Autobiography and

Biography J JF
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Group 2
12-Adamas
 Table of Content
• What is • What is biography
Autobiography
• How to make an
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• How
biography
to make

autobiography
• Types of
A • Types of biography

autobiography
Autobiography

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• An autobiography is a nonfiction story of a person’s life, written

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from their point of view
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• Autobiographies are a subgenre of the broader category of
biographies.
• “Auto” means “self” in Greek, so an autobiography is a self-
biography.

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• Autobiography is subjective that primarily focuses on facts – the

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who-what-when-where-why-how of their life’s entire timeline.
 hOW TO WRITE AN
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• Write out your life timeline

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Start writing your autobiography by conducting research on your

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own life. Include all the most important dates and events, and it
gives you a structure to build upon.
The "brainstorming" phase
2. Identify the main characters
Every good story has interesting characters—friends and foes—
who help move the plot along.

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Parents, spouse, and other close family members that affected your
life will play a role in your autobiography.
3. Pull out the best stories.
Begin drafting your manuscript by writing out the main stories

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that will be woven together to create a picture of your life. Most

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autobiographies address a few basic topics because readers find them
interesting.
• The childhood story.
• The coming of age story.
• The falling in love story.
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• The identity crisis story.
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• The story of facing down some force of evil.
4. Write in your own voice
People read autobiographies to gain insight on what it's like to

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be someone else. Being authentically you is a sure way to keep

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people engaged. If your writing is formal and stiff, or if it reads like
a college essay instead of an expose on your life, people will have
trouble getting through the book.
5. Be revealing
You don't have to be explicit, but it's important to reveal truths
about yourself and your life in an autobiography. Don't let the book

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become a list of your accomplishments; instead, present yourself as a

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whole person, sharing talents and flaws alike, and your readers will
be able to identify you.
6. Capture the spirit of the times
Be sure to include a few important dates so readers can

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understand the sequencing of the events you are describing.

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• How was your story shaped by the moment in history in which it
took place?

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• What wars influenced your politics?

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• What cultural events inspired you?
 Types of AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• Full Autobiography
In a full autobiography, a person’s complete life story is presented

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from birth to the present time. Authors choose this type of

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autobiography because their life is interesting and different from
others.
Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl or The Diary of Anne
Frank
 Anne Frank
It tells the story of her family who live in
Frankfurt, Germany and suddenly have to go

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into hiding as a result of Hitler and the Nazi

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Party's treatment of Jews in Europe during the

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second world war. They escape to Amsterdam
where they go into hiding with other Jews. The
diary ends suddenly on 1 August 1944.
2. Memoir
A memoir is about the specific moments or experiences in the

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author’s life. Memoir focuses on or highlights only one aspect. It is

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written from the author’s perspective and in the 1st person point of
view.
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
 Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of
essays about the everyday life of the author,
David Sedaris. The book’s first essays detail

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his upbringing in North Carolina. As a child,

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he lives with his father, mother, and sisters.

David Sedaris AThe opening essay recounts the time he’s

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much on the story. It also revolves around a specific part of your life but

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explores that event or experience in a detailed form.
In a personal essay, you need to present an aspect of your life,
provide your thoughts and emotions.
Virginia Woolf - The Death of the Moth
 The Death of the Moth is a narrative essay
by Virginia Woolf in which she symbolically
represents the life of a moth full of energy
and enthusiasm and his struggle against the

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death. Symbolism: In the essay, the death of

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the Moth, Virginia Woolf observes moth as a

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metaphor for life. She implicitly builds a
connection between the moth and her own
life.

Virginia Woolf
4. Confession
A confessional autobiography is written to confess something.
Here, some hidden details are revealed about the subject’s life. It is

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written in the first-person narrative and often presented as the

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ongoing revelations of the person’s motivations.
North African saint - The Confessions of St. Augustine
The Confessions of St. Augustine is a
book written by a North African saint in
the late fourth century A.D. It is a

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spiritual autobiography that tells of his

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restless youth, his conversion
Christianity, and his praise of God.
to
5. Psychological Illness
This type of autobiography is written by those people who have

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gone through any mental illness. They find it therapeutic to write

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about the difficulties during that time.
Grace Talusan - The body papers
 Winner of The Restless Books Prize for
New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan’s
memoir The Body Papers bravely explores
her

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depression, cancer, and life as a Filipino
immigrant, supplemented with government
documents, medical records, and family
photos.

Grace Talusan
 Types of Autobiography in Literature
• Thematic

A thematic autobiography revolves around the life of the subject

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but emphasizes some other issues. The purpose of writing this

autobiography is to present information unusually.

This autobiography focuses on the spiritual or religious experiences

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to show the subject’s connection to God. It is also referred to as a

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spiritual autobiography.
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3. Intellectual

In an intellectual autobiography, you focus on some key events

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or experiences that have changed your perspective on life. It also

reflects on your intellectual journey.

The fictional genre is one of the most common forms of writing

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in the United States. In the fictional autobiography, the author’s

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experiences are narrated in sections fictionalized to protect the

identity of real people.

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• A biography is the story of a real person’s life. It could be about

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a person who is still alive, someone who lived centuries ago,
someone who is globally famous, an unsung hero forgotten by
history, or even a unique group of people.
History of Biography
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• 1680s, "the histories of individual lives, as a branch of

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literature," from Medieval Latin biographia, from later Greek
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biographia "description of life", from Greek bios "life" (from
PIE root *gwei- "to live") + graphia "record, account" (see
-graphy).
• Biographies require a great deal of research. Sources of
information could be as direct as an interview with the
subject providing their own interpretation of their life’s
events.

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• When writing about people who are no longer with us,
biographers look for primary sources left behind by the
subject and conduct interviews with friends or family.
 writing a biography
• get permission

When you have chosen the subject of the biography, seek

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permission to write about their life. However, it may not be
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necessary if the person is a public figure or deceased. If the subject

is willing to be biographied, they may provide significant details

about their own story

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Regardless of how much you know about your subject, an

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extensive amount of research is necessary to paint a thorough picture

of this person.
 Primary sources are firsthand accounts of your subject’s life and

tend to be the most reliable sources.

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Secondary sources, like magazines or documentaries, can also be
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used if the information is proven accurate.
3. FORM YOUR THESIS

Your first paragraph or chapter should inform the reader what

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they will learn about this person from this biography. A thesis makes

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a declaration about the biographee which the rest of the biography

will provide relevant information to support.

A biography usually structures the main points of a person’s life

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in chronological order. Knowing the order of key events before you

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start writing can save you the hassle of having to reorganize your

whole story later.

While writing the text of your biography, you may want to

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intercut between an experience from your subject’s adult life and one

from their high school days.

biography is not just a transaction of facts. A biographer can

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share their own feelings and opinions on their subject’s life.
 Types of biography
• Contemporary Biography: Authorized or Unauthorized

The typical modern biography tells the life of someone still alive,

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or who has recently passed. Sometimes these are authorized —

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written with permission or input from the subject or their family
2. Historical Biography
Works consisting of an account of the events, works, and achievements,

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personal and professional, during a person's life. It includes articles on the

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activities and accomplishments of living persons as well as the presentation
of an obituary.
3. Biography of a Group
When a group of people share unique characteristics, they can be the

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topic of a collective biography. Group biographies are a subset of collective

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biography in which the people interacted in their lifetimes, for instance in a
family or a social organization.
4. autobiography

This type of biography is written about one’s self, spanning an

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5. Memoir
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Memoirs are a type of autobiography, written about a specific but
vital aspect of one’s life.
6. fictional biography

Fictional biographies are no substitute for a painstakingly

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researched scholarly biography, but they’re definitely meant to be
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more entertaining.
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References
https://tinyurl.com/2p8vtf23
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