How to Write an Obituary

Published: 12/08/2009 by Funeral Home Resource Team

An obituary serves many purposes: it is a death notice, a story of a life, a record of surviving family members, and it provides funeral information. The basic information must be covered accurately and completely.



When writing an obituary, accuracy and completeness are the most important items. This sounds obvious, but it is easy to make mistakes. Errors can slip in, names can be misspelled, dates can be wrong, etc. The best way to ensure accuracy is to proofread, and then to proofread again. Ask a trusted friend or close family member to proofread as well. A good way to catch errors is to set aside a document, and then look at it another day - another reason to plan ahead so that you have the time to do it right.



An obituary can be interesting and compelling - especially if it focuses more on the life lived than on the notice of the death. An obituary can help those in the family and other people know more about one of their own members, themselves, and the community in general.



Obituary Writing Tips




• Research your newspaper. If you are writing an obituary for your local newspaper, find out about the particular format, possibility for a free listing, and prices if you have to pay. Format, procedure, and price vary from place to place.




• Be aware of identity theft. Don’t give too much information.




• Strike a balance between life and death. Make your work not only a basic notice of the death, but also a story of a life lived.




• Focus on the deceased, not the obituary's authors. Describe the deceased as an individual, in the third person.




• Decide how many family members to include. How many generations do you want to go back? Grandparents – be careful about just naming the ones that the deceased personally knew and forgetting the others. Step-families? Uncles and Aunts? (Be careful about naming just some and not others, unless you are intentionally selecting some members of the family.)




• Show, rather than tell. Show characteristics rather than listing facts. Show that the person was charitable by actual examples, rather than just saying he was "charitable." Show with interesting stories, rather than telling with just dry facts.




• Consider writing several versions. For example: a short one for a paid classified ad, a longer one for background to the eulogy at a service, and an even longer one for family scrapbook, history, or website. Length for newspaper, in words: could be about 150 to 500 words; a life story could be much longer.



• Revise and edit. As with any writing, revising improves the final product. This process not only spots errors, but also improves the style. An excellent way to see ways to improve any effort, is to set it aside for a few days, then look at it with fresh eyes, your own and someone else's. All the more reason to prepare something ahead of time, instead of rushing between the death and the funeral.