Contemporary Literature
Independent Reading Novel
Activity #2 Author Research
Name____________________________________________________________________________________
Author___________________________________________________________________________________
Book____________________________________________________________________________________
Answer the following questions. After each answer, write the URL address for the web site that you used or
the title of the book you referenced to find your answer. If you can’t find the answer to a question, replace
the question with other important information.
1. Where was your author born? When?
2. What was your author’s family like? Parents? Siblings? How did his/her family impact your author?
3. What school(s) did your author attend? (high school & university) How did schooling affect your author?
4. What sort of jobs did your author have? How did this impact your author?
5. What was your author’s first published novel?
6. What other books or stories has your author written? List 3 to 5 other stories or books.
7. Where did the content/ideas for your book come from?
8. What awards has your author received? What awards has s/he been nominated for? Are there any
other honors your author has been nominated for or has won?
9. What is the setting of your novel? Briefly describe what your book is about.
10. List at least three other interesting pieces of information that you found about your author.
Now that you have found information about your author, your next task is to create a DIGITAL PRESENTATION
that presents the information that you discovered. You may use whatever program you would like to complete
this assignment. PLEASE INCLUDE RELEVANT PICTURES, DIAGRAMS, GRAPHS, CHARTS, AND GRAPHICS to
enhance the visual appeal of your presentation. You also need to include a section where you cite the
information. Your presentation should be professional and convey all the information you found.
Birth information
Family
o Parents
o Siblings
o Grandparents
o Aunts/Uncles
o Cousins
o Children
School
o Elementary
o Middle
o High
o College
Job
o 1st job
o 1st “career” job
o Influential jobs
1st published novel
Other books/stories
Source of writing ideas
Awards
o Received
o Nominated
o Other honors
Setting
Plot
Other interesting info
Works Cited
Here are some SUGGESTIONS of digital formats you could use (feel free to use whatever format you are most
comfortable with):
1. Twitter
6. PowerPoint
2. Blog: Wordpress, Edublogs, Blogger, Wix
7. Zeen
3. Prezi
8. Facebook
4. Glogster
9. Instagram
5. Pinterest
10. YouTube, Videos
Overall, you have two main goals with this assignment. One is to convey the information you found in your
research about your author. The other goal is to present this information in a digital format (that means you
won’t “turn in” a hard copy of a paper or anything to me).
This SHOULD not be a research paper where you simply cut and paste info that you found about your author
onto a google doc… It needs to have a format that allows you to organize your information and present it
digitally. Please see me if you have any questions!
You can also use this chart to help you keep track of the sources you use as you find your information. It will help
you when you need to make a Works Cited page…
Question #
Source (website, book, etc…)