Biographies are how we learn information about another human being’s life. Whether you want to start writing a biography about a famous person, historical figure, or an influential family member, it’s important to know all the elements that make a biography worth both writing and reading.
What Is a Biography?
A biography is a detailed third person account of another person’s life story. It contains basic information about the subject’s life—like their place of birth, education, and interests. A biography may also chronicle relationships with family members, as well as major events in the subject’s childhood and how those influenced their upbringing. A biography details the various accomplishments and life events of a real person, but it’s more than facts and figures—it comes to life with great stories told from beginning to middle to end.
What Is a Biography?
A biography is a detailed third person account of another person’s life story. It contains basic information about the subject’s life—like their place of birth, education, and interests. A biography may also chronicle relationships with family members, as well as major events in the subject’s childhood and how those influenced their upbringing. A biography details the various accomplishments and life events of a real person, but it’s more than facts and figures—it comes to life with great stories told from beginning to middle to end.
Tips on How to Write a Biography
To write the story of a person’s life, you need to know more than just the basic facts. A good biography delves into what is really interesting about a person’s life—noteworthy achievements, moments of adversity, and major turning points. The best biography can encapsulate a subject’s entire life in an engaging way and provide enough personal details to give the reader an intimate look at their character. If you’re interested in writing a biography, the following steps can get you started:
Get permission. Once you’ve chosen the subject of the biography, seek permission to write about their life. While in some cases it may not be necessary (like if the subject is a public figure or deceased), getting permission will make the research portion of your writing process much easier. If the subject is willing to be biographied, they may provide significant details about their own story up front that will help make your writing about them more compelling.
Do your research. Regardless of how much you know about your subject, an extensive amount of research is necessary to paint a thorough picture of this person. If they’re a historical figure, include information about the time period they lived in and how it affected the way they lived their life. Primary sources are firsthand accounts of your subject’s life and tend to be the most reliable sources. These can include journal entries, emails, interviews, or memoirs. A primary source can also be any other information the subject has provided, such as a personal website, Twitter bio, social media account or professional bio. Secondary sources, like magazines or documentaries, can also be used if the information is proven accurate.
Form your thesis. Your first paragraph or chapter should inform the reader what they will learn about this person from this biography. A thesis makes a declaration about the biographee which the rest of the biography will provide relevant information to support.
Make a timeline. A biography usually structures the main points of a person’s life in chronological order. Knowing the order of key events before you start writing can save you the hassle of having to reorganize your whole story later.
Use flashbacks. While writing the text of your biography, you may want to intercut between an experience from your subject’s adult life and one from their high school days. Using flashbacks allows the author to introduce relevant past information to the reader without bogging them down with paragraphs of background exposition.
Include your thoughts. A biography isn’t just a transaction of facts. A biographer can share their own feelings and opinions on their subject’s life. If the subject did something noteworthy, the author may include why they feel that moment was significant, how it was affected by the time period, and what it meant for society as a whole. This will support why this person deserves to be written about and keep the audience reading from the first sentence to the last.
Biographical Statement
Once articles have been selected and accepted for publication each year, authors will be asked to submit a biographical statement to be included in the Advocates’ Forum. The biographical statement should include the author(s) full name. In addition, it is also appropriate to discuss your personal history, academic program and/or field placement, and interest in the article’s subject. The biographical statement may not exceed 75 words. Below is an example taken from the 2009 volume of the Advocates’ Forum:
“Kathryn Saclarides is a second-year social administration student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in bioethics from La Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Her current field placement is with the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC). She is interested in migration patterns, ethnic neighborhoods, and transnational communities.”
Abstract
The abstract should appear on the second page of your manuscript, immediately following the title page. The abstract should briefly summarize the argument advanced in your manuscript, and should be limited to no more than 100 words. For additional guidance on composing abstracts, refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Below is an example taken from an issue of Advocates’ Forum (Charlotte L. Hamilton, “Anti-Drug Legislation and the Rising Incarceration of Women: Recommendations for Future Sentencing Reform,” Advocates’ Forum [2005]: 33-43).
The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 led to a rapid increase in the number of incarcerated Americans. The rate of female incarceration has risen at a particularly high rate over the past 20 years. This article discusses the evolution of drug sentencing policy since 1986. It looks at characteristics of incarcerated women in order to understand how drug policy has influenced this population. The way women participate in the drug trade interacts with minimum sentencing laws to contribute to the rise in female incarceration. The article concludes with policy recommendations for a more equitable drug sentencing system.
A Pilot Is Pretty Sure He Found Amelia Earhart’s Plane
Using Google Earth, Justin Myers found some anomalies near Nikumaroro Island that he thinks are strikingly similar to Earhart’s lost plane.
As Myers poured over the images more, he made out what appeared to him to be even more airplane debris, including what looked like a partially exposed radial engine, and his approximate measurements all aligned with the dimensions of the corresponding parts of the Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart and Noonan had flown.
But if these airplane parts could be seen from Google Earth images, why hadn’t anyone seen them before? Myers suggested to PopMech that “there was an element of luck in spotting that aircraft debris, as Mother Nature had revealed what had been buried on the reef for a long time. I managed to catch some photos before being covered over again by passing weather systems.”
So, Myers assembled his images and his measurements, and was ready to present his findings. But just who do you present such a case to?
“I didn’t know really where to go with this,” Myers wrote in his blog post. “I wrote to the NTSB in the U.S., and they emailed me back saying it was not there [sic] jurisdiction, it was the ATSB, Australian Transport Safety Bureau. So, I filed an official report with the air crash investigation team in Brisbane.”
About
Biographies are how we learn information about another human being’s life. Whether you want to start writing a biography about a famous person, historical figure, or an influential family member, it’s important to know all the elements that make a biography worth both writing and reading.
What Is a Biography?
A biography is a detailed third person account of another person’s life story. It contains basic information about the subject’s life—like their place of birth, education, and interests. A biography may also chronicle relationships with family members, as well as major events in the subject’s childhood and how those influenced their upbringing. A biography details the various accomplishments and life events of a real person, but it’s more than facts and figures—it comes to life with great stories told from beginning to middle to end.
What Is a Biography?
A biography is a detailed third person account of another person’s life story. It contains basic information about the subject’s life—like their place of birth, education, and interests. A biography may also chronicle relationships with family members, as well as major events in the subject’s childhood and how those influenced their upbringing. A biography details the various accomplishments and life events of a real person, but it’s more than facts and figures—it comes to life with great stories told from beginning to middle to end.
Tips on How to Write a Biography
To write the story of a person’s life, you need to know more than just the basic facts. A good biography delves into what is really interesting about a person’s life—noteworthy achievements, moments of adversity, and major turning points. The best biography can encapsulate a subject’s entire life in an engaging way and provide enough personal details to give the reader an intimate look at their character. If you’re interested in writing a biography, the following steps can get you started:
Biographical Statement
Once articles have been selected and accepted for publication each year, authors will be asked to submit a biographical statement to be included in the Advocates’ Forum. The biographical statement should include the author(s) full name. In addition, it is also appropriate to discuss your personal history, academic program and/or field placement, and interest in the article’s subject. The biographical statement may not exceed 75 words. Below is an example taken from the 2009 volume of the Advocates’ Forum:
“Kathryn Saclarides is a second-year social administration student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in bioethics from La Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Her current field placement is with the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC). She is interested in migration patterns, ethnic neighborhoods, and transnational communities.”
Abstract
The abstract should appear on the second page of your manuscript, immediately following the title page. The abstract should briefly summarize the argument advanced in your manuscript, and should be limited to no more than 100 words. For additional guidance on composing abstracts, refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Below is an example taken from an issue of Advocates’ Forum (Charlotte L. Hamilton, “Anti-Drug Legislation and the Rising Incarceration of Women: Recommendations for Future Sentencing Reform,” Advocates’ Forum [2005]: 33-43).
The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 led to a rapid increase in the number of incarcerated Americans. The rate of female incarceration has risen at a particularly high rate over the past 20 years. This article discusses the evolution of drug sentencing policy since 1986. It looks at characteristics of incarcerated women in order to understand how drug policy has influenced this population. The way women participate in the drug trade interacts with minimum sentencing laws to contribute to the rise in female incarceration. The article concludes with policy recommendations for a more equitable drug sentencing system.
A Pilot Is Pretty Sure He Found Amelia Earhart’s Plane
Using Google Earth, Justin Myers found some anomalies near Nikumaroro Island that he thinks are strikingly similar to Earhart’s lost plane.
As Myers poured over the images more, he made out what appeared to him to be even more airplane debris, including what looked like a partially exposed radial engine, and his approximate measurements all aligned with the dimensions of the corresponding parts of the Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart and Noonan had flown.
But if these airplane parts could be seen from Google Earth images, why hadn’t anyone seen them before? Myers suggested to PopMech that “there was an element of luck in spotting that aircraft debris, as Mother Nature had revealed what had been buried on the reef for a long time. I managed to catch some photos before being covered over again by passing weather systems.”
So, Myers assembled his images and his measurements, and was ready to present his findings. But just who do you present such a case to?
“I didn’t know really where to go with this,” Myers wrote in his blog post. “I wrote to the NTSB in the U.S., and they emailed me back saying it was not there [sic] jurisdiction, it was the ATSB, Australian Transport Safety Bureau. So, I filed an official report with the air crash investigation team in Brisbane.”