How to Write a Biography Essay

Every student at some stage of study will be assigned to write a biography (a written account of a person’s life). Some students like this assignment while other prefer writing different types of essay. The requirements for biographical essays may be somewhat different depending on the study level you are at. It is obvious that a middle school bio will differ from the one written while studying in a college. However, there are some basic things that are common for all types of biography essays. These are the things we would like to focus on in this article. They should help you not miss anything important when writing a biography essay regardless of where you study (middle school, high school or college).

Practical Tips on How to Develop a Biography

1. Choose a subject. It is important to choose a person whose life seems appealing to you. So if you have the options to choose from, pick the one that stands out for you. This way you will find the process of writing a biography essay much easier.
2. Gather information. You must use credible sources so that the collected information would be accurate. Upon the completion of the research, you can draw some conclusions and write a thesis statement.
3. The story. Good biographies always have a story. That is what makes them different from a list of facts about one’s life. Again, if you choose the right person to write a biography about, it is likely he/she will have a story worth telling.
4. Include the details. It is important to include the names of people, events, and places that made up the surrounding of the one you are writing about. This will help your readers feel like they are watching the real events happening.
5. Create a purpose of the story. The story is not enough. Every story has a purpose. Every life has a purpose. Make sure you dwell on that when writing a biography essay. This should make your essay an interesting read.
6. Organize your essay. You can choose between listing the information in a chronological order as most people do. However, you can also selectively concentrate on the sequence of events of a person’s life that are leading to the main event. Both approaches are good if you know what you are doing.
7. Read what you have written. This stands as a must for every essay ever written. If you want to make sure you have done a good job writing an essay, you have to read it again. See if there is anything wrong with the flow of information, word usage and grammar.

Even though you know how to write a biography, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can easily write a good one spending half an hour on this assignment. It takes time and practice to tell the story of someone’s life skillfully.  Using the aforementioned guidelines should help students develop their understanding of how a good biography essay looks like.