Modern Biographies: Informative Writing

Objective: I can analyze the information found in research.

In most history classes, we learn about the past in order to imitate – or avoid – the qualities of famous people. The only problem is that today’s world is different enough from our impressive forbears that we ALSO need to study today’s successful people to identify how they “did it” and what lessons we can apply to our own lives.

In this project, you will choose one currently-living, moderately famous individual to research. Your job is to identify:

  • The person’s most significant accomplishment or impact, to date
  • The detailed chain of events that led to THAT accomplishment*
  • What would modern students would need to do in order to achieve similar results?

*Notice that I do NOT want you to provide a biographical report of the person’s ENTIRE life – just the actions and events that specifically made his or her accomplishments possible.

The other trick here is that this is still informative writing, not persuasive. Be careful not to:

  • Use biased words to imply how great the person is
  • Tell students what they “should” do. (“Could” is a better word here.)

4 / 3 / 2 / 1
W.2.B
Facts & Details
(Do the events build logically toward an ending?) / Student fully supports all viewpoints/ options with sufficient facts and analysis to help the reader understand the process of success in that field. / Writing uses a variety of facts, details, and examples to explain the person, his/her success, and what another student would have to do to emulate him/her. / Writing uses only a few, possibly inconsistent facts or support to explain the topic. / The topic and/or options are not sufficiently explained with facts to be clear or informative to a reader.
W.2.C
Transitions
(Do you use transitional words to help us understand the order?) / Writer consistently uses transitional words, phrases, and sentences to clearly explain a sequential chronology that builds to a specific accomplishment. / Writer uses transitions to clearly explain a sequential chronology that builds to a specific accomplishment. / Writer occasionally uses transitions to clearly describe events over time. / Writer does not (effectively) use transitions to clarify a timeline.
W.2.F
Conclusion
Does it end with a fair summary? / Conclusion summarizes fairly and synthesizes or analyzes points to help the reader understand what it takes to obtain success in that field. / Conclusion summarizes the most important points to give the reader a neutral review of the person’s life and accomplishments. / Conclusion may not fully summarize or stay neutral in wording or balance/ reasoning. / Conclusion is incomplete, biased, or not an accurate summary.
L.2: Grammar and Spelling
Is this my best proofreading? / The absence of errors indicates mastery of grammar and/or mastery of editing skills. / The general lack of errors shows mastery of grammatical concepts and/or proofreading skills. / Errors indicate a partial lack of understanding in grammar or proofreading. / Errors indicate a lack of understanding in grammar or proofreading.

Draft an analysis

Write an informative paper on your celebrity, their success, and what led them to that point. You should list AND analyze or explain the events to specifically tell how each point in the timeline contributed to the eventual goal or success. Be sure to include a conclusion that wraps up your paper (the conclusion could be how students can follow in this celebrity’s footsteps to achieve stardom).*Your paper should be Times New Roman, 12 font, double spaced, and be no shorter than ¾ of a page.