Think of a famous person. Answer the questions below and use your answers to write a short biography of the person.
a Early life
1 Who is the famous person?
2 Where were they born?
3 When were they born?
4 What did their parents do?
5 What else do you know about their parents?
b Childhood
1 What kind of childhood did they have?
2 Where did they live as a child?
3 Where did they go to school?
c Adulthood
1 Did they have any further education?
2 What was their first job?
3 What other jobs did they do?
4 Did they marry? If so, who did they marry?
5 Did they have any children? How many?
6 Where did they live?
d Hometown/Country
1 What was life in their hometown or country like at this time?
2 How did they feel about life in their hometown or country?
e Becoming famous
1 What area of life is the person famous for? e.g. politics, music, film etc.
2 How did they first become interested/involved in this area?
3 When did they first become well known?
4 What were the most important events during the time they were famous?
5 What were the most difficult times?
6 What were the most exciting times?
7 Did they travel to other countries?
8 Did they meet any very interesting people?
9 Did they receive any awards for their work/achievements?
f Life at the moment (if the person is still alive)
1 Where is the person living now?
2 How old are they now?
3 What is their life like now?
4 Have they had any important events in their life recently?
5 Have they got any important events coming up in the near future?
g Later life (if the person is no longer living)
1 Where was the person living at the end of their life?
2 What was their life like at this time?
3 What other things did they do in their life?
4 When did they die?
5 Where did they die?
6 Where are they buried?
7 How are they remembered today?
h Your feelings about the person
1 What are your feelings about the person? e.g. do you admire them, feel sorry for them, find them interesting/funny etc.
2 Why do you feel this way about them?
3 What do you feel were the most important things they did?
In order to write a biography, biographers analyze and interpret the events in a person’s life by conducting interviews, and by reading letters, diaries, and books. A biographer researches not just his subject’s life, but also the time in which his subject lived. This might explain why the subject acted as he/she did, or why his/her achievements were so significant. Remember that biographies could be short or book-length. The short biographies focus on one period of time or on a major accomplishment of the subject. Long biographies delve into the life history of the person, focusing on every aspect of the person’s life.
Follow the steps given below to draft a biography:
- Determine the person you want to write about (for example, your parents, grandparents, friends, idols, or other notable figures).
- When you have a person in mind about whom to write, gather all the basic facts of the person’s life that include:
- Date and place of birth and death
- Family information
- Lifetime accomplishments
- Major events of life
- Effects/impact on society, historical significance
- Describe his or her appearance, habits, features and way of talking.
- To discover, organize, and support what you know and what you need to learn about your subject, these are some questions you may contemplate.
- How can he or she be best described?
- What makes this person interesting?
- Which events in the person’s life shaped him/her?
- What hurdles did the person overcome in order to accomplish what he/she did?
- How did he or she influence the family or society?
- Keep your research questions in mind as you compile information from different sources. Look for letters, journals, newspaper clippings, pictures, and most importantly, set up interviews.
- Develop a thesis that effectively expresses the reason for the person being a popular personality and also what he has done for the society.
- After gathering required information, connect all of the ideas that you have collected about your subject. You should concentrate on developing the ideas, not on producing a final copy.
- Follow chronological order and give an account of the events from birth to present time or death of the person.
Example.
Vivienne Westwood - Biography
"Fashion is about sex," said Vivienne Westwood. Well, she would say that, wouldn't she? After all, this is the woman who, upon receiving an OBE at Buckingham Palace, twirled for the cameras and revealed to the world she was not wearing any knickers. There's also the monicker of her first shop, Sex, and the fact that one of her sons owns saucy underwear label Agent Provocateur.
Born Vivienne Swire in the Peak District village of Tintwistle in 1941, as a teenager the British designer moved to Harrow, a suburb of northwest London, where her parents took over the running of a post office. At 21, she married Derek Westwood, a toolmaker, but the marriage did not last. After the break-up, Vivienne fled to her Aunt Ethel's caravan in North Wales, with her son Ben.
Her career in fashion did not take off until she met Malcolm McLaren, later known as the manager of punk band the Sex Pistols, who was studying alongside her brother at Harrow Technical College. Friendship came first, followed by love, and, in 1974, a second child, Joe, now the purveyor of saucy scanties, was born.
It was London which gave Vivienne the boost her creativity needed. After a stint selling her own jewellery in Portobello Market, she and Malcolm opened the infamous Sex boutique at the bottom end of the Kings Road where her provocative designs were sold. Then came punk. Vivienne's clothes were perfect for the youth trend: bondage trousers, slashed shirts and provocative God Save The Queen T-shirts. The monarch may not have loved it, but London was intoxicated.
From notoriety eventually came respectability, although her catwalk shows never failed to garner front page headlines. Remember Naomi Campbellcoming a cropper in her electric blue platform heels? That was Viv. The return of cleavage flaunting? Take a bow, Mrs W. In the Nineties she was elected one of the top five designers of the last century, alongside such luminaries as Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel and was named British Designer of the Year two years running, in 1990 and 1991.
In 1992, she married Andreas Kronthaler, a fashion student a quarter of a century younger than her, whom she met when she was tutoring fashion at Vienna University of Applied Arts. The two now share a home in Battersea, southwest London.
Her career in fashion did not take off until she met Malcolm McLaren, later known as the manager of punk band the Sex Pistols, who was studying alongside her brother at Harrow Technical College. Friendship came first, followed by love, and, in 1974, a second child, Joe, now the purveyor of saucy scanties, was born.
It was London which gave Vivienne the boost her creativity needed. After a stint selling her own jewellery in Portobello Market, she and Malcolm opened the infamous Sex boutique at the bottom end of the Kings Road where her provocative designs were sold. Then came punk. Vivienne's clothes were perfect for the youth trend: bondage trousers, slashed shirts and provocative God Save The Queen T-shirts. The monarch may not have loved it, but London was intoxicated.
From notoriety eventually came respectability, although her catwalk shows never failed to garner front page headlines. Remember Naomi Campbellcoming a cropper in her electric blue platform heels? That was Viv. The return of cleavage flaunting? Take a bow, Mrs W. In the Nineties she was elected one of the top five designers of the last century, alongside such luminaries as Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel and was named British Designer of the Year two years running, in 1990 and 1991.
In 1992, she married Andreas Kronthaler, a fashion student a quarter of a century younger than her, whom she met when she was tutoring fashion at Vienna University of Applied Arts. The two now share a home in Battersea, southwest London.
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