How to Write a Biography
Benjamin Franklin: Man of a Thousand
Although he went to school only until age ten, he became a well-known printer, author, inventor, and scientist. Then he found time to become one of our country's greatest leaders. he was Benjamin Franklin!
This paragraph could be part of Benjamin Franklin's biography. A biography is the story of a person's life. A biography can be written of anyone, but many are about people who played important roles in history. Biographies tell facts, stories, and interesting details about people and their life's work. Biographies can make history come to life for the reader.
The subject of a biography is the person about whom the story is written. A biography may tell the subject's whole life story or only part of it. It may be written by a family member or friend of the subject, by a historian, or by any author who has studied the subject's life.
You can write a biography of a famous person, someone you know, or someone from your community. To learn how to write a biography, follow these steps.
STEPS IN Writing a Biography
1. Collect Information
Decide about whom you would like to write. You could write about a famous person, a classmate, or someone in your own family. Choose a person who is interesting.
Collect information about your subject. Find as many sources as possible.
Interview your subject.
If the subject is living, try to interview him or her. Write some questions you would like the subject to answer. If the subject is not living, you may be able to find interviews in an article written during the subject's lifetime.
Check reference sources.
If your subject is famous, you can find information about him or her in reference sources. Look in an encyclopedia to find highlights of the person's life. Encyclopedias come in book form, online, or on CD-ROM.
Check other sources.
Books or magazines may give more details than an encyclopedia. They may cover the subject's whole life, or part of the subject's life in detail.
Check online sources.
Many people in history have whole Web sites devoted to them. Sometimes a Web site on a period in history will give information about the famous people of the time.
Take notes.
When you find information you can use, read it carefully and take notes. Write down where you read the information. Include the title of the source, author, date of publication, and page number. If you use a quote, copy it exactly and then write down who said the quote and the source.
2. Organize Your Information
You can organize your information in many ways. Suppose you are telling the events of the subject's life in order, from his or her birth to death. You can create a time line and put important events and dates on it. Divide the time line into the periods of a person's life. For example, you could divide Benjamin Franklin's life into three periods: Before the Revolutionary War, During the Revolutionary War, and After the Revolutionary War.
3. Write a First Draft
Be sure each paragraph has a topic sentence and supporting details. Your biography should make clear why the subject is interesting or famous. You might want to begin by telling why your subject is important, describing an important moment in your subject's life, or by using a quote. Use quotes from your subject or from someone who knew him or her. Quotes make a biography more lively and personal.
4. Revise and Edit
Read your draft. Does it explain what kind of person your subject is or was? Will the information be clear to your reader? Is it well organized in time order or by topic? Ask your class, family, or teacher to read your draft. Ask them if your biography makes them understand why your subject is important. Ask if they have suggestions about how you could improve your biography.
Once you have checked the facts, the order, and the wording, proofread your draft. Check for correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Mark the changes that you need to make to your draft. If you are using a computer, you may want to use the spell-check feature.
5. Make a Final Copy
If you are using a computer, you can make changes directly to your draft document. If you are writing by hand, neatly copy your revised biography onto a clean sheet of paper.
TIPS
▶ Use the tables of contents and indexes from reference sources to find important facts about your subject.
▶ Index cards are a good place to write your notes and keep them organized.