This document provides guidelines for writing a concise biography essay in 3 paragraphs: an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction should grab the reader's attention with an interesting fact or quote. The body should have 3-5 supporting details in varied sentence structures. The conclusion should restate the main points and leave the reader with a lingering thought about the person's impact. Formal language without slang or contractions should be used.

2. • Think of it as a movie trailer. Get the
reader’s attention so that they will want to
read more.
• Consider using an interesting fact or quote
in your first sentence.

3. • Use a formal tone.
• Avoid slang:
• “tons,” “stuff,” “like,” “things,” “cool,” etc.
• Spell out contractions. “didn’t”  “did not”
• Use 8th grade-level words! A thesaurus can help
(or visit www.thesaurus.com)

4. • Make it vary! Have short and long
sentences.
Avoid choppiness by combining sentences
with semicolons or FANBOYS.
• Try to rearrange the order you naturally
say things:
• He became famous after posting a YouTube
video.

5. • Topic sentence
introduces the
main idea.
• 3-5 supporting
details.
• Closing sentence
can either:
1. Restate the topic
2. Lead into the next
paragraph

6. • Typically, new information is NOT introduced
here.
• Conclusions restate the main points from
each body paragraph.
• The last sentence should leave the reader
with a lingering thought.
• This is a good place to restate how this
person impacted today’s world or society.

7. • Rough draft – Monday, December 10
• 2-4 pages typed or 3-5 pages handwritten
• Final draft – Wednesday, December 19
• 2-4 pages typed. No handwritten essays will be accepted!
DISCLAIMER:
This biography essay was introduced on November 19. By
the time your final essay is due, you will have had exactly
one month to work on it. Because of this, late essays will
lose one letter grade per day.
Failure to turn in this essay on time = nearly guaranteed
failure in class.
Plagiarism = NO credit and NO chance to rewrite.

8. You will lose ALL CREDIT if you:
• Copy someone else’s words exactly, without giving credit.
You will lose points if you:
• Don’t include a Works Cited page
• Paraphrase poorly (sounds too close to the original text)
• Use quotes to fill space
• Quotes should be no more than a sentence or two.