Biography Prompt
Biography is one of the more popular literary genres. Its popularity is visible in books, documentary film projects, fictional films, and television productions. Educators in the social sciences utilize biography when teaching about ethnic studies, gender studies, history, sociology, political science, psychology, economics as well as many other academic fields such as business marketing, communication studies, and theatre and film.
A well-executed biography explains why historical figures are important, whether as “really bad” or “really good” examples of human beings. In theory, we are supposed to learn from the trials and tribulations, the successes and failings, and the so-called “rights” and “wrongs” that are the framework of analysis in good biographical compositions. As such, communicating in an insightful, clear, and concise fashion as to why this person’s story is compelling is the foundation component of this assignment. And, a well-written biography can be an inspirational and entertaining read.
Do not just summarize one aspect of this figure’s life – students should write a paper that discusses multiple aspects of this person’s life and the importance of the various aspects within high school curriculum.
The primary goal of this assignment is to serve as an exercise to enhance your writing skills. Woven into the concept of its design, this exercise affords students the opportunity to explore a significant individual of their choosing.
The Assignment: Compose a 750-word, 3-page biographical essay that discusses “why” this historical figure should be included in the education of a high school student.
· You can choose any historical figure (students may not discuss Sigmund Freud).
· Can be either a real historical figure OR a fictional character
· You may only choose 1.
The paper needs to meet all of the following requirements:
· Paper’s Thesis: This is the only assignment wherein the students are given the thesis statement: “
Name of individual
should be a part of the education of high school students for these reasons:
reason 1
,
reason 2
and reason 3.
” This thesis statement must be in the introductory paragraph and clearly restated in the conclusion.
· The person who is the subject of the biography must be deceased or fictional (no living figures).
· The person should be famous to relatively famous (notorious or not).
· Three references minimum – there will be no extra points for extra sources.
· Sources can be websites, articles, books, documentary television programs, or documentary movies.
· The sources can be any assemblage
· 3 websites; 3 documentary movies; 1 website and 2 documentary television programs, etc.
· Papers are graded on the quality of writing and sources, as well as the accuracy of formatting
Overall structure of the Biography Essay: This is a standard, 5 paragraph essay.
· For the introductory paragraph, the thesis statement should be clearly stated. In this paragraph, it should be stated when they lived and have a few sentences on “who” this individual was (information must be cited)
· Each one of the 3 body paragraphs will discuss one of the 3 reasons given in the thesis statement (body paragraph one should discuss the first reason the person should be included in high school curriculum, etc). Try to balance the size (word count) of each of these paragraphs as they should all be close in size.
· For the conclusion paragraph, the thesis must be restated. Typically, this is the shortest paragraph.
Other requirements:
· No separate title page required
· Title is the name of the biographical figure
· Word count must be listed at the end of the essay
· Students are required to stay with the 5 paragraph structure
· Double spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman
· Reference/Bibliography page according to the individual student’s chosen citation format
· No page numbers
· No cover page.
