How to Create a Good Biographical Essay

Writing a biographical essay might not come to you as easy as you would expect. Like any other type of writing, it demands initial preparation and considerable skill. A biography essay is meant not only to tell a story but also deliver a message. For this reason, you need to put in a great deal of effort when working on your paper. To make your life easier and help you succeed, we’ve created a list of practical guidelines to composing an excellent biographical essay. To demonstrate how these tips can be put to practice, we’ve decided to take the life of a genial host of The Alan Colmes Show on Fox News Radio and Hannity & Colmes program on Fox News Channel, Alan Colmes, as an example. So read on and make notes!

To-Do List for Your Biographical Essay:

Research Your Subject

Before you begin writing, you need to gather enough information about a person of your interest. You will have to consult different sources to check whether the data you collected is valid.

If you choose to write about a celebrity, there is a great chance you will bump into much inaccuracy and gossip. Famous people are often talked about, which sometimes makes it hard to distinguish between truth and various kinds of lies.

To ensure your essay is based on facts, spend some time researching the person you are writing about and rely on credible sources.

Develop a Sound Argument

A biographical essay suggests you tell a story of a person, but it also needs you to make a point. A reader should find it interesting to learn something from your essay, and exciting life events don’t always cover for that. Your paper should have a purpose, and the story you tell should convey that message and mean something to the reader.

Create a Comprehensive Outline

One of the best writing practices is to make an outline before you start writing. A detailed and well-organized outline will help you develop a logical, smoothly built essay and organize the factual information you’ve gathered.

It will also make it easier for you to arrange your ideas into coherent paragraphs. Having an extended outline guarantees your essay will include all crucial aspects.

Write a Draft Based on the Outline

After your outline is done, you can start writing a biography essay. It usually consists of five paragraphs, but more body paragraphs can be added if needed. To compose a proper biographical essay, make sure to include the following:

1.Title

A catchy title will draw people’s attention, and that’s what you need. It is the very first thing readers notice about any piece of written material. Therefore, you need to brainstorm the ideas for a conspicuous title and choose the most interesting one.

Say, you want to write a biographical essay about Alan Samuel Colmes (check out his website at www.alan.com). After a thorough research and careful analysis, you could consider choosing a title for your essay that resonates with Colmes’s personality, such as “Why Alan Colmes Was a True Liberal,””Alan Colmes: Fox News’ Patsy”or “In Search of a Nice Guy.”Each of the suggested titles shows the contradictory aspects of his persona that might interest the reader.

2.Introductory paragraph

You should grab your readers’ attention from the very beginning. That’s why you need to fashion an exciting introduction that offers some piece of information the reader might not know, an impressive accomplishment or funny story from a person’s life. Your task here is to get the readers on the hook so that they keep reading.

Here’s how your introductory paragraph could look like:

Alan Samuel Colmes was a well-known American radio and television host, writer, blogger, and political commentator. His talk radio program The Alan Colmes Show has been broadcast for 14 years on Fox News Radio and other radio stations. From 1996 to 2009, Colmes was a co-host of an American live TV show called Hannity & Colmes broadcast on Fox News Channel. In spite of being called “a token liberal”and “the human straw man,”Colmes demonstrated a steadfast tolerance and benign humor even in the most poignant moments.

3.Thesis statement

The introductory paragraph should end with a thesis statement that presents your main argument. The idea behind the essay should be reflected in the last sentence of the introduction. Thesis reveals your intentions, i.e. what the moral of the story will be.

Writing about Alan Colmes, you might want to dig into the nature of his political views and attitudes to political issues and politicians.

4.Body paragraphs

The body of the essay should be logically arranged. It is better to describe events in chronological order. You will also need to support your thesis statement providing relevant facts and details. Use the information you’ve found when researching the topic to develop the idea presented in the thesis.

Some people’s lives are very eventful, so you need to focus on the most important moments of their life. Make sure each paragraph contains some details and examples that support your thesis statement.

4.Conclusion

The concluding paragraph should summarize all the discussed ideas and restate the thesis. However, it is not the only purpose the conclusion has. At the end of a biographical essay, the readers should see how what they’ve read relates to the modern world or their personal issues. Talk about legacy, influence, and contribution.

Proofread and edit the final draft

After your final draft is finished, set it aside for some time. If your deadline allows, get back to your essay in few hours or even a day. You will be able to look at your paper from a new angle and see whether it appeals to you on the expected level. So after a break, read the essay again and make the final corrections.

If you are still not sure how to write a biographical essay, you might need professional help. The samples provided above are not a proper biographical essay example as you will require a fully written paper. In such case, you can buy a biographical essay from our company and be sure it will be written according to your instructions.