How to Write a Biography Essay?

As a student, you’ve probably written dozens of essays, and it’s hard to surprise you with new requirements. However, some paper types may still confuse you, especially those requiring you to write a paper about someone’s life. If your professor asks you to write a biography essay, you’ll have to dedicate much time to investigation. You’ll need to explore different life periods of a famous person, find intriguing facts, and write a paper that will be interesting to read. Of course, you may think it’s a boring task, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity to dive into the world of a well-known artist, inventor, writer, or musician. How to write an exciting biography essay? Read up our guide to learn the secrets of writing an excellent paper and get the highest grade.

What is a Biography Essay?

A biography essay covers major periods of a person’s life. This paper type has much in common with other essays because an author has to write an engaging, informative story. However, you’ll have to research more aspects than just the most interesting or important years. In some cases, you’ll be asked to explore and analyze the subject’s personality, the most significant events of their life, and how they contributed to the field.

The information you have to cover in your biography essay depends on the task requirements. The person’s place of birth, hobbies, and education are basic details you should include in your paper. Additionally, a professor may ask you to describe the subject’s relationships with their friends and family members, their early years, and the events that influenced their lives.

If you’re a good storyteller, you’ll write a biography essay that will capture the reader’s attention even though some details may be ordinary or dull. But if you don’t have outstanding writing skills, you can find it hard to describe facts and events interestingly. So, use our guide to tell a captivating story so that a reader could easily imagine every detail in their head.

How to Start a Biography Essay?

When writing a biography essay, you should focus not just on basic details. Thorough research will help you discover the most intriguing facts concerning their achievements, ups and downs, relationships, personal qualities and habits. Even though a biography is a collection of facts, you can describe the subject’s life in an engaging way. Your essay should appeal to the reader’s emotions and allow them to feel the connection with the person you’re writing about.

Before writing a biography, it’s necessary to prepare a strong background. Even if you already know a lot about a person you have to write about, you should take these steps to present a worthy paper:

1. Pick a subject

If you can choose a person to write about, you have to focus on someone who inspires you. You’ll be excited to investigate their life and find new interesting details. Besides, you’ll put your heart and soul into your paper because it’s easier to find the right words and describe the subject you like. You can also pick a famous person whose life has been described a thousand times before so that it could be easy to find information about them. Check any biography essay example to know how to write about the person’s early years, their achievements, most significant events in their lives, etc.

2. Conduct exhaustive research

Your biography essay must be based on facts, so you should choose only credible sources. You can use journals, interviews, memoirs, documentaries, and biography books. If a famous person you have to write about is alive, you can check and use information from their social media pages or personal website. The more information you’ll find, the clearer understanding of the subject you’ll have. If you have to write an essay about a historical figure, you can use archival documents, newspapers, and online databases. You’ll also have to describe the time period this person lived in and how it influenced their life and career.

3. Write an outline

An outline will make writing a biography essay less challenging, so you shouldn’t miss a chance to craft it. You’ll have to check the task requirements to structure your paper properly. Usually, students need to write 5-paragraph essays containing an introduction, body text, and a conclusion. In this case, the body part should contain three or more paragraphs.

Biography Essay Topics

Ansel Adams Biography
Biography Of Oscar Wilde
Biography Of Abraham Lincoln
Leonard Norman Cohen Biography
Cole Porter Biography
Ellen DeGeneres Biography
Biography Of James Hutton
Stevie Wonder Biography
Biography Of Harry Hess
Jimmy Wayne Biography
Pablo Neruda Biography And Works
Biography Of Arthur Miller

Biography Essay Outline

The purpose of an outline is to help you present information in your biography essay logically. Of course, academic instructions may require you to use a non-common structure. As we’ve mentioned before, a typical essay consists of five parts, but a professor can ask you to conduct deeper research and write a larger paper. However, you should follow basic rules that are applicable to any structure:

An introduction is an opening part of the biography essay. The first paragraph should contain information about the subject of your paper. You can include their quote or an intriguing fact from their life to captivate the reader’s attention.
A body text is the main part of your essay, so it will contain the most important information. You can divide it into sections and describe every life period in a different paragraph. Achievements and other details should be presented separately too. Remember that every point should be described in a new paragraph.
You’ll mention the subject’s essential achievements, the importance of their works, and the way they influenced society in the final section.

Biography Essay Examples

Although you may think it’s easy to find information about someone’s life and rewrite an article or a paragraph from a book, writing a biography can be compared to art. An author should have strong writing skills to turn a collection of facts into an exciting story. Check these biography essay examples to write an interesting paper:

How to Format a Biography Essay?

The biography essay format depends on the requirements provided by your professor. Usually, a teacher informs students about the paper length, font size, and preferred style. We’ve prepared a few recommendations to help you make your biography essay look brilliant:

Use a chronological structure to connect the details logically. Describe the person’s childhood first, and then describe their academic years, adulthood, and later life. If the subject is dead, add information about their death, including the date and circumstances.
Write a thesis statement and connect the content of your biography essay with the main idea of your thesis. For example, if the person influenced the development of the civil rights movement, refer to this point while writing. Mention the events that motivated them to act and describe their accomplishments.
Include flashbacks to explain the subject’s personality or events that motivated them to move on. For example, you can describe their present days and add a scene from their childhood or youth. Use the notes you’ve taken while making research.
Write about the most important events to grab the reader’s attention. Include the person’s birth and death dates, marriages, first publications or exhibitions, significant achievements, etc.

Biography Essay Writing Tips

Writing a story about someone’s life is an exciting, yet challenging journey. Use our tips to enjoy the process and get a top grade:

Express your thoughts carefully

You can share your thoughts in a biography essay, but you have to choose the information you can comment on carefully. For example, it’s unnecessary to judge the person’s behavior or decisions even if you disagree with them. But you can explain why you think the subject’s achievements are significant and important. Of course, you’ll have to back up your thoughts with sound evidence.

Include exclusive facts

If you manage to find interesting information no one knows about, you’ll find the key to the reader’s heart. Usually, the most interesting details are uncovered during the interviews with this person, and you are unlikely to talk to a famous person unless they’re a local celebrity. However, you can find intriguing details in articles, memoirs, and biography books dedicated to them.

Show your biography essay to someone

Ask your roommate, friend, or parents to read your paper and give feedback. They’ll notice the errors you could have missed, tell you whether it’s easy to read your text and comment on your writing style. Don’t be afraid of criticism because it’s the best way to understand the needs of your audience and improve your biography essay.

Write My Biography Essay for Me, Please!

A good biography essay allows a reader to dive into someone’s world and feel as if they know them personally. Use the tricks from our guide to write an engaging story and make the reader a part of the famous person’s life for a while. You can also use a sample biography essay to learn how to write a brilliant paper or ask an experienced writer to get the work done for you. If you decide to go for the latter option, you’ll receive a real masterpiece that will impress even the most demanding professor.

References

Written by:

Janelle Harris

Janelle Harris is a Colorado-based writer with over eleven years of academic writing experience. She graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with an MBA degree. Janelle is a passionate expert who believes that assignment instructions must always be impeccably followed.