Pitfalls to Avoid in Writing Biographies

A brief summary of the experiences that can be encountered by the unsuspecting biographer – forewarned is forearmed. When you undertake writing a biography, actually writing it is in some ways the easiest part of your task. What you’re attempting to do is to collect as much information as possible about your subject from as […]

Interview Tips for New Biographers

Theresa Sjoquist - Photo Michael Cunningham

Useful interview tips to help new biographers get quality information from interviewees. If you already know a bit about the subject of your biography, it will be easy to come up with initial leads to potential contributors to your research. These will mainly consist of people who knew your subject and who will provide newspaper […]

Email Etiquette

Rainbow - Photo Theresa Sjoquist

Email Etiquette explains the ideal, and most acceptable behaviour when emailing – whether to friends and family, or for business. Email to Communicate Today the bulk of western society, and large portions of other societies regularly communicate by email. Email communication might be as simple as an inquiry about a product one is interested in […]

Write Cultural Context for Biographies

Useful tips to help provide a credible social context and cultural context for the subject of your biography One of the most important considerations for your biography is to establish it in the chronological era in which it occurred. Your research must cover much more than the person about whom you write if the biography […]

Writing to Describe

Tane Mahuta, Waipoua Forest, New Zealand

The art of writing description can be a very delicate thing.  Sometimes it’s what you don’t say that carries your description perfectly – for instance, if you were describing a major auto accident, the occupant of the car might see, apparently out of context, a tuft of sheep’s wool caught on a barbed wire fence […]