Biographical Sketch Essay

A biorgaphical sketch refers to a brief biography of an individual. This may contain the dates of one’s birth, and death if they are dead and small outline of their background.

Typical Biorgaphical Sketch

  • must be no longer than 300 words
  • a (biosketch) brief summary of you or someone else’s professional or educational accomplishments, publications, and affiliations
  • an abbreviated curriculum vitae (resumé)-meant to highlight important aspects of your training, experience, and areas of interest.
  • a ‘light sketch’ of a person’s life

Below is an example:

Mae Jemison: Space Star

Have you ever dreamed of flying freely through outer space, surrounded by a sea of stars? Mae Jemison fulfilled that dream.

On September 12, 1992, aboard the spaceship Endeavour, she became the first African-American woman to blast into outer space. This wasn’t the only time, however, that Jemison had reached for the stars and realized her dreams.

Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, but she grew up in Chicago, Illinois.

There weren’t many well-known African-American female role models while Jemison was growing up, but she didn’t let that stop her from achieving her goals. She was especially interested in anthropology, archaeology and astronomy. Luckily, her parents encouraged those interests. That encouragement drove her to excel. She graduated from high school at 16. Then she earned degrees in chemical engineering and African-American studies at Stanford University. Later, she graduated from Cornell University’s medical school. No challenge was too great for Jemison to take on.

Jemison’s accomplishments did not end there. In 1981, she joined NASA’s space program in Houston, Texas. And in 1988, Jemison realized her biggest dream. She finally became an astronaut! Just four years later, she was named science mission specialist (another NASA first) on an Endeavour flight.

Today, Jemison encourages young people — especially women and girls — to study the sciences. Her life example teaches us to follow our dreams, no matter how great.

Capsule Biography

  • a biography in which all the important elements of the persons life are included, in summary form, kind of like an expanded obituary.
  • a detailed description or account of a person’s life. It entails more than basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death) a biography also portrays a subject’s experience of these events.

Feature Story

  • a special human interest story or article that is not closely tied to a recent news event. It focuses on particular people, places, and events, and it goes into great detail regarding concepts and ideas of specific market interest.
  • in journalistic terms, it is an article in newspapers, magazine or on the internet which is intended to add depth and perspective in a story. It mostly dwells on the background of an event and gives a human interest perspective to a story or a commentary on a particular issue.

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