Briefly discuss a biography.

A biography is a story about a life of a person written by someone else.
- A biographer is a person who writes a book about someone else?s life.
- Writing a biography is like writing a novel. in many ways, it involves writing about a
major character, and many other characters that that character has interacted with. to
write a good biography you must know a lot about your subject?s entire life and that of
characters who are close to the subject.
- To gather that information, carry out some research on the subject by interviewing
him/her. The subject must be willing to give all details about himself/herself.
- You might need to interview their close relatives, friends, colleagues, workmates to get a
correct perspective of his/her life.
- If you hope to get specific information, you must phrase the questions clearly and
precisely. A biographer strives to bring to life the most significant moments of the
subject, not in isolation but as an integral part of the community.
- When interviewing your subject:
- be friendly
- spend time with the subject
- be creative in setting up your interview so that it doesn?t seem too formal
- give your subject all your attention
- make a list of questions you would like to ask
- do prior research to enable you to have background information to
enhance your interview and interpret answers to questions set
- be tactical especially when asking probing or difficult questions.
-listen. Do not talk too much. Let your subject give the information.
- do not be afraid to ask dumb questions
- ask about other people
- note facts, especially dates and ensure they are correct
- thank the subject
- NB. Divide the life of your subject into phases and set questions on each section. e.g
- early childhood
- pre-teens
- teens
- young adulthood
- early adulthood
- middle age
- old age

example

Early Childhood

- Early memories of parents, home and siblings
- Most memorable incidents involving the subject and other family members.
- The subject's greatest fear
-Attitude towards childhood and reasons for it.
- Accidents or illness that may have affected or influenced their life.
- General impressions about festivities like Christmas.
Gather information from the institutions where the subject studied, the places where they
worked and even from the hospitals and clubs which they attended.
- Read newspapers and magazines on stories about your subject and see what they said.
- A Curriculum Vitae can tell a lot about a person?s profession and achievements.
- Identify and understand the most interesting or the most important things about your
subject. Know about their achievements, normal behavior, strengths, weaknesses and
idiosyncrasies.
- Authors write biographies of people who excelled in certain aspects of life or people who
have made an impact in their families, communities or the world. A biography is vivid,
detailed and descriptive.
- Sometimes writing the biography of a famous person like a great scientist, actor or
president has to be authorized. Therefore, what the authorized biography captures should
be the officially acceptable version of what the subject is to have done.
- Research on the historical period during which the person lived and worked.
- Make sure your facts can be found in at least three different sources. Where there is a
disagreement between sources, state that there exists a conflict.
- Be as accurate as possible.
- Write in a clear and convincing way, because if you don?t believe what you are writing,
your readers won?t either. Be sure to tell a good story that will keep your readers
interested.
- After collecting the information, compile it into an interesting story that takes into
account:
- social economic conditions.
- physical environment; described in vivid details.
- political life; changes taking place at any given time. How they impact not
only on the subject but also on the community as a whole and in particular
how the subject responded to them.
- religious set up- trends in religious development

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marto answered the question on April 15, 2019 at 11:49