24 Biography Templates and Examples (Word | PDF)

It’s through biographies that you get to learn about details about another person’s life. Most times, biographies are written about an influential family member, historical figure, or famous person. But before you can start writing a biography, you need to learn every vital element to ensure it’s worth reading and writing.

If you’re planning to write a biography, look no further. Here’s a guide that offers you useful information to know how to write a biography. So, without further ado, let’s jump right ahead and see how to get started writing a biography.

Essential Elements of a Biography Template

When writing a professional biography, you’re expected to write a mid-length description of your professional goals, current role, and biggest accomplishments. You can choose to do this either on professional websites such as AngelList or LinkedIn. With that said, you’re accepted to add a bit more details when writing a professional bi,o unlike bios usually posted on social media sites such as LinkedIn.

Here are the crucial elements you must add when writing your professional biography;

• Your name
• Your personal brand or company
• Your professional tagline or existing role
• Your aspirations
• An original fact about yourself
• State two or three of your most appropriate and impressive accomplishments

When writing your biography, don’t feel shy to add more personal information, such as your favorite book or your hobby.

Biography Templates & Examples

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How to Write a Biography

You need to understand how to write a biography before you even start writing one. Here’s a guide on the steps to follow when writing a biography;

Pick A Subject

The first thing to do before you write a biography is to choose a subject. To a large extent, this process is the same regardless of whether the subject is alive or dead. After doing that, go ahead and assess the relationships, major life events, and how influential the person has been to society.

When deciding the subject to choose, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions, and these are;

• Has the subject made meaningful divisions or an impact that can encourage others?
• Is the subject’s life exciting enough to warrant writing a biography?
• Will your audience connect to the person’s life?

Get The Subject’s Permission

After picking the subject on who to write a biography, go ahead and get their permission. This is crucial as you’ll be writing about their personal life, so it makes sense to get their consent. In addition, it makes researching and writing a lot simpler and is a lot more compelling with the person’s cooperation. However, their consent might not be needed if the subject is deceased or a public figure.

If you haven’t gotten permission to write a biography about the subject, ensure that all the details are factual before publishing. Otherwise, a lawsuit might be filed against you for libel or slander due to hurting the person’s reputation.

Do Your Research

You want to write a comprehensive biography, and this isn’t possible without doing extensive research. Do exhaustive research is vital regardless of how much information you might already have about the person. When writing the biography, primary sources usually are the best choices because they give a better picture of the subject’s firsthand accounts, hence a lot more dependable. Example of primary sources include memoirs, interviews, emails, and journal entries. Other primary sources where you can get additional information about the subject include their professional bio, social media accounts, or personal website.

Likewise, secondary sources are equally excellent platforms to get information about the subject. They include documentaries and magazines and should only be used if the information given is factual.

Create A Thesis

In the first chapter or paragraph, explain to the reader what they’ll learn by reading the biography. The thesis acts as the subject’s declaration that will be discussed in detail, later on to offer support by stating relevant information.

Have A TimeLine

The biography structures the subject’s main life points in chronological order. You must understand the format of these important events before writing your biography, as this saves you the trouble of needing to reorganize the entire story later.

Use Flashbacks

You should intercut your subject’s experience while in high school and in their adult life while writing the biography. As the author, doing this enables you to introduce relevant past details without writing huge paragraphs of background exposition.

Share Your Thoughts

While the biography should only include factual information about the subject’s life, you’re also free to add your own opinions and feelings. Therefore, feel free to state the exact noteworthy achievement that the subject has done and is undoubtedly significant. In addition, go ahead and explain how the time period has affected this and its impact on society. Doing this shows why writing the biography about the subject is deserved and helps you hook your audience right from the start.

Tips on Writing a Biography

When writing a biography, there are a couple of handy tips you need to follow, including;

• Use of the third person while writing
• Being funny throughout the entire text
• Keep an eye out for the word count
• Write a story rather than a list
• Include links to your work
• Always share your contact details
• Make sure to edit the text comprehensively
• Keep the biography short and concise

FAQs

How do you write a Three sentence bio?

Today, online bios are widespread and are used by many people on different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. When writing a personal bio, you should preferably not let it exceed one or two lines as it only serves as a short description of yourself and what you do. For social media bios, they need to be sweet, short and only highlight the vital details that a stranger should know, including;

• Your name
• Your present role
• Your hugest accomplishment
• Your final goal

How to write a personal biography?

A personal biography is a short introduction highlighting your education, credentials, professional achievements, and other relevant details. You should use personal bios when searching for employment as it offers the hiring managers an idea of why you’re the perfect person for the position. You can use your personal bio on your professional website and professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn.

Here’s an overview of the details you should include when writing a personal biography;

• Your name
• Your personal brand or company
• Your professional tagline or current duty
• Two of three of the most relevant and notable accomplishments
• What you include in the Bio section at work

When writing your personal bio, don’t also hesitate to include other personal details even though they might not be professional such as your hobby or favorite book.

Writing a biography needs tact and care for it to be engaging and exciting for your readers. When you do this well, your readers will be hooked from start to finish and get more information about the subject. If writing a biography has always been on your to-do list, this guide has highlighted the steps to follow when writing one.

Authored by:

DocFormats

DocFormats Staff Author

This article has been thoughtfully developed by the staff authors and team members at DocFormats. Each template created by our team emerges from cooperation with knowledgeable individuals in the respective field, experienced researchers, professional designers, and writers. This collaboration aims to provide information that is both of high quality and relevant. It's noteworthy that some of the templates might be sourced from different resources to serve as examples.