. Musk had begun to sell some of his cars and other valuable possessions for some extra cash for SpaceX and Tesla but then his wife Justine had filed a divorce against him. The settlement had cost […]

Adolf Hitler Biography

On April 20, 1889 Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl. Adolf was the fourth child out of six. Growing up Adolf and his father always butted heads. His father was very emotionally harsh on him pushing Adolf further away from his family. In 1900, Adolfs younger brother Edmund died, and that was when Adolf cut the strings and became detached to his family. At an early age Hitler began showing an […]

Challenging Stereotypes: a Dive into “The Pregnancy Project”

In a world teeming with social expectations and preconceived notions, Gaby Rodriguez's "The Pregnancy Project" stands out as a bold and thought-provoking social experiment. Rodriguez, a seventeen-year-old high school student, embarked on an unconventional journey, faking her own pregnancy to challenge societal biases and uncover deep-rooted stereotypes about teen mothers. Her journey, both daring and revelatory, provides a window into the judgments, assumptions, and stigmas that continue to permeate society, even in our seemingly enlightened age. Gaby's project was rooted […]

Biography of Amelia Earhart, Female Pilot

Amelia Earhart, who later ended up becoming the first woman to make a transatlantic flight, may have not been very impressed when she saw a plane for the first time, but that didn't seem to matter because she later became known for her many achievements as an aviator. She not only accomplished things involving planes and flying, but she accomplished things outside of that as well. From going on solo flights to setting airspeed records to even making her own […]

Biography of Nikola Tesla

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Biography of the Eminem

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John Ernst Steinbeck Biography

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Myself / Biography

Biography Essay Examples

Biography of strong woman: hellen keller.

Many people have heard of Helen Keller. She is well-known because she was unable to peer or pay attention, but discovered to speak and examine and went onto attend college and earn a degree. Her existence is a totally interesting tale, one which she advanced...

Ashley Judd – an American Actress and Political Activist

Elegant, graceful, talented, beauty and brains are words that can describe Hollywood actress Ashley Judd. The Califonia-born star spent the 1990s carving her name in the hearts and minds of fans, gaining raves of reviews and respect in the industry. Her leading roles in ‘Ruby...

The Bioghraphy of the Brave: Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr is the person that inspires me a lot. That is the reason why I chose to write about Martin Luther King Jr biography essay. This man was born on January 15, 1929 In Atlanta, which is in Georgia. King lived a...

Malcolm X: Learning to Read and the Importance of Literacy

As times have allowed for improvement in technology and society, also has the demand for literacy. Being literate may require some to overcome certain obstacles, but will certainly bring many benefits to the individual. For example, numeracy skills can prepare an individual to be functional...

Nikola Tesla - a Man Who Created Nowaday World

Have you ever heard about Nikola Tesla? In the essay about Nikola Tesla we will briefly look at his life and what achievements he had done. Nikola Tesla, born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Croatia, is one of the most outstanding yet underappreciated inventors...

Stephen Hawking as a Role Model: a Symbol of Hope and Intelligence

Stephen Hawking is a hero in the disabled community because of his efforts to show that even with a diagnosis of something like ALS you can still achieve your dreams. Achievements in science and technology as well as life-story of Stephen Hawking make him a...

My Role Model: Albert Einstein

My role model that I chose was the genius Albert Einstein, so this is Albert Einstein essay where I will share why hi is my role model. To start off, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879. He died about 76 years later. He...

Elvis Presley: a Composer

Elvis Aaron Presley was a famous singer and movie actor in the 1960s and 1970s, who would become known as the “King of Rock and Roll.” In one of the Elvis Presley essays will be shortly discussed what live this man had and what actions...

Exploring Alexander Pope's Biography and His 'Essay on Man'

The English poet and satirist Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was the greatest poet and verse satirist of the Augustan period. No distinctive poet in the records of English literature has handled the heroic couplet with equal flexibility and brilliance. In this paper we will explore Alexander...

Helen Keller: Who She Was

Science is like a game and writing is a binder, so tie your game with a sturdy rope, scratch your ink, so he carves the story, because every stroke has a lot of meaning. Lets start this Helen Keller essay. Maybe you’ve heard the name...

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