Write a Report on a Famous Person

Are you stumped about how to write a report on a famous person? Many times, just starting a project like this is half the battle and once you begin all the pieces will fall into place. You will just need to do a bit of research, organize the information you learned into general categories, and then write about each of those categories. You can write a report about anyone or anything with just a bit of time, organization, and focus.

Steps

Researching Your Topic

1. Do a basic internet search about the person. If you don't know anything about the person you are going to write about, it makes sense to do a basic online search of their name, so that you understand the basics of who they are. Pick your favorite internet search site and look the person up simply by typing in their name.
   • For most reports, this preliminary search will not give you sources that you want to cite in your paper. Instead, it will give you the basic information you need to do a more in-depth search for credible sources.
   • Try not to cite sources in your paper that are created by non-experts or are sources that can be edited by anyone. However, these can be great jumping off points for further research.
2. Go to the library and gather more information. Check out books from the library, search the library databases, and read newspaper or magazine articles. A good way to find out if you are finding all of the sources a library has to offer is to talk to a librarian about your project. They can steer you towards a wide variety of great and reliable sources.
   • When researching the subject, be careful to evaluate the credibility of your sources. If possible, use a variety of reliable sources to get the best information about the subject.
   • As a general rule, you want information that has been created by experts on the person you are researching.
3. Take notes. It is one thing to read everything you find about a person, it's another to remember all that information and where you found it. This is why taking notes is so important. As you read a source, take notes about the important details. These notes will help you remember the information and they will be very important to refer to when you start to write your actual report.
   • There are all kinds of different ways of taking notes and you will have to find the one that best suits you. Begin by writing the name of the source and then listing points or pieces of information as you find them. It's also good to note a page number, so that you can find the information again.
   • Some people like to take notes on paper and some people like to type them in a computer. Do whichever you prefer.
4. Find your focus. Any person's life cannot be completely covered by one class report. Instead, you will want to give your reader all the basic information about the person, but spend most of your time looking into one particular aspect of the person.
   • For example, if you are researching Eleanor Roosevelt, you will want to know when she was born, who her parents and her husband were, and why she is famous. However, you will also want to focus most of your attention on looking into one aspect of her life. Perhaps it is her time as First Lady of the United States or her work for women's rights. Whatever you find most interesting, that should be your real focus.
   • You could also pick the aspect of the person that you relate to most. For example, perhaps you are most drawn to Elvis Presley because he spent time in the military. You could write your report about his time in the military.
5. Keep track of all of your sources. You will want to keep track of where you get all of your information. This is because when you write about that information, whether it be when the person live or died, or where they were raised, you need to tell your reader where to acquired that information. This is done with a citation, which lists the source of the information.
   • Ask your teacher if they want citations and how they would like you to include them. Citations can come in a wide variety of forms, so it's important to understand what exactly your teacher expects.
   • Your teacher may also want to you to write a bibliography as well. This is simply a list, in a specific form, of all of the books or websites you referred to or used in your report. Making a list of all of your sources as you do your research will make the bibliography easier to make at the end.

Writing Your Report

1. Create an outline. This is a rough plan for the report that will help you to organize your thoughts and it will actually make writing the actual paper easier. Begin with your main point. This should be the main subject of the introduction. Then list sub points, these are the specific topics of the body paragraphs of the report. The sub points are usually all the ways that you can prove your main overarching point.
   • For example, if your main point about The Beatles is that they were the most popular band in the 1960s, you will say that in the introduction and then the point of every following paragraph will be to support that assertion. You may have a paragraph about album sales, a paragraph about huge concerts, and a paragraph about their huge number of fans and fan clubs.
   • The outline can be created in any form you like. Some people just like to start listing points they want to make in any order and then reorganize later, while others create a very structured outline that lays out the organization of the paper in detail.
   • You can also list an outline for the conclusion but the conclusion usually just reiterates the main point brought up in the introduction.
2. Write an introduction. Start your introduction by using an attention grabbing statement or startling fact to draw the reader's attention. Also be sure to include significant information about this person in the introduction, so that a reader who doesn't know who this person is can have a bit more information.
   • You also need to introduce your main point. This should be a topic sentence that usually goes toward the end of the introduction. It is usually located at the end so that you can build up to it.
   • Include when and where this person was born in the introduction but consider waiting until the end of your report to discuss when he or she died, if they are not alive.
   • Don't address the person by his or her first name. It sounds very unprofessional. In your introduction, you may call them by their full name, but you must use their last name throughout the rest of the paper.
3. Write topic sentences for each paragraph. These will be the sentences that make the clear point of each paragraph. The rest of the paragraph, after this topic sentence, will be all about proving the point of the topic sentence.
   • For example, if the point of one paragraph is that The Beatles sold more albums than other artists in the 1960s, state that as the topic sentence.
   • Another example could be if your point is that Martin Luther King was a strong public speaker you could write, "Martin Luther King was a bold, provocative, and persuasive public speaker."
   • Don't mince words about your point. State it clearly and strongly.
   • Each paragraph needs to have a topic sentence. If you think your paragraph doesn't have one, then you need to do some editing.
4. Write body paragraphs. If you are new to writing reports, try giving three examples to support your topic sentence for each paragraph. This could include specific information, such as dates or figures, that you found during your research for the report.
   • Each example you give to prove your paragraphs point, which is the topic sentence, should itself be in a separate sentence. This means that your paragraphs should be from 4 to 5 sentences long, at least.
   • Giving specific examples in the body of a paragraph really helps you prove the point of the paragraph. Instead of giving your opinion, back up your points with facts.
   • How many paragraphs you need for your report will vary. The basic structure you can use most of the time for an essay is five paragraphs, with one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and one concluding paragraph. However, your teacher may give you a number of pages that you need to write. In that case, you may need to either expand your three body paragraphs or increase the number of body paragraphs you include.
5. Write the conclusion. Restate your three main points, and conclude your paper with a sentence stating the significance of the person, which was the topic sentence of your introduction. The purpose of the conclusion is simply to restate your assertions and how you proved them, so that the reader goes away with a clear picture of what your report was about.
   • Begin the concluding paragraph with a rephrasing of the main point and your examples of why it is true. For instance, in a essay on The Beatles popularity, you could state, "Clearly, The Beatles staggering record sales, huge fan base, and enduring legacy illustrate the bands lasting importance."
   • In some cases, the conclusion may remind the reader of your attention grabbing sentence used in the intro.
   • Don't introduce new information in your conclusion. If you are tempted to, find a place to include it in the body of the essay instead.

Revising Your Report

1. Read over your report for clarity. When you read, pretend that you don't know anything about the subject and your are learning about it for the first time. Does your report explain who the person is and why they are important? Can someone who has never heard of the person you are reporting on get a clear picture of the person from your report?
   • If you think you need to explain your subject a little more, take the time to do it. You have spent a lot of time already on your report, it's worth a little more time to make it the best it can be.
   • After you're done writing your paper, it's a good idea to read it out loud to catch mistakes. This will help you to catch areas of your writing that are awkward or confusing.
2. Make grammatical and spelling corrections. When reading over your report you also want to make sure that the grammar and spelling is correct. Most word processing programs have a spell check function built in, so that will have caught many of the typos you made while you typed. However, its important to look it over yourself to make sure your grammar correct and that you have used all of the right words.
   • For example, did you use the right version of the word "there" throughout your paper? Did you mean "there," "their," or "they're?" A spell check program will not catch it if you used the wrong version of a word with multiple spellings.
3. Have someone else edit your report. It is not "cheating" to have someone edit your paper, unless your teacher specifically prohibits it. Instead, getting the help and input of others in an important part of the writing process and of becoming a better writer.
   • Getting editing help and the perspective of other people will only make you a better writer. If you get a lot of feedback, meaning the person reading your paper suggests a lot of editing, don't take it personally. They are only trying to help make your report the best it can be.
   • Consider having a parent or a classmate read over your report. If you have a classmate do it, offer to read over their paper in exchange for them reading over yours.

Tips

• Be careful to not start every sentence with the person's name. To avoid this, use he/she or move around the subject in the sentence.

Warnings

• Never plagiarize your work. It's not worth the short cut and it is dishonest. In fact, your teacher can put anything from your paper into a search engine and find the website you stole it from. Always rephrase sentences when using them in your paper and cite the source you got the information from.

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