In a biography term paper, a student presents the facts of the life of a person who relates to the subject matter of the course. Biography term papers can cover a person's entire life briefly, or they may cover a certain aspect or period of a person's life, such as one's professional life (as opposed to personal life) or one's twenties.
The student should clearly delineate the person and the part of that person's life that the biography term paper will discuss. If the student chooses to write a term paper on the entirety of a person's life, the student must be willing to write a broad survey and to leave out many interesting but nonessential details.
If, however, one chooses to focus on one aspect or period of an individual's life, one should include a brief summary of that person's life within the paper's introductory remarks. One should mention the individual's date and place of birth and death, his or her profession, and the reason the individual merits a biography term paper, such as having received a Nobel Prize or having invented something that has dramatically affected society. Then, in the thesis statement, the student should explain what part of the person's life he or she is going to discuss and why. The student should choose to focus the paper on something within the person's life that is particularly relevant to the course.
In most biography term papers, the student will primarily present the facts and the consensus of the research sources. If, however, the instructor requests that the student form and express an opinion on some controversy within a person's life, the student must adequately limit the paper's discussion of controversy. For example, the student should not attempt to prove a point about someone's sexual orientation and political orientation in the same paper unless there is a compelling reason for doing so; he or she should choose to discuss either sexual orientation or political orientation.
