Biographical Blurb Process Assignment

Blog Analysis
The blog I selected to write about is called “Pretty Neat Living” and is run by a woman
named Jen. Her blog is about her life as a stay at home mom, traveling, cooking, makeup, and
fitness. In her biography, she talks about her many interests and family life. Her biography is
short and simple, and is written as one paragraph as opposed to many sections. This keeps things
simple for the reader,
but can also be seen
as underwhelming.
Jen’s main
audience for this blog
is people (mainly
women) who are
interested in running
a home in an
organized way, and
topics related to that.
These people are
traditionally stay at
home moms and
wives. One change
that I would make to
Jen’s biography is simply updating it. Since writing it, she has had two children and doesn’t
mention that in her bio. As a large part of her blog is about family, her children are an important
topic that her readers are interested in.

Author Analysis
Tommy Wallach is a YA contemporary author that has a short, sweet, and to the point
biography. His biography briefly addresses his works as an author while also mentioning his
accomplishments as an entrepreneur. Similar to my chosen blog biography, Wallach’s bio is a
single paragraph, but has fewer pictures. Because his books are targeted at young people, his
biography is light hearted, easy to follow, and ends on a
witty note when he writes, “consider buying me
dinner.”
If I could make changes to his bio, I guess I
would add some more about why he is an author, or
what he does outside of work. Although you do get a
sense for both his career and his personality in this bio,
I think there is room for additional information that would allow the reader to know more about
him and his work. Besides that change, I think the bio is interesting, and the ratio of visual
components to written ones is appealing to the viewer.

Academic Analysis
Professor Stephanie Craft at the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana has a fairly
lengthy, intimidating looking biography. She lists the classes she teaches, her plethora of degrees
and where she received them, and a
paragraph about her career and
recent projects. Although this is
helpful for readers that are viewing
her page to obtain this specific
information in detail, for people
just trying to get to know the
professor quickly this is not an
effective biography. Although the
length and amount of detail is
helpful, for students that are just
trying to quickly get a grasp of
what Craft is like, the amount of reading required can be hurtful. There is also a single,
professional picture of her included on her page which is appropriate, but again doesn’t aid in
allowing the reader to get to know her personally.
In addition to the lack of personality portrayed in photos, Craft’s bio is different than the
other biographical blurbs I’ve observed because she doesn’t include personal information in any
of her writing. If I could make one change to this biography, I wouldn’t necessarily delete any
career related information, as it is relevant, but I would add a personal photo, family information,
list of hobbies, etc.

My Own Analysis

100 Third Person:

Madeline Nichols is a high school senior that will be attending the University of Illinois
Urbana- Champaign in the fall. Apart from her schoolwork, extracurriculars, and social life, she
enjoys curling up with a good YA novel and playing with her dog. She can almost always be
found at her local starbucks with a cup of green tea in hand, or at her local gym attempting to
work off the calories in said green tea. She is interested in the importance of body image in our
society and is currently exploring how the fashion industry shapes our opinion of ourselves.

300 Third Person:

 Madeline Nichols was born on September 27th, 2000 in central Illinois. She grew up in a
town with the population of most people’s high school, and lived in the same house her entire
childhood. She attributes her empathetic nature to this upbringing, and in high school she tries to
give back to her community through National Honor Society and Student Council. She also uses
the yearbook and chamber choir as creative outlets. In school, she is currently exploring how
misrepresentation in the fashion industry impacts our youth’s body image. In the future, she will
be attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and is looking forward to majoring in
graphic design with a minor in advertising. Madeline is excited to continue singing as a part of
the University chorus at UIUC, and is hopeful that she will be able to balance her schoolwork on
top of rehearsal.

100 First Person:

Hi, I’m Madeline Nichols! I’m currently a senior in highschool and will be attending the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the fall. I’m an undeclared major but I am
considering majoring in graphic design with a minor in advertising. In school I am involved in a
handful of activities including chamber choir, yearbook, student council, and NHS. Outside of
school, I love to read, travel, exercise, play with my dog, spend time with my friends and family,
and take photos of anything and everything. Consider buying me coffee.

300 First Person:

Hi! My name is Madeline Nichols and I’m an 18 year old, senior in high school from
central Illinois. I am involved in a variety of things in and out of school, including chamber
choir, National Honor Society, student council, and the yearbook staff. In school I am currently
enrolled in a few AP classes and a dual credit English 102 course. In this course I am exploring
how the fashion industry’s lack of representation impacts our society, specifically looking at the
impact on body image of our youth. In the future, I will be attending the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign to major in graphic design and minor in advertising. After college, I hope to
work for a company that advertises for non profits and charities that I stand by. Reading this
might make me sound like I’m a great multitasker that has a well planned future, but in fact, I am
the exact opposite. I am very hard on myself, and although this can be beneficial in a lot of ways,
I am often stressed to the point of illness because of it. This stress makes it very difficult for me
to get things done, thus making me upset with myself, creating a vicious cycle. Despite this, I try
to take time away from school by reading, playing with my dog, hanging out with my friends,
singing, or exercising. If you have any questions, I’d love to answer them with an email or over a
cup of coffee.

5 Images:
Analysis of my Blurb
The first person, 100 word biography is the biography that is currently on my website. I
am satisfied with how much information I give about myself and don’t immediately think of
anything I would add. I think I overshared in my longer bios, and want to keep it short and sweet
on my website. I might add information about my project and why I chose it, but I have a
seperate paragraph addressing that on my page. Another change I could make is divide my bio
up into specific sections. I could have a chunk of writing about my hobbies, one about my work,
etc. This might look more appealing, but could also be more “wordy” at the same time. Again, I
don’t see myself changing my website bio, but these are changes that I would entertain if others
agreed with me.
The intended audience for my website is people that don’t know much about
representation in the fashion industry, and people that do and know they have been affected by it.
I hope that the information I share online will inform and persuade people to stop shopping at
places that refuse to reflect on their lack of inclusion. A few touchpoints that I thought about
while writing this are making a personal connection at the end with the coffee comment, and
listing the activities I am involved in to try to get the reader to relate. I could also add in where to
find some of my projects and that would make it easier for readers to find where they are. I don’t
want my bio to sound formal, or unwelcoming by any means.
I encountered a couple of issues when writing each bio. I didn’t have much trouble
writing one under 100 words, but the 300 word bios I felt myself writing just to fill space. I don’t
think I would read anyone’s bio that is that long, so I felt unmotivated to produce something of
that size. Also, I found it easy to connect with the reader when writing in first person, bu when
writing in third person, I felt distant, and sort of as if I was trying to brag about myself as
opposed to share information.

Why I Chose to Organize Like This

I organized my biographical blurbs the way that I did so that I could reflect on my own
biographies last. I wanted to look at a variety of examples before I wrote and analyzed my own.
This helped me implement the different techniques I saw in each biography. In my 100 word first
person biography, I essentially steal my author’s closing sentence when I say, “consider buying
me coffee.” Each biography had aspects I liked and didn’t like, so I was able to pull things from
each kind to create a variety of biographies I am happy with.