What is a Biography Essay?

A biography essay is a detailed description of a person`s life. It should not be just the basic facts about education, family, and death. A biography essay should also involve the information concerning some life experiences and events. The subject of this assignment is someone`s life with the highlight on its different aspects.

To put it simply, you have to tell the story of a person`s life. However, while writing you have to be sure you are able to present everything in the correct perspective. Your paper has to be interesting for readers, as well as engaging and memorable.

All in all, writing a biography essay can be a fun experience. In order to succeed with this task, you should also be aware of some rules and peculiarities. By learning how to complete a good biography essay, you will manage to make a headway with it.

Step-by-step Guide for Biography Essay Writing

1. Research your subject
   The first thing you have to do is to ask a permission from a person whose biography you want to write. It is very important. You have to make sure that the subject of your paper agrees. Getting this permission will facilitate the writing process, and the person will be willing to talk to you directly by providing more valuable information. The next thing to do is to find some information about the subject. You can use some books, letters, pictures, newspapers and newspaper clippings, magazines, internet articles, videos, interviews, existing biographies. All these sources will surely help you. Also, think why this subject is worth to be discussed and whether it will be interesting for people to get to know this information.
2. Interview with the subject and people close to them. It will make your essay more exciting. By interviewing a person, you have a chance to get a story no one else has heard before. It is also a good idea to talk a little to a person`s peers, family members, and friends. They also can have something interesting to tell. You may conduct these interviews by phone or email. However, in person meeting is the best option here.
3. To create a perfect biography essay, it would also be nice to visit some locations that are closely connected with the subject. It can be either a school or a place where he/she spent a childhood. You can also visit some places where some important decisions were made. Take into account the time period in which a person was born and grew up. Do a little research on culture and politics of those times. Not to miss some important facts and events, try to make a timeline of the person’s life. It will help you to organize your work in a proper way.
4. Write the biography. Here you should follow the chronological structure. Start your story from the subject`s birth to the later life. First of all, describe the birth and childhood. Then, the young adulthood and adulthood follow. If a person is still alive, continue telling a story of his/her later life. If not alive, write about death. While writing, do not forget to create a good and effective thesis statement. This will be a sentence with the main idea of your whole biography essay. The thesis statement will help you to organize and structure your essay correctly.
5. Use some flashbacks. It is when you move from the present to the past when telling a story. You can start writing about the present thing and then describe a person`s experience in it in the past. It will make your essay more interesting and engaging.
6. Focus on some important events. These major events may include births, marriages, deaths and great achievements. Try to highlight such moments to show their importance and which changes they have brought to the person`s life. Here you should also identify a major patter in the person`s life.
7. Include your own thoughts about the person. If you are writing a biography of someone`s life, you play a significant role then in making a person`s life story. Do not hesitate whether you should put your own thoughts and opinions about the subject in your essay or not. You should, and it will only add to your paper. Take into account your research and comment on your own views about the person.
8. Polish your work. It is a good idea to show your completed biography to peers, family members or friends. They will provide you with trustworthy feedback. Maybe it will help you to improve the essay and make it really perfect.
   Also, when you are done with writing, you should check your work for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. Poor quality can turn off the readers.
9. Do not forget to cite all sources used in the biography. While writing biographies, the information from books, articles, magazines, and interviews are usually used. Make sure you cited all sources correctly in accordance with your instructor`s requirements.