how to write a navy biography

Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog

Neither the department of the navy nor any other component of the department of defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this blog., cv, military bio, and letter of intent templates.

Posted on July 26, 2017 Updated on May 18, 2020

Every nominative position requires you to submit a CV, military bio, and letter of intent (LOI), so I always have these documents ready. People are always e-mailing me and asking for templates, so here are some Word documents you can use as you see fit. I’ll also put them in the Useful Documents page .

For CVs there are many, many acceptable formats.  Here is my personal CV:

CAPT Schofer CV – 5 MAY 2020

Here is my military bio:

CAPT Schofer Military Bio – 5 MAY 2020

Here is an old LOI I’ve used:

CDR Schofer LOI

Here is a LOI template created by CDR Melissa Austin when she was an EA:

LOI Template

Here are the BUMED templates if you want a slightly different flavor:

CV Example – BUMED

Letter of Intent Example – BUMED

Military Biography Example – BUMED

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This entry was posted in Bio , CV , LOI and tagged Bio , CV , LOI .

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15 thoughts on “ CV, Military Bio, and Letter of Intent Templates ”

CDR Schofer. Two comments:

1) your personal cellphone is in your posted CV 2) double spaces still with a proportional font!?! – http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

in all seriousness, thank you for your blog as it’s been a great resource

Hey, no one said I was an English major. And I love talking to people…

CDR Schofer,

I continue to be impressed by your work with the MC Career Blog. It is a testament to your leadership and desire to help people grow in their professional lives. I joined the Navy 17 years ago, first spending 10 years in the line community as an NFO, and then laterally transferring to the MC.

I just completed a year as Chief Resident, and your website was a daily reminder of why I wanted to take on the role. I finally got my own website up and running after being inspired by you for the past few years.

Thank you for the motivation and inspiration to keep serving.

Wishing you all the best. Jason Valadao, MD LCDR MC USN Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton

[…] This PDF contains a list of necessary qualifications. Any interested applicant should submit a CV/BIO/LOI to CDR Frank Mullens at BUMED with Specialty Leader and Detailer […]

[…] interested parties need to send a current Bio and CV to CAPT Vincent L DeCicco, Deputy Medical Officer of the Marine Corps & Fleet Marine Force […]

[…] book). All interested parties need Detailer/Specialty Leader concurrence and should forward a CV/BIO and letter of intent (LOI) to their Specialty Leader by 15 November. The goal is to have the individuals identified by […]

[…] CV, BIO, and Letter of Intent needed for […]

[…] Action: Disseminate the request for Navy Medicine nominations for the 2018 MHS Female Physician Leadership Course nominees to the Regions, operational commands and BUMED Codes. Eligible nominees are female Navy physicians at the O-4-select, O-4, or junior O-5 levels (less than 2 years TIG). Navy Reserve Physicians are also eligible. Complete nomination packets are due by 05 JAN 2018. A complete packet will include the nomination form, a 250 word or less letter of endorsement from the nominator and the nominee’s CV. […]

[…] Interested candidates should send an e­mail to CAPT Thomas J. Nelson (e-mail address is in the global) no later than Friday, 29 December 2017 with the following attachments (templates available here): […]

[…] officers interested should submit packages (CV/BIO/contact info/Detailer concurrence) to CAPT Christopher Quarles (contact info in the global address […]

[…] Applications are due 31 MAR. CV, Bio, and Letter of Intent templates can be found here. […]

[…] CV […]

One is usually not allowed to use command letterhead unless you are the commander/CO or have by-direction authority and the purposes of the letterhead are representative as to the command as a whole. Most letters, then, also would require serialization.

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How to Write a Personal Military Biography

Samuel hamilton.

Personal military biographies are used to identify the accomplishments and abilities of current or former service members. Writing a personal military biography is similar to generating a standard resume, though greater attention is paid to your military training, awards and stations than your civilian education and job experience. Because there are many ways to format this information, personal military biographies offer you an opportunity to highlight the elements of your military career about which you are most proud.

List your personal demographic information including name, branch, rank, deployment status, current location of deployment, age, date of birth and hometown.

List your military history in chronological order, starting with your first military experience. Include your enlistment information, all training you received and all units and locations to which you have been deployed.

Identify any military awards and honors you have received. Include military decorations such as Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars, service ribbons for active-duty participation and qualifications achieved through training.

Describe the military schooling you have received. This includes any and all post-boot camp training you received.

List your rank ascension history in chronological order starting with your first ranking. Include the date at which you received each rank.

Detail your family history including your parents, siblings, spouse and any children you may have.

Identify any civilian schooling you have received such as high school or college.

About the Author

Samuel Hamilton has been writing since 2002. His work has appeared in “The Penn,” “The Antithesis,” “New Growth Arts Review" and “Deek” magazine. Hamilton holds a Master of Arts in English education from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Master of Arts in composition from the University of Florida.

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Characteristics of Narrative Essays

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How to Write a Short Bio (With Examples for Military Transition)

by Keith Kappel | Sep 2, 2022 | Business Resources | 2 comments

Step 1: Check the Limitations  

Step 2: make a list  .

• Who Are You? This generally includes your name, and your relevant title/position. If your bio is for a start-up business, note that your day-job title may or may not be relevant to this question (though it might fit into one of the next two questions). 
• Are You Qualified? What qualifications do you have relevant to your title/position (or perhaps aspiring title/position)? This is a great place for relevant education and experience in the field, or even a related field. Relevance is the key word for this question. We aren’t trying to list every qualification and certificate you’ve earned in your lifetime, just the 1-3 most relevant to the audience of the bio. 
• What Makes You Different? This is a chance to show some personality and differentiate yourself from others in your field. It’s a great place to showcase hobbies, indirectly-related experiences (particularly military service if it’s not in one of the first two sections), your family, pets, or anything else that you want to be part of your personal branding as an individual. 
• Who Are You? Ryan Smith, CEO of EnTRIPreneur Airlines, Retired Veteran.   
• Qualifications? 22 years and 5,000 hours flying the C-130, Licensed/Certified Commercial Pilot (for single and multi-engine), Masters in Business Administration from Colorado State University  
• Differences? Loves travel, snorkeling, scuba diving, pizza, Denver Broncos  

Step 3: Trim To Relevant Data Points  

A note on military service : For some things you might get asked to do a bio for, it’s important to consider who else is going to be included. For instance, for a Bunker Labs project, every bio we feature probably belongs to a Veteran or military spouse. Because of this, we probably don’t want to just say “Veteran” or “retired Veteran” because it’s just too vague.  

Be specific  

• Who Are You? Ryan Smith, CEO of EnTRIPreneur Airlines, Retired Naval Aviator (24 years)
• Qualifications? Licensed/Certified Commercial Pilot (for single and multi-engine), Masters in Business Administration from Colorado State University
• Differences? Loves scuba diving, Denver Broncos  

Step 4: Making Sentences  

Important Note : Bios are always written in the third person, which means you use your own name, or he/she/they pronouns when referring to yourself as appropriate. The words “I” or “me” should never appear in a bio.   

• Who Are You? So, with the trimmed list I had in Step 2, I might try something like:  “A Retired Naval Aviator of 24 years, Ryan Smith is now the CEO of EnTRIPreneur Airlines, an executive travel service.”   
• Qualifications? And my second sentence might be something like:  “Ryan earned his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Colorado State University, and maintains a Commercial Pilot’s License for single and multi-engine aircraft.”   
• Differences? My final sentence(s) might be:  “When Ryan isn’t cheering on his Denver Broncos, he’s mapping out his next scuba diving trip! His next stop is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.”  

A note on adding humor: Some people want their bio to be funny. This goes wrong far more often than it goes right. Our best advice: avoid adding humor to your bio. 

Step 5: Final Checks  

More guidance  .

I understand that this should be written in the third person, but it sounds weird to me. What’s wrong with first person anyway?

Hey, Simone! There are a few reasons we write bios in third person, but there are some who feel a bio in first person is just fine, but (and this is key) it really depends on the context. Particularly, if your bio is the ONLY bio appearing wherever it’s appearing (probably the “about us” section of a website or on a social media page, then a 1st person bio is probably fine and more natural. However, as you can imagine, this is a relatively new use for a bio, and since grammar and writing rules tend to evolve much more slowly than technology, it’s taken a while for it to get formal recognition.

However, to answer your original question: 1.) Third person tends to be the most clear and the most neutral. It’s like reading an encyclopedia entry. It feels the most professional because its what we’re used to associating with professionals in the same way we think of a business suit as professional dress. These things can change over time, but it tends to change slowly.

2.) Writing in third person gives the impression someone wrote it ABOUT you rather than you writing it yourself (even though this is almost never the case). Imagine you’re in a bar, you’re watching a pool tournament on the television. A person in the bar sits next to you and says “I’m Megan and I’m the best pool shooter in the bar.” Someone else sits on the other side of you and says “Jill is the best pool shooter in the bar.” Which person are you more likely to believe? The person bragging about themselves, or the person evaluating someone else’s abilities? Most people discount the person bragging on themselves. It removes an air of perceived subjectivity and makes it feel more objective. Some people have an inherent rejection of anything they perceive as bragging. Third person lends authority to any accomplishments you list, and removes that stigma of bragging, because it sounds like a neutral party is listing them for you.

3.) Imagine you’re reading a book, and it’s written in 1st person, so you’re seeing the story through the main character’s eyes. I opened the door, I saw a woman standing behind a desk, etc. Now imagine if every single chapter, or even every few paragraphs, the main character changed between 3-4 different main characters. As a reader, you’d get confused which “I” you’re reading about now. When bios appear, they often appear in groups of multiple bios (such as in a Bunker Labs program guide or lookbook). This can create an awkward effect for the reader if they’re all written in first person.

I hope that helps!

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How to Write a Biography

Learn how to write a biography with our comprehensive guide.

Last updated on Dec 8th, 2023

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Table of Contents

How to write a biography can be a fun challenge as you share someone’s life story with readers. You may need to write a biography for a class or decide to write a biography as a personal project. Once you’ve identified the subject of your biography, do your research to learn as much as you can about them. Then, immerse yourself in writing the biography and revising it until it’s best. What I am going to share with you in today’s post is how to write a biography. If you want to know the rules of how to write a biography correctly then this post of ours is essential for you. 

Introduction

While it’s true that most biographies involve people in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. But most of the time, famous or not, the person we’re talking about has an incredible life. Although your students may have a basic understanding of How to write a biography, you should take some time before putting pen to paper to come up with a very clear definition of biography.

Before knowing how to write a biography, let’s first understand what a biography is. A biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else. Although there is a genre called fictional biography, by definition biographies are mostly non-fiction. In general, biographies trace the subject’s life from early childhood to the present day or until death if the subject is deceased. 

Biography writing is not limited to describing the bare facts of a person’s life. Instead of just listing basic details about their upbringing, interests, education, work, relationships, and deaths, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of a person’s personality as well as that person’s life experiences.

Tips and Tricks For How To Write a Biography

1. ask the subject’s permission to write a biography.

Here are the first tips on how to write a biography. Before starting your research, make sure you get your subject’s consent to write their biography. Ask them if they’re ready to be the subject. Getting their permission will make writing a biography much easier and ensure that they are open to information about their lives.

If the theme does not allow you to write a bio, you can choose another theme. If you decide to publish a profile without the subject’s permission, you may be subject to legal action from the subject. 

If the topic no longer exists, you don’t need to ask permission to write about them. 

2. Research primary sources on the topic

Primary sources may include books, letters, photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, magazines, Internet articles, magazines, videos, interviews, existing biographies, or autobiographies on the subject. Find these resources in your local library or online. Read as much as you can about the topic and highlight any important information you come across in your sources. 

You can create research questions to help you focus your research on this topic, such as: 

What do I find interesting about this topic? Why is this topic important to readers? 

3. Conduct interviews with subjects and their relatives

Interviewing people will turn your research into reality: the people you interview will be able to tell you stories you can’t find in history books. Interview the subject as well as people close to them, such as spouses, friends, business associates, family members, co-workers, and friends. Interview in person, over the phone, or via email.

For in-person interviews, record them with a voice recorder or voice recorder on your computer or phone. You may need to interview the subject and others multiple times to get the documents you need.

4. Visit places important to the topic

Whenever you want to know how to write a biography, to understand the history of the subject, spend time in places and areas that are significant to the subject. This may be the subject’s childhood home or neighborhood. You can also visit the subject’s workplace and regular meeting places. 

You may also want to visit areas where the subject made important decisions or breakthroughs in their life. Being physically present in the area can give you an idea of what your subjects may have felt and help you write about their experiences more effectively.

5. Research the time and place of the subject’s life

Contextualize your subject’s life by observing what’s going on around them. Consider the period in which they grew up as well as the history of the places they lived. Study the economics, politics, and culture of their time. See current events happening where they live or work.

When you studying how to write a biography, ask yourself about time and place: 

What were the social norms of this period? 

What happened economically and politically? 

How has the political and social environment influenced this topic?

6. Make a timeline of a person’s life

To help you organize your research, create a timeline of a person’s entire life, from birth. Draw a long line on a piece of paper and sketch out as many details about a person’s life as possible. Highlight important events or moments on the timeline. Include important dates, locations, and names. 

If you think about how to write a biography You can also include historical events or moments that affect the topic in the timeline. For example, a conflict or civil war may occur during a person’s lifetime and affect their life.

7. Focus on important events and milestones

Major events can include marriage, birth, or death during a person’s lifetime. They may also achieve milestones like their first successful business venture or their first civil rights march. Highlights key moments in a person’s life so readers clearly understand what’s important to that person and how they influence the world around them.

For example, you might focus on one person’s achievements in the civil rights movement. You could write an entire section about their contributions and participation in major civil rights marches in their hometowns.

8. Cite all sources used in  biography

Most biographies will include information from sources such as books, journal articles, magazines, and interviews. Remember to cite any sources that you directly quote or paraphrase. You can use citations, footnotes, or endnotes. If the biography is for a course, use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations according to your instructor’s preference.

9. Reread the biography

Check the biography for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Circle all punctuation marks in the text to confirm they are correct. Read the text backward to check for spelling and grammar errors. 

Having a biography full of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors can frustrate readers and lead to poor grades if you submit your work to the class.

10. Show your biography to others to get their feedback

It is a momentous step of how to write a biography. Once you have completed your draft biography, show it to your colleagues, friends, teachers, and mentors to get their feedback. Ask them if they have a good understanding of someone’s life and if the biography is easy to read. Be open to feedback so you can improve the biography and make it error-free. Revise profile based on feedback from others. Don’t be afraid to trim or edit your biography to suit your readers’ needs.

11. Use flashbacks

Flashbacks happen when you move from the present to the past. You can start with the present moment, and then bring in a scene from the person’s past. Or you could have one chapter focusing on the present and one focusing on the past, alternating as you go.

The flashback scene must be as detailed and realistic as the present-day scene. Use your research notes and interviews with subjects to better understand their past to reminisce. 

For example, you can move from a person’s death in the present to reminiscing about their favorite childhood memory.

12. Outline Your Story Chronologically 

This is another important step in how to write a biography is to write an outline that describes your story in chronological order. An outline is a tool that helps you visualize the structure and key elements of your story. This can help you organize your story into chapters and sections. 

You can write your plan in a digital document or draw it with pen and paper. Remember to store your outline in an easily accessible place so you can refer to it throughout the writing process.

What citation style should I use for my biography?

Use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations based on your instructor’s preference when citing sources in your biography.

Should I include personal opinions in a biography?

No, a biography should be objective and based on facts. Avoid injecting personal opinions or bias into the narrative.

What’s the difference between a biography and an autobiography?

A biography is written by someone else about a person’s life, while an autobiography is written by the subject themselves about their own life.

Can I write a biography about a living person?

Yes, you can write a biography about a living person with their consent. Ensure you respect their privacy and follow ethical guidelines when writing about them.

Conclusion 

Other than creating a sense of closure, there are no set rules about how a biography ends. An author may want to summarize their main points about the subject of their biography. If the person is still alive, the author can inform the reader about their condition or circumstances. If the person has died, inheritance can be discussed. Authors can also remind readers how they can learn from the biographical subject. Sharing a closing quote or about a person can leave the audience with a point to consider or discuss in more detail.

For further insights into writing and to avoid common mistakes, check out our article on Most Common Mistakes in Writing . Additionally, explore the Best Writing Tools for Writers to enhance your writing skills and discover the tools that can assist you. If you’re looking to improve your typing speed and accuracy, our article on How to Type Faster with Accuracy offers valuable tips.

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How to write a biography without biographical information

O n the first page of Sarah Ruden’s biography of Vergil, she states the problem that any biographer of the ancient poet and author of the Aeneid faces: We know almost nothing about him. “The man is like Shakespeare ,” she writes. “He disappeared into his writing.”

So, why write a biography of him, and how might one go about it if one did? The answer to the first question might be money. That was certainly Stephen Greenblatt’s motivation in writing a highly publicized biography of Shakespeare nearly 20 years ago. Greenblatt got a six-figure advance for Will in the World , which sold 150,000 copies on the first day of publication and was on the New York Times’s bestseller list for nine weeks. But only Shakespeare is Shakespeare, of course, and no other author, living or dead, comes close to generating the amount of interest he does.

KEEPING THE NOVEL ALIVE BY READING, AND ARGUING, WELL

Ruden in her preface stated that she decided to write a biography of Vergil largely out of curiosity. She is the author of an acclaimed translation of the Aeneid , and she became increasingly intrigued, she writes, as she worked on the translation by how a “mere life” could “produce such beauty”: “After much hesitation, I set off on a quest to know Vergil the man better through what probably follows from such things as his physical, social, and literary contexts and his own literary innovations.”

Thus, we have the answer to the second question. How to go about writing a biography of someone who left behind no memoir, no collection of letters, and whose entire biographical record consists of a few pages in Suetonius Tranquillus's On Illustrious Men ? Use historical contexts to speculate as to what he might have thought or could have done. Call it the Might-Have-Could-Have approach to biography.

The risk of such an approach is obvious. The subject of the biography becomes a mere object of our own projections. What we get is not Vergil himself, but the proto-fascist Vergil or the anti-imperialist Vergil, the proto-Christian Vergil or the gay Vergil. I am reminded of Daniel Mendelsohn’s article in the New Yorker a few years ago in which he presented Vergil as something of a tragic, bleeding-heart liberal, whose sympathies are on the side of the victims whom "‘empire’ leaves in its wake” but who was pressed into the service of empire nonetheless.

Ruden is aware of this risk. “We need to make our own peace with our own histories,” she writes, “and leave Vergil out of them.” She proposes to avoid it by sticking closely to what Vergil wrote and extrapolating only those biographical tidbits that seem plausible. H. L. Mencken may have been right when he wrote that criticism “is no more than prejudice made plausible.” But a biography that is no more than prejudice made plausible is no biography at all.

Problematically, Ruden proposes to compare Vergil to his modern “descendants” — that is, to modern writers — to gain insight into his life. She argues that because writers are categorically different from other people, it makes sense that Vergil might have more in common with other writers, even those who lived 2,000 years after he died, than he did with the people of his own time. After all, wasn’t Vergil, like so many modern writers, an eccentric who lived an unconventional life marked by an unwavering commitment to art? “Many things about Vergil’s life made more sense to me,” she writes, “once I dared to grasp that this shy young man from nowhere, who struggled from line to line as he composed and revised, sensed in some part of his mind that if he tried hard enough he could cause the world to welcome millions of copies of his work.” She goes on to compare him to Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf, among others.

Alas, rather than getting us closer to the “real Vergil,” Ruden’s biography simply gives another Vergil — Vergil the brooding, sensitive modern writer who sacrifices everything for his art. This leads to problems.

One thing we know about Vergil from Suetonius is that he was frequently ill and rarely “appeared in public in Rome.” We're told this was because his fame made it difficult for him to move about freely in the capital. Ruden claims (and I think she is right) that he also avoided going to Rome because he was shy and committed to his work. But she suggests that he may have even faked illness to avoid social contact and was something of a misanthrope. “I am convinced,” she writes, “that his characters tend to fall short in differentiation and believable thoughts and feelings because he did not like other people much or find their minds reliably interesting compared with his own.” Her further evidence of this misanthropy is that he wrote a lot about nature.

She wants to see Vergil as a modern artist who eschews authority and “civic and professional duty,” but she is at pains to explain how he could be one while also writing an epic poem whose primary purpose was to celebrate the Roman empire. This leads her to make muddled statements like this:

The poet’s quasi-propagandistic work remains worth reading now that all its ideological and cultural assertions but the most universal have been discredited, at least in liberal democratic nations. Modern ethics reject unquestioning religious, filial, and patriotic 'duty,' and most especially the divinely decreed 'fate' of one race to conquer and rule others. But the Aeneid is still running on its literary steam.

This divorce of content and form forces Ruden to identify Vergil’s literary accomplishment with something like verbal decoration. Ruden means it as a compliment when she writes that “Vergil was the only poet” who could “relieve and decorate” the “necessary heavy-handedness” of a “full-length epic poem about the ruling dynasty’s purported ancient foundations.” But this diminishes, rather than heightens, Vergil’s accomplishment. Immediately after this, she admits that Vergil and Augustus likely did not disagree on the work’s “major themes.” So why divorce those themes from style and prosody in the first place?

Even more problematically, Ruden suggests that several of the poems of the Appendix Vergiliana , a supposed collection of Vergil’s juvenilia that many scholars dispute, were indeed written by Vergil because it is implausible that he would not leave a record of his development. Why? Because Vergil was more of a modern poet than an ancient one. “If Vergil was, as he appears to have been,” Ruden writes, “a modern type of conspicuously isolated author with an independent, obsessive drive to perfect certain literary forms, rather than the typical ancient author who wrote for public occasions and communal edification, then a large archive makes sense.” Talk about begging the question.

Ruden even wonders whether Vergil became so obsessed with perfecting the Aeneid that Augustus became paranoid and killed him. Vergil died of heatstroke in Athens, which doesn’t make much sense according to Ruden. “If the Romans knew anything, it was how to deal with hot climates," she continues. "Did Augustus, alive to the difficulties of either controlling or sidelining the popular, well-liked author who had written the great national poem but then fled the nation, turn his mind to the advantages of Vergil’s bad health worsening to a lethal degree? ... Was treatment of Vergil’s condition withheld? Or was sunstroke a cover story for something else? Was there something in Vergil’s refreshments?”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

She quickly adds that this is all “speculative reconstruction.” A better phrase for it is “pure speculation.” The only thing she insists on is that the ancient account of his death doesn’t make sense.

Fine. But why not leave it at that? Because word counts must be met, I suppose, for book contracts to be kept.

Micah Mattix is a professor of English at Regent University.

Tags: Books , Book Reviews , Media , Literature , History , Roman Empire

Original Author: Micah Mattix

Original Location: How to write a biography without biographical information

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There are a lot of people who may want to share about various events in their life before retirement and especially their experience in a particular workplace. Therefore, a retirement bio is considered to be an account of someone’s life written by another person about little facts and their importance or certain experiences before their retirement. This retirement bio may even include some interesting bits of information or maybe just simple facts that they might want to share with you.

Step 1: Introduction

Step 2: mention the education and credentials, step 3: workplace experience, step 4: achievements, step 5: closing.

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Army Bio Examples

11b infantryman, 25h network communication systems specialist.

Spc. Salvatore V. Mongelluzzo 86th Signal Battalion, Fort Bliss

92Y Unit Supply NCOIC

25 bravo help desk specialist.

Spc. Johnathan L. Morton 62nd Medical Brigade, Fort JBLM

12B Battalion Commander's Driver

Chief, cybersecurity engineering and analysis branch, 56m religious affairs specialist.

SPC Torres, Jacob born in Puerto Rico and raised in Florida. Graduated high school at Harmony High School on May 25, 2018. Sworn in July 30, 2018. SPC Torres attended Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina and graduated November 30, 2018. SPC Torres went back home to Florida for hometown recruiting and got married December 7,2018. SPC Torres arrived at Fort Benning for his first duty station December 16, 2018.

92Y Supply Specialist

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