write autobiographies

8/3/2019 Write Autobiographies

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Autobiography

Have you ever undergone any such life experience which you wanted to document? Have

you anytime wished to write about the significant moments of your life and create an

interestingAutobiography?

What is an Autobiography?

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Self life something written = Something written about selfs life

An autobiography is write-up which includes story of self for private as well as

publication.

In simple words, if biography means writing the story of another person,

autobiography means writing about ones own life experience.

A beautiful sunny morning, birds chirping happily and trees swaying gently like

dancing to the tune of the gentle wind. Jane was in midst of this beautiful scene and

suddenly felt an urge to write about her experience, capture it at that very moment.

Auto bio graphy Autobiography


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Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to

know the circumstances of my life, many of which

you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the

enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my

present country retirement, I sit down to write them

for you.

Look at the below example:

The above example is an excerpt from the autobiography written byBenjamin Franklin

for his son. This autobiography written by him works as a beacon light and guides his son

in all matters of importance.

Importance and benefit of writing autobiographies:

Contains complete account of the life of the person writing it.

Serves as guidance for some people.

Example: Benjamin Franklins autobiography was written to guide his son.

Helps in deriving inspiration.

Helps in knowing about the hidden facts or incidents of a persons life; sometimes

even includes hidden emotions and opinions about other people.

From historical perspective, it helps in knowing how a person felt or reacted

towards certain important political issues while dealing with them.


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From social perspective, it helps in establishing link between the social conditions

existing during any period of time and how people reacted towards them.

From political perspective, it helps in knowing about different political scenarios

the autobiographer went through and what were his reflections towards it.

From literature point of view, autobiographies are considered as great treasures.

Characteristics of Autobiography:

Should contain an account of a person's entire life, or it may focus on one aspect

of that life, such as an important event or a childhood experience. Such a work is

called memoir.

Good autobiography should be a collection of memoirs. It can also be inspired

from diaries.

Should include the opinion of person on important issues of his / her time.

Should include all the important and relevant events of his / her life.

Should maintain the authenticity of facts and should not be fictional in any part.

Should contain apt, short, and interesting account of events of life to avoid readers

from getting bored.

Always written in first person point of view.

Types of Autobiography:

1. Full Autobiography covers entire life of the person from birth until present time.

Example: Elia Kazan's A Life


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2. Memoir includes life experience related to particular period of time.

Example: Willie Morris' New York Days

3. Religious Autobiography used for the purpose of religious founding and

also works for promoting a particular faith.

Example: The Bible

4.New Spiritual Autobiography includes selfs spiritual journey.

5. Conceptual Autobiography innovation of twentieth century, where the

autobiographer goes out somewhere deliberately or

passes himself / herself through unusual situations to

return and write about his/ her experience.

Example:George Orwells Down and Out in Paris and London

Quiz:

Why should we write autobiographies?

A. To hand down as ancestral property

B. To make people know about our life events and experience

C. To show off our greatness

D. To become familiar

Characteristics of autobiography includes__________________.

A. opinion of person on all important matters of his / her time

B. important events of his / her life


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C. real facts

D. All of the above

Conceptual Autobiography is a new concept where in __________________.

A. Writer will deliberately undergo unusual experience and then write his experience.

B. Writer will read others books and write by taking ideas

C. Writer will include all his friends views on a topic.

D. None of the above.

Complete life incidents from birth to death help in writing a ________________.

A. Spiritual Biography

B. Memoir

C. Full Autobiography

D. Religious Autobiography


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How to write Autobiographies?

Every individual at least once in life undergoes this urge of writing all his life details so

that his children, grand children, his close relatives, and associates will read and know

what he did, achieved and how he felt in his life.

After deciding to write an autobiography, one needs to follow certain stages of writing to

come up with an interesting and informative autobiography. Those stages are

a) Prewriting

b) Drafting

c) Revising, Editing, and Proofreading.

Prewriting:

Prewriting is the first stage of writing an autobiography. This stage helps in seeking and finding

all the relevant information required for writing an autobiography. Though an autobiography is

a story of self, one should undergo different steps of prewriting stage to come up with relevant

details that are need for coming up with an interesting and good autobiography.

Let us have a detailed look at the various steps to be followed in prewriting stage:

1. Reading other autobiographies: This activity though sounds weird actually helps in

establishing an insight about autobiographies. This will help in getting a feel about good

autobiographies. The more one reads others autobiographies, the more ideas could be

gathered on approach and organizing of selfs autobiography. One should however always

bear in mind not to copy works of others.

Examples:

The History place Short autobiography by Abraham Lincoln

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler


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2. Choosing your Purpose: Establishing the purpose of writing an autobiography is very

essential as it helps in writing aptly. One must decide if he / she is writing it for personal

use or publication purpose. If it is for publication purpose, one cannot become famous until

the autobiography contains something special to attract readers.

3. Thinking about audience: It is very essential to determine the audience as it changes the

way the autobiography is presented.

written purely for self may contain any details, short cuts

written for family and relatives should contain chosen details in lucidlanguage

written for publication ought to have a thorough approach and all thecharacters should be well introduced and incidents well written

4. Choosing a theme: Another important step in prewriting is developing the theme of the

autobiography. If there is no theme, then the autobiography would look like events

mentioned according to time line in history book.

5. Brainstorming and free writing: Brain storming activity helps in remembering all the

important events of life. One may note down all that one remembers about self in points to

work and develop them further.

Examples of themes:

Story of struggle and success

Rags to riches

Express someones undying love for oneself and vice versa


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Free writing helps in jotting down everything that one remembers about one self

irrespective of spelling and grammar aspects. It helps in providing rich information though

everything need not be included.

6. Clustering: One can also try to gather information about self by making cluster webs

which is very convenient and helps in establishing link between incidents or people.

Examples:

Ten best moments of life

Five worst moments

Life purpose, moments filled with emotions and others

I went to Amsterdam in the year 1986, which happened to be the best of my

life experience. On the first day of my visit, I felt the place was outstanding. I

could sense the freshness in air which was not present in my own home town

which smelled like oil all the time with the amount of pollution in the air..

Name

Personal

details

FamilyImportant

events

Adolescent

Parents

Birth detailsCompetitions attended

School

Graduation

Wedding

Hair color,eye color etc

Childhooddays


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7. Research: The next important step that needs to be followed after clustering is research.

One has to do research about one self by conducting interviews of friends and family. One

can also try to find details through photos, letter and such other memorabilia. One can also

gather information about the important events that took place during ones life time and

also record ones reflection about them.

8. Thesis: Thesis gives an idea about what one can expect from the autobiography. The theme

can be mentioned in the thesis to help the reader identify the purpose of writing an

autobiography.

9. Preparing for first draft: After going through various steps of prewriting, the final step is

to prepare for first draft. One has to decide the chronological orderinto which the facts and

details must be presented.

Close

relatives

SiblingsPromotionsEmployment

Adult life

Personal facts like birth details, place and other facts

About family

About education

About personal reflections on important political, social issues

About ones choice in life and others


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Drafting

Drafting is a very important stage of writing, as in this stage we put together all the

information gathered in set order to come up with a good autobiography. It is very

essential for one to do the drafting work with much care as it is in this stage of writing

that a person will actually start talking about himself. Care must however be taken

that the important part is to develop ideas rather than rushing to complete the final

copy.

Steps for drafting Autobiography:

Every autobiography similar to essay and biography of famous person includes

introductory paragraph with thesis statement, body which contains several paragraphs

and a concluding paragraph.

Introductory paragraph:

The introduction gives the reader an idea about what and whom he is going to

read about. Hence, similar to biography, the autobiography should also start

with a hook line to grab the attention of the reader.

Never start the autobiography with the routine introduction with birth details.

It is always good to start with some interesting life incident first and then go

back to birth details.


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One may also try to come up with an introduction where one is talking about

the place one is born in or the region, culture to which ones parents belong.

Example:

After introducing oneself to the audience, one must now frame a thesis which

must contain information about ones purpose of writing autobiography and other

details in one sentence.

Body Paragraphs:

Body paragraphs must contain birth time and place, likes and dislikes,

overall personality, important events of life which would make the

autobiography a very interesting tale to read.

If in confusion on where to start with, one may try to divide the life

experiences into different time lines.

Under the heading of My Childhood one may focus on points such as

family, early childhood memories, adolescent life, school days.

No: I was born on January 5th, 1987, in Los Angeles, America. I am 23 yearsold, working as a manager in local stores.

Yes: It was a rainy night and I was walking alone on the road, when Isuddenly happened to hear someone shout behind me, my name. I turnedaround fearing who he was. It was none other than my childhood friend

Samuel. I was surprised to see him after ages. He took me down into my

memory lane and reminded me of the time we spent together. He was hardlyone day elder to me, was born on 4th and I was born on 5th January, 1987, so wealways celebrated our birthdays together..


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Include details such as language spoken, holidays celebrated and others

under heading My culture.

Include ones experiences with various people and at various places, current

occupation and many such details under the heading My present life.

Transition words and phrases should be used to maintain flow of the

thoughts from one paragraph to another in autobiography.

Should never include exaggerated incidents.

Conclusion:

Conclude autobiography talking about the current experience or incident

highlighting current life.

Should summarize main points and create an impression in readers mind

about self.

One may also end the autobiography by stating about future aspirations and

dreams.

Examples of points to be included:

interesting facts about the region one is born

the most interesting childhood event

specific food items one prefers to have on certain days of the month or year

and many other such details

Example:

One day, I will reach that point where I would be able to have my own chain

of stores throughout America..

That day is very near when I, with my hard work and dedication, will serve

millions of Americans and my companys name will be heard in everyhousehold.


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Points to remember:

Maintain time line and recall incidents from birth time till present day in

Chronological order. Sometimes to make the write up interesting the

autobiography may be started speaking about specific event and then move

on to the time of birth.

Always write from first person point of view.

Include action verbs and adjectives to describe self and other characters in

the autobiography.

Follow organized pattern of drafting an autobiography.

All the autobiographies must be written in narrative form to create a

fiction like story.

Include details about people, places and historical facts which hold

importance and add weight to the events.


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Revising, Editing, and proofreading

To err is Human. Therefore, it is very common that we do make mistakes in

our written works too. The essential part is to check timely and eliminate the mistakes

before sharing our work with others. An autobiography should be famous for its

narration and style but not for the number of errors committed in writing it. Hence, care

must be taken to avoid making errors and if any are present then they must be timely

rectified.

The next important stage in the process of writing an autobiography after drafting is

revising, editing and proofreading the written autobiography.

Steps for revising, editing and proofreading the autobiography:

Revising: In the process of revising, the style of writing an autobiography is

checked. It also helps in arranging the matter in proper order following an

organized pattern.

Remove sentences which are wordy and present an unclear idea.

Avoid repetition of thoughts and same sentences.

Remove unnecessary facts and details.

Write good and strong sentences in introduction and conclusion.

Arrange the sentences and paragraphs in best possible order.


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It was a rainy night and I was walking alone on the road, when I suddenly

happened to hear someone shout behind me my name. I turned around

wondering who he was. It was none other than my childhood friend, Samuel.Surprised to see him after ages. He took me down into my memory lane

and reminded me of the time we spent together. He was one day elder to me,

was born on 4th and I was born on 5th January, 1987. So we always

celebrated our birthdays together. He used to be so thin but now is well built,

five feet ten inches tall and handsome. It is not that I am any less. I am bittaller than him at five feet eleven inches with muscles. As we were born

just with a day difference, we always used to spend time and celebrate

together. After all, I have worked hard and spent hours together in the gymto get such a perfect six abs physique. I invited him to my home but as it was

too late he promised me that he would visit me the coming Sunday The

whole week went away in reminiscing old memories. It was a movie kind

experience minus the black and white stuff because we were born in the

colorful era. I was all geared up to meet him and nostalgia filled my being. I

was remembering the day we met each other for the first time when the door

bell rang.

Fragment - Add subjectI to the sentence.

Repetition of thought

Unnecessary sentence

Unclear idea

(Whole sentence)


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Editing and Proofreading: Once done with the hammering out of the

story, the work must now be left on the editing table. In this step, the

written work is thoroughly checked to remove any extra details, tie up

lose ends and finally to make the autobiography crisp and readable.

Rewrite sentences which interrupt the flow of the write up.

Check the spellings of the words used and rectify them if any error.

Remove repeated words, run on sentences and other grammatical errors such as

comma splice and so on.

Follow basic standards of punctuation, mechanics, spelling, grammar, and

usage.

It was a rainy night and I was walking alone on the road, when Isuddenly happened to hear someone shout behind me my name. I turned

around around wondering who he was. It was none other than my

childhood friend, Samuel. I wassurprised to see him afterages, he tookme down into my memory lane and reminded me of the time we spent

together. He was one day elder to me, was born on 4th and I was born on

5th January, 1987. So us always celebrated our birthdays together. Heused to be so thin but now is well built, five feet ten inches tall and

handsome. It is not that I am any less. I am bit taller than him at five feet

eleven inches with muscels. After all, I have worked hard and spenthours together in the gym to get such a perfect six abs physique. I invitedhim to my home, but as it was too late he promised me that he would

visit me the coming Sunday the whole week went away in

reminiscing old memories. I was all geared up to meet him and

nostalgia filled my being. I were remembering the day we met each other

for the first time when the door bell rang.

Repeated

wordPronoun usage

Replace it with we

Comma splice

Use Semicolon

Spelling ErrorMuscles

Subject Verb agreement error

Were to be replaced by Was Run on


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Quiz:

1. Choosing the purpose of writing autobiography and thinking about

audience are steps of _________________

A. Drafting

B. Prewriting

C. Editing

D. Revising

2. Drafting process includes ________________.

A. Summary of points written in the paragraphs.

B. Life history of friends

C. Current life experiences, job details, and other such details.

D. None of the above

3. To check the errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and others is

essential for coming up with authentic autobiography

A. True

B. False

4. One must maintain chronological order and write from

_____________________ in autobiography.

A. Third person point of view

B. Omniscient point of view

C. No specific point of view


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D. First person point of view

5. Your self story may be a medium through which you may try to tell others

what kind of person you are, what were the interesting events in your life and

predominantly help you in striking good rapport with your children and grand

children by letting them know how you had same interests as them at the same

age and other such things.

Answer the following questions and then create a short Autobiography of

yourself:

1. What is your name?

2. When were you born and at what place?

3. Where do you currently live?

4. Who are your parents and to which region do they belong?

5. Has region, culture, language and other such things affect you?

6. Which exceptional qualities make you special?

7. Why did you move out of your place of birth if you did?

8. Include few words on your future plans, aspirations and what are you doing

now to achieve them.


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