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The Oxford English Dictionary states that bio is an informal form of biography



An account of someone’s life written by someone else.

So... Would it be more accurate to use the word autobiography than the word bio for a text field where users themselves fill up their life stories/ histories ?

Using autobiography looks pretty odd though..

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If this is for some kind of form, I think you might need some other way of putting it altogether. You might even need an instruction such as 'Please give a brief account of your relevant experience' - or of whatever details are required. –  Barrie England Apr 19 '12 at 9:07
We use the term bio paragraph all the time for a few short sentences about our authors (which they usually write themselves). We use these bios in lieu of their extensive CVs. –  JLG Apr 19 '12 at 11:46
Yeah, I know what to do now. Thanks! –  user19341 Apr 19 '12 at 12:35

2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Bio has come to be accepted in popular usage generally for any item of bio-graphic information, just the name to a detailed profile.

So, I suppose you can use Bio and expect it to be understood correctly and serve your purpose adequately. Probably not auto-biography, which suggests a full length life story.

However, it seems your use case essentially relates to life stories/ life histories rather than personal profile. In which case, you should actually consider something on the lines of Blog or MyStory or even LifeExperiences. [I suggest joining the words, with camel case].

[Edit-1] Per Comments:
The suggestion of camel casing was just to get one single "word" and still retain readability. The selected term may be needed not only for text-field label but also its variable name.

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Stack Exchange uses About Me for profiles. I would have no problem with Bio but, if someone was hesitant to use Bio, then About Me might be a good alternative. I suppose it depends on how much "life history" you hope will be entered. Kris has some good suggestions, too (although I don't necessarily agree with CamelCasing whatever you decide to use). –  J.R. Apr 19 '12 at 10:58
+1, but see no justification for CamelCasing those terms. –  Hugo Apr 19 '12 at 11:06
@Kris (in regards to your edit): Camel casing is fine for a program, where spaces are delimeters, and you can't have a two-word variable name. But that convention need not – and probably should not – be preserved on the corresponding labels of the user interface. –  J.R. Apr 19 '12 at 13:47

"bio" is also used as an abbreviation for "I have to go to the bathroom." I'm not sure about the scope of this shortcut, but it's heavily used in the computer games environment if you want to inform you fellow players that you will be away from keyboard for a few minutes (&c).

Depending on the form you want to publish, I would stick to Barrie's suggestion or write something like "Insert short biography". If someone fills in someone else's biography, you wouldn't accept the application (or whatever) anyway, so I'd say that the context already implicates "your own biography."

As a second language learner of English (native tongue: German), the term "auto-biography" (to me) sounds more like you'd write a book, whereas "biography" is more like "the story of one's life in a nutshell."

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