What Are The Elements of A Biography

What Are the Elements of a
Biography?
Elements of a biography include the person’s date of birth, major

accomplishments, career summary and an overview of why the person
is interesting or important. The length of the biography is also an important
element, as it affects the type of information that is appropriate to include.
The purpose of a biography is to provide an overview of a person's life and

explain why they are significant. Nearly all biographies include basic details
about the person, such as their date of birth and where they lived, but other
elements vary depending on the length and type of biography.
Other potential elements of a biography include the person's education, date

of death and a history of their personal relationships. Longer biographies also
include interesting stories about the person that the reader may find insightful
or entertaining. Shorter biographies focus only on the most important details.
The audience of the biography also affects the information that should be
included. If, for example, the biography is going to be mainly read by
colleagues of the person, then it should include more details about his or her
work life. A biography that is written for a general audience is likely to contain
elements of both the personal and work life.
What Is Included in a
Biography?
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There are certain situations in life where you'll be asked to write about people - either
about yourself or someone else - and knowing what information to include in
a biography can be a helpful first step.
Sometimes a person's life is so full of rich details and interesting facts that it's difficult
to know what to include and what to leave out; but, there are some guidelines to
follow that will help you figure out what to include in a biography.
Consider Your Audience

The key to writing a great biography is really found within this idea: choose facts that
are both relevant and interesting to your audience. In order to do this, you should
consider why the biography is needed, and who will be reading it, and then focus on
those areas of the person's life that the audience will likely want to know about.
If you're writing a short biography that will be sent out in a company-wide email in
order to introduce a new employee, you'll probably write about the person's work
history and experience, with perhaps a few personal facts thrown in that will help co-
workers get to know him on a personal level.
However, such a biography probably wouldn't contain details about his parents, for
example, and what they did, and how they influenced him while he was growing up.
Such information isn't appropriate for the situation or for the target audience. On the
other hand, that information might be highly relevant if you're writing a biography that
will be used in a psychological study.
Writing for an Unknown Audience

Of course, you won't always know who your target audience is - if you're writing a
book, for example, you can't always tell who will read it. In these cases, it's safe to
assume that those who will read the biography are interested in the person, and
that's why they're reading.
In such a situation, a good approach is to focus primarily on what makes this person
special, and target your research accordingly. A biography about someone who
achieved a great scientific discovery may focus on the person's education, for
example, and on his early experiments that led to the great discovery. It may also talk
about how the discovery impacted his life for better or for worse. These are the things
that someone reading about the subject are probably interested in learning.
Choose Your Focus

Consider the length of the biography - this will help determine how much, or how
little, information you should include, and how in-depth that information should be. A
simple paragraph will contain just some general, basic facts such as:
 Date and place of birth (and death, if applicable)
 Education
 Work experience
 Major achievements
What is included in a biography will become more complex as the biography gets
longer: the more words you have to use, the more facts you can consider
for inclusion. A biography that's several pages long will go into more detail about the
person's history; a book will further discuss what events throughout life made them
who they were, and what is significant about them.
A few key components you may want to include in a longer biography are:
 Birth and childhood - Providing details about the time and place someone was
raised will give your readers historical context. For example, if you're writing
about a civil rights activist in the 1960s, your reader will benefit from knowing
what type of situation the person grew up in.
 Adult life - The majority of your biography is probably going to focus on the
subject's adult life, when significant events started to unfold. You'll want to
introduce the subject's adult life with a notable event, whether that's the start of a
relationship, a dramatic life change, or another major turning point.
 Death - If the subject of your story is deceased, you'll probably want to cover the
events that unfolded before their passing. What legacy did they leave behind?
Also, knowing how you'd like to divide the story and what points you'd like to discuss
will help you determine what information is most important. For example, if the focus
of your biography is on someone's service in a war, then you wouldn't need to spend
a lot of time on their early career as a salesman, unless that had an impact on their
actions during the war.
Fill in the Details

A biography can contain almost anything about a person - their entire life, or just one
key event. What information you include is up to you. Most biographies, regardless of
their length and target audience, will provide basic facts like the time and place in
which the person lived. But other, more involved details will depend largely on the
situation - and on the writer.
As you write more involved biographies, you'll find yourself faced with questions
about what to include and how to talk about it. Just keep in mind why this person is
interesting to you, and who might be interested enough to read the biography.
Then write the biography based on the facts that will be most important to your
audience and that tell the most about your subject.

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What Are the Elements of a

Elements of a biography include the person’s date of birth, major

The purpose of a biography is to provide an overview of a person's life and

Other potential elements of a biography include the person's education, date

Consider Your Audience

Writing for an Unknown Audience

Choose Your Focus

Fill in the Details

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