Biography Guidelines

Your biography should include a table of contents and the following chapters:  early life, education or training, and awards & achievements.  Each of these chapters should include at least 3 paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting details, and relevant information.  In addition, your biography will also need to include a timeline with 6-10 events and a fun facts page with at least 3 fun facts.  Each of the chapters listed above, including the timeline and fun facts should have a heading and at least 1 picture or drawing.  Each picture or drawing should have a caption.  You may include a glossary if you wish for extra credit.  In order to earn the extra credit points, you will need to have at least 5 terms in your glossary.  You do not need to create an index for your biography.

Two of the most important parts of writing a good report are research and note taking.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that you choose research materials that are at your level a.k.a. you have to be able to read them!!!  Make sure you can read and understand the books or articles you decide to use. 

Once you have books or articles about your topic, you will want to begin taking notes.  Note taking is a way of recording information that you want to include in your report.  You will want to take notes in this booklet, keeping the headings on each page in mind, so that you can keep your notes organized.  Remember that copying sentences and paragraphs from a published piece is considered plagiarism, which is illegal!  One way to avoid plagiarism is to only write down short phrases or quick facts, rather than whole ideas or sentences.