How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step
Guide [+Template]
From
time to time, nonfiction authors become so captivated by a particular
figure from either the present or the past, that they feel compelled to write
an entire book about their life. Whether casting them as heroes or villains,
there is an interesting quality in their humanity that compels these authors to
revisit their life paths and write their story.
However,
portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires
solid preparation. If you’re looking to write a biography yourself, in this
post we’ll share a step-by-step blueprint that you can follow.
Recently, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, urged scientists to
share their problem-solving innovations with the public in more accessible
ways, including by using vernacular languages. This kind of openness and
accessibility is important and needed. While most scientists publish their work
in academic journals, only ten people, on average, read a given article in its
entirety; so clearly, the general public is not being reached that way.
Translating complicated concepts that are jargon-heavy into terms and ideas
the public can understand is not always easy. But, increasingly, scientists,
university and research institutions, government institutions, and others are
trying to find ways to do it. Professional societies like the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and Entomological Society of America
offer a wide array of tools and programs like science communication courses and
science policy fellowships to help scientists with dissemination. The National
Academy of Sciences even recently released a report, “Communicating Science
Effectively: A Research Agenda,” to help scientists effectively
communicate their research. An example of an international effort is the Imagine
Project initiative, through which scientists take their research out of the
laboratory and share it with rural and indigenous communities in Africa and
Latin America.
These are great initiatives, but many young scientists, including PhD
students, post-doctoral scholars, and early-career scientists need more
guidance in maneuvering the art of effectively disseminating their science to
the public. I witnessed this need first-hand when I recently spoke at Emory
University about my research on beneficial soil microbes and their use in
agriculture; I mentioned however since I learning the art of writing opinion
pieces through participating in a training offered through the Aspen Institute
New Voices fellowship, I had written more than 60 opinion pieces that have
reached millions of people. The audience of PhD students and post-doctoral
fellows clamored to know how they could similarly write about their research
for newspapers and reach the kinds of audiences their journal articles never
do. I know they are not alone in that desire.
While there are other ways to disseminate academic research to the public,
including writing research and policy briefs, sharing it on university and
research institutions websites and blogs, my experience of this has been
through op-ed writing. This is my advice to scientists who also want to use
op-eds to reach the average person:
The first step is to connect the research you are doing or pursuing to a
bigger theme. Is it the environment? Climate change? Public health? As an
example, my research on beneficial soil microbes ties into several major themes
including climate change, food security and soil health.
Secondly, it is important to find the story and storyline in your research.
How do the results of your research creatively link and connect to the global
challenges facing humanity? Once you have this lined up, it is time to write
the piece.
Op-eds are centered around an argument: essentially you are arguing for or
against something. So, you must decide on this before you can write the rest of
your piece. The core argument should only be a sentence long and stated in a
way that is convincing to your readers. Think as you decide on this: What do
you want to share with the world? Is it new? Why is it new? Or what is new
about it? How is it different from other arguments about the subject theme that
have been shared before?
Next, you need to build your evidence to support your argument. Often there
are at least three main points of evidence. These pieces of evidence can
include statistics and research, quotes from experts in the field, anecdotes
and personal stories and news articles. For researchers, this should be easy
since your piece will be focused on research findings.
The “to be sure” paragraph is an important part of an opinion piece. In this
paragraph, you preempt people who may discount your argument by acknowledging
their viewpoint and then by bringing in even more evidence to back up your own
argument. This allows you to acknowledge the other side, but still, support your
own.
An element of an op-ed that differs greatly from academic writing is the
news hook. While often this goes in the first paragraph of the piece, it does
not always have to be placed there. What a news hook does is tie your argument
and research to the current issues of the day to show how it’s timely and why
your research matters right now. This also helps when pitching your piece to
editors because they need to know what is new and timely about your piece
before deciding to accept it. While a news hook could be a news story, it can
also include new research and studies, a new piece of legislation, or a holiday
or anniversary of an event or law. A recent personal experience can also be
used as a news hook.
The final concluding paragraph is where you summarize all the paragraphs
with a catchy and thought-provoking sentence. This is also where you can place
your call to action. Why did you spend all that time doing your research? What
do you want your readers and decision-makers to do?
Most importantly, always remember to keep everything short and to the point
because many media outlets have a word limit that ranges from 500 to 900 words.
And then your piece is ready to pitch!
When scientists write and share their work with the public inaccessible
ways, that is when the magic happens and we can build bridges between research
and society, engage the general public and develop a critical dialogue about
the solutions science offers.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those
of Scientific American.
Mary J. Nickum is a retired librarian, who is now an editor and freelance writer of fish culture related articles. Her primary focus is on science for the public. She has chosen to extend her science for the public outreach to children.
