What is an Autobiography?
Simply put, an autobiography is the story of one’s life as written by oneself. That said, many people think that their lives should be written about, but lack the writing talent to tackle this project alone. For that reason, many autobiographies are co-written with the help of someone other than the subject, or are narrated by the subject to a writer. Co-written, or collaborative autobiographies may begin with the phrase, “as told to.” Whether or not the subject is the individual who actually writes the words of his or her story, most autobiographies are told from a first person point of view. This differs from a biography, which is clearly acknowledged as being written by a person other than the subject. Thus the autobiographer usually ventures beyond dates and facts, personalizing the story rather than simply retelling the events of his or her life. A more subjective style of autobiography is known as a memoir. Traditionally, an autobiography will detail the events of an individual’s
” • Using the overhead projector, discuss and examine an autobiographical incident. • Identify the basic text structureintroduction, events (chronological sequence), and conclusion (typically, the conclusion explains the difference these events made to the writer’s life). • Discuss ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency. • Explore the tense the excerpt is written in. Why is it written in this tense? • Consider how the writer has used pronounswhich pronouns are used, and why do you think the author chose them? • Find and highlight some verbs in the text. • Examine another autobiographical incident. • Identify and highlight the structure of the piece. • Discuss the how ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency shape the text. • Identify the tenses being used. • Consider how the writer has used pronounswhich pronouns are used, and why do you think the author chose them? • Identify the sequence of the writing. • Once you’ve explored both texts, co
