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Biography Sentence Starters

Biography sentence starters are a great way to begin writing a biography or autobiography. They can provide structure, direction, and inspiration for your story. These sentence starters can help you craft an engaging narrative and bring life to your story. They can also help you focus on key elements of a biography, such as a person’s accomplishments, struggles, and relationships. Once you start writing, you can use these sentence starters to create a powerful story that captures your subject’s life experience.

What is a Biography?

A biography is a detailed account of a person’s life, typically including their experiences, relationships, and accomplishments. It is written by a biographer, usually in the form of a book or essay. Biographies provide readers with a glimpse into the life of an individual, from their childhood experiences to their successes and failures. They offer insight into the motivations and passions of the subject, and can even provide a glimpse into the future of the individual. Biographies are often used to inspire readers, as well as to provide a comprehensive understanding of a person’s life. Whether one is reading a biography of a famous celebrity, a great leader, or a relative, biographies offer an opportunity to gain insight into the human experience.

Benefits of Writing a Biography

Writing a biography is an excellent way to share someone’s life story with the world. It can help to capture the essence of someone’s life and showcase their achievements, struggles, and impact on society. In addition to creating a lasting legacy, there are a number of other benefits of writing a biography.

Biographies can provide an opportunity to learn from the past. They can help introduce readers to people they may not have otherwise known about, and share the lessons learned from their experiences. Biographies can also help to inform and shape future generations by allowing readers to gain insight into how others have solved problems or navigated difficult times.

Moreover, biographies can help foster empathy and understanding. By reading about someone’s life, readers can gain perspective on their own experiences and gain insight into the perspectives and feelings of others.

Finally, biographies can be an excellent source of inspiration. Reading about someone’s accomplishments can be motivating and can help provide readers with the courage to pursue their own ambitions.

Writing a biography can be a great way to honor someone’s life and to spark meaningful conversations. By considering the benefits outlined above, authors can create compelling biographies that will have a lasting impact.

Identifying Your Audience

Having a clear understanding of your target audience is essential when crafting a biography. Knowing who you are trying to reach with your story can help you to determine the tone and language of your piece. Consider the age, gender, and interests of the readers that you want to reach and tailor your writing to them. Additionally, you may want to consider the geographical locations of your readers and vary the way you refer to certain places to better capture their attention. Keeping in mind the type of readers you are aiming to engage with can help you to create a more effective and engaging biography.

Types of Biographies

Biographies come in many different types, each with its own unique purpose. Whether you are looking to write a short personal profile or a full-length academic biography, there are some common elements and sentence starters that can help you get started. Knowing the different types of biographies will help you structure your story and make the writing process easier.

Autobiographies tell the life story of the person who wrote it. They provide a first-person account of the writer’s life, from childhood to adulthood. Autobiographies often include anecdotes, personal reflections, and insights into the person’s life. To start, consider using a sentence like, “My life has been shaped by my experiences and the people I have encountered.”

Biographies focus on the life of a particular person. They can be written about famous people such as politicians, artists, or scientists, or about everyday people in your community. To capture the person’s essence, consider using a sentence like, “John Smith was a man of many talents and passions.”

Collective biographies are written about a group of people, such as a family or a business. They provide an overview of the group’s history and accomplishments, as well as individual stories and profiles. To introduce the group of people, try a sentence like, “The Johnson family has been an integral part of the local community for generations.”

Finally, hagiographies, or saints’ lives, are biographies written about holy figures. These provide an in-depth look into the person’s life and the impact they had on the world. To begin, try a sentence like, “Saint Mary was a woman of immense faith and determination.”

No matter which type of biography you are writing, understanding the various types and sentence starters can help you craft a compelling story. With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to create a captivating biography that you can be proud of.

Tips for Writing a Biography

Writing a biography can be a daunting task, but with a few simple tips, you can get started on your masterpiece. Before you begin, consider collecting meaningful quotes, stories, and anecdotes from the person you’re writing about. This will help you craft a more detailed and accurate portrait of the subject. Additionally, you should outline the main points of the biography and divide the work into sections. This will make the process of writing much easier.

When writing the biography, make sure to use active verbs and detailed descriptions. Additionally, you should consider the audience of the biography and use language they will understand. Additionally, be sure to incorporate relevant facts about the subject’s life, such as their education, profession, and accomplishments.

Finally, remember to proofread your work. With a few simple steps, you can craft an accurate, engaging, and informative biography. Start by gathering quotes, stories, and anecdotes, then outline the main points of the biography and divide the work into sections. Make sure to use active verbs and detailed descriptions, and consider the audience of the biography. Incorporate relevant facts about the subject’s life, and proofread your work. By following these tips, you’ll be able to write a compelling biography that captures the life of the subject.

Examples of Biography Sentence Starters

Biography sentence starters are a great way to get started on writing a biography. Whether you are writing a biography for a school project or for a professional purpose, these sentence starters can provide you with a good foundation to develop the story of someone’s life. From childhood to adulthood, these sentence starters can help you capture the story of any individual.

When it comes to writing a biography, it is important to make sure that the sentences you use are creative and informative. Using sentence starters can help you craft a compelling story of someone’s life, from their early days to their later achievements. Below are some examples of sentence starters that can help you get started on writing a biography about someone.

For childhood: “From a young age, [Name] was always interested in…”

For education: “[Name] went on to attend [Name of School] to further their studies in…”

For accomplishments: “Throughout their life, [Name] achieved many successes, including…”

For later years: “In their later years, [Name] was admired for their…”

By using these biography sentence starters, you can craft a compelling story of someone’s life. They can serve as the foundation for the narrative, helping to provide structure and focus to your writing. Once you have outlined the facts, you can then add further details to develop the story. Remember that the goal of writing a biography is to capture the personality of the individual, so be sure to include details that will bring the story to life.

FAQs About the Biography Sentence Starters

Q1: How can I use biography sentence starters to write my biography? A1: Biography sentence starters can be a great help when writing a biography. They provide ideas and starting points for writing your story, whether it is about yourself or someone else.

Q2: What kind of information should I include in my biography? A2: The information you include in your biography should depend on the type of biography you are writing. Generally, biographies include information about the person’s life, accomplishments, and legacy.

Q3: What are some examples of biography sentence starters? A3: Examples of biography sentence starters include: “Born on [date], [person] was a [adjective] [profession].”, “[Person] was known for [accomplishment].”, “[Person] made a lasting contribution to [field/cause].”, “[Person] left a legacy of [legacy].”, etc.

Biography sentence starters are a great tool for those who are new to writing biographies. They provide an easy way to get started, and to help focus the writing process. They can also be used to help create structure and provide guidance for the overall writing. By using these sentence starters, writers can begin crafting an engaging and informative biography that will capture the essence of the subject.

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How to Write a Biography

Biographies are big business. Whether in book form or Hollywood biopics, the lives of the famous and sometimes not-so-famous fascinate us.

While it’s true that most biographies are about people who are in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. Primarily, though, famous or not, the person who is written about has led an incredible life.

In this article, we will explain biography writing in detail for teachers and students so they can create their own.

While your students will most likely have a basic understanding of a biography, it’s worth taking a little time before they put pen to paper to tease out a crystal-clear definition of one.

What Is a Biography?

A biography is an account of someone’s life written by someone else . While there is a genre known as a fictional biography, for the most part, biographies are, by definition, nonfiction.

Generally speaking, biographies provide an account of the subject’s life from the earliest days of childhood to the present day or, if the subject is deceased, their death.

The job of a biography is more than just to outline the bare facts of a person’s life.

Rather than just listing the basic details of their upbringing, hobbies, education, work, relationships, and death, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of the subject’s personality and experience of life.

Full Biographies

Teaching unit.

Teach your students everything they need to know about writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY and a BIOGRAPHY.

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Features of a Biography

Before students begin writing a biography, they’ll need to have a firm grasp of the main features of a Biography. An excellent way to determine how well they understand these essential elements is to ask them to compile a checklist like the one-blow

Their checklists should contain the items below at a minimum. Be sure to help them fill in any gaps before moving on to the writing process.

The purpose of a biography is to provide an account of someone’s life.

Biography structure.

ORIENTATION (BEGINNING) Open your biography with a strong hook to grab the reader’s attention

SEQUENCING: In most cases, biographies are written in chronological order unless you are a very competent writer consciously trying to break from this trend.

COVER: childhood, upbringing, education, influences, accomplishments, relationships, etc. – everything that helps the reader to understand the person.

CONCLUSION: Wrap your biography up with some details about what the subject is doing now if they are still alive. If they have passed away, make mention of what impact they have made and what their legacy is or will be.

BIOGRAPHY FEATURES

LANGUAGE Use descriptive and figurative language that will paint images inside your audience’s minds as they read. Use time connectives to link events.

PERSPECTIVE Biographies are written from the third person’s perspective.

DETAILS: Give specific details about people, places, events, times, dates, etc. Reflect on how events shaped the subject. You might want to include some relevant photographs with captions. A timeline may also be of use depending upon your subject and what you are trying to convey to your audience.

TENSE Written in the past tense (though ending may shift to the present/future tense)

THE PROCESS OF WRITING A BIOGRAPHY

Like any form of writing, you will find it simple if you have a plan and follow it through. These steps will ensure you cover the essential bases of writing a biography essay.

Firstly, select a subject that inspires you. Someone whose life story resonates with you and whose contribution to society intrigues you. The next step is to conduct thorough research. Engage in extensive reading, explore various sources, watch documentaries, and glean all available information to provide a comprehensive account of the person’s life.

Creating an outline is essential to organize your thoughts and information. The outline should include the person’s early life, education, career, achievements, and any other significant events or contributions. It serves as a map for the writing process, ensuring that all vital information is included.

Your biography should have an engaging introduction that captivates the reader’s attention and provides background information on the person you’re writing about. It should include a thesis statement summarising the biography’s main points.

Writing a biography in chronological order is crucial . You should begin with the person’s early life and move through their career and achievements. This approach clarifies how the person’s life unfolded and how they accomplished their goals.

A biography should be written in a narrative style , capturing the essence of the person’s life through vivid descriptions, anecdotes, and quotes. Avoid dry, factual writing and focus on creating a compelling narrative that engages the reader.

Adding personal insights and opinions can enhance the biography’s overall impact, providing a unique perspective on the person’s achievements, legacy, and impact on society.

Editing and proofreading are vital elements of the writing process. Thoroughly reviewing your biography ensures that the writing is clear, concise, and error-free. You can even request feedback from someone else to ensure that it is engaging and well-written.

Finally, including a bibliography at the end of your biography is essential. It gives credit to the sources that were used during research, such as books, articles, interviews, and websites.

Tips for Writing a Brilliant Biography

Biography writing tip #1: choose your subject wisely.

There are several points for students to reflect on when deciding on a subject for their biography. Let’s take a look at the most essential points to consider when deciding on the subject for a biography:

Interest: To produce a biography will require sustained writing from the student. That’s why students must choose their subject well. After all, a biography is an account of someone’s entire life to date. Students must ensure they choose a subject that will sustain their interest throughout the research, writing, and editing processes.

Merit: Closely related to the previous point, students must consider whether the subject merits the reader’s interest. Aside from pure labors of love, writing should be undertaken with the reader in mind. While producing a biography demands sustained writing from the author, it also demands sustained reading from the reader.

Therefore, students should ask themselves if their chosen subject has had a life worthy of the reader’s interest and the time they’d need to invest in reading their biography.

Information: Is there enough information available on the subject to fuel the writing of an entire biography? While it might be a tempting idea to write about a great-great-grandfather’s experience in the war. There would be enough interest there to sustain the author’s and the reader’s interest, but do you have enough access to information about their early childhood to do the subject justice in the form of a biography?

Biography Writing Tip #2: R esearch ! Research! Research!

While the chances are good that the student already knows quite a bit about the subject they’ve chosen. Chances are 100% that they’ll still need to undertake considerable research to write their biography.

As with many types of writing , research is an essential part of the planning process that shouldn’t be overlooked. If students wish to give as complete an account of their subject’s life as possible, they’ll need to put in the time at the research stage.

An effective way to approach the research process is to:

1. Compile a chronological timeline of the central facts, dates, and events of the subject’s life

2. Compile detailed descriptions of the following personal traits:

•      Physical looks
•      Character traits
•      Values and beliefs

3. Compile some research questions based on different topics to provide a focus for the research:

• Childhood : Where and when were they born? Who were their parents? Who were the other family members? What education did they receive?
• Obstacles: What challenges did they have to overcome? How did these challenges shape them as individuals?
• Legacy: What impact did this person have on the world and/or the people around them?
• Dialogue & Quotes: Dialogue and quotations by and about the subject are a great way to bring color and life to a biography. Students should keep an eagle eye out for the gems that hide amid their sources.

As the student gets deeper into their research, new questions will arise that can further fuel the research process and help to shape the direction the biography will ultimately go in.

Likewise, during the research, themes will often begin to suggest themselves. Exploring these themes is essential to bring depth to biography, but we’ll discuss this later in this article.

Research Skills:

Researching for biography writing is an excellent way for students to hone their research skills in general. Developing good research skills is essential for future academic success. Students will have opportunities to learn how to:

• Gather relevant information
• Evaluate different information sources
• Select suitable information
• Organize information into a text.

Students will have access to print and online information sources, and, in some cases, they may also have access to people who knew or know the subject (e.g. biography of a family member).

These days, much of the research will likely take place online. It’s crucial, therefore, to provide your students with guidance on how to use the internet safely and evaluate online sources for reliability. This is the era of ‘ fake news ’ and misinformation after all!

COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS USING GOOGLE SEARCH

Teach your students ESSENTIAL SKILLS OF THE INFORMATION ERA to become expert DIGITAL RESEARCHERS.

⭐How to correctly ask questions to search engines on all devices.

⭐ How to filter and refine your results to find exactly what you want every time.

⭐ Essential Research and critical thinking skills for students.

⭐ Plagiarism, Citing and acknowledging other people’s work.

⭐ How to query, synthesize and record your findings logically.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip #3: Find Your Themes In Biography Writing

Though predominantly a nonfiction genre, the story still plays a significant role in good biography writing. The skills of characterization and plot structuring are transferable here. And, just like in fiction, exploring themes in a biographical work helps connect the personal to the universal. Of course, these shouldn’t be forced; this will make the work seem contrived, and the reader may lose faith in the truthfulness of the account. A biographer needs to gain and maintain the trust of the reader.

Fortunately, themes shouldn’t need to be forced. A life well-lived is full of meaning, and the themes the student writer is looking for will emerge effortlessly from the actions and events of the subject’s life. It’s just a case of learning how to spot them.

One way to identify the themes in a life is to look for recurring events or situations in a person’s life. These should be apparent from the research completed previously. The students should seek to identify these patterns that emerge in the subject’s life. For example, perhaps they’ve had to overcome various obstacles throughout different periods of their life. In that case, the theme of overcoming adversity is present and has been identified.

Usually, a biography has several themes running throughout, so be sure your students work to identify more than one theme in their subject’s life.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip: #4 Put Something of Yourself into the Writing

While the defining feature of a biography is that it gives an account of a person’s life, students must understand that this is not all a biography does. Relating the facts and details of a subject’s life is not enough. The student biographer should not be afraid to share their thoughts and feelings with the reader throughout their account of their subject’s life.

The student can weave some of their personality into the fabric of the text by providing commentary and opinion as they relate the events of the person’s life and the wider social context at the time. Unlike the detached and objective approach we’d expect to find in a history textbook, in a biography, student-writers should communicate their enthusiasm for their subject in their writing.

This makes for a more intimate experience for the reader, as they get a sense of getting to know the author and the subject they are writing about.

Biography Examples For Students

• Year 5 Example
• Year 7 Example
• Year 9 Example

“The Rock ‘n’ Roll King: Elvis Presley”

Elvis Aaron Presley, born on January 8, 1935, was an amazing singer and actor known as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Even though he’s been dead for nearly 50 years, I can’t help but be fascinated by his incredible life!

Elvis grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a tiny house with his parents and twin brother. His family didn’t have much money, but they shared a love for music. Little did they know Elvis would become a music legend!

When he was only 11 years old, Elvis got his first guitar. He taught himself to play and loved singing gospel songs. As he got older, he started combining different music styles like country, blues, and gospel to create a whole new sound – that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll!

In 1954, at the age of 19, Elvis recorded his first song, “That’s All Right.” People couldn’t believe how unique and exciting his music was. His famous hip-swinging dance moves also made him a sensation!

Elvis didn’t just rock the music scene; he also starred in movies like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.” But fame came with challenges. Despite facing ups and downs, Elvis kept spreading happiness through his music.

Tragically, Elvis passed away in 1977, but his music and charisma live on. Even today, people worldwide still enjoy his songs like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Elvis Presley’s legacy as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll will live forever.

Long Live the King: I wish I’d seen him.

Elvis Presley, the Rock ‘n’ Roll legend born on January 8, 1935, is a captivating figure that even a modern-day teen like me can’t help but admire. As I delve into his life, I wish I could have experienced the magic of his live performances.

Growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis faced challenges but found solace in music. At 11, he got his first guitar, a symbol of his journey into the world of sound. His fusion of gospel, country, and blues into Rock ‘n’ Roll became a cultural phenomenon.

The thought of being in the audience during his early performances, especially when he recorded “That’s All Right” at 19, sends shivers down my spine. Imagining the crowd’s uproar and feeling the revolutionary energy of that moment is a dream I wish I could have lived.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical prodigy; he was a dynamic performer. His dance moves, the embodiment of rebellion, and his roles in films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock” made him a true icon.

After watching him on YouTube, I can’t help but feel a little sad that I’ll never witness the King’s live performances. The idea of swaying to “Hound Dog” or being enchanted by “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in person is a missed opportunity. Elvis may have left us in 1977, but he was the king of rock n’ roll. Long live the King!

Elvis Presley: A Teen’s Take on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Icon”

Elvis Presley, born January 8, 1935, was a revolutionary force in the music world, earning his title as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Exploring his life, even as a 16-year-old today, I’m captivated by the impact he made.

Hailing from Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis grew up in humble beginnings, surrounded by the love of his parents and twin brother. It’s inspiring to think that, despite financial challenges, this young man would redefine the music scene.

At 11, Elvis got his first guitar, sparking a self-taught journey into music. His early gospel influences evolved into a unique fusion of country, blues, and gospel, creating the electrifying genre of Rock ‘n’ Roll. In 1954, at only 19, he recorded “That’s All Right,” marking the birth of a musical legend.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical innovator; he was a cultural phenomenon. His rebellious dance moves and magnetic stage presence challenged the norms. He transitioned seamlessly into acting, starring in iconic films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

However, fame came at a cost, and Elvis faced personal struggles. Despite the challenges, his music continued to resonate. Even now, classics like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” transcend generations.

Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is undeniable. He was known for his unique voice, charismatic persona, and electrifying performances. He sold over one billion records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling solo artists in history. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including three Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elvis’s influence can still be seen in today’s music. Many contemporary artists, such as Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake, have cited Elvis as an inspiration. His music continues to be featured in movies, TV shows, and commercials.

Elvis left us in 1977, but his legacy lives on. I appreciate his breaking barriers and fearlessly embracing his artistic vision. Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is timeless, a testament to the enduring power of his artistry. His music has inspired generations and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING TEACHING IDEAS AND LESSONS

We have compiled a sequence of biography-related lessons or teaching ideas that you can follow as you please. They are straightforward enough for most students to follow without further instruction.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 1:

This session aims to give students a broader understanding of what makes a good biography.

Once your students have compiled a comprehensive checklist of the main features of a biography, allow them to use it to assess some biographies from your school library or on the internet using the feature checklist.

When students have assessed a selection of biographies, take some time as a class to discuss them. You can base the discussion around the following prompts:

• Which biographies covered all the criteria from their checklist?
• Which biographies didn’t?
• Which biography was the most readable in terms of structure?
• Which biography do you think was the least well-structured? How would you improve this?

Looking at how other writers have interpreted the form will help students internalize the necessary criteria before attempting to produce a biography. Once students have a clear understanding of the main features of the biography, they’re ready to begin work on writing a biography.

When the time does come to put pen to paper, be sure they’re armed with the following top tips to help ensure they’re as well prepared as possible.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 2:

This session aims to guide students through the process of selecting the perfect biography subject.

Instruct students to draw up a shortlist of three potential subjects for the biography they’ll write.

Using the three criteria mentioned in the writing guide (Interest, Merit, and Information), students award each potential subject a mark out of 5 for each of the criteria. In this manner, students can select the most suitable subject for their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 3:

This session aims to get students into the researching phase, then prioritise and organise events chronologically.

Students begin by making a timeline of their subject’s life, starting with their birth and ending with their death or the present day. If the student has yet to make a final decision on the subject of their biography, a family member will often serve well for this exercise as a practice exercise.

Students should research and gather the key events of the person’s life, covering each period of their life from when they were a baby, through childhood and adolescence, right up to adulthood and old age. They should then organize these onto a timeline. Students can include photographs with captions if they have them.

They can present these to the class when they have finished their timelines.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 4:

Instruct students to look over their timeline, notes, and other research. Challenge them to identify three patterns that repeat throughout the subject’s life and sort all the related events and incidents into specific categories.

Students should then label each category with a single word. This is the thematic concept or the broad general underlying idea. After that, students should write a sentence or two expressing what the subject’s life ‘says’ about that concept.

This is known as the thematic statement . With the thematic concepts and thematic statements identified, the student now has some substantial ideas to explore that will help bring more profound meaning and wider resonance to their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 5:

Instruct students to write a short objective account of an event in their own life. They can write about anyone from their past. It needn’t be more than a couple of paragraphs, but the writing should be strictly factual, focusing only on the objective details of what happened.

Once they have completed this, it’s time to rewrite the paragraph, but they should include some opinion and personal commentary this time.

The student here aims to inject some color and personality into their writing, to transform a detached, factual account into a warm, engaging story.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING BIOGRAPHIES

Teach your students to write AMAZING BIOGRAPHIES & AUTOBIOGRAPHIES using proven RESEARCH SKILLS and WRITING STRATEGIES .

• Understand the purpose of both forms of biography.
• Explore the language and perspective of both.
• Prompts and Challenges to engage students in writing a biography.
• Dedicated lessons for both forms of biography.
• Biographical Projects can expand students’ understanding of reading and writing a biography.
• A COMPLETE 82-PAGE UNIT – NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.

FREE Biography Writing Graphic Organizer

Use this valuable tool in the research and writing phases to keep your students on track and engaged.

WRITING CHECKLIST & RUBRIC BUNDLE

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To Conclude

By this stage, your students should have an excellent technical overview of a biography’s essential elements.

They should be able to choose their subject in light of how interesting and worthy they are, as well as give consideration to the availability of information out there. They should be able to research effectively and identify emerging themes in their research notes. And finally, they should be able to bring some of their personality and uniqueness into their retelling of the life of another.

Remember that writing a biography is not only a great way to develop a student’s writing skills; it can be used in almost all curriculum areas. For example, to find out more about a historical figure in History, to investigate scientific contributions to Science, or to celebrate a hero from everyday life.

Biography is an excellent genre for students to develop their writing skills and to find inspiration in the lives of others in the world around them.

HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY TUTORIAL VIDEO

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO BIOGRAPHY WRITING

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15 Awesome Recount & Personal Narrative Topics

Personal Narrative Writing Guide

How to Write a Biography in 8 Steps (The Non-Boring Way!)

Compelling biographies help us better connect with others while fostering empathy and understanding. Discover the steps to write one that captivates your audience!

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Have you ever been captivated by someone’s life story? From the ancient tales of great conquerors to the modern accounts of influential figures, biographies have enchanted readers and viewers for centuries. 

The stories of real people’s lives not only entertain and educate but also provide a unique window into the human experience. In fact, according to research 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8796048/ , human stories like biographies can help us better connect with others while fostering empathy and understanding.

In this article, let’s dive into how to write a compelling biography, from the research phase to delivery.

What Are the Key Elements of a Biography?

The key elements of a well-written biography bring characters to life. They include thorough research, relevant interviews, clear structure, captivating prose, compelling themes, and a balance between objectivity and empathy. 

• Thorough research: Helps create an accurate portrayal of your subject
• Relevant interviews: Insights help provide a deeper understanding of your subject
• Clear structure: Helps you outline your ideas for a compelling narrative
• Captivating prose: Provides descriptive language to paint a picture of your subject
• Compelling themes: Showcases the motivations and desires behind your subject
• A balance between objectivity and empathy: Keeps biases in check and allows your subject to shine for who they are

As you develop your biography, remember that these stories hold an enduring appeal because they offer people an opportunity to explore the depths of the human psyche, unravel extraordinary accomplishments, and discover the vulnerabilities and triumphs of individuals who have left their mark on the world. 

Here are the topics a biography typically covers:

• Early life and background : Provide context about the subject’s upbringing, family, and cultural influences.
• Achievements and milestones: Highlight notable accomplishments, contributions, and significant events throughout their life.
• Challenges and struggles: Explore the obstacles they faced, the lessons learned, and how they overcame adversity.
• Personal characteristics: Describe their personality traits, values, beliefs, and motivations that shaped their actions and decisions.
• Impact and legacy: Discuss the lasting influence and contributions of the subject, both during their lifetime and beyond.

Ready to start crafting your biography? Find greater success with this helpful goal-setting resource!

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Let’s look at the six key elements of a well-written biography more closely and the steps you can follow to develop your own.

How to Write a Biography in 8 Steps Using Key Elements

Choose your presentation format.

Presenting your biography can take on various forms, the most traditional being written form. The basis for this article assumes you’re writing a conventional biography; however, this foundation can also help you create a multimedia presentation or website as well. 

Consider these various formats to present your biography:

• Traditional Written Biographies: This classic approach provides a comprehensive account of a person’s life through the written word. Traditional biographies can be published in print or ebooks , allowing readers to engage deeply with the subject’s story.
• Multimedia Presentations: In the digital age, multimedia presentations offer a dynamic way to present biographies. Incorporate audio, video, photographs, and interactive elements to enhance the audience’s experience.
• Online Platforms: Online platforms, such as blogs or dedicated biography websites, provide accessible avenues for sharing biographies. They allow for easy updates, reader engagement, and the incorporation of multimedia elements. 

Choose your subject and conduct research

To create a vivid and accurate portrayal of a person’s life, conduct extensive research. Dive into archives, read letters, examine diaries, explore photographs, and immerse yourself in the historical and cultural context surrounding your subject. This will help you unearth the small details that breathe life into your biography. 

Whether you’re writing a biography about a historical figure, contemporary icon, or everyday individual, you’ll want to consider the different factors to focus on. Here are some examples of three types of individuals and the kind of research that will be most helpful.

• Historical Figures: When writing about historical figures, immerse yourself in their era. Understand the social, political, and cultural forces that shaped their lives. I recommend visiting your local library and connecting with a research librarian for support. Otherwise, other tools for historical research include Google Scholar. Analyze primary sources and multiple perspectives to present a well-rounded account.
• Contemporary Icons: Biographies of modern icons offer a chance to delve into their ongoing impact. Conduct interviews or gather insights from their close associates to understand their present-day influence. Stay current with the latest developments, and be prepared to update your work as the subject’s story unfolds.
• Everyday Individuals: Biographies need not be reserved for the famous. Every day individuals possess stories that can be just as compelling. Uncover the extraordinary within the ordinary, highlighting the struggles, triumphs, and personal growth of individuals who might otherwise remain unsung.
• Yourself! Want to write a biography on yourself? Autobiographies are a great way to explore who you are. Get ready to do some serious self-reflection with the steps below.

Pro Tip: Compile your research digitally using helpful cloud filings systems like Google Drive , OneDrive , or Dropbox . Organize your files by category, including information about their youth, family, achievements, and life lessons. You may also choose to write down research references or collect paper clippings on note cards, categorizing your physical files of research along the way.

Develop compelling themes and motifs 

Identify overarching themes or motifs that emerge from the subject’s life. These could be resilience, ambition, love, or societal change. Weave these elements into the narrative, highlighting their significance and impact on the person’s journey. Here are some examples:

• Overcoming Adversity: These biographies feature perseverance, resilience, and determination. Examples include Helen Keller, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai.
• Pursuit of Excellence: These biographies highlight people who have worked tirelessly to achieve their goals. Examples include Steve Jobs, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan.
• Quest for Knowledge: These biographies focus on the curiosity that led to significant contributions to our world. Examples include Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Charles Darwin.
• Personal Transformation: These biographies explore a change in beliefs, values, or priorities. Examples include Malcolm X, Oprah Winfrey, and Maya Angelou.
• Legacy and Impact: These biographies examine a body of work that made a lasting contribution to society. Examples include Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Conduct relevant interviews 

Whenever possible, seek firsthand accounts from those who knew or interacted with the subject. Conduct interviews with family members, friends, colleagues, or experts in the field. Their insights and anecdotes can provide a deeper understanding of the person’s character and experiences.

When conducting interviews for a biography, consider the following tips to ensure a productive and insightful conversation:

• Familiarize yourself with the interviewee’s background and accomplishments.
• Develop a list of well-thought-out questions that cover key aspects of their lives and experiences, including questions about your subject’s youth, family, achievements, and life transitions or struggles.
• Begin the interview by establishing a comfortable and friendly atmosphere to put the interviewee at ease.
• Show genuine interest in their story and listen actively to their responses.
• Ask open-ended questions encouraging detailed and reflective responses.
• Avoid yes/no questions and ask for their insights, memories, and personal perspectives.
• Some topics you might consider for your questions include early life, achievements, challenges, motivations, values, relationships, lessons learned, and advice.
• Pay close attention to the interviewee’s answers, body language, and tone of voice.
• Ask follow-up questions to clarify or delve deeper into specific topics.
• Show empathy and understanding, creating a safe space for the interviewee to share personal or sensitive information.
• Remain flexible during the interview, allowing the conversation to flow naturally.
• Be prepared to deviate from your prepared questions if unexpected but relevant topics arise.
• Respect the interviewee’s boundaries and be mindful of any topics they may not wish to discuss.
• Take thorough and organized notes during the interview to capture important details.
• Consider recording the interview (with permission) to ensure accurate quotes and references.
• Ask for permission to follow up with additional questions or for clarification.
• Doing a biography on yourself? Ask yourself deep questions to harvest new stories and anecdotes.

Remember, the goal of the interview is to gather valuable information and personal perspectives that will contribute to the authenticity and depth of your biography. Approach the interview process with sensitivity, respect, and genuine curiosity about the interviewee’s life and experiences.

Develop a clear structure

Outline your biography, ensuring a logical and engaging narrative flow. Consider the chronological order, significant milestones, and turning points in the subject’s life. Organize your gathered information to capture the essence of their journey while maintaining a compelling rhythm throughout. 

A good outline for a biography can vary depending on the specific subject and the desired structure of the narrative. However, here’s a general outline that can serve as a starting point:

A. Introduction

a) Hook or engaging opening to capture the reader’s attention

b) Background information (birthplace, date, family, etc.)

c) A brief overview of the subject’s significance or why they are worth exploring

B. Early Life and Background

a) Childhood and upbringing

b) Influences, such as family, education, or cultural factors

c) Formative experiences or events that shaped the subject’s character or interests

C. Major Achievements and Milestones

a) A chronological exploration of the subject’s notable accomplishments, contributions, or milestones

b) Focus on key moments or achievements that highlight their impact or significance.

c) Provide context and details to paint a vivid picture of their achievements

D. Challenges and Obstacles

a) Discussion of the challenges, setbacks, or adversities the subject encountered

b) How they overcame obstacles or grew through difficult experiences

c) Insights into their resilience, determination, or problem-solving abilities

E. Personal Life and Relationships

a) Exploration of the subject’s relationships, such as family, friends, or romantic partners

b) Insights into their personal joys, struggles, or transformative experiences

c) How their personal life intersected with their professional or public achievements

F. Legacy and Impact

a) Examination of the subject’s lasting influence, contributions, or impact on society

b) Discuss how their work or actions continue to resonate or shape the world today

c) Reflection on their legacy and the lessons we can learn from their life story

G. Conclusion

a) Summarize the key aspects of the subject’s life and their significance

b) Provide a final reflection or insight on their overall journey or impact

c) Leave the reader with a lasting impression or call to action

Pro Tip: Looking for help drafting an outline to get you started? Use free tools like ChatGPT to jumpstart your outline by putting in a prompt request like, “Write an outline for a biography about X, including any relevant details on the subject that should be included.”

Craft captivating prose

Employ descriptive language to transport readers into the subject’s world. Paint vivid portraits of their physical appearance, mannerisms, and surroundings. Use sensory details to evoke emotions and create a strong connection between the reader and the subject. 

Here are some examples:

• “She was a force of nature, with a fierce determination and an unwavering commitment to justice.” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
• “His piercing blue eyes seemed to look right through you, and his voice had a commanding presence that demanded attention.” (Winston Churchill)
• “She moved with a grace and elegance that belied her inner strength and resilience.” (Audrey Hepburn)
• “His rugged features and piercing gaze made him a natural leading man, but it was his depth and vulnerability that set him apart.” (Marlon Brando)
• “She had a contagious energy and a magnetic personality that drew people to her like a moth to a flame.” (Princess Diana)
• “His quiet intensity and unwavering dedication to his craft made him one of the greatest artists of his time.” (Leonardo da Vinci)

Action Step: While writing descriptive prose takes some practice, it’s an art you can master with little creative writing skills. To help you write descriptive prose, practice closing your eyes and imagining your subject. 

• What expression is on their face? 
• How are they dressed? 
• What does their body language express? 
• How do they smell? 
• How do they make you feel? 
• How do they make others feel? 
• What’s in their surroundings? 
• What are they doing with their hands? 
• What do you imagine they’re thinking about? 

With questions like these, you’ll start to use descriptive language to bring your subject to life.

Build a balance of objectivity and empathy

Strive for an objective portrayal while infusing empathy and understanding into your writing. Remain aware of biases and preconceived notions, giving your subject the space to shine in their unique light. 

To check yourself, filter your writing and interviewing with these tips:

• Verify Information: Cross-reference information from various sources to ensure accuracy. Use tools like Fact Check Explorer to fact-check claims, dates, and events to avoid errors or inaccuracies that could skew the narrative. 
• Multiple Perspectives: Seek out different viewpoints on the subject. This includes interviewing or reaching out to people with significant interactions or relationships with the subject. Incorporating diverse perspectives can counterbalance biases and provide a broader understanding.
• Empathetic Listening: During interviews or conversations, practice active listening and empathize with the interviewee’s experiences and emotions. This allows you to understand the subject’s perspective and incorporate their insights and feelings into the narrative.
• Contextualize Emotions: When sharing the subject’s emotional experiences or personal struggles, provide sufficient context and background. This helps readers understand the motivations and circumstances behind their actions and allows for empathetic understanding without veering into excessive sentimentality.
• Credible Interpretation: While interpreting the subject’s thoughts, motives, or intentions, be clear about what is factual and what is speculative. Clearly distinguish between evidence-based information and your interpretations to maintain objectivity.
• Respect Boundaries: Be mindful of the subject’s privacy and any requests they may have regarding sensitive or personal information. Respecting their boundaries shows empathy and allows for a respectful portrayal while maintaining the necessary level of objectivity.
• Acknowledge Limitations: Recognize that achieving complete objectivity in a biography is challenging. Biases can inadvertently seep into the narrative. However, by being aware of your biases and consciously presenting a fair and balanced account, you can mitigate their influence.

Respect truth, privacy, and sensitivity

Remember, writing biographies carries ethical responsibilities. It’s important to maintain accuracy through credible research and gain consent while being sensitive to controversial or difficult topics. Here are some considerations:

• Accuracy: Maintain a commitment to truth and accuracy. Verify facts and corroborate information from multiple sources to ensure the reliability of your narrative. Cite your sources and be transparent about any uncertainties or gaps in knowledge.
• Privacy and Consent: Respect the privacy of living individuals mentioned in your biography. Seek consent when sharing personal details or sensitive information. Balance the subject’s right to privacy with the importance of honesty and transparency.
• Sensitivity: Approach sensitive or controversial topics with care and empathy. Consider the potential impact of your words on the subject’s loved ones or affected communities—present differing perspectives without sensationalism or bias.

Writing a Biography FAQs

The length of a biography can vary greatly, depending on the subject and the depth of exploration. Some biographies span a few hundred pages, while others extend to multiple volumes. Focus on capturing the subject’s life’s essence rather than strictly adhering to a predetermined length.

Some common mistakes to avoid when writing a biography include the following: Lack of thorough research or reliance on a single source. Inaccurate or misleading information. Excessive personal bias or projection onto the subject. Neglecting to verify facts or failing to cite sources. Poor organization or a disjointed narrative flow. Neglecting to balance objectivity with empathy. Overloading the biography with irrelevant details or digressions. Failing to respect privacy or ethical considerations.

While chronological order is commonly used in biographies, it is not required. Some biographers employ a thematic approach or explore specific periods or events in the subject’s life. Experiment with different structures to find the most engaging way to tell your subject’s story.

The purpose of writing a biography is to capture and share an individual’s life story. Biographies provide insights into a person’s experiences, achievements, and challenges, offering readers inspiration, knowledge, and understanding. They preserve the legacy of individuals, contribute to historical records, and celebrate the diversity of human lives.

When choosing a subject for your biography, consider someone who inspires you, interests you, or has significantly impacted society. It could be a historical figure, a contemporary icon, or even an everyday individual with a remarkable story. Choose a subject with sufficient available information, access to primary sources or interviews, and a narrative that resonates with you and potential readers.

Key elements to include in a biography are: Early life and background: Provide context about the subject’s upbringing, family, and cultural influences. Achievements and milestones: Highlight notable accomplishments, contributions, and significant events throughout their life. Challenges and struggles: Explore the obstacles they faced, the lessons learned, and how they overcame adversity. Personal characteristics: Describe their personality traits, values, beliefs, and motivations that shaped their actions and decisions. Impact and legacy: Discuss the lasting influence and contributions of the subject, both during their lifetime and beyond.

Including personal anecdotes can add depth and humanize the subject of your biography. However, be selective and ensure that the stories are relevant, contribute to understanding the person’s character or experiences, and align with the overall narrative. Balancing personal anecdotes with factual information is critical to maintaining accuracy and credibility.

Conducting research for a biography involves exploring a variety of sources. Start with primary sources such as personal papers, letters, journals, and interviews with the subject or people who knew them. Secondary sources such as books, articles, and academic papers provide additional context and perspectives. Online databases, archives, libraries, and museums are valuable resources for finding relevant information.

Consult a wide range of sources to ensure a comprehensive and accurate biography. Primary sources, such as personal documents, letters, diaries, and interviews, offer firsthand accounts and unique insights. Secondary sources provide broader context and analysis, including books, articles, scholarly works, and historical records. Remember to evaluate the credibility and reliability of your sources critically.

Organize the information in your biography logically and engagingly. Consider using a chronological structure, starting with the subject’s early life and progressing through significant events and milestones. Alternatively, adopt a thematic approach, grouping related information based on themes or significant aspects of their life. Use clear headings, subheadings, and transitions to guide readers through the narrative flow.

Writing Biographies Key Takeaways

In summary, take note of these ideas and tips before you start writing your biography:

• Biographies hold enduring appeal, offering a glimpse into the human experience across time.
• Thorough research, interviews, and captivating prose are essential for crafting compelling biographies.
• Ethical considerations, such as accuracy, privacy, and sensitivity, are crucial when writing about real people’s lives.
• Choose subjects that genuinely inspire and resonate with you.
• Immerse yourself in the subject’s world to understand their motivations and challenges.
• Develop strong research skills and utilize a wide range of sources.
• Craft a compelling narrative that engages readers from the very first page.
• Seek feedback from trusted sources to refine your writing and storytelling abilities.
• Continuously explore new biographies to broaden your understanding of different styles and approaches.
• Embrace the unique voice and perspective you bring to the storytelling process.

Writing a biography book? Check out this helpful article, How to Write a Book: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Start Writing !

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How to Write a Biography (Examples & Templates)

A biography is a written account of a person’s life that details their life in chronological order. Another person usually writes this detailed account, and it contains reports of their childhood, career, major life events, relationships, and social impact. It also details their relationships with their family, children, and life accomplishments.

The best way to find out more about a popular figure is through reading their biographies, so you need to make sure you get the correct information. Before writing a biography, you need to do a lot of research and interviews to represent a person’s life accurately.

Types of Biography

A biography is the story of someone’s life as written by another writer. Most biographies of popular figures are written years, or even decades, after their deaths. Authors write biographies of popular figures due to either a lack of information on the subject or personal interest.

A biography aims to share a person’s story or highlight a part of their life.

There are different types of biographies, depending on the story. Some biographies are written true to the story, while some are written as fictional works. Biographies can give you true understanding of a person on an internal as well as external level along with a lot of life lessons.

Autobiography

An autobiography is different from a biography because it is written by the subject of the story, themselves. The author writes in the first-person narrative, and it flows step-by-step like a story of their life. Autobiographies contain personal accounts of the subject’s life, along with their perspectives and opinions on events in their life.

How To Write a Biography

Pick a subject.

Picking a subject is the first step in writing a biography. You can pick an already famous person or a relatively unknown person with a great life story. If you already have a few in mind, you can start by asking yourself some questions such as;

• What has the subject accomplished that makes them a good subject?
• Have they had an impact on society?
• Is the subject a celebrity or a well-known personality?
• Will the biography appeal to a wide audience?

Get Permission

When you pick a subject, the next thing to do is to get permission from them or their family or rights owners. Although, with some historical figures, there may not be any need for permission. Getting permission from your subject makes it easier for you to get stories to put into your book. You can get the chance to obtain additional personal stories and anecdotes that will make your book more interesting by doing so as well.

Do The Research

Research is the most important part of a biography’s process as the entire content of the book is dependent on it. Irrespective of what you know about the subject, you need to carry out as much research as possible to get the story’s facts precisely.

Biography research comes from various sources, depending on the book’s subject. Firsthand reports from family, friends, or personal accounts from the subjects are primary sources. They are usually the most accurate and reliable, and they are crucial for a biography. Secondary sources come from other sources like magazines or documentaries.

Pick a Format

Biographies come in various formats, with each of them having their pros and cons. A typical biography will start at the beginning, usually with the birth and childhood of the subject. Yet, if the biography’s theme involves a different event in their life, the author may want to explore the flashback option or one with concurrent events from different times.

Usually, biographies have a theme or a general life lesson at the center. The author’s role is to tell the subject’s story leading up to the major event.

Which-ever format you choose should place the theme at the center, with the other events detailing the journey.

Create a Timeline Of The Story

Since a biography takes place in chronological order, there needs to be a timeline of the events in the right order. The timeline should contain the key events in the subject’s life, in the order the author plans on revealing them. A great way to declutter the story and keep it interesting is to use flashbacks . This way, the author can introduce past events and explain later events excluding the element of monotony.

Add In Your Thoughts

The good thing about biographies is that you don’t have to stick to the hard facts only. As the author, you can share your opinions and emotions in writing. The author has the freedom to do this by commenting on a significant action by the subject in a manner that describes why they feel the subject may have done what they did.

The author can also include commentary on events depicted in the biography – how it was influenced society or its impact on the lives around them. Recounting these events through a different perspective can make the biography more relatable and interesting to read.

FAQ’s

Why is a biography template important.

A biography template has an outline that makes the writing easier for the author. Biography templates usually contain a sample timeline, format, and questions that provide more information about the subject. With a great biography template, you can cut your writing time in half and spend less time coming up with an outline.

How are biographies better in comparison to autobiographies

Since a different person writes biographies, they tend to be more objective and somewhat accurate than autobiographies. An autobiography tells things from the author’s perspective, so their views and perspective cloud it. Thus, a biography will likely tell a more factual story.

These are the important steps you need to take to help you write a great biography. Now, to make things easier for you, we have a free customizable autobiography and biography template that you can use to start your first book. Get the template and start writing today

What are some of the most important elements to keep in consideration while writing a biography?

Any author looking to write a biography must consider the factors below. They aren’t the only important factors, but a biography isn’t complete without them. • Date and place of their birth • Academic background • Professional expertise • Death, if deceased • Facts and anecdotes about the person • Main accomplishments • Detailed accounts of their child and adult life

Biographies tell the untold stories of some incredibly relevant people in the world. But biographies are not always strictly accurate. So, every biographer needs to follow the necessary steps to provide a biography with all the requirements.

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How to write a strong one-line biography (with examples!)

As a blogger or content marketer, you’re spreading your content across the internet to build your name as a thought leader and to drive traffic back to your (or your client’s) website.

One of the best ways to do this is via a strong biography, where sites will often allow you to also link back to somewhere. But you need to get their interest to learn more, so you need a strong one-line biography as most sites will only allow a short biography.

Here’s how you write a strong one-line biography for your blog author page:

Write in 3rd person

Highlight your role/profession.

• Keep it short

Include a call to action

Biographies should be written in third person. Instead of “I am a serial entrepreneur…” you should write “John is a serial entrepreneur…”

Some publications may have different guidelines, in which case you should follow them, but as a general guideline always write your bio in 3rd person.

Your bio should tell readers who you are and what you do, so be sure to highlight your role or profession.

“John is a serial entrepreneur and digital marketing veteran who…”

This gives people more information about you, why you are qualified to be talking about the topic you are bylined on, and helps them decide if they want to click your link to learn more.

Don’t be afraid to brag a little bit! In our world of fake humility, finding someone who is willing to state what they’ve done can be refreshing and encourage them to click to learn more about you.

Don’t overdo it though. A quick interesting fact is usually more than enough to get them interested.

For example:

“John is a serial entrepreneur and digital marketing leader who via his company Credo has generated over a quarter billion dollars in leads for agencies since 2015.”

The lead value number is a brag, but it’s also true and lets people know that John knows what he’s doing.

Have some fun!

In today’s social media world, people want to connect with the person behind the account.

So don’t be afraid to use emojis or a bit of humor.

This advice does not carry over to a professional website like LinkedIn where people are more professional and you should present your best face to the world.

Keep it short, but readable

If you’re required to keep your biography to just one sentence, you have just 15 to 20 words on average to get your point across. You need to be succinct and make every word count.

As such, remove superlatives and flowery language that could make it harder to read. This is not the place to be cute or show off – it’s the place to communicate effectively.

Include a backlink/hyperlink

Most websites where you publish will allow you to link back to a site of your choice from your biography. Don’t be spammy and try to link back to multiple places – link to a place where people can find out more about you or your company easily.

Finally, include a call to action (CTA) if you have enough space and can work it in. At minimum, make sure you follow the above advice and include a hyperlink back to your main website where people can learn more about you or your business.

Some examples

Here are some examples of great bios.

Dan Martell (Instagram)

Dan Martell is a coach to software founders, an entrepreneur with 3 business exits, an award-winning angel investor, and a proud dad and husband.

How do we know this? Because he says so in his Instagram bio. Short and effective.

Kimberly Bryant

Kimberly Bryant is the founder of Black Girls Code , a company that “build[s] pathways for young women of color to embrace the current tech marketplace as builders and creators by introducing them to skills in computer programming and technology.” Here is her Twitter biography, which clearly states what she does and gives insight into who she is.

Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker is a UK-based entrepreneur who “helps midlife leaders and entrepreneurs build future proof businesses around their expertise” with his Youpreneur coaching program.

Pat Flynn is a serial entrepreneur, dad, and husband who also has a physical product and a Pokemon card side hustle with over 100,000 YouTube subscribers. Here’s his Instagram profile:

Rand Fishkin

Rand is also a serial entrepreneur and currently the CEO of Sparktoro, an audience insight software tool. He’s formerly the cofounder and CEO of Moz, an SEO software suite. His LinkedIn bio says succinctly what he does, and also adds a bit of personality to let you know what he believes.

John Doherty

John is the founder and CEO of Credo and EditorNinja. (Hi, I’m John writing this!). His bio tells you what he cares about (his family and Colorado), what he does and the various projects he works on as well as his accomplishments.

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The Best Short Professional Bios (Examples + Templates)

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Summary. To write a short bio you should first make an initial introduction introducing yourself in the first or first person. Your short bio should include your brand, your accomplishments, and your values and goals. Your short bio should be one to three short paragraphs or four to eight sentences long.

Knowing how to write a concise, informative, and interesting biography about yourself can help throughout various parts of the professional process. You can use your bio to capture the attention of potential employers or clients and convince them to choose to employ or work with you.

In this article, you’ll learn more about what goes into a short bio and how to write one, and you’ll also get to see some short bio templates and examples to help you get an idea of what yours should look like.

Key Takeaways

A short bio serves to introduce you, your achievements, and what you offer professionally to potential employers or clients.

It’s important to keep your bio brief so that readers stay engaged and will remember your main points.

You may need to adjust your bio for different audiences, as your clients may want to know different information than a recruiter would.

Talk about your skills and accomplishments in your bio, but don’t exaggerate them.

What Is a Short Bio?

How to write a short bio, what to include in a short professional bio, short bio examples, short bio templates, tips for writing a short bio, writing a short bio faq.

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A short bio serves as your introduction to the professional world. In terms of finding or expanding on your job, a bio will cover your:

Work history

Achievements

Any other relevant professional information

Think of it as a professional memoir that a hiring manager or consumer can read and understand quickly. It’s usually about one to three paragraphs depending on experience.

There’s an emphasis on being succinct when it comes to writing a professional bio. This is because a bio is supposed to be a preface to attract recruiter attention and incline them to reach out for more information. Many readers will get lost or bored with a lengthy bio.

Using a short bio can be helpful across very different industries, from marketing to accounting, from psychiatry to sales.

You’re probably familiar with providing short bios on social media websites and applications. While the information and skills you include in a professional bio may differ, the general formatting is similar.

There’s a lot of considerations to take into account when writing a short bio, and it can quickly become intimidating. Deciding what information is relevant and how to keep it near 140 characters is no small task.

If you’re having difficulty writing a short bio, follow the outline below to craft an introduction that engages your reader.

Make an initial introduction. You can’t jump right into everything you’ve done and what you want to do in the future before introducing yourself.

Your bio’s first sentence should begin with your full name in the third person or introduce yourself in the first person and continue to briefly outline your most notable skills and accomplishments. It’s a good place to state your current job and employer.

Go deeper with what motivates you. Once you’ve catchily illustrated who you are in your short bio, you can use the second sentence to describe your motivations for your work.

Stating what drives you to do the work you do is essential to employers and customers alike. Whether you work as a physician or fitness consultant , there’s a reason why this is your profession, and you should explain that in your short professional bio.

Describe your accomplishments. Your short bio is for detailing why you’re the ideal candidate to be trusted with handling an employer or consumer’s business. By describing your prior accomplishments, you let them know what you could offer as an employee and how you’ve succeeded in the past.

While you should avoid sounding braggy, the reader is looking for information about what your qualifications are , and your accomplishments generally measure these qualities.

Even though you could probably go on for ages about the details of your accomplishments, save that for an interview . In a short bio, only include the most impressive of your achievements to outline.

Accomplishments relevant to a short bio could include:

Impressive results on a project

Former promotions

Awards received in your field

Certifications received

Include contact information. The purpose of a short bio as either a business or a job seeker is to inspire the reader to reach out. Without contact information, this pursuit becomes futile. Make sure your short bio has some way to contact you at the end.

Relevant contact information may include:

Phone number

Professional networking profile

A short professional bio includes:

Your full name. You can choose to write your bio in the first person (I, me, my) or third person (he, she, they), but either way, you need to include your full name at some point. Branding doesn’t work so well without a brand name (i.e., you!)

Your brand. Of course, if you have an actual brand that you’re trying to market, you should include the brand name as well.

What you do. Summarize what you want the reader to know about what you do in one sentence — tricky, we know.

Your accomplishments. For a short bio, you can stick with just one major accomplishment from your professional life. Or, if you have a string of impressive achievements, try condensing all of them down to one sentence.

Your goals and values. Let the reader know what makes you tick — why do you do what you do and what do you hope to achieve with your work? People are compelled by a story more than anything else, so it’s important to get this part right.

Something personal (optional). If you have a quirky tidbit about yourself you’d like to include, go for it. Just make sure it doesn’t throw off te the tone of the rest of your bio.

Contact info (optional). If your bio is serving as a call-to-action to drum up business or get leads on job opportunities, it makes sense to include your contact information at the end of your bio. It’s not necessary if that information is available elsewhere on the page , though.

Entry-Level Job-Seeker Bio Example

Mitchell Morrison is an upcoming video producer and editor who believes in the art of visual organization. He is a recent graduate from the University of Washington and focused on post-production during his time studying there. He was introduced to the magical world of visual art production by watching his father work on editing commercials growing up and has been working towards his dream of becoming a video editor ever since. During his last year of college, Mitchell participated in a competitive internship with Digital Space Films. He was chosen out of 2,000 applicants based on his academic portfolio and personal statement essay. This internship was an incredible learning experience and resulted in three professional accreditations for music video editing. Mitchell currently lives in Seattle, Washington pursuing freelance opportunities and spending time with his Dog, Pikachu. To get into contact with Mitchell: MitchellMorrisonVideo.com/contact

Working Professional Website Bio Example

Lisa Kennedy is an experienced real estate professional. She knows how important a home is for long-term happiness and has invested her career in putting people in the house they’ve always dreamed of. Lisa was driven to pursue real estate from her passion for helping people during life-altering times, and a keen interest in high-end, luxury homes. She’s been working in the real estate industry for ten years and in that time has assisted over 3,500 people in finding homes. She was educated at the University of Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in business management. She’s worked for some of the most respectable Real Estate companies in Los Angeles and individually under her agency “Kennedy Homes.” Lisa has also been published in Real Estate Quarterly Magazine as the 2017 winner of the “Top Luxury Home Seller” award. Lisa loves the culture of Los Angeles and has been living there with her family of five since she graduated from college. She enjoys spending her free time exploring towns along the West Coast and swimming. If you’d like to get in touch with Lisa: Email: [email protected]

Professional Networking Profile Bio Example

Bianca Jones Marketing Manager Miami, FL The first step towards customer satisfaction is being reached by stellar product marketing, and that’s what I aim to provide. My professional experience as a product marketing manager has allowed me to assist many organizations in improving their sales margins and audience response to emerging products. I’ve brought dedication and positive results to the companies I’ve worked for because I am passionate about product perception, marketing, and business statistics. What drives a product to success interests and inspires me. I specialize in long-term growth strategies and audience outreach. In addition to eight years of experience in professional product marketing, I have also published two books on creating a career as a marketer called “What to Do After Your Bachelor’s” and “A Marketer’s How-To.” If you’re interested in learning more about how to market your business better, or just discuss more, feel free to contact me by email at [email protected].

Your first choice is whether you want your bio to be written in the third person or first person. These short bio templates show both options, and also include different ideas for what to include, and how. Feel free to pick and choose your favorite parts of each of the two.

[Full Name] is a [job title] who [believes/knows] in the power of [what you do]. [He/She/They] began their journey in [field] by [how you got started in the field], and now dreams of [what you hope to accomplish]. [His/Her/Their] biggest accomplishment to date has been [your biggest accomplishment]. [Full Name] lives in [where you live] and participates in [a hobby/interest]. To get in touch with [Full Name], call/email/message me on [how you’d like to be contacted].

I am a [job title] who helps [who you help] [what you help them do]. It’s my belief that [your unique perspective on the field]. In the past [# of years] years, I’ve [major accomplishment #1] through [how you accomplished it]. I have a passion for [your professional passion], but on the side, I also enjoy [personal passion]. Get in touch with me today at [contact info] — I look forward to talking with you about [what you want to talk to your readers about].

You have a firm grasp of the structure of a short bio and what to include. Now, you may need some tips for how to polish your short professional bio and make it stand out from the competition.

Be mindful of length. While you’re probably getting sick of hearing that your bio should be short, it’s good to keep in mind throughout the writing process. It’s easy to go off on a tangent while trying to include everything relevant or rationalize, making your bio too long.

Avoid this impulse. The point of a bio is that it’s limited. You want to intrigue the reader enough to inspire them to seek more information about you or your services.

Tailor your bio to your intended audience. Whether you’re using a short bio to attract a particular customer base or potential employer, tailoring it to fit their wants and needs is crucial. Consider your intended audience base and what they’re looking for in a candidate or service.

Be genuine. Your short bio should be an authentic representation of your traits, experience, and personality. People are repelled by what they interpret as stretching the truth. If you’re being received as disingenuous by the reader, they’ll probably move on.

Proofread. The only way to steer clear of errors in your short bio is by proofreading it. Imagine a hiring manager being completely interested in your bio.

They love what you have to say about yourself and find your prior experience enticing. That is, until they come across a mistake that clearly shows you didn’t do proofread or edit.

Include links to your portfolio, website, or networking profile. One way to circumvent the confining factor of keeping your bio short is by including links to more detailed sources.

This can be in the form of linking your portfolio or website to allow the reader to go deeper into your discussed skills if they please, without taking up more space in your bio.

Implement these links seamlessly into your bio by attaching them to anchor words that describe what clicking will lead them to.

Add some personality. You aren’t the only person who has an impressive list of accomplishments to put on a bio, so you’re going to need to find some additional ways to make an impression.

What should a short bio include?

A short bio should include your name, what you do, and your achievements. You should also include your company or product’s brand, if you have one, and your goals and motivations for doing what you do. This humanizes you and helps you stand out from the rest of the pack.

How long is a short bio?

A short bio is typically one to three paragraphs long. These should be short paragraphs though, as other experts say that between four and eight sentences is the ideal length for a short bio.

What makes a good bio?

A good bio is succinct and memorable. Readers don’t want to spend long reading about your professional and personal life, so go back and cut it down to the important parts multiple times after you draft it. You might be surprised at how little you actually need to include.

What should you avoid putting in a short bio?

You should avoid including anything negative or arrogate. It’s never a good idea to write anything negative about previous jobs or employers. Only include positive things in your professional short bio.

It’s important to include your achievements in a short bio, but there is a fine line between mentioning your achievements and bragging about them. Stick to the facts when talking about your accomplishments.

Fremont University – Building Your Professional Bio

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

Don Pippin is an executive and HR leader for Fortune 50 and 500 companies and startups. In 2008, Don launched area|Talent with a focus on helping clients identify their brand. As a Certified Professional Resume Writer, Certified Digital Career Strategist, and Certified Personal Branding Strategist, Don guides clients through career transitions.

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Enchanting Marketing

Writing advice for small business

How to Make a Rip-Roaring First Impression, With Only a Few Words

by Henneke | 95 enchanting opinions, add yours? :)

Even if you don’t need a short bio right now, writing one is a great exercise. You learn how to say more with fewer words. You learn how to position yourself and how to make a big impression from the get go.

But last week, when I started preparing this post, I made a big mistake.

I looked for inspiration on Twitter.

I scrolled through hundreds of Twitter bios, and I almost gave up on this post because most Twitter bios are utterly dull. And they say almost nothing, like this:

If you try to explain a lot about yourself in a few words, you end up saying nothing. No personality. No big impression. No sense of connection. You sound the same as everyone else.

So, I decided to look for inspiration elsewhere. How do fiction writers introduce their characters in a few words?

4 examples of saying a lot with a few words

I skimmed through the books I’ve read recently to look for powerful descriptions of people.

For instance, here’s how William Kent Krueger typifies an FBI agent in “Boundary Waters:”

How powerful is that comparison to a pit bull! In only 11 words, Krueger gives us a picture of an aggressive guy who’s persistent, too.

It made me wonder, if I were a dog, what dog would I be?

Here’s a longer example by the same author, from “Iron Lake:”

Why is this description powerful? Because the author focuses on one aspect of the person and he gives specific examples. The description is visual, so we can picture this guy sparking fires, tying knots and shooting arrows.

The description may be a little long, but you can cut it easily by 50% and still make a strong first impression.

Here’s a shorter character description from “Force of Nature” by Jane Harper:

Three specific details (jogging, yoga, deep-conditioning her hair) help us visualize Breanne, and we can imagine how she glows even in the unflattering office light.

And here’s one last example, from “The Keeper of Lost Things” by Ruth Hogan:

Again, three specific details express a lot: Prozac, Pinot Grigio, and pretending things weren’t happening. The words even alliterate for extra flair.

When you focus on one character trait or skill, you make a strong first impression and you invite readers to learn more. In contrast, if you try to say too much too quickly, a description of a person falls flat and nobody gets a feel of who they really are.

Choose what to tell in your professional bio

Of course, the fiction examples above are different—you wouldn’t write about Prozac in a professional bio.

But the principles of what makes a good bio remain the same. Choose what to tell and, even more importantly, what to leave out. You can’t cram your whole resume into one sentence. You have to be ruthless.

Twitter bios, for instance, are so short, you can only communicate one or two things. That’s it.

The Twitter bio of Unbounce’s Twitter bio explains what their software can do for you plus invites you to try it for free:

Casa Collective’ s bio is similar:

If you Tweet as a person rather than a company, I like bios that show personality, like this one from Haemin Sunim :

Or this bio from John Espirian :

Or this bio from Kitty Kilian is one of my favorites (the original is in Dutch, I’ve translated it):

A Twitter bio is super short, and you can only make a strong impression if you choose carefully what to write.

The 3-step professional bio

If you have three sentences, for instance for an author bio, then you can say a little more. But be careful, the same rule applies as with the one-sentence Twitter bio. Keep it short to make a strong first impression.

For a three-sentence bio, consider these three objectives:

• Tell readers who you are and what you do
• Reveal a glimpse of your personality
• Encourage readers to find out more

For instance, my author bio is:

In three sentences, I explain what I do (writing), what I’m passionate about (stamping out gobbledygook), and I invite you to join my course so you can learn how to write more persuasively.

Jessica Blanchard’s bio follows a similar pattern:

And Ry Schwartz’ bio:

Ry’s call to action isn’t very strong, but “More reclusive than J D Salinger on a rainy day” is a superb way to sketch a personality in a few words.

How to write a short professional bio

Want to make a big impression with only a few words?

Communicate less instead of more:

• Start with answering the question “What do you do for your clients?” or even better, finish this sentence suggestion from Mark Schaefer : “Only I …”
• Think about an adjective describing you well; Ry Schwartz uses “reclusive,” John Espirian uses “relentlessly helpful” and I use “irreverent” to present a quick glimpse of who we are
• Consider a metaphor to communicate more with fewer words, such as the “pit bull” or “delicate as a hand grenade”
• If you have space, have a clear call to action

In short, communicate what makes you different, and tell clients what you can do for them.

Because a professional bio is not only about you.

It’s about your clients, too.

Books mentioned in this post:

Recommended reading on writing about yourself:

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Reader Interactions

Leave a comment and join the conversation cancel reply.

October 31, 2022 at 6:47 am

I love the way you gave perspective from books you read. Very relative and helpful. You keep giving me hope. Thanks.

October 31, 2022 at 11:56 am

Thank you, Andrea. Happy writing!

April 12, 2022 at 4:47 pm

Thank you! You helped me make mince-meat out of a project I always dread – writing about myself. I did a quick search for “how-to write a short bio” and found my favorite writing coach.

April 12, 2022 at 4:52 pm

Wow. So, great when Google delivers exactly what you need 🙂

And thank you also for your lovely compliment, Amy.

April 28, 2021 at 6:50 am

Yet another comment, after reading close to a couple of your blogs. l was asked for a CV today.

Definitely l had to make a search. These days whether its something about writing or not, l first input the search topic with Enchanting marketing.

Sometimes , l don’t really get anything but when l do like today, l get so thrilled like a 5 yr old with a favourite toy.

Let me stop gaping at your writing talent and get on with this CV. Thank you & Cheers Henneke.

April 28, 2021 at 3:14 pm

Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Emily. I’m happy to read that Enchanting Marketing has become your #1 source for writing advice. Good luck with your CV!

April 18, 2021 at 2:34 am

I just landed a new job and it asked or a bio. Google search presented me this page. What an inspiration… I am awestruck with all the wisdom in such a simple article, yet as mentioned in several of the conversations below, writing something in a couple of sentences is far from easy. I admire your patience in responding to every individual comments. I have to get to work in crafting something, which is creative and succinct.

April 18, 2021 at 2:40 pm

I’d say clarity is more important for a bio than being creative. Being creative is a bonus but not a requirement. Have fun!

September 17, 2020 at 4:17 pm

Thanks so kindly, Henneke. This is quite helpful. How does this sound? …a necessity entrepreneur, an avid supporter of women entrepreneurs, helping small business owners fall in love with their business.

September 17, 2020 at 6:38 pm

I don’t know what a necessity entrepreneur is. But maybe your potential clients know what it means? That’s more important than that I understand it.

Also, it’s unclear whether you help women entrepreneurs or all small business owners. Better to focus on one option instead of risking confusion.

May 23, 2020 at 2:17 pm

If you are guest posting, and the host allows for a much larger word count, do you include more information about yourself? Or do you include more about your results? Or maybe 50/50? Or do you keep with the short version and resist the temptation to change it any? I’ve revisited all mine and realize how many I’ve written, each one different. I did not even notice until now, so thanks for that! Also, I totally missed this post when it first came out and I love the tulips! 🙂

May 25, 2020 at 5:54 pm

I’m glad you enjoyed the tulips!

The bio I used for guest posts is the one I’ve quoted above—it’s relatively short: Henneke Duistermaat is an irreverent writer on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook. Get your free 16-Part Snackable Writing Course for Busy People and learn how to enchant your readers and win more business.

Even if the host allowed a longer word count, I haven’t made the bio longer because I was always afraid people might lose interest. Also, they’ve already read a whole blog post so I’ve already built up some credibility with the advice shared in the blog post. But this is not something I’ve tested. It’s mainly based on gut feeling.

May 26, 2020 at 2:20 pm

Thanks! I think you’re right!

January 24, 2020 at 7:46 am

Am still kind of confused but am sure I will get the hang of it. And thanks a lot.

January 24, 2020 at 10:54 am

What are you confused about?

January 9, 2020 at 1:28 am

Wow! I stumbled upon this article and you have successfully provided the unique kind of ideas I was looking for : ) Thank you Henneke

January 9, 2020 at 7:17 pm

Great 🙂 That makes me happy. Have fun writing your bio!

November 29, 2019 at 5:40 am

Oh my goodness! marvellous bio! Thanks.

Thank you so much, Henneke.

November 29, 2019 at 10:02 am

Thank you, Abhinav. Happy writing!

November 12, 2019 at 3:01 pm

You play a dangerous game when you automatically assume the author who used the pit bull reference intended to self describe as aggressive. Pit bulls are smart, loyal, and most of all affectionate. People like you spread bullshit and add fuel to the stereotype of pit bulls being aggressive. I highly suggest you educate yourself before making a blanket statement about an entire breed of animal. Do better.

November 13, 2019 at 12:24 pm

The example you refer to is from the book Boundary Waters, a thriller, in which the author describes one of the characters as a pit bull. He’s an FBI agent who comes as aggressive in the remainder of the book—a fighter.

April 2, 2019 at 8:06 pm

Hey, Henneke

Really amazing content. You’re right a bio define a person and about their profession. So, it’s really important to write an awesome bio.

I will surely use your tips to write a bio of my social media accounts.

March 11, 2019 at 4:15 am

Marketer ExtraOrdinaire, like a stick of dynamite, I blow up old ways of doing things, bringing fresh ideas. The pink bunny can’t keep up with me.

September 13, 2018 at 2:21 pm

Indeed, First impression last. Making an impressive bio needs to convey both professional status and personality in just one or two sentences which creates a great impact to the clients. I sometimes say or write too much and with no idea where I was going or how to make the points I wanted to make. It felt like I was writing in circles, as a result, I was saying nothing. Now I know what to do. Great tips, Henneke.

September 16, 2018 at 1:10 pm

I sometimes write in circles, too, as I don’t always know exactly what I want to say. The writing (even when it seems to lack purpose at first) somehow brings clarity.

Thank you for stopping by to leave a comment, Rebecca 🙂

September 4, 2018 at 11:12 am

September 4, 2018 at 11:33 am

My pleasure 🙂

September 1, 2018 at 10:08 am

I like this. Always playing around with my Short bio for social platforms. What do you think of my twitter bio? @davidgcant Could be improved? Give it your best shot..

A risk savvy health and safety consultant extraordinaire. Cuts through the red tape (with a safety blade of course).

September 2, 2018 at 10:09 am

I like it! I’d be tempted to shorten it a little: A health and safety consultant who cuts through the red tape (with a safety blade of course).

(To me the phrase “risk savvy” doesn’t add a lot as it feels kind of obvious that a health and safety consultant would be risk savvy; that’s what the job is about.)

September 2, 2018 at 4:04 pm

That reads much better. I was thinking of replacing risk savvy with refreshingly practical. What do you think? Or is that too much?

September 2, 2018 at 7:06 pm

The idea of cutting through the red tape already indicates that you’re a practical person rather than a rigid you-must-follow-the-health-and-safety-bible type of person. So, I’d say adding “refreshingly practical” doesn’t really add anything new as you’re already telling me you’re practical—you understand client’s objections to health and safety, plus you have a sense of humor.

August 30, 2018 at 11:44 pm

Succinct and thereby excellent, Henneke. Have to say that I’ve read words of many copywriters down through the years – some good, some not so, even if near-legendary. In my view your writing surpasses most. Please keep it up because I’ve learned more from your posts than I have from anyone else’s. Thanks.

August 31, 2018 at 6:27 pm

Thank you for your lovely compliment, Paul. I appreciate it! 🙂

August 25, 2018 at 5:37 am

Helpful post, as always, but I really just wanted to say I love that drawing of Henrietta with the tulips, on a grey cold day like this it warms the brain. Not that I can complain about the greyness, NSW where I live is 100% in drought. I hope the clouds are not just teasing. Best wishes.

August 26, 2018 at 6:09 pm

Thank you for your lovely compliment on my drawing, Susan. That means a lot to me! I hope the rain will soon ease the drought.

August 22, 2018 at 11:16 pm

Hi Henneke, Thank you for a great article. I remember when I first came across your website (last year, I think), I was impressed with your bio and made a note to myself to use that as inspiration for mine. Of course that mental note was long forgotten! This time I’ve already made a first attempt for my social media profiles. I’ve been a longtime lurker, this is my first comment and is well overdue. Thank you, I can hands down say I learn and apply something useful from each of your articles.

August 23, 2018 at 9:27 pm

That is a lovely compliment. Thank you so much, Sonna.

My own default position is also as a lurker. I appreciate you stepped out of the shadows to leave a comment. Have fun with writing your bio! 🙂

August 22, 2018 at 5:19 pm

Insightful and incisive Love the bonus recommended reading 😉

August 22, 2018 at 5:59 pm

Thank you, Hendel. I started adding the bonus reading recommendations recently as I was asked so often 😉

August 22, 2018 at 9:54 pm

Henneke: Few weeks back, I came across your blog and book.. I not only like the content and but also the presentation style… I really enjoyed reading this article and response to the many comments. I drafted by first short Bio.. could you please review.

Chandra is a Meditation teacher who conducts group meditation sessions in-person and on-line. Her Smile and her energy is contagious. Her mission is to encourage many human beings e discover their SacredSpace with in them through powerful meditations. To know more about her journey visiti https://cvelpula.wixsite.com/mysite/blog/journey-of-discover-sacredspace-within-you

August 23, 2018 at 9:05 pm

I’m glad you enjoyed this blog post, Chandra.

Great start on your bio! You may want to consider tightening it a little as you use the phrase “meditation” three times which is usually a sign that you can make it more concise. Also, what is the ultimate aim of your clients? Do they want to discover their SacredSpace or is their a deeper purpose? This depends on who you’re targeting.

August 22, 2018 at 4:07 pm

Henneke, this was very helpful. I always have trouble writing shorter than longer. Thanks.

August 22, 2018 at 4:19 pm

I find it hard, too. And it takes more time than writing longer!

Thank you for stopping by, Anita. It’s always good to see you 🙂

August 22, 2018 at 11:38 am

Now this is powerful stuff Henneke and thanks to Lisa for sharing.

My bio is not more than 2 sentences but this post just gives me a lot of meat.

I hope you are having a great week

August 22, 2018 at 1:46 pm

I’m glad you found it useful, Enstine! Thank you for stopping by.

August 22, 2018 at 11:12 am

Hi Henneke – I hadn’t thought about writing my bio until I read your article. I’ll certainly follow your excellent advice when the time comes. All the best from sunny Sydney

I hope you’ll have fun writing your bio, Paul!

Still cloudy here 🙂

August 22, 2018 at 1:43 am

Ooh! Henneke, I love this post. And who is Henrietta’s new friend? (or did I miss a post?) I love these smart, smooth, silky, bio’s and would love to add my own. I dream♡ This is my first attempt. Your comments would be sooooo valued. Thanks for all your gorgeous posts Henneke.

Like Columbo shelling his morning egg Joan reveals you to yourself; then helps you delete what no longer serves you and install what does. Joan is an NLP Master Practitioner and Professional Coach working with coaches and service professionals. …… this would be followed with a short CTA

August 22, 2018 at 1:43 pm

Henrietta’s puppy is called Arthur. He’s been around for ages, but often I’m too lazy to draw him! 🙂

You can probably take one step further with your bio, by defining the real benefit of what you do. You can find the real benefit by finishing the sentence: she helps you delete what no longer serves you and install what does, so ….. What is it your clients really want to achieve?

August 23, 2018 at 2:20 am

Thanks, Henneke, that helps. I did add that initially but thought it made it too long – I wrote – “so that you can make a difference and make money as you grow your Lifestyle-Biz.”

I’ll keep playing with it. Now I’m thinking the Columbo piece sounds a bit ‘cheesy’.

August 23, 2018 at 9:33 pm

I’m not sure the Columbo reference adds a lot. I do like the phrase “reveal you to yourself.” I also like “make money as you grow your Lifestyle-Biz” as it’s a true benefit and it’s also specific to your audience. “Making a difference” is a little abstract. So, I’d be tempted to leave that out, or to make it more specific (but that might make it even longer).

August 23, 2018 at 11:26 pm

Terrific, just leave that Columbo piece out. I’ll play with the rest of it. Thanks for the extra input Henneke. ♡

August 21, 2018 at 11:28 pm

The short takes are never easy. How to sum up Hetty in 3 sentenceso ha! So…. Easy going until taken for granted. Lover of stationery, determined to be a success in business. Express your thoughts in our Ankara Fabric Covered Notebooks

August 22, 2018 at 1:41 pm

Great start on your bio, Hetty. It makes me wonder what’s special about your notebooks and why are you passionate about them?

August 21, 2018 at 6:14 pm

Brilliant and enchanting as usual! Thanks for confirming how difficult it can be to engagingly summarize one’s life in two sentences. I get to put a short bio on most of the articles I write for magazines and I am so disappointed in the various versions I have come up with over the years. Now I see why, I conveniently left out my real personality. Shoot.

August 21, 2018 at 8:58 pm

Don’t beat yourself up over it, Thea. Most people leave their personality out of their bios. It IS a tough challenge.

Thank you for your lovely comment. I appreciate it! 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

To be honest, I skimmed your initial email the first time and, because my day is the usual crazy, didn’t click through initially. But I’m so glad I made the time to do it now. This was an absolutely genius post—and the examples were outstanding! I’ve added a note to do some brainstorming on my bio next week. As always, thank you for the inspiration and the easily digestible and actionable advice!

August 21, 2018 at 8:56 pm

You know, it really humbles me when you make time on a crazy busy day to not only read my post but also leave a comment. You’re a star. Thank you 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 4:41 pm

Thank you for the valuable insights.

August 21, 2018 at 4:47 pm

Thank you, Mohsin. Was there anything in particular you found valuable?

August 21, 2018 at 3:43 pm

Hi Henneke:

For me the fight to find the perfect bio is unending…seems like I’m forever tweaking. Also, in my constant state of evolving (or is it experimenting?) I’ve taken to changing my bio for different places I publish! Oh Henneke, why can’t I just do one perfect one like you and it’s everywhere!!! Geez. P.S. But, don’t forget you need to add “illustrator” to yours!!! Bi Oh My!! Take care, Sue-Ann

August 21, 2018 at 4:43 pm

I don’t have one perfect bio either. I don’t think the perfect bio exist. Unless you’re Andy Murray whose Twitter bio simply says: “I play tennis.” How brilliant is that? Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for mere mortals like you and me.

And you see … you already mention “illustrator,” but somehow it didn’t feel right. Also, I have a different bio on Instagram because I mainly share my drawings there. My Insta bio is: I play with words and colored pencils.

Perfection doesn’t exist. Experimentation is what life is about, isn’t it?

August 22, 2018 at 8:34 am

Ha ha! I always laugh at Murray’s twitter bio as it’s so deceptively simple yet at the same time understated. I like how he doesn’t feel the need to list out all his achievements. By the way, I missed my flight home from NYC in 2012 to see him win the US Open, which was amazing.

Anyway, back on topic, trying to do a short About section for my new “personal branding photography” landing page. Trying to work in something like my “hobbit-like stature and tenacity”, along with being eco-friendly and helping businesses save time by creating images for their online content. It’s still a work in progress.

August 22, 2018 at 1:45 pm

Murray’s bio is brilliant. I love how understated it is. And lucky you for seeing him play (and win!) live!

I like “hobbit-like tenacity” 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 3:02 pm

Thanks, Henneke. I’m honoured to get a mention here – much appreciated!

I hate it when all those letters, spaces and punctuation marks don’t amount to anything meaningful.

August 21, 2018 at 4:51 pm

It was rather demotivating to read through all those Twitter bios!

Thank you for stopping by, John.

August 21, 2018 at 2:33 pm

Great post and I loved the examples you gave.

I find writing bios very hard. I have this instinct to look at what others in my field are writing and try to find something that would work for me. It’s insane! I know it’s wrong, I know it’s useless and yet, I’m attracted to it.

What’s with the copycatting? I have a strong identity, I know what I want and who I am. Why does it all go to smoke when writing things like bios on social media?

I’m going to get to work in a dark room with no phones or internet and write away. Well, scratch the dark room part. You know what I mean. 😀

August 21, 2018 at 4:38 pm

I think most of us look at what others in our niche are doing, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to learn from others. I’ve found it’s often easier to look outside our own niche for inspiration.

And out of all the different writing tasks, writing a bio is probably one of the most difficult. Play for a while, then let it simmer for a while, and then play a little more. Have fun!

Thank you for stopping by, Elfin!

August 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm

You’re inspired me! Awesome post – and glad you said it took weeks to come up with your bio. These examples make it look easy.

August 21, 2018 at 4:36 pm

Writing so often looks easy, but we don’t see how much effort has gone into it. For me, the biggest challenge was to decide what I wanted to say. I was just starting out and I hadn’t figured out my positioning yet.

Thank you for stopping by, Cathy. I appreciate it 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 2:08 pm

Great advice Henneke! I took notes and will check out some of your examples!

August 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

Yay! Happy bio writing, Kim 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 1:59 pm

Hi Henneke,

Thank you for this post. It came just in time as I am currently trying to re-do my website about page and social profiles.

Here’s what I came up with after reading your post. What do you think? Storytelling is my superpower, so I thought to highlight that. So how’s this for a try:

Enamored with writing. I spin engaging stories about your brand so your clients don’t have to shop elsewhere. Just call me your Fairy Wordmother.

August 21, 2018 at 4:45 pm

I’m glad this post came at the right time, Zika 🙂

Using a positive is often stronger rather than a negative. So, for instance, instead of “so your clients don’t have to shop elsewhere,” you could have: “so your clients fall in love with your brand.”

August 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm

Thank you so so much, Henneke.

August 21, 2018 at 1:38 pm

I read your post not for my own bio actually but because I need help writing one and two sentence introductions for 40 – 50 historical puzzle pages. And it works for that! Where yesterday I was plodding through it like an elephant in quick sand this morning I’m inspired to have more fun with my project. Especially love the suggestion to use metaphors. That would make a whole blog on its own. Maybe you already have?

August 21, 2018 at 4:33 pm

Yay! I’m so glad you feel inspired, Patty 🙂

I wrote about metaphors here and here . But I could probably write another one 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 1:37 pm

Brilliant and not boring bios. That draw you in.

Excellent article Henneke.

August 21, 2018 at 4:31 pm

Thank you, Ray. I appreciate your comment 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 1:26 pm

I’ve rewritten my Twitter bio using this post as inspiration! It originally said;

#Blogger & #copywriter for #software & #tech (esp #IoT). Loves #design, productivity & mindfulness. Newcastle upon Tyne. Ravenclaw. INTP. Chocoholic.

I was clearly so very guilty of trying to say as much as possible in a short space of time. Now it says this;

Chocoholic copywriter LJ enjoys making tech sound fun, not scary. She’s also as subtle as a sledgehammer and wants to help startups build brilliant blogs. Start here; http://eepurl.com/cS8g99

My dad is the one who describes me as being as subtle as a sledgehammer 😉

I love the changes you’ve made! 🙂

I wonder whether you can connect “subtle as a sledgehammer” somehow to building blogs. Something like: Subtle as a sledgehammer, she helps startups build blogs that rip through online noise. Maybe not quite, but it’d be great if you could show the advantage of being like a sledgehammer 🙂

What do you think?

August 21, 2018 at 1:23 pm

One of your best Henneke!

I’ve long felt the same about “elevator speeches” — the reason they don’t work is we try to jam too much information into what should be a single thought-provoking nugget.

August 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm

Yep, I agree with you. The idea of elevator speeches makes me roll my eyes. But that’s silly because a good elevator speech is fab. As you say, you need just one thought-provoking nugget, something to connect with your audience.

August 21, 2018 at 1:16 pm

Great tips and examples Henneke!! It’s awesome to see examples that are different from the norm. Love the visuals.

You’ve inspired me to improve my byline. What do you reckon?

Cynthia is a copywriter powered by chai lattes, rockclimbing, and remedial massages. She’s on a mission to draw out personable, reputable, small health and fitness businesses from the shadows. Grab her free guide on how to sound intelligent by writing in plain English.

August 21, 2018 at 4:25 pm

I like it. You can probably still improve the second sentence a little more. Try to find a stronger phrase than “draw out from the shadows”—something that sounds more positive, and reduce the number of adjectives as “personable, reputable, small health and fitness businesses” is quite a mouthful.

I love the idea of a free guide on sounding more intelligent 🙂

September 11, 2018 at 5:38 am

Thanks for the feedback. I find it tough to keep it simple sometimes! 🙂

How about this version? Cynthia is a copywriter powered by chai lattes, rockclimbing, and remedial massages. She’s on a mission to help small health and fitness businesses connect with clients through writing that sticks in their reader’s minds. Grab her free guide on how to sound intelligent by writing in plain English.

September 12, 2018 at 2:09 pm

Yes, I like it. If you like, you can consider making your mission more specific to your audience. For instance: help small health and fitness businesses inspire their clients to lead a more healthy lifestyle.

August 22, 2018 at 1:53 am

I like it! And Henneke’s suggestions.

August 21, 2018 at 12:27 pm

Hi Henneke, Another great of your posts here. The goal of every writer is to have their target audience read through to the last word. That said, it is genius to be artistic if a writer has to stand out of the crowd. This is where you have touched best ~ Use of a BIO ~ and a captivating bio for that matter. Most of the time readers will look at the bio of an author before they could dedicate their time to read the author’s article. You nailed it as always. I always read your articles to enrich my knowledge Keep doing what you do BEST 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 12:43 pm

Thank you for your lovely comment, Tony. A dash of creativity can definitely make a bio more captivating.

August 21, 2018 at 12:23 pm

‘More reclusive than J D Salinger on a rainy day,’ >> yes! Jealous of that.

And thanks for including me 😉 Interesting that the second sentence translates from 6 words in Dutch to 11 in English – usually it’s the other way round.

August 21, 2018 at 12:42 pm

Yes, I found it also weird that I ended up with more words. I somehow couldn’t make it shorter and it doesn’t feel as good as the Dutch version (probably because that one is shorter).

I love “delicate as a hand grenade,” too! 🙂

August 21, 2018 at 12:18 pm

Henneke, I love this one: “Because a professional bio is not only about you. It’s about your clients, too.” We have to think more like our own client to help us create a catchy bio that will work and answer “what’s in it for me?” Thanks for the info and the great examples here Henneke. I’ll be playing around with mine in the coming days.

August 21, 2018 at 12:40 pm

“Playing around” is a good phrase for writing a bio!

I can’t remember how long I played around with mine, but it was weeks rather than days (and writing this post makes me wonder whether I have to revisit my Twitter bio again!).

Happy playing, Lisa, and thank you for stopping by.

August 22, 2018 at 10:48 am

Oh yes, I try to update my Twitter bio every month or so. Things change, you know? You are most welcome. Love your mugs by the way as I’ve seen them via Sue-Ann.

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Neil McKenna's 2003 , The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, offers an exploration of Wilde's sexuality. William Roper's of More was one of the first biographies in Modern English. Tilley is the author of a of the Australian performer Leigh Bowery titled Leigh Bowery, The Life and Times of an Icon. An early of Sidney was written by his friend and schoolfellow, Fulke Greville. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous in English literature, namely The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. His early works include the Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. When it came to , Johnson disagreed with Plutarch's use of biography to praise and to teach morality. Johnson's thoughts on and on poetry coalesced in his understanding of what would make a good critic. These early writings coloured all subsequent and have become embedded in a body of Keats legend. Inspired by the 1997 Keats penned by Andrew Motion, it stars Ben Whishaw as Keats and Abbie Cornish as Fanny. Sir Timothy threatened to stop the allowance if any of the poet were published. Also in 1845, Percy Bysshe Shelley's cousin Thomas Medwin approached her claiming to have written a damaging of Percy Shelley. Soon after Percy Shelley's death, Mary Shelley determined to write his . Anthony Powell mentions in his review of that contains that in his view Belloc was thoroughly antisemitic, at all but a personal level. The situation was compounded as successive generations of the family expunged and sanitized the already opaque details of Austen's . In 1991, Michael Shelden, an American professor of literature, published a . Hermione Lee's 1996 Virginia Woolf provides a thorough and authoritative examination of Woolf's life and work. Wilson's was not the first to address the question of Lewis's relationship with Moore. Each interview begins with a short of the interviewee, including their major publications. Listings include a of each inductee and an explanation of his or her achievements in the accounting field. And no, there's no truth El Tigre's will be called Great Expectorations. In the of cancer, retinoblastoma is a lead character. The festival is taking in tartan noir, erotica, horror, and poetry with some music and film thrown in too. Thanks largely to the research of John Harley, knowledge of Byrd's has expanded in recent years. In Eisenhower Jean Edward Smith has produced what may well be the best one-volume on this figure. According to articles, reports and a , Turpin couldn't deal with the obscurity resulting from the loss of his crown. American seaman Haskell Wexler later won two Academy Awards, the latter for a of his shipmate Woody Guthrie. As her shouts, Ewa Mataya Laurance is one of the most visible superstars in the history of pocket billiards. Roberts ends this detailed with appendixes on Coxeter groups and diagrams as well as Fibonacci numbers and phyllotaxis. Peavy and Smith have collaborated on 10 books on women's history and . There has only been one , written by Paul Allen, and this primarily covers his career in the theatre. He also wrote his first book there, a of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer. Cleo McNelly Kearns notes in her that Eliot was deeply influenced by Indic traditions, notably the Upanishads. In 1984, he wrote his first book, a of the band Duran Duran, as well as Ghastly Beyond Belief, a book of quotations, with Kim Newman. Alan Llwyd's 2011 of Roberts used diaries and letters to shed fresh light on her private life and her relationship with Morris. But who needs one more perfectly excellent Mozart ? A newspaper review of a Conrad suggested that the book could have been subtitled Thirty Years of Debt, Gout, Depression and Angst. Aymer Vallance was commissioned to produce the first of Morris, published in 1897, after Morris' death, as per the latter's wishes. In 1973 Burton agreed to play Josip Broz Tito in a film , since he admired the Yugoslav leader. In his of his father, Francis Deng deals frankly and in detail with Deng Majok's prodigious uxoriousness. The cultural of urnfields and the long-term history of a mythical landscape. In Updike, literary critic Adam Begley offers the first full-length on a larger-than-life American writer. An experiment in , rather less successful than Symons' Corvine, on a par perhaps with Ackroyd's Dickensian direct address strategems. In his , Ploughman of the Moon, Service recalled that his second effort, The Ballads of a Cheechako, also caused the House some anxiety. Foran is the author most recently of the of Mordecai Richler, another iconic Montrealer. The 1988 by Melvyn Bragg provides a detailed description of the many health issues that plagued Burton throughout his life. He was stunned by the backlash from some of the sleazier revelations in Tom Bower's recent tell-all , Sweet Revenge. Science historian Daniel Lewis set out to write a of Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian's first curator of birds. In The Puppetmaster, the life of Li Tien-lu the Taiwanese puppeteer is the subject of Hou's hybrid fictional and documentary film. This year's Costa book award shortlists in five categories, novel, first novel, poetry, and children's book, have been announced. In the of Helen Keller, for example, one chapter has definition boxes for Emanuel Swendenborg and the Braillewriter. Another stereotyped feature of the criminal was the portrayal of the biographee in the role of criminal-as-sinner. But Jim Steinmeyer's efficient though vexing new makes it clear why we all live today in Charles Fort's benightedly bizarre world. The locus classicus for this modern-sounding concept occurs in a contemporary by Wipo, a member of the royal chapel. Heinlein, In Dialogue With His Century, William Patterson has given us a scholarly doorstop that's smoothly readable. Happenstance opened the book for me to the of Margaret Leeson, listed only as Brothel-keeper. Her recent book provides us with a new paradigm for modern . The includes conjectures about the writer's earliest ambitions. Alfred commissioned Bishop Asser to write his , which inevitably emphasised Alfred's positive aspects. Gruffudd ap Cynan's was first written in Latin and intended for a wider audience outside Wales. However, Hibbert notes in his that the letter can be found among the Duke's papers, with nothing written on it. Rolt, in his of the Stephensons, describes the event in some detail. His was first written by Cardinal Boso in his extension to the Liber Pontificalis. Written by their daughter-in-law, this joint defly interlaces the personal and political to tell a human story behind the national struggle. David Harris Willson's 1956 continued much of this hostility. Evading Sir Timothy's ban on a , Mary Shelley often included in these editions her own annotations and reflections on her husband's life and work. It's about a young man who tries to distill the true of his dying father by looking for the kernels of truth in the many tall tales he has told. Hardy is a key character, played by Jeremy Irons, in the 2015 movie The Man Who Knew Infinity, based on the of Ramanujan with the same title. Rolt in his of Stephenson suggests that a faction on the Board continued to ask Stephenson for second opinions, and Rennie took umbrage at this. Writing his , Funny Peculiar, also had an influence. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death, when John Forster published a on which Dickens had collaborated. The first version appeared in about 715 followed by a later revision in the 730s, the first written by a contemporary to appear in England. The Color of Law spares no detail in its intimate portrayal of a real-life hero of the courtroom, and is a worthy addition to college and public library shelves. In the Eighteenth Century Shakespeare's image was in the ascendant, beginning with Nicholas Rowe's in 1709, the primary source of the Stratfordian story. Hamid's own reflects these trifurcated notions of origin and questions the ease with which the native, the immigrant, or the cosmopolitan is defined. The History is a Renaissance , remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy. As related in the book The Life and Times of Private Eye, Moss was the subject of a less than respectful cartoon in the magazine Private Eye. One of Orwell accused him of having had an authoritarian streak. The most obvious flaw of this is its relentless tendentiousness. The term hagiography may be used to refer to the of a saint or highly developed spiritual being in any of the world's spiritual traditions. In the chapter of Pisa three years later Bonaventure's Legenda maior was approved as the only of Francis and all previous biographies were ordered to be destroyed. Rick Dodgson had filled the gap by offering the first academic of the best-selling author and inspirational figure amongst psychedelic enthusiasts. The Victorian age witnessed a continuation of Milton's influence, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy being particularly inspired by Milton's poetry and . Though at least one of Virginia Woolf appeared in her lifetime, the first authoritative study of her life was published in 1972 by her nephew Quentin Bell. And I would gladly swap the BBC's mean-spirited drama for the far more even-handed approach in Barbara Stoney's excellent of Enid Blyton. A new musical by Wirral songwriter Dean Johnson, called Ice Picks And Violets, aims to shed some light on what might have happened in their last moments. But the Sunday Mirror can reveal Arrival Films has bought the rights for a six-figure sum from Lenny's widow Val and the ghostwriter of his , Pete Gerrard. The stage play Being Sellers premiered in Australia in 1998, three years after the release of the by Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Huxley was commissioned by Walt Disney in 1945 to write a script based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the of the story's author, Lewis Carroll. Like his wonderful book on Cannonball Adderley, Walk Tall, this new of flutist Herbie Mann treats us to an album-by-album chronicle of the musician's life. Crawford published a of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The first full was published in 1848 by Richard Monckton Milnes. Capua, author of many Hollywood film star biographies and correspondent for an Italian film magazine, provides a of American film legend Janet Leigh. Several costumes and banners featured images of pigs following claims in a new that Mr Cameron took part in a bizarre initiation ceremony at Oxford. The proposals were first published in 1970 in a of de Valera. Barrow, in his on Robert the Bruce, accused Edward of ruthlessly exploiting the leaderless state of Scotland to obtain a feudal superiority over the kingdom. FitzGibbon's 1965 ignores Thomas's heavy drinking and skims over his death, giving just two pages in his detailed book to Thomas's demise. Chapter 2 summarizes Dominici's and his activities as a preacher, writer, diplomat, and pedagogue. This is Mr. Van Doren at his worst and hack at normal. Suzanne then slipped away to her new victim, whose must here be given. A handful of inset black-and-white photographs illustrate this respectful of a true believer. And if his were written from his childhood to his death, it would be not only an ensample, but confusion to the world. Judge Driscoll had generously left the law feature out of Wilson's which he had furnished to the twins. Readers may remember the first chapter of my of Watkin Tench about my work in tracing his family in Chester, England. Why does Boswell yet wear the crown of indivisible supremacy in ? This act, a bar-sinister in the of Gorges, sullies his escutcheon at the outset. Neil Clark, author of a brief of john deere, states that the diamond-shaped piece was cut out of a circular saw. With the opening installment of the first serial the Free Press published a photograph of the author over a stickful of . Mr. Bingley also, in his animal , says that eels are viviparous. Use * for blank tiles (max 2) Use * for blank spaces bottom_desktop desktop:[300x250] go Word Tools Finders & Helpers Apps More Synonyms Copyright WordHippo © 2024 TRY OUR FREE APP Write your book in Reedsy Studio. Try the beloved writing app for free today. Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors. Blog • Perfecting your Craft Posted on Jun 30, 2023 How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template] From time to time, nonfiction authors become so captivated by a particular figure from either the present or the past, that they feel compelled to write an entire book about their life. Whether casting them as heroes or villains, there is an interesting quality in their humanity that compels these authors to revisit their life paths and write their story. However, portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires solid preparation. If you’re looking to write a biography yourself, in this post we’ll share a step-by-step blueprint that you can follow.  How to write a biography:  1. Seek permission when possible  2. research your subject thoroughly, 3. do interviews and visit locations, 4. organize your findings, 5. identify a central thesis, 6. write it using narrative elements, 7. get feedback and polish the text. FREE RESOURCE Biography Outline Template Craft a satisfying story arc for your biography with our free template. While you technically don’t need permission to write about public figures (or deceased ones), that doesn't guarantee their legal team won't pursue legal action against you. Author Kitty Kelley was sued by Frank Sinatra before she even started to write His Way , a biography that paints Ol Blue Eyes in a controversial light. (Kelley ended up winning the lawsuit, however).   Whenever feasible, advise the subject’s representatives of your intentions. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get a green light to proceed, or potentially an offer to collaborate. It's a matter of common sense; if someone were to write a book about you, you would likely want to know about it well prior to publication. So, make a sincere effort to reach out to their PR staff to negotiate an agreement or at least a mutual understanding of the scope of your project.  At the same time, make sure that you still retain editorial control over the project, and not end up writing a puff piece that treats its protagonist like a saint or hero. No biography can ever be entirely objective, but you should always strive for a portrayal that closely aligns with facts and reality. If you can’t get an answer from your subject, or you’re asked not to proceed forward, you can still accept the potential repercussions and write an unauthorized biography . The “rebellious act” of publishing without consent indeed makes for great marketing, though it’ll likely bring more headaches with it too.  ✋ Please note that, like other nonfiction books, if you intend to release your biography with a publishing house , you can put together a book proposal to send to them before you even write the book. If they like it enough, they might pay you an advance to write it.   Book Proposal Template Craft a professional pitch for your nonfiction book with our handy template. Once you’ve settled (or not) the permission part, it’s time to dive deep into your character’s story.   Deep and thorough research skills are the cornerstone of every biographer worth their salt. To paint a vivid and accurate portrait of someone's life, you’ll have to gather qualitative information from a wide range of reliable sources.  Start with the information already available, from books on your subject to archival documents, then collect new ones firsthand by interviewing people or traveling to locations.  Browse the web and library archives Put your researcher hat on and start consuming any piece on your subject you can find, from their Wikipedia page to news articles, interviews, TV and radio appearances, YouTube videos, podcasts, books, magazines, and any other media outlets they may have been featured in.  Establish a system to orderly collect the information you find 一 even seemingly insignificant details can prove valuable during the writing process, so be sure to save them.  Depending on their era, you may find most of the information readily available online, or you may need to search through university libraries for older references.  For his landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow spent untold hours at Columbia University’s library , reading through the Hamilton family papers, visiting the New York Historical Society, as well as interviewing the archivist of the New York Stock Exchange, and so on. The research process took years, but it certainly paid off. Chernow discovered that Hamilton created the first five securities originally traded on Wall Street. This finding, among others, revealed his significant contributions to shaping the current American financial and political systems, a legacy previously often overshadowed by other founding fathers. Today Alexander Hamilton is one of the best-selling biographies of all time, and it has become a cultural phenomenon with its own dedicated musical.  Besides reading documents about your subject, research can help you understand the world that your subject lived in.  Try to understand their time and social environment Many biographies show how their protagonists have had a profound impact on society through their philosophical, artistic, or scientific contributions. But at the same time, it’s worth it as a biographer to make an effort to understand how their societal and historical context influenced their life’s path and work. An interesting example is Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World . Finding himself limited by a lack of verified detail surrounding William Shakespeare's personal life, Greenblatt, instead, employs literary interpretation and imaginative reenactments to transport readers back to the Elizabethan era. The result is a vivid (though speculative) depiction of the playwright's life, enriching our understanding of his world. Many readers enjoy biographies that transport them to a time and place, so exploring a historical period through the lens of a character can be entertaining in its own right. The Diary of Samuel Pepys became a classic not because people were enthralled by his life as an administrator, but rather from his meticulous and vivid documentation of everyday existence during the Restoration period. Once you’ve gotten your hands on as many secondary sources as you can find, you’ll want to go hunting for stories first-hand from people who are (or were) close to your subject. With all the material you’ve been through, by now you should already have a pretty good picture of your protagonist. But you’ll surely have some curiosities and missing dots in their character arc to figure out, which you can only get by interviewing primary sources. Interview friends and associates This part is more relevant if your subject is contemporary, and you can actually meet up or call with relatives, friends, colleagues, business partners, neighbors, or any other person related to them.  In writing the popular biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson interviewed more than one hundred people, including Jobs’s family, colleagues, former college mates, business rivals, and the man himself. 🔍 Read other biographies to get a sense of what makes a great one. Check out our list of the 30 best biographies of all time , or take our 30-second quiz below for tips on which one you should read next.  Which biography should you read next? Discover the perfect biography for you. Takes 30 seconds! When you conduct your interviews, make sure to record them with high quality audio you can revisit later. Then use tools like Otter.ai or Descript to transcribe them 一 it’ll save you countless hours.  You can approach the interview with a specific set of questions, or follow your curiosity blindly, trying to uncover revealing stories and anecdotes about your subject. Whatever your method, author and biography editor Tom Bromley suggests that every interviewer arrives prepared, "Show that you’ve done your work. This will help to put the interviewee at ease, and get their best answers.”  Bromley also places emphasis on the order in which you conduct interviews. “You may want to interview different members of the family or friends first, to get their perspective on something, and then go directly to the main interviewee. You'll be able to use that knowledge to ask sharper, more specific questions.”  Finally, consider how much time you have with each interviewee. If you only have a 30-minute phone call with an important person, make it count by asking directly the most pressing questions you have. And, if you find a reliable source who is also particularly willing to help, conduct several interviews and ask them, if appropriate, to write a foreword as part of the book’s front matter . Sometimes an important part of the process is packing your bags, getting on a plane, and personally visiting significant places in your character’s journey. Visit significant places in their life A place, whether that’s a city, a rural house, or a bodhi tree, can carry a particular energy that you can only truly experience by being there. In putting the pieces together about someone’s life, it may be useful to go visit where they grew up, or where other significant events of their lives happened. It will be easier to imagine what they experienced, and better tell their story.  In researching The Lost City of Z , author David Grann embarked on a trek through the Amazon, retracing the steps of British explorer Percy Fawcett. This led Grann to develop new theories about the circumstances surrounding the explorer's disappearance. Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with jaguars and anacondas to better understand your subject’s environment, but try to walk into their shoes as much as possible.  Once you’ve researched your character enough, it’s time to put together all the puzzle pieces you collected so far.  Take the bulk of notes, media, and other documents you’ve collected, and start to give them some order and structure. A simple way to do this is by creating a timeline.  Create a chronological timeline It helps to organize your notes chronologically 一 from childhood to the senior years, line up the most significant events of your subject’s life, including dates, places, names and other relevant bits.  You should be able to divide their life into distinct periods, each with their unique events and significance. Based on that, you can start drafting an outline of the narrative you want to create.   Draft a story outline  Since a biography entails writing about a person’s entire life, it will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can pick where you want to end the story, depending on how consequential the last years of your subject were. But the nature of the work will give you a starting character arc to work with.  To outline the story then, you could turn to the popular Three-Act Structure , which divides the narrative in three main parts. In a nutshell, you’ll want to make sure to have the following: Act 1. Setup : Introduce the protagonist's background and the turning points that set them on a path to achieve a goal.  Act 2. Confrontation : Describe the challenges they encounter, both internal and external, and how they rise to them. Then.. Act 3. Resolution : Reach a climactic point in their story in which they succeed (or fail), showing how they (and the world around them) have changed as a result.  Only one question remains before you begin writing: what will be the main focus of your biography? Think about why you’re so drawn to your subject to dedicate years of your life to recounting their own. What aspect of their life do you want to highlight? Is it their evil nature, artistic genius, or visionary mindset? And what evidence have you got to back that up? Find a central thesis or focus to weave as the main thread throughout your narrative.  Or find a unique angle If you don’t have a particular theme to explore, finding a distinct angle on your subject’s story can also help you distinguish your work from other biographies or existing works on the same subject. Plenty of biographies have been published about The Beatles 一 many of which have different focuses and approaches:  Philip Norman's Shout is sometimes regarded as leaning more towards a pro-Lennon and anti-McCartney stance, offering insights into the band's inner dynamics.  Ian McDonald's Revolution in the Head closely examines their music track by track, shifting the focus back to McCartney as a primary creative force.  Craig Brown's One Two Three Four aims to capture their story through anecdotes, fan letters, diary entries, and interviews.  Mark Lewisohn's monumental three-volume biography, Tune In , stands as a testament to over a decade of meticulous research, chronicling every intricate detail of the Beatles' journey. Finally, consider that biographies are often more than recounting the life of a person. Similar to how Dickens’ Great Expectations is not solely about a boy named Pip (but an examination and critique of Britain’s fickle, unforgiving class system), a biography should strive to illuminate a broader truth — be it social, political, or human — beyond the immediate subject of the book.  Once you’ve identified your main focus or angle, it’s time to write a great story.  While biographies are often highly informative, they do not have to be dry and purely expository in nature . You can play with storytelling elements to make it an engaging read.  You could do that by thoroughly detailing the setting of the story , depicting the people involved in the story as fully-fledged characters , or using rising action and building to a climax when describing a particularly significant milestone of the subject’s life.  One common way to make a biography interesting to read is starting on a strong foot… Hook the reader from the start Just because you're honoring your character's whole life doesn't mean you have to begin when they said their first word. Starting from the middle or end of their life can be more captivating as it introduces conflicts and stakes that shaped their journey. When he wrote about Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild , author Jon Krakauer didn’t open his subject’s childhood and abusive family environment. Instead, the book begins with McCandless hitchhiking his way into the wilderness, and subsequently being discovered dead in an abandoned bus. By starting in medias res , Krakauer hooks the reader’s interest, before tracing back the causes and motivations that led McCandless to die alone in that bus in the first place. You can bend the timeline to improve the reader’s reading experience throughout the rest of the story too… Play with flashback  While biographies tend to follow a chronological narrative, you can use flashbacks to tell brief stories or anecdotes when appropriate. For example, if you were telling the story of footballer Lionel Messi, before the climax of winning the World Cup with Argentina, you could recall when he was just 13 years old, giving an interview to a local newspaper, expressing his lifelong dream of playing for the national team.  Used sparsely and intentionally, flashbacks can add more context to the story and keep the narrative interesting. Just like including dialogue does… Reimagine conversations Recreating conversations that your subject had with people around them is another effective way to color the story. Dialogue helps the reader imagine the story like a movie, providing a deeper sensory experience.  One thing is trying to articulate the root of Steve Jobs’ obsession with product design, another would be to quote his father , teaching him how to build a fence when he was young: “You've got to make the back of the fence just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know. And that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect.” Unlike memoirs and autobiographies, in which the author tells the story from their personal viewpoint and enjoys greater freedom to recall conversations, biographies require a commitment to facts. So, when recreating dialogue, try to quote directly from reliable sources like personal diaries, emails, and text messages. You could also use your interview scripts as an alternative to dialogue. As Tom Bromley suggests, “If you talk with a good amount of people, you can try to tell the story from their perspective, interweaving different segments and quoting the interviewees directly.” FREE COURSE How to Write Believable Dialogue Master the art of dialogue in 10 five-minute lessons. These are just some of the story elements you can use to make your biography more compelling. Once you’ve finished your manuscript, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback.  If you’re going to self-publish your biography, you’ll have to polish it to professional standards. After leaving your work to rest for a while, look at it with fresh eyes and self-edit your manuscript eliminating passive voice, filler words, and redundant adverbs.  Then, have a professional editor give you a general assessment. They’ll look at the structure and shape of your manuscript and tell you which parts need to be expanded on or cut. As someone who edited and commissioned several biographies, Tom Bromley points out that a professional “will look at the sources used and assess whether they back up the points made, or if more are needed. They would also look for context, and whether or not more background information is needed for the reader to understand the story fully. And they might check your facts, too.”   In addition to structural editing, you may want to have someone copy-edit and proofread your work. MEET EDITORS Polish your book with expert help Sign up, meet 1500+ experienced editors, and find your perfect match. Importantly, make sure to include a bibliography with a list of all the interviews, documents, and sources used in the writing process. You’ll have to compile it according to a manual of style, but you can easily create one by using tools like EasyBib . Once the text is nicely polished and typeset in your writing software , you can prepare for the publication process.   In conclusion, by mixing storytelling elements with diligent research, you’ll be able to breathe life into a powerful biography that immerses readers in another individual’s life experience. Whether that’ll spark inspiration or controversy, remember you could have an important role in shaping their legacy 一 and that’s something not to take lightly.  Continue reading Recommended posts from the Reedsy Blog 450+ Powerful Adjectives to Describe a Person (With Examples) Want a handy list to help you bring your characters to life? Discover words that describe physical attributes, dispositions, and emotions. How to Plot a Novel Like a NYT Bestselling Author Need to plot your novel? Follow these 7 steps from New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt. How to Write an Autobiography: The Story of Your Life Want to write your autobiography but aren’t sure where to start? This step-by-step guide will take you from opening lines to publishing it for everyone to read. What is the Climax of a Story? Examples & Tips The climax is perhaps a story's most crucial moment, but many writers struggle to stick the landing. Let's see what makes for a great story climax. What is Tone in Literature? Definition & Examples We show you, with supporting examples, how tone in literature influences readers' emotions and perceptions of a text. Writing Cozy Mysteries: 7 Essential Tips & Tropes We show you how to write a compelling cozy mystery with advice from published authors and supporting examples from literature. Join a community of over 1 million authors Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book. We made a writing app for you Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always. 1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them. Enter your email or get started with a social account: How to Write a Short Bio: 5 Examples and Templates By Status.net Editorial Team on June 16, 2023 — 12 minutes to read How to Write a Short Bio Part 1 What to Include in a Short Professional Bio Part 2 Example of a Formal Short Bio Part 3 Example of a Casual Short Bio Part 4 Examples of Well-Written Short Bios Part 5 Short Bio: Best Templates Part 6 Tips for Writing a Short Bio Part 7 Optimizing Your Bio for Different Platforms Part 8 A short bio is a concise and informative summary of your professional background, accomplishments, and personal interests. It’s an opportunity for you to introduce yourself to others, whether it’s for networking, job applications, or social media profiles. By writing a short bio, you allow others to quickly understand your expertise, strengths, and personality. As you write your short bio, consider your audience and tailor the content accordingly. You might want to have different versions of your bio for varying contexts, such as a professional conference, a job application, or a social media platform. Regardless of the situation, strive to be authentic and maintain a tone that reflects your personality while also adhering to professional standards. Part 1 How to Write a Short Bio When writing a short bio, first focus on being concise and relevant. A short bio should be approximately 4-6 sentences or about 150 words. Be sure to highlight your achievements, experience, and expertise with confidence and clarity. To start, introduce yourself briefly, including your name, title, and current role or profession. Next, mention your most significant accomplishments in your field thus far. This can include awards, certifications, publications, or any other relevant milestones. Discuss your current work and projects, providing the reader with a snapshot of your professional life. Make sure to emphasize your unique strengths and specialties. Then, touch upon your education or any other credentials that showcase your expertise. “Jeremiah Smith, an award-winning graphic designer, specializes in creating visually stunning websites and marketing materials for a diverse clientele. With over 10 years of experience, Jeremiah has led branding projects for major corporations and small businesses alike, receiving accolades for his innovative design solutions. Currently, he serves as the Creative Director at X Design Studio, where he is dedicated to helping clients grow their digital presence. Jeremiah holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago.” For a stronger impact, customize your short bio by tailoring it to the specific platform, audience, or purpose. By prioritizing information and emphasizing the most relevant points, you can create a brief, engaging bio that showcases your unique skills and accomplishments. Part 2 What to Include in a Short Professional Bio Your job title and current role : Start by mentioning your current role and the industry you’re working in. This helps to establish your expertise and gives readers an immediate understanding of your professional focus. Career accomplishments and milestones : Highlight a few significant achievements in your career thus far. These can be successful projects, promotions, or awards you’ve received. Be specific about what you’ve accomplished and how it demonstrates your expertise. Skills and qualifications : Briefly mention the key skills and qualifications you possess that make you an expert in your field. This can include technical abilities, soft skills, certifications, or degrees. Interests and personal touch : Add a few personal details that showcase your interests and passions outside of work. This can humanize your professional persona and help you connect with readers on a more personal level. However, be careful not to share too much personal information. LinkedIn and networking opportunities : Include a link to your LinkedIn profile or other professional social media accounts. This provides readers with an opportunity to connect with you and discover more about your background. To present this information effectively, write your short professional bio in the third person and maintain a confident, knowledgeable, and clear tone of voice. Keep the content concise and easy to understand by breaking it into paragraphs and using formatting elements such as bullet points and bold text when necessary. Here is one more example of a well-crafted short professional bio: “John Smith is a seasoned marketing manager with over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He currently leads product marketing efforts at X Company, where he has successfully launched new products and significantly increased market share. John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is certified in digital marketing. His expertise includes strategic planning, content creation, and driving brand awareness through innovative campaigns. In his free time, John enjoys hiking, photography, and volunteering at the local animal shelter. Connect with him on LinkedIn to learn more about his professional experience and accomplishments.” Taking Into Account Personal and Professional Aspects Try to strike a balance between your personal and professional aspects: Make sure to mention any relevant professional accomplishments and skills that showcase your expertise in your field. If you are a student or a working professional, add details about your university, current position, or professional experiences that give readers an insight into your capabilities. Don’t forget to add a touch of personality to your bio. Including personal details, interests, and hobbies will make you more relatable and create a connection with your audience. However, try to keep these personal elements brief and relevant to your overall bio. For example, if you are writing a bio for a personal website or Twitter, you could mention that you are an avid painter or a dedicated volunteer at a local animal shelter. When writing in the second person, use short paragraphs to make your bio easy to read and understand. For instance: Full name: Briefly mention your full name at the beginning of your bio. Professional skills: List your core skills and accomplishments in bullet points or a table format. Personal interests: Share some hobbies or interests related to your profession or that showcase your values. Personal goals or mission statement: Include a sentence or two about your professional philosophy and core values to give readers a sense of your personal brand. Related: How to Write a Personal Mission Statement (20 Examples) Be cautious with the contact information you provide, especially if your bio will be accessible to the public on your personal website or social media profiles. Make sure only the necessary details are included to avoid any privacy concerns. In summary, your short bio should be a reflection of both your personal and professional self. Showcase your skills and accomplishments while adding personal touches to make it engaging and relatable. Keep the text concise, use appropriate formatting, and remember to maintain a confident, knowledgeable, neutral, and clear tone throughout your bio. Related: What Are Your Values? How to Discover Your Values Selecting the Tone for Your Short Bio Selecting the right tone for your short bio is crucial to portraying yourself in the way you want to be perceived. Consider the context in which the bio will be read and choose a tone accordingly. There are two main tones you can adopt: formal and casual. Part 3 Example of a Formal Short Bio Formal Tone : If you’re writing a bio for a professional context, such as a job, conference, or publication, opt for a formal tone. This means using more sophisticated language, avoiding slang, and maintaining a professional vibe throughout the bio. To achieve this, write in complete sentences, utilize proper grammar and punctuation, and highlight your achievements and expertise. Be sure to remain confident and clear in your writing. Example: “Dr. Jane Doe is a renowned expert in the field of molecular biology, with over 15 years of research experience to her credit. As the recipient of several prestigious awards, Dr. Doe’s groundbreaking work has had a significant impact on the scientific community.” Part 4 Example of a Casual Short Bio Casual Tone : A casual tone works well for less formal situations, such as bios on personal websites, blogs, or social media profiles. Here, you can use more relaxed language and showcase your personality. However, it’s still important to sound knowledgeable and approachable. Feel free to use contractions, incorporate humor, and speak directly to your audience to create an engaging tone. “Hey there! I’m John, a travel enthusiast who loves exploring new cultures and tasting exotic dishes. When I’m not backpacking across the globe, you can find me geeking out about the latest tech gadgets or sipping on a well-crafted cocktail.” In both cases, whether formal or casual, always ensure that your voice is confident, neutral, and clear. Remember to keep it concise, avoid exaggeration or false claims, and maintain a second-person point of view. Part 5 Examples of Well-Written Short Bios Short bio example 1. Jane Smith is a marketing expert with over 10 years of experience in helping brands elevate their online presence. With a passion for storytelling, Jane excels in creating content that engages and inspires. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, photography, and exploring her city’s local coffee shops. Connect with Jane on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter @JaneSmith. Short Bio Example 2 John Doe is an experienced software engineer with a knack for developing cutting-edge applications. Specializing in full-stack web development, John’s expertise lies in JavaScript, Python, and Node.js. When he’s not coding, John can be found playing the guitar, tutoring local students in programming, or cheering on his favorite esports team. Part 6 Short Bio: Best Templates Short bio template 1. [Your Name] is a [industry or profession] expert with [number of years] of experience in [specific skills or areas of expertise]. [He/She/They] specializes in [technical skills or industry knowledge] and has a passion for [relevant interests]. In [his/her/their] free time, [your name] enjoys [hobbies or activities]. Connect with [your name] on [social media platforms] or through [his/her/their] website. Short Bio Template 2 As a [occupation or field], [Your Name] incorporates [unique qualities or skills] to produce [specific type of work]. With a background in [relevant experience], [He/She/They] has been able to [achievement or accomplishment] through [personal path or passion]. When not [working or creating], [Your Name] spends [his/her/their] time [hobbies or activities], always seeking new inspiration. [Your name] is a [profession or role] with a background in [relevant expertise or industry]. [He/She/They] earned a [degree] in [field] from [institution]. [Your name] has [number of years] experience in [profession/industry], providing [valuable service or skill]. Outside of work, [your name] enjoys [hobbies or personal interests]. Connect with [your name] on [social media platform] or visit [your website or portfolio]. Customize these examples and templates to fit your own unique skills, experiences, and personality. Using a second person point of view, focus on the key aspects you want your audience to know about. Be confident and transparent about your achievements and interests, and let your short bio speak for itself. Happy writing! Part 7 Tips for Writing a Short Bio Know your target audience : Consider the people who will be reading your bio and focus on the information that will be most relevant to them. Tailor your bio to best serve their needs and expectations. Highlight your accomplishments : Share information on your achievements, awards, and notable experiences. This will give your audience an understanding of your expertise and success in your field. Include your goals and mission statement : Tell your audience what drives you and what you hope to achieve. This can help create a connection with the reader and showcase your dedication to your work. Maintain a professional tone : Write in a clear and concise manner, avoiding casual language and slang. A confident and knowledgeable tone will convey your competence in your field. Keep personal information to a minimum : While you may choose to mention some personal tidbits, be mindful of what you share. Focus on information that enhances your professional image, rather than oversharing personal details. Promote your brand and company : If you represent a business or have a personal brand, mention your company name and mission statement. This can help reinforce your brand identity and make a stronger impression on your audience. Prioritize transparency and authenticity : Be honest about your experience and qualifications. Avoid exaggerating or making false claims in order to maintain trust with your audience. Limit self-promotion : While it’s important to show off your accomplishments, be sure to keep the focus on meaningful information rather than excessive self-promotion. This will help engage readers and build credibility. Use formatting to enhance readability : Break up your bio into paragraphs, use bullet points for lists, and bold text for important details. This will make it easier for your audience to read and understand your bio. Include contact information : Provide a way for your audience to get in touch with you, whether it’s an email address, phone number, or a link to your website. Part 8 Optimizing Your Bio for Different Platforms On LinkedIn , focus on your professional achievements and skills. Use bullet points or a table to highlight your most significant accomplishments. Feel free to include any relevant certifications, courses, or awards. Remember that LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, so maintaining a professional tone is crucial. For a resume , your bio should be concise and focus on summarizing your career history and specific expertise. Make it easy for potential employers to grasp your main strengths quickly. Use bold text to emphasize crucial information, such as your job title, years of experience, or industry-specific skills. On a personal website , you have more freedom to express your personality and showcase unique aspects of your life. Consider adding anecdotes, hobbies, or personal achievements to give visitors a glimpse of who you are outside of your professional life. You can also touch on your professional capabilities but keep it concise. For Twitter , keep in mind the character limit for bios and make every word count. Capture your profession or industry, and maybe add a touch of your personality or interests through emojis or hashtags. It’s common to see authors and celebrities mention their latest projects, books, or achievements here. Frequently Asked Questions What are the essential elements of a short bio. A short bio should include: Your name and current role or profession. Brief background information including education and relevant work experience. Notable accomplishments or skills relevant to your profession. Personal interests or ambitions that showcase your personality. A call-to-action, such as directing readers to your portfolio or LinkedIn profile. How can I create a compelling short professional bio? To create a compelling short professional bio, follow these steps: Start strong with a clear and concise introduction. Focus on your most relevant qualifications and experience. Highlight key achievements and successes. Provide a personal touch that showcases your unique attributes. Keep it brief and easy to read, aiming for around 100-150 words. What are some tips to make my short bio stand out? Use vivid language and strong, active verbs. Tailor your bio to your audience, emphasizing information that is most relevant to them. Share a unique or unexpected personal interest to pique interest. Edit and proofread your bio carefully, ensuring it is free of errors and reads smoothly. How can I tailor my short bio to different contexts? Adjust your short bio for different contexts by: Focusing on relevant skills, experience, or accomplishments for each specific audience. Adjusting the tone or language to suit the platform (e.g., more casual for a social media profile or more formal for a conference bio). Emphasizing specific personal interests or accomplishments that align with the context or audience. Updating your call-to-action as needed to direct readers to relevant content or profiles. Related: 150+ Awesome Examples of Personal Values How to Write a Personal Mission Statement (20 Examples) How to Live By Your Values Use "biography" in a sentence Biography example sentences. 1. It contains the biography collection of different 2. 'I've been asked by a representative of the Danvers House Foundation to research Miss Danvers' papers and try to put together a biography 3. Joe like I told you elsewhere in my biography , is a pretty good mechanic and pretty good parts man and he quickly figured out that the timing chain was gone on the car and it needed to be replaced 4. Would you like to reflect with me on what follows, thinking about how your biography might be projected on the big screen? Would it be billed as a drama, or a comedy, or maybe even a horror story? Or perhaps a bit of all of the previous, rolled into one super full-length movie that will surely have sequels to be made in the years ahead? 5. Whatever the case, how about reflecting with me on what follows, thinking about how your biography might be projected on the big screen? Ready or not, here we go… 6. Maybe I have a only few hours left in this body or many more years until I gasp my last breath and my biography then comes to a final conclusion 7. Read any objective biography of Stalin, and at least one unbiased history of the Soviet Union in the thirties 8. (I wish I could recall the title of the biography I found it in 9. A biography to finish with 10. However, according to his biography , he 11. Some information from his biography which I share with you below 12. He did left a cryptic message in his biography the day he left 13. His biography appeared in that year’s edition of “Noteworthy Americans of the Bicentennial Era” and also in “International Register of Profiles - World Edition, 1976” 14. Roger had al ready been cited in “Outstanding Educators of America” (1971), “Dictionary of International Biography ” (1973) and “Men of Achievement” (1974) 15. The list includes "Outstanding Educators of America" 1971, "Dictionary of International Biography " 1973, "Men of Achievement" 1974, "Noteworthy Americans of the Bicentennial Era" and "Who’s Who in the West" 1975, International Register of Profiles World Edition 1976, and "Who’s Who among Hispanic Americans" 1992-93 16. Love, Trip After my father died, one of his television stations put together a videotape biography on him, which did a good job of tracking his life 17. When you were playing Time of the Ages you could just focus your attention on any character and it would bring up complete biography and stats 18. Whenever she faced insurmountable difficulties in her more than thirty years of mission to protect the environment in India, she would turn to his biography for strength and renew her determination to pursue her objectives 19. In his biography , it is stated that "Bradman was most taken by Tendulkar's technique, compactness and shot production, and had asked his wife to have a look at Tendulkar, having felt that Tendulkar played like him 20. Your biography , as it relates to your expertise 21. It was an afternoon to forget – which I did until twenty-two years later when a lecturer in English literature approached me in the staffroom bearing a recent biography of his hero, Anthony Burgess 22. I finally found what I was searching for, a biography of the Commodore 23. Nakamura’s security file was an interesting read if you enjoyed a biography of one of America’s best and brightest citizens---a Horatio Alger story if there ever was one 24. How could he have given her the true Dracos biography ? The old dear would have gone apoplexic 25. The biography worked its way to her status as a social policy critic and friend to seniors always working hard to improve the lives of seniors and help out their families 26. His biography is in the Dictionary of Literary Biography , and his 27. in the running the Stallman story as a biography 28. ning that O'Reilly intended to publish the biography both as a 29. this is a biography of Richard Stallman, it seemed inappropri- 30. thought of writing a historical biography 31. Allan Nevins wrote a friendly biography of the robber baron from Cleveland, which I haven’t read 32. But even a Potter book or a presidential biography with high sales may not be in the class of one that is struggling to get exposed to the public 33. The book, appropriately enough, is called, The Beatles: The Illustrated And Updated Edition Of The Best-selling Authorized Biography 34. ‘’We are checking on that right now, sir, but she officially is an only child and her parents died in a car accident when she was sixteen, according to her official biography 35. It’s the critical biography of the man who rose to become Speaker of the House – I wouldn’t want him in mine 36. For a delightful and informative read, I recommend Appetite for Life: The Biography of 37. To understand how bad things were, read the biography of a great woman, Mother 38. First, I am what my official biography and military file says 419 39. Speedbumps: Flooring it through Hollywood is the biography of the actress, Teri Garr 40. History, an entertaining, sometimes hysterical biography of the maturing of a journalist, growing up in New Jersey 41. I saw a Ken Burns biography of the development of broadcast radio and (infant) TV last night and how two American engineers, Lee DeForrest and Edwin Howard Armstrong spent 20 years and millions in attorneys fees and court costs (1930s-1950s) to contest patents in court 42. Kevin’s book, My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me about Life, Love and Laughing out Loud, is the biography of a teacher, who was dedicated to follow his dream without a college degree, which he has achieved 43. whose biography is a litany of irresponsibility and grievance about his 44. Your biography is dictated by 45. Ignoring the fact that the authorities in Poland rarely deprived any writer of the freedom of expression, Tsosnik’s magisterial biography of Pilsudski had just emerged after years of internment by the censor 46. Once out of the conference room, Ingrid went to her office, where Senior Airman Denise Bateman was waiting for her, finding her reading with great interest the book on Nancy Laplante that Ingrid had written years ago along with her own biography as a female fighter pilot during World War Two 47. questioned by the masses In Letters from the Earth Mark Twain asserted that the Bible, in describing God, is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere, and that God is a malign thug 48. Could it be that he was no superhero? Or perhaps these moments of indecision were left out of the average superhero biography 49. group: there wil be enough book editors and biography producers interested in their life 50. I remember reading Abbie Hoffman’s biography a long time ago 51. Indeed, it is precisely this apparent lack of a biography that qualifies these leaders to represent and bring about a fantastic and grandiose future 52. It was faith in Christ's "words of eternal life" which made that honourable woman, Catherine Tait, as recorded in a most touching biography , resign five children in five weeks to the grave, in the full assurance that Christ would keep His word, take care of them both in body and soul, and bring them with Him to meet her at the last day 53. According to her biography she met acknowledged genius the famous Albert Einstein 54. material for that biography 55. about me having met Quick or Teef, or about the biography 56. Loyd and Alicia had finished writing their sections of Quick’s biography , but Dale, Jeremy and I still 57. An attempt is made here towards this end that owes the content, and at times the text even, wherever quoted, of “Muhammad – his life based on the earliest sources”, the remarkable biography by Martin Lings published by Inner Traditions International, USA 58. The following episode in Martin Ling’s biography of Muhammad would be illustrative 59. In madrasas that the clergy preside over are attended by the majority of the Muslim children, the topics of study include an introduction to the Muslim faith and practice, worship forms, biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and stories of other heroes of the faith 60. But for now, the Musalmans are ever on the look out for the ways and means to assert their Islamic separateness, which, for the muse of a poet would seem: Oh goddamn faith, how thou divide ‘the God’ from gods and ‘the Musalmans’ from other humans! Why if only the moulanas approach Muhammad’s life, not in awe but with insight, for a solution to their vexatious separatist inhibitions, pointers are aplenty in Martin Ling’s biography of his 61. Can an animal be a “helpful scholar and a consultan?” can an animal have a laboratory to do research and fill the literature with different discoveries? Can an animal prepare his own biography ? Can an animal be NASA swimming in space? 62. this advice which I came across while reading the biography that 63. Then, there are those with genuine prejudices too, and these had much to do with the denunciations of Islam that were carried out in Europe during the Crusades, which passed on from generation to generation, and Karen Armstrong has written on the same in her very balanced biography of Prophet Muhammad, in which she has also critiqued the prophet on some points, and as a reviewer has put it, she has been “respectful but not reverential” 64. That is exactly as we mentioned in the biography of the Meccan 65. is the biography of Muhammad and the Hadith is what Muhammad 66. A Beautiful Mind is a movie based on the dramatic and moving biography by Sylvia Nasar about John Forbes Nash, Jr 67. Your biography , as it relates to your expertise for this book 68. 210,gives a short biography , though the study is in the main apenetrating investigation of 69. We are rankly vegetarian again, Papa leading the way with immense determination, for he has set his heart at this unfortunate juncture on a new biography of Goethe that must needs come out just now, a big thing in two volumes costing a terrible number of marks, very well done, full of the result of original digging among archives; but he dare not buy it, he says, in the present state of our affairs 70. It was the official biography of Michael Wong, showing his personal antecedents and his professional qualifications and experience 71. The details were again scant but they did answer the question as to why his most prominent medical position was not included in the previous biography 72. She too was worried she might he dragged into a mess even though all she had done was provide him with Michael Wong’s biography 73. Then what I found amusing in the biography of 74. They contain logical arguments, poetry, songs and hymns, history, biography , stories, parables, fables, eloquence, law, letters and philosophy 75. In Heredia's biography two factsshould be stressed: that 76. From Verdi’s biography derives that his first bad season ended in 1825, while a 77. Picasso’s biography shows that a bad season started for him in 1892, which was 78. biography I had already studied 79. For this purpose, I took the biography of Napoléon I, who was almost an exact contemporary of Beethoven 80. From Napoléon’s biography derives that his good and bad seasons alternated at 81. * I have based all Hugo’s biography in this chapter on Cesare Giardini’s Hugo, 82. From Hugo’s biography derives that his seasons alternated every 16-17 years in 83. * My main source for Churchill’s biography of this chapter is Sebastian Haffner’s 84. produced a colossal work, the four-volume biography of his ancestor, Marlborough 85. From Columbus biography is revealed, therefore, that the lives of the persons 86. see in his detailed biography in another chapter– that the good and bad seasons in 87. I’s biography reveals –as her biography cited later shows– that her life’s seasons 88. Thus, Onassis’s biography reveals that the 89. As we’ll see, for example, in Christopher Columbus’s biography later, he 90. biography , though the majority of the British cabinet’s members was against 91. at the age of 50, as we’ll see in his biography , but later he became world’s 92. biography later), and many others had seen their works being rejected during their 93. As we’ll see later in Queen Elizabeth I of England’s biography , when she was three, she legally became a bastard, she was deprived of her title of 94. Gorbachev’s biography shows that his seasonal alternations occurred at the dates 95. But his biography also shows how Gorbachev’s life was radically influenced 96. biography , you’ll also see how the alternations of his good and bad seasons we’ve 97. From Mandela’s biography is confirmed that his seasonal alternations occurred at Synonyms for "biography" "biography" definitions. an account of the series of events making up a person's life This page requires JavaScript. English sentences focusing on words and their word families the word "biography" in example sentences each page has up to 50 sentences. sentences with audio are listed first. (total: 7), the sentences. Copyright © 2014 by Charles Kelly Biography in a Sentence  🔊 Definition of Biography a person’s life story as told by another person Examples of Biography in a sentence It took me years to shape the president’s life story into an engaging biography.  🔊 Since the actress never asked you to write about her rise to stardom, your book isn’t an authorized biography.  🔊 The popular author will recount the singer’s upbringing in a biography.  🔊 In order for the writer to pen my biography, he’ll need to ask me numerous questions about my life.  🔊 Using my grandmother’s diaries, I was able to mesh her stories into a biography.  🔊 Other words in the Books and Reading Material category: Most Searched Words (with Video) Voracious: In a Sentence Verbose: In a Sentence Vainglorious: In a Sentence Pseudonym: In a Sentence Propinquity: In a Sentence Orotund: In a Sentence Magnanimous: In a Sentence Inquisitive: In a Sentence Epoch: In a Sentence Aberrant: In a Sentence Apprehensive: In a Sentence Obdurate: In a Sentence Heresy: In a Sentence Gambit: In a Sentence Pneumonia: In a Sentence Otiose: In a Sentence About These Results Advanced Search Login or signup. Only registered users can use the advanced search. Signup for FREE now, or login if you already have an account. ~~~ We Need YOU ~~~ Popular phrases. come up with for internal use only at this point of my life little comments Contextual Learning of Biography © 2024 Sentence Stack | Terms | Privacy Cookies --> Best 25 Instagram Bio Ideas to Help Improve Yours (with Examples) In Instagram Marketing Last revised on June 20, 2024 Read Time 11 mins Table Of Contents Everyone loves Instagram and the community of 2 billion monthly active users is proof. The competition is high and people get bombarded with new content and accounts from all the sides, so users have to be creative to grab the attention of their target audience, especially if they use Instagram for business growth. Your Instagram bio is the first thing people will see when they land on your page. Like a first impression, a bad Instagram bio can discourage visitors from scrolling further, while a good one can push them to engage with your brand. However, many fail to recognize its importance because of its limited space of 150 characters, so the importance of Instagram bio ideas appears. About Instagram Bio in Brief The Instagram bio is the small space just above your main feed. It’s one of the first things you need to fill out when you create an Instagram account, whether you want to run a business profile or personal one. Since an Insta bio just gives a tiny space to describe your business, many don’t know what to do with it. Many people associate the bio with the short description, but it’s actually composed of multiple parts: Your name. Not to be confused with your username, this is the bold text right below your profile photo. Category. Instagram has over 1,500 business categories you can choose from. Description. 150-character space to describe what your business is all about. Pronouns. An optional section where you can show your gender identity in your bio. This should appear next to your name in light gray text. Links. Instagram now allows you to add up to five links to your bio. This is the only part of your profile where clickable links work. Contact options. You can choose to add contact buttons on your profile, which can include your phone number, email address, WhatsApp number, Instagram calling, and business address. Action buttons. Instagram currently has three action buttons available: Order food, Book now, and Reserve. To edit your bio, simply tap on the edit profile button on your page. The Importance of Instagram Bio for Growth Whether your target audience is coming from an external link, through search, or a follow ad, the first thing they’ll see is your Instagram bio. Just as a book is often judged by its cover, your Instagram bio can make or break your brand for your Instagram audience. That small space can: Showcase what your brand is all about Inform your audience what actions they must take Share essential contact details about your business Help your ranking and visibility in search Your audience should be able to take a quick look at your bio and decide whether or not you’re worth following. With strategic keywords and hashtags sprinkled into your description, name, and category you can appear as a suggested profile on Instagram search as well as on Google. What Makes a Good Instagram Bio? There’s no single way to create a good Instagram bio. However, there are a few elements that can help contribute to your success: Clear profile picture. Your photo should be high-resolution and follow Instagram’s 110×110 rule. A low-quality profile photo can make your business appear untrustworthy. Keywords. The keywords you choose will, of course, highly depend on your niche and industry. Adding strategic keywords to your bio can help you appear in organic searches. Emoji. Adding emojis to your bio is an excellent way to make a creative Instagram bio and show your brand’s personality as well as an easy way to describe your products and services without going over the character limit. Strong Call-to-Action. Call-to-actions are extremely important in any section of your Instagram page because it’s a simple way to drive conversions. Plus, the rule of thumb for any brand on social media is: if you don’t ask, you shall not receive. Website Link. As mentioned above, you only have five clickable links allowed in your bio—you can’t add a link anywhere else. Use this link strategically by changing up landing pages depending on your campaign goals. Further Reading: 10 Elements of the Perfect Instagram Bio Best Instagram Bio Ideas with Examples Your audience has an incredibly short attention span of 8 seconds. Without photos and videos at your disposal and a small space to play around with, you need to get creative with your Instagram bio to make the best first impression. No matter what is your goal of using Instagram, whether you want to promote your event or your business, get influence as an opinion leader, or simply stay in touch with your friends, having a well-written Insta bio is a must. And in this article, we’ve collected the best Instagram bio ideas, divided into five sections. Let’s dive in! 1. Professional Bio Ideas Your bio style will always depend on your industry, niche, or target audience. If you’re a B2B company or a content creator looking to partner with “serious” brands, then your Instagram bio has to be more corporate or professional. Take a look at this example by photographer Jose Villa (@josevilla): Why it works: The bio instantly highlights what differentiates his services from any other photographer in the business. By listing his accolades, people who land on Jose’s page know exactly what to expect. Instead of simply using his given name in the name field, Jose used “Fine Art Wedding Photographer.” This helps him appear on searches that include both “wedding” and “photographer” and therefore find potential clients . Since most people in the research stage of the buyer journey won’t have specific brands or people in mind, they will use Instagram the same way they use other search engines—choose your keywords wisely. Take a look at this example by Author and Entrepreneur Marie Forleo (@marieforleo): Why it works: People don’t like looking at big blocks of text. Marie used keywords to describe what she does and included the job title, while using brand hashtags and breaking down important facts into digestible bullets. She also added emojis to separate the points of her bio, which is a subtle way to show her personality. And here several Instagram bio ideas for professionals and businesses: I’m a fitness enthusiast who helps people fall in love with sports Top 10 marketer by Forbes. Founder of @your.business (your local business) in (your town). (opening hours). Reserve your place below! Expert pet advice & science-backed dog supplements 🐶 Discover our range now ⬇️ Wife, mama, co-founder + CEO @your.business, multiple sclerosis warrior, and advocate for mothers because when mamas thrive, families + the world thrive. Further Reading: Tips for Effectively Retargeting Customers Using Instagram 2. Short Instagram Bio Ideas While the allotted space is already short, you don’t have to maximize the character count to leave a strong impression. Sometimes, all you need are a few words and emojis to get your message across. And it can make your Instagram profile unique. Streaming service Netflix launched a new food concept related to its most popular shows called Netflix Bites (@netflixbites), check out its short but sweet bio: Why it works: The brand did not fill out all the given elements in its bio, but its straight-to-the-point style makes it so impactful. The fact that there isn’t anything else written but a four-word-no-explanation-needed tagline is exactly what makes it work. You may think that this would only work for big or famous brands because people already know who they are, but it can also work for small businesses or new content creators. Take a look at this bio by Carlo’s (@carlos.philippines), a brand-new Manila-based restaurant: Why it works: While Carlo’s bio isn’t as short as the previous example, its description is technically only four words plus two emojis, which tells you exactly what it’s all about. People who land on the profile will immediately know that it serves Pizza and Pasta, without having to use up all 150 characters. Listing down its business hours is also an excellent idea as a lot of its page visitors may be people wanting to visit the restaurant. More short Instagram bio ideas: Making history Beauty is simplicity We broke the code 🐰💕 #LiveInLevis Stuffed full of awesome✨🍕 🧀 🥨 😎✨ Further Reading: Instagram Shopping Features: A Step-by-Step Guide to Starting and Growing Your Online Store on Instagram 3. Instagram Bio Ideas for Influencers There are easily a couple of million of influencers on Instagram, your bio can help you differentiate your content and highlight your unique selling point (USP). Moreover, your Instagram bio should include information on how to get in touch with you for collaboration. Let’s take a look at several examples: Fitness influencer Kristina Lopez (@kristinaluisa) shows what makes her different in less than 150 characters: Why it works: There are tens of thousands of fitness-focused Instagram influencers. A quick scan of Kristina’s bio lets you know that she isn’t just a fitness influencer, she’s also a mother. This fact quickly tells you who her target audience is and what type of content you can expect from her. Beauty is one of the most popular niches on Instagram, which also means there are tons of beauty influencers trying to compete in such an oversaturated market. Why it works: To stand out from other beauty influencers, Paula B. (@beautybaesics_) included her skin type and makeup shade in her bio. This information immediately makes her relatable to a specific audience. Instagram bio ideas for influencers and public figures: Coffee lover. Bookworm. Dreamer. Welcome to my world! TikTok/YouTube: (number) of followers. Business enquiries: please email me at (name.surname)@gmail.com. Welcome to my Instagram profile, tap on the link below to learn more & collaborate Girl-boss @your.business. Forbes 30 under 30. 📨 @IG_forcollab Professional stylist. Your daily dose of style. Follow for daily outfit ideas. Further Reading: How to Become an Instagram Influencer? This 12-Step Guide with Data Will Help You 4. Fun Bio Ideas Humor has always been one of the emotions that evoke response. Thus, implementing funny Instagram bio ideas is lucrative for different audiences. Again, how you write your bio will depend on your audience. So, degrees of “fun” may vary per industry and niche. Here are some great examples: Why it works: Since Comedy Central’s entire brand identity is all about being unserious,calling its audience “cowards” on its bio is definitely on-brand. Showing your unique personality is a great way to have fun with your bio. Another fun bio idea is to change up your bio regularly. Take a look at how Headspace does it: Why it works: Having a themed bio per month or season gives your followers reason to check out your page regularly, which can improve your visibility in the algorithm. Additional funny Instagram bio ideas: Professional napper 😴😸 Pits 👍🏼 Chest 👍🏼 Toes 👍🏼 Down Below 👍🏼 Food lover by day, meme checker by night Running on caffeine and humor! Further Reading: The 7 Best Instagram Engagement Rate Calculators 5. Inspirational Bio Ideas Having an inspirational bio can help you form deeper connections with your audience. Inspiration can come in the form of quotes, listing down your beliefs, sharing your goals, explaining your key to happiness, or just having a totally unique description that gets people thinking about their life and dreams. Check these out: Why it works : Beth Macri Jewelry describes what it is in such an abstract yet beautiful way, clearly showing how it’s not just any other jewelry brand or designer. Why it works: In just two sentences, the brand is able to show its values and promote its cause. By reading the Rare Beauty bio, profile visitors can fully understand what the brand is all about and what it stands for. Inspirational Instagram bio ideas: “Failure is success in progress” by Albert Einstein Time is precious, waste it wisely Mistakes are good, but improved mistakes leads to Success✌️ Celebrating 20 years Changing Beauty and helping to raise self-esteem in the next generation 💙 Let’s #KeepBeautyReal In the pursuit of excellence and achievement Today, it’s important to be creative if you want to grab the attention of your potential Instagram followers. And since IG bio serves as a visit card for any profile, you need to experiment with various Instagram bio ideas to find the best fit that describes your profile. Hopefully these bio examples will help you revise yours. Remember that it’s easy to change an Instagram bio with a few clicks, so don’t stick to one bio–stay creative! Hero photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash Val Razo is an expert on Instagram Marketing. Val is a freelance Social Media Marketing consultant with 5+ years of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses. Val claims that Instagram has great sales potential, so she recommends both big and small brands to use this platform for business growth. Follow her on Twitter to stay tuned for more. Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Name  * Email  * Add Comment  * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Post Comment This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed . Related Posts How to Sell on Instagram: A Beginner’s Guide Community Author The Top 15 Instagram Font Generators to Check Out Neal Schaffer 11 Amazing Free Ways to Promote Your Instagram Account Instagram Hashtags: Where To Find Them And How To Use Them Trending now. Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more. 30 Topic Sentence Examples June 24, 2024 What is an essay without a topic sentence? Well, confusion. In your writing, the topic sentence introduces what the paragraph will be about. It should cover the topic of the paragraph and the prime focus of what you want to discuss in the next several lines. And it can assist in smoothly transitioning into the next paragraph, the next point you’re about to make. Depending on the complexity of your argument, the topic sentence can also weave together several paragraphs. So when the topic sentence is missing, it’s easy to lose track of what your specific message is. Below, you find 30 topic sentence examples. Think of the topic sentence as a tool in your writing kit. It’s there to help you signpost and structure the argument of your essay. Having it, while making sure the topic is interesting and clear, is essential to help your reader truly understand your thesis. How do you write a topic sentence? When you’re about to write an essay, you won’t find yourself immediately thinking of every topic sentence example at once. Figuring out what your thesis is going to be, the very purpose and argument of your essay, will be a necessary first step . Then you might want to create an outline . The outline can draft out what you want to cover in each paragraph or how your argument will be supported. This is where the topic sentence comes in. For every paragraph, you can begin to think of topic sentence examples that best sum up the rest of your idea. The more interesting you can make the topic sentence, the better it will be, so long as you can support it. Remember, the topic sentence will introduce what you are going to discuss and expand on in the rest of the paragraph. Examples (Continued) Let’s take a look at these six topic sentence examples below that introduce a paragraph: 1) Studies over the last ten years have shown that the use of social media has a significant role in teenage mental health. 2) Kate Jackson and her family, who have all been San Francisco residents for 30 years, noted that this was the hottest summer yet. 3) Book sales across the country have actually increased this year, contrary to popular belief. 4) During COVID-19, people rushed to adopt pets, but after the pandemic ended many of those pets were surrendered to shelters. 5) It is undeniable what impact the meat industry has had on our environment. 6) In the 19th century in France, the creation of the Braille system was a significant turning point for those with disabilities. How do you imagine the rest of the paragraph will turn out? How can you best support your topic sentence to strengthen your overall essay? Support your paragraph with evidence The topic sentence of your paragraph will not hold well if it is not backed up with the right evidence. After writing a topic sentence like the topic sentence examples above, the rest of your paragraph should include strong examples of evidence to support your argument. Doing so will only help validate your topic sentence and allow your reader to have more insight into your thesis. Considering each topic sentence examples above, try to think of what types of evidence you would expect in that same paragraph. There could be reports on statistics, interviews, and other forms of evidence provided. How will yours be? Where should the topic sentence go? Now you know that your topic sentence should be followed by the right evidence. So it’s safe to assume that the topic sentence belongs at the very beginning of the paragraph. Yet depending on the paragraph you’re working on, you can also place your “main” topic sentence after an “intro” topic sentence. Let’s take a look at the two examples below: 7) Due to rising temperatures around the world, people have had to flee their homes and relocate to areas less prone to fires or floods. (Intro topic sentence) 8) However, many have found that even these “safer” locations are still susceptible to eventual natural disasters. (Main topic sentence) When we combine the two sentences, we get: Due to rising temperatures around the world, people have had to flee their homes and relocate to areas less prone to fires or floods. However, many have found that even these “safer” locations are still susceptible to eventual natural disasters. The first (intro) topic sentence example is more generic and introductory, functioning like a summary of an observation. The second (main) topic sentence example then presents another contradictory argument to that first point. Depending on the tone or argument you want to make in your paragraph, you can format your topic sentences in such a way to further sharpen your thesis. Whenever you have doubt though, you can always place one topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph. Sometimes less is more in writing the topic sentence The topic sentence introduces the key concept of that paragraph, along with evidence and research findings. It can even be written as more than one sentence or perspective, as noted directly above. However, you also don’t want to say too much. Why? You don’t want to give all of your information away at once. While it is imperative to write a clear, specific, and even complex topic sentence, it’s just as important to avoid being too general or too informative. Striking the right balance is going to help you structure the rest of your essay. After all, you have the rest of the paragraph and the rest of your essay to do that, which leads us to our next point. Topic sentences for smoother transitions Like a game of dominoes, your paragraphs are all connected and should flow smoothly into the next statement you are making. As you are building your outline, or even as you’re already writing, consider how your previous paragraph transitions into the next . This depends on the intention of each paragraph and how you are structuring your argument. Topic sentences for paragraph transitions have many functions. They will elaborate on more examples. They can wrap up or summarize a preceding point you made, providing another perspective. Also, they can go against a fact or opinion you wrote, which is a great way to strengthen your overall thesis and they can also be posed as a question. Take a look at these transitional topic sentence examples below: 9) In fact, walking as a form of exercise has shown to reduce cortisol levels. 10) Furthermore, city council representatives have said that environmental sustainability has remained at the top of the agenda, but activists have largely disagreed. 11) While the strike in Hollywood has come to an end, many writers are still without employment and searching for new ways to restart their careers. 12) However, grocery prices across the country still seem to have risen. 13) Despite the state’s discontinued funding for the arts, is there another feasible way for these students to gather together and flourish as young artists at their school? More than one paragraph: Topic sentences that expand into several key points So far we’ve covered topic sentences that elaborate on just one paragraph. However, you might find that one topic sentence (or two) can best address several paragraphs. This usually occurs when you’re trying to introduce a bigger argument to serve your essay. Let’s take one of the single paragraph topic sentences from earlier above and expand it by adding a connecting topic sentence to it: 14)Book sales across the country have actually increased this year, contrary to popular belief. 15) A report from the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program states that in April sales over a year there has been an 18% increase. These two topic sentence examples can even serve as their own introductory paragraph. This can then lead into more paragraphs related to the topic of specific book sales increasing across the country: Book sales across the country have actually increased this year, contrary to popular belief. A report from the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program states that in April sales over a year there has been an 18% increase. Make the topic sentence interesting, not obvious Check out 15 more topic sentence examples below. How do they introduce the topic, and what does it make you want to learn more about? You can imagine what kind of paragraph, or paragraphs, might follow afterwards: 16) When brewed correctly, coffee can hold strong, subtle hints of flavors such as chocolate or fruit, depending on the level of acidity. 17) Although today life in 1920s Paris is often romanticized for its glamor, jazz, and fashion, the city was still struggling to recover from the devastation of World War I. 18) Strict social rules dominated the Victorian Era, despite Britain’s expansion around the world in pursuit of wealth and power. 19) Dogs have a keen sense of time, so much so that they can predict when you’re late to take them out for a walk. 20) Before winter arrives, birds such as cranes and waterfowl follow preferred aerial pathways during their yearly migrations. 21) Conservation methods have helped local farms in their efforts to prioritize sustainability. 22) Did you know that humans would have a better chance of reaching Mars if they had a base set up on the moon? 23) The Pacific Ocean covers more than 30 percent of the earth’s surface, and it is home to so many life forms that have not yet been studied. 24) It is often debated whether or not student athletes should be paid for their performance, considering the cost for them to succeed. 25) Becoming a successful CEO doesn’t just happen overnight. 26) Although purchasing a home is considered a great form of investment, potential buyers should look at the real estate market first. 27) Watching my mother work three jobs to support our family has taught me the importance of resilience and strong work ethic. 28) Historical fiction not only has the power to teach us of actual past events. It also allows us to step into the lives of those we would have never met. 29) Parents and teachers at Sunnyroad School District are advocating for schools to provide free computers for their students – but the administrators aren’t so sure. 30) Across the country, the debate around whether teenagers should be allowed to use smart phones on campus has been circulating. The topic sentence as a guide One way to look at topic sentences is to imagine them as guiding compasses of your essay. Whatever point you are trying to make, the topic sentence has the power to guide your reader down a certain path. Choose wisely! And if you’re ever unsure about how to steer your essay and you need a personal guide, we’re here to help . Additional Resources 100 Creative Writing Prompts for Middle & High School 100 Tone Words to Express Mood in Your Writing 160 Good Argumentative Essay Topics for Students in 2024 How to Write the AP Lang Rhetorical Analysis Essay (With Example) How to Write the AP Lang Argument Essay (With Example) 400 Adjectives to Describe a Person High School Success Joanna Hong With a BA from Pitzer College and an MA from University College London, Joanna has worked in London, Berlin, and Los Angeles covering many cultural and political issues with organizations such as Byline Media, NK News, and Free Turkey Media. A freelancer for The New York Times, her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Dazed and Confused Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. In addition, Joanna was the recipient of the 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in Fiction and is currently completing her first novel. 2-Year Colleges Application Strategies Best Colleges by Major Best Colleges by State Big Picture Career & Personality Assessment College Essay College Search/Knowledge College Success Costs & Financial Aid Data Visualizations Dental School Admissions Extracurricular Activities Graduate School Admissions High Schools Homeschool Resources Law School Admissions Medical School Admissions Navigating the Admissions Process Online Learning Outdoor Adventure Private High School Spotlight Research Programs Summer Program Spotlight Summer Programs Teacher Tools Test Prep Provider Spotlight “Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.” — Lynn O'Shaughnessy Nationally Recognized College Expert College Planning in Your Inbox Join our information-packed monthly newsletter. AI Generator A claim is a formal request for compensation, reimbursement, or acknowledgment of a right. It often involves submitting relevant documentation to support the demand. For instance, a Payment Claim is submitted to receive due payment for services rendered, while an Authorization Letter to Claim grants permission for another person to claim on behalf of the rightful owner. In specialized fields, a Construction Claim addresses disputes or additional costs in building projects, and an Insurance Claim seeks financial recovery for losses covered under an insurance policy. What is Claim? A claim is a formal request for compensation, reimbursement, or acknowledgment of a right, often supported by relevant documentation. It is commonly used in various contexts such as payments, insurance, and legal disputes. Examples of Claim Payment Claim – Requesting payment for completed work or services rendered. Insurance Claim – Seeking compensation for damages covered by an insurance policy. Warranty Claim – Requesting repair or replacement of a defective product under warranty. Construction Claim – Demanding additional payment due to unforeseen costs or changes in a construction project. Medical Claim – Seeking reimbursement for medical expenses from an insurance provider. Travel Claim – Requesting compensation for travel-related issues like delays or cancellations. Tax Claim – Filing for a refund of overpaid taxes. Unemployment Claim – Applying for unemployment benefits after losing a job. Legal Claim – Initiating a lawsuit to seek damages or enforce rights. Return Claim – Requesting a refund or exchange for a purchased product. Accident Claim – Seeking compensation for injuries or damages from an accident. Compensation Claim – Requesting payment for work-related injuries or losses. Insurance Claim for Natural Disaster – Asking for financial assistance after damages from a natural disaster. Shipping Claim – Seeking reimbursement for lost or damaged goods during shipping. Bank Claim – Disputing unauthorized transactions on a bank account. Intellectual Property Claim – Asserting rights over copyrighted or patented material. Rebate Claim – Requesting a partial refund for a purchased product as part of a promotion. Inheritance Claim – Seeking a share of an estate as an heir. Student Loan Claim – Requesting forgiveness or discharge of student loan debt. Utility Claim – Disputing charges or requesting reimbursement for service outages from utility providers. Types of Claims Factual Claims: Statements that can be proven true or false based on evidence or facts. They rely on verifiable data and objective research. Value Claims: Assertions that evaluate the worth, rightness, or morality of something. These claims often reflect personal or societal values and are subjective. Policy Claims: Proposals for action or change, suggesting what should be done in a particular situation. They advocate for specific policies or courses of action. Definition Claims: Arguments about the meaning or categorization of a term or concept. They seek to define or redefine the way something is understood. Cause and Effect Claims: Statements that argue a cause-and-effect relationship between two or more things. They explain how one event leads to another. Comparative Claims: Assertions that compare one thing to another, highlighting similarities or differences. These claims evaluate relative qualities or characteristics. Predictive Claims: Forecasts about what will happen in the future based on current evidence or trends. They anticipate outcomes and future events. Claim in a sentences A claim in a sentence is a statement or assertion that expresses a belief, opinion, or point of view, often serving as the main argument or thesis in a piece of writing. For example, “Regular exercise improves mental health by reducing stress and anxiety. What is Claim Reason Evidence in Writing? Claim : A claim is the main argument or thesis statement of a piece of writing. It is the writer’s position on a particular topic or issue. The claim should be specific, debatable, and clearly stated. Example: Claim: “School uniforms improve student behavior and academic performance.” Reason : A reason explains why the claim is valid. It provides the rationale behind the claim and shows why the reader should accept it. Reasons should be logical and directly support the claim. Example: Reason: “Uniforms create a sense of equality among students, reducing peer pressure and distractions.” Evidence : Evidence consists of facts, statistics, examples, expert opinions, or other data that support the reason. It provides concrete proof that the reason is valid and, consequently, that the claim is true. Example: Evidence: “A study conducted by XYZ University found that schools with uniform policies saw a 20% decrease in disciplinary issues and a 15% increase in test scores.” Claim of policy A claim of policy is a statement that advocates for a specific course of action or change in policy. It suggests that certain actions should be taken to address a problem or improve a situation. This type of claim often includes a proposal for a solution and is typically supported by evidence showing why the proposed action is necessary and beneficial. Examples of Claims of Policy: Education: “Schools should implement a mandatory financial literacy curriculum to better prepare students for managing their personal finances.” Environment: “The government should ban single-use plastics to reduce environmental pollution and protect marine life.” Healthcare: “All countries should adopt universal healthcare systems to ensure that every citizen has access to essential medical services.” Workplace: “Companies should offer flexible work-from-home options to improve employee productivity and job satisfaction.” Public Safety: “Cities should invest in more extensive public transportation networks to reduce traffic congestion and lower carbon emissions.” Components of a Claim of Policy: Problem Identification: Clearly define the issue that needs to be addressed. Proposed Solution: Outline the specific action or change in policy being advocated. Justification: Provide reasons and evidence to support why the proposed solution is necessary and beneficial. Implementation: Suggest how the proposed policy can be effectively implemented. Argumentative Essay of Claim Writing an argumentative essay involves presenting a clear stance on a particular issue and providing evidence to support your position. This type of essay requires critical thinking, strong reasoning, and a structured approach to persuade the reader of your viewpoint. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you craft a compelling argumentative essay. Understanding the Argumentative Essay An argumentative essay is a piece of writing that presents a claim and supports it with evidence and reasoning. The goal is to convince the reader to accept or at least seriously consider your perspective. Structure of an Argumentative Essay Introduction Thesis Statement Body Paragraphs Counterarguments and Rebuttals 1. Introduction The introduction sets the stage for your essay. It should: Provide background information on the topic. Present the issue at hand. Capture the reader’s attention. “In today’s digital age, the use of social media has become ubiquitous. While it offers numerous benefits, there is a growing concern about its impact on mental health. This essay will argue that excessive social media use leads to increased anxiety and depression among teenagers.” 2. Thesis Statement The thesis statement clearly states your main argument. It should be concise and specific. “Excessive use of social media contributes to heightened anxiety and depression among teenagers.” 3. Body Paragraphs Each body paragraph should focus on one main idea that supports your thesis. Include evidence such as statistics, quotes, studies, and real-life examples. Paragraph 1: Topic Sentence: Excessive social media use disrupts sleep patterns. Evidence: Studies show that teens who use social media excessively are more likely to experience poor sleep quality. Explanation: Poor sleep quality is linked to increased anxiety and depression. Paragraph 2: Topic Sentence: Social media promotes unrealistic expectations. Evidence: A survey revealed that 60% of teenagers feel pressured to look perfect on social media. Explanation: This pressure can lead to low self-esteem and mental health issues. Paragraph 3: Topic Sentence: Online bullying is prevalent on social media platforms. Evidence: Reports indicate that 30% of teenagers have experienced cyberbullying. Explanation: Victims of cyberbullying are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. 4. Counterarguments and Rebuttals Addressing counterarguments strengthens your essay by showing you have considered multiple viewpoints. Counterargument: Some argue that social media helps teenagers build social connections and support networks. Rebuttal: While social media can facilitate connections, it often leads to superficial relationships. Moreover, the negative effects on mental health outweigh the potential benefits of these connections. 5. Conclusion The conclusion should summarize your main points and restate the thesis in light of the evidence presented. It should also provide a final thought or call to action. What is a claim in an argumentative essay? A claim is the main argument or stance you take on a particular issue in your essay. How should I state my claim? State your claim clearly and concisely in the thesis statement of your introduction. Can a claim be a question? No, a claim should be a declarative statement, not a question. How many claims should an essay have? Generally, one main claim is supported by several smaller, supporting claims. What makes a strong claim? A strong claim is specific, debatable, and backed by evidence. Can a claim be a fact? No, a claim should be an argument that requires support and evidence, not a universally accepted fact. Do I need to address counterclaims? Yes, addressing counterclaims strengthens your argument by showing consideration of opposing views. Can a claim change during the writing process? Yes, refining your claim as you gather more evidence and insights is common. What is the difference between a claim and a topic sentence? A claim is the main argument of the essay, while a topic sentence introduces the main idea of a paragraph. How do I make my claim debatable? Ensure your claim presents a viewpoint that others might dispute or have differing opinions on. Text prompt Instructive Professional 10 Examples of Public speaking 20 Examples of Gas lighting 159 IMAGES Use "Biography" In A Sentence On Professional Bio Examples and Tips to Write This Add-On Job Tool On Professional Bio Examples and Tips to Write This Add-On Job Tool 45 Biography Templates & Examples (Personal, Professional) Short Bio Biography Sentence Starters VIDEO John Adams: Revolutionary Lawyer, Second President 🇺🇸 #history #biography #johnadams #documentary 18 th NTRCA English Q. Solution, College, School, School-2 Wtih Expert Alim Sir BIOGRAPHY WRITING APP VIDEO What was Stalin arrested for? How did he serve his sentence? Where did he escape from? I would interpret this as saying that, as you suggest, "properly" is used to mean in the strict s Coherent sentence strucures are always the goal. #thriftshopbiographypodcast COMMENTS How To Use "Biography" In A Sentence: Exploring The Term Examples Of Using Biography In A Sentence. When it comes to incorporating the word "biography" into a sentence, there are various ways to showcase its usage. ... Example: The biography of the renowned artist was a real page-turner, filled with unexpected twists and turns that kept readers hooked until the very end. 4. "Chapter Of One's ... Examples of "Biography" in a Sentence 1. His wife Elisa Lee (1787-1860), an American authoress of some reputation, published after his death his lectures and sermons, with a biography written by herself (5 vols., Boston, 1846). 2. Learn how to use "biography" in a sentence with 441 example sentences on YourDictionary. Examples of 'Biography' in a Sentence noun. Much of the book reads like the Yoko chapter in a biography of John. John Adams, like a door-stopping biography, is one of the best of the form. The biography is just one of a slew of projects about Taylor's life that the estate has in the works. Go to a used bookstore and check the biography shelves. 27 of the Best Professional Bio Examples I've Ever Seen [+ Templates] Example 4: HR Sample Bio. "I am a dedicated human resources professional with a passion for fostering a positive workplace culture and facilitating employee development. With eight years of experience in talent acquisition and HR operations, I've played a key role in building high-performing teams. How to Write a Biography: 6 Tips for Writing Biographical Texts Whether you want to start writing a biography about a famous person, historical figure, or an influential family member, it's important to know all the elements that make a biography worth both writing and reading. Biographies are how we learn information about another human being's life. Whether you want to start writing a biography about ... Biography Sentence Starters Examples of Biography Sentence Starters . Biography sentence starters are a great way to get started on writing a biography. Whether you are writing a biography for a school project or for a professional purpose, these sentence starters can provide you with a good foundation to develop the story of someone's life. From childhood to adulthood ... How to Write a Biography A biography is an account of someone's life written by someone else.While there is a genre known as a fictional biography, for the most part, biographies are, by definition, nonfiction. Generally speaking, biographies provide an account of the subject's life from the earliest days of childhood to the present day or, if the subject is deceased, their death. How to Write a Biography in 8 Steps (The Non-Boring Way!) Conduct relevant interviews. Whenever possible, seek firsthand accounts from those who knew or interacted with the subject. Conduct interviews with family members, friends, colleagues, or experts in the field. Their insights and anecdotes can provide a deeper understanding of the person's character and experiences. Examples of 'BIOGRAPHY' in a sentence Times, Sunday Times. ( 2010) She knew that a supreme method of doing this was through the biographies of real people. Davey, Ray Rev. & Cole, John. A Channel of Peace. ( 1993) It was an item that had failed to appear in the official biography published four years earlier. The Times Literary Supplement. How to Write a Biography (Examples & Templates) A biography is the story of someone's life as written by another writer. Most biographies of popular figures are written years, or even decades, after their deaths. Authors write biographies of popular figures due to either a lack of information on the subject or personal interest. A biography aims to share a person's story or highlight a ... How To Write a Professional Short Bio (With Examples) Here are some steps you can follow to help you write a successful short bio: 1. Choose a voice. The first step in writing a short bio is deciding on a voice. For our purposes, choosing a voice involves deciding whether you are writing in the first or third person. Writing in the first person means using the words "I" and "me", and writing in ... How to write a strong one-line biography (with examples!) Keep it short, but readable. If you're required to keep your biography to just one sentence, you have just 15 to 20 words on average to get your point across. You need to be succinct and make every word count. As such, remove superlatives and flowery language that could make it harder to read. This is not the place to be cute or show off ... The Best Short Professional Bios (Examples + Templates) Your short bio should include your brand, your accomplishments, and your values and goals. Your short bio should be one to three short paragraphs or four to eight sentences long. Knowing how to write a concise, informative, and interesting biography about yourself can help throughout various parts of the professional process. How to Write a Short Professional Bio (with 8 Bio Examples) The 3-step professional bio. If you have three sentences, for instance for an author bio, then you can say a little more. But be careful, the same rule applies as with the one-sentence Twitter bio. Keep it short to make a strong first impression. For a three-sentence bio, consider these three objectives: Tell readers who you are and what you do How to use "biography" in a sentence Sentence Examples. This is in essence a short and rather conventional biography which breaks no new ground but is a good summary of current knowledge. But the picture drawn by Volkmar Braunbehrens's 1989 biography is of a serious, steady, occasionally irascible man. The library also has a wide range of titles on gardening, cookery, history ... How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template] Facebook. These are just some of the story elements you can use to make your biography more compelling. Once you've finished your manuscript, it's a good idea to ask for feedback. 7. Get feedback and polish the text. If you're going to self-publish your biography, you'll have to polish it to professional standards. How to Write a Short Bio: 5 Examples and Templates How to Write a Short Bio Part 1. What to Include in a Short Professional Bio Part 2. Example of a Formal Short Bio Part 3. Example of a Casual Short Bio Part 4. Examples of Well-Written Short Bios Part 5. Short Bio: Best Templates Part 6. Tips for Writing a Short Bio Part 7. Optimizing Your Bio for Different Platforms Part 8. Biography in a sentence biography example sentences. biography. 1. It contains the biography collection of different. 2. 'I've been asked by a representative of the Danvers House Foundation to research Miss Danvers' papers and try to put together a biography. 3. The Word "Biography" in Example Sentences English Sentences Focusing on Words and Their Word Families The Word "Biography" in Example Sentences Page 1. 539150 I'm an avid reader of biographies . darinmex 2280563 The book contains fifteen biographies . AlanF_US 28289 Great geniuses have the shortest biographies . CK 325864 A good biography is interesting and instructive. CM 1356012 ... The Word "Biography" in Example Sentences The Word "Biography" in Example Sentences Each page has up to 50 sentences. Sentences with audio are listed first. (Total: 7) ... About. Sentences are sorted by length, with 50 sentences per page. Sentences with audio are shown first, followed by sentences without audio. Only sentences from the Tatoeba Corpus that have been proofread are included. Biography: In a Sentence Definition of Biography. a person's life story as told by another person. Examples of Biography in a sentence. It took me years to shape the president's life story into an engaging biography. 🔊. Since the actress never asked you to write about her rise to stardom, your book isn't an authorized biography. 🔊. The popular author will ... Biography in a Sentence The context of the example sentence can reveal unusual instances when 'biography' can be used that the reader is unlikely to be aware of. Complete sentences offer context to display how the word can be properly used. In summary, example sentences may assist the reader in remembering the word used and its full meaning. Main Idea Examples of Main Ideas in Literature. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee: The main idea revolves around the themes of racial injustice and the loss of innocence. "1984" by George Orwell: The main idea focuses on the dangers of totalitarianism and the oppressive nature of a surveillance state. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen ... Best 25 Instagram Bio Ideas to Help Improve Yours (w/ Examples) Why it works: To stand out from other beauty influencers, Paula B. (@beautybaesics_) included her skin type and makeup shade in her bio. This information immediately makes her relatable to a specific audience. Instagram bio ideas for influencers and public figures: Coffee lover. Bookworm. 30 Topic Sentence Examples A freelancer for The New York Times, her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Dazed and Confused Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. In addition, Joanna was the recipient of the 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in Fiction and is currently completing her first novel. Topic Sentence Examples - we provide 30 samples of topic ... Simple sentence Simple sentence subject and predicate examples. Zoe prepared dinner. Yael and Brenda met for coffee. Boxing is his favorite sport. Simple sentences are the most basic type of sentence in English. However, they can be built on in a number of different ways depending on the predicate verb. The most basic simple sentences generally follow SVO ... Verb Sentence A verb sentence is a sentence that includes a verb, which is a word that describes an action, occurrence, or state of being. In English grammar, verbs are essential components of sentences as they express what the subject is doing or what is happening to the subject. For example, in the sentence "She runs every morning," "runs" is the verb that shows the action performed by the subject ... Nonrestrictive Clauses Nonrestrictive clauses are a type of adjective clause (or relative clause) that gives nonessential, extra information about a noun or noun phrase. Nonrestrictive clauses begin with a relative pronoun (e.g., "which," "who," "whom," or "whose") and are set off from the sentence by commas. Nonrestrictive clauses (also called ... Texas megachurch accepts Robert Morris resignation after ... A Dallas-area megachurch accepted the resignation of senior pastor Robert Morris on Tuesday after allegations of a past inappropriate relationship with a 12-year-old surfaced last week. Claim Claim in a sentences. A claim in a sentence is a statement or assertion that expresses a belief, opinion, or point of view, often serving as the main argument or thesis in a piece of writing. ... Example: Evidence: "A study conducted by XYZ University found that schools with uniform policies saw a 20% decrease in disciplinary issues and a 15% ... assignment essay homework paper phd report resume review speech thesis