writing biography research paper

Homework Center – Writing Skills A biography is simply the story of a life. Biographies can be just a few sentences long, or they can fill an entire book—or two. Very short biographies tell the basic facts of someone's life and importance. Longer biographies include that basic information of course, with a lot more detail, but they also tell a good story. Biographies analyze and interpret the events in a person's life. They try to find connections, explain the meaning of unexpected actions or mysteries, and make arguments about the significance of the person's accomplishments or life activities. Biographies are usually about famous, or infamous people, but a biograpy of an ordinary person can tell us a lot about a particular time and place. They are often about historical figures, but they can also be about people still living. Many biographies are written in chronological order. Some group time periods around a major theme (such as early adversity or ambition and achievement ). Still others focus on specific topics or accomplishments. Biographers use primary and secondary sources: Primary sources are things like letters, diaries, or newspaper accounts. Secondary sources include other biographies, reference books, or histories that provide information about the subject of the biography. To write a biography you should: Select a person you are interested in Find out the basic facts of the person's life. Start with the encyclopedia and almanac. Think about what else you would like to know about the person, and what parts of the life you want to write most about. Some questions you might want to think about include: What makes this person special or interesting? What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? other people? What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person? What examples from their life illustrate those qualities? What events shaped.
Welcome to our workshop. Here you can learn how to research and write a biographical sketch — a story about someone's life that tells a lot about who that person is or was. Along the way, you'll find research and writing strategies from us as well as a warm-up exercise to get you started. When you're done writing your biography, you can publish a biography of your own, so what are you waiting for?.
Decide how to recount the person's life. Write an outline and fill in the details. This is the step in which you decide which events in the subject’s life are the important ones, and which ones you will focus on. You should pick these events based on your thesis statement. Try to use the organization to support the thesis. Chronological. Go by the timeline, recounting each significant event in the order in which it happened. This is the simplest way to go, but it's difficult to support your thesis in this context. Flashbacks. Describe a recent or current situation, then flashback to an earlier point in that person's life. This is good for illustrating cause and effect, or how this led to that. You can even go in complete reverse order; begin at the end, and work your way backwards. Work. If the person's life is closely tied to his or her career, you can break it up by job positions or works created. This can be tied to phases or cycles in the subject's life. Accomplishments/events. One idea is to start and end with events that mirror each other in some way. Maybe you can start with a toy boat that the subject made when they were 5, and end off with a military submarine that they designed at age 55. 11Edit step Shape your biography into a narrative. A narrative is a story--you want your biography to flow like a story, to engage the reader and make them care about what happens to your subject and why. Writing a narrative biography means adding engaging language and information and really bringing your subject to life--not just dryly relating the events of his/her life. Make your readers feel like they have known the subject their whole lives. Sit down and write. Using your outline, assemble the biography. If this is an assignment you have been given, follow the instructions while you write. Is there a specific length you are suppose reach? If you are writing an essay.
In the world of essay writing, there are four different types: persuasive, descriptive, expository, and narrative. Most students become comfortable writing persuasive, expository, and descriptive essays because teachers in a wide variety of courses assign them. When it comes to narrative, those are only assigned in language arts courses. Due to their limited experience in writing narrative essays, many students have little to no idea how to write one. If you have been assigned a biographical narrative essay and you need help, here are a few tips: Tell the story. Since you are writing about a person’s life, you need to tell that person’s story. You should include the people, places, and events that made a difference in that person’s life. Be detailed so your readers feel like they are watching the actual events unfold. Be sure you pick a person with a story worth telling. Create a purpose. Just telling a story is not enough for a true narrative essay. The person has to learn something from the experiences, places, and people. You share that point, which is what makes the essay interesting to read and more than just a story. Organize in chronological order. Since life moves in chronological order, your essay should, too. The only parts of the essay that do not have to be in chronological order are the introduction and conclusion paragraphs, simply because of the nature of those paragraphs. Create a thesis or claim. Since nearly every essay is actually persuasive in nature, you need a claim or thesis statement. This claim should be at or near the end of the introduction. Your claim will present the purpose of the essay and the life events that made this realization occur. Your readers will appreciate having an idea of why you chose to write about this person’s life. Include actual names and place. When you are writing about a real person, use the person’s name. After.
If you want to know how to write a strong biographical research paper thesis statement you need to first understand the purpose of the biographical work. The biographical essay is a narrative type of writing, one where you write about the life and the personality of a significant figure who actually lived and was not fiction. The subject must be a real life subject and it must account for one or more important events that took place in the life of the subject while simultaneously describing the key character traits of the subject. This type of assignment requires a thesis statement which states the idea about the life and the achievements of the subject which you are going to explore in the body of your content. In order to come up with a great thesis you have to first select the person whose life is interesting to you. This is considered your subject and what you have your subject you want to make notes about the things you already know about that person and the events that took place in their life. Once this is done you need to gather information about that person and their life so that you can figure out exactly what aspects of their life you want to cover in the span of your assignment. From there you should write down questions that will serve to better direct your research efforts. Based on your research you want to make some decisions about the personality of your subject and what things that person valued, whether their history personally and their character traits influenced their life or decisions, etc. These are important components to your overall creative writing. Finally you can write your thesis statement. Once you have learned a great deal about your subject and you have taken some time to reflect upon their life and their personality you are ready to write your thesis. Remember that this statement should be a single sentence and in the single.
Tetra Images/Getty Images A biography is a written account of the series of events that make up a person's life.Every student will write a biography at some point, but the level of detail and sophistication will differ. A fourth grade biography will be much different from a middle school-level biography or a high school or college-level biography.However, each biography will include the basic details. The first information you should gather in your research will include biographical details and facts. You must use a trustworthy resource to ensure that your information is accurate.Using research note cards, collect the following data, carefully recording the source for each piece of information:Basic details include:Date and place of birth and deathFamily informationLifetime accomplishmentsMajor events of lifeEffects/impact on society, historical significanceWhile this information is necessary to your project, these dry facts, on their own, don't really make a very good biography. Once you've found these basics, you'll want to dig a little deeper.You choose a certain person because you think he or she is interesting, so you certainly don't want to burden your paper with an inventory of boring facts. Your goal is to impress your reader!You'll want to start off with great first sentence.It's a good idea to begin with a really interesting statement, a little known fact, or really intriguing event.You should avoid starting out with a standard but boring line like: Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in 1774. Instead, try starting with something like this: Late one afternoon in October, 1809, Meriwether Lewis arrived at a small log cabin nestled deep in the Tennessee Mountains. By sunrise on the following day, he was dead, having suffered gunshot wounds to the head and chest.You'll have to make sure your beginning is motivating, but it should also be relevant. The next.