Autobiographical and Biographical Narratives

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Autobiographical and Biographical Narratives

• Its not enough just to tell a story!

Click on the speaker to have the text read aloud.
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Definitions

• Autobiography
• Auto self
• Bio life
• Graph write

• An autobiography is a writing about yourself.

• A biography is a writing about someone else.

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• Narrative
• To narrate means to tell a story. With both
  auto- and biographical essays, a story needs to
  be told, but not just any story!
• The narrative has to create an impression on your
  reader.
• The narrative must be about something
  significant.
• The narrative can be one long story.
• The narrative can be several very short stories,
  or anecdotes.

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Sample Prompt and Prewrite

• If you havent already seen The Basic Essay
  presentation on the EOCweb (http//eocweb.rusd.k12
  .ca.us/language_arts.htm),
• you should see that before you continue this
  presentation.

• The next several slides will show you a prompt
  and a sample prewrite. Notice how the prewrite
  is organized with a circle, boxes, and lines.

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Prompt

• Write an autobiographical essay in which you
  reveal the significance of an event in your life.

Hmmm, since significant means major,
important, or noteworthy, what could I write
about? What has changed my thoughts or actions
or how I view the world or people?
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Prewrite/Generic Autobiographical Narrative

• Below is a generic prewrite for an
  autobiographical essay. Notice that the topic
  and point of view are in the circle in the
  center. The major parts of the essay, the
  paragraphs, are in boxes. The minor supports are
  underlined.

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Prewrite for Specific Prompt on Slide 5

• Notice how the details have been added. When you
  do prewriting this way, you cant go wrong, and
  your essay is much easier to write!

Muscular
Overweight
No brothers or sisters to protect me
Looked 20
Bully
Hit with encyclopedia Brad Anderson Me
Elementary school
Mrs. Tabor
Beginning of story
Didnt know how to fight
Often we learn things not in the teachers lesson
plan
6th grade
Picking Brad up and throwing him face first into
a desk
Dont know what came over me.
Introduction to essay
Near end of school year
Middle of story
An incident with Brad Anderson changed my life
Heart pounding
Adrenaline
Afraid of Mrs. Tabor/suspension
Conclusion of essay
Effects me
No trouble
Use weight for advantage
End of story
Long-term effects on me
Effects him
Tears snot blood
Dont let others be bullied
Effects Mrs. Tabor
Stand up for myself
Smiled
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Outline for Specific Prompt on Slide 5

• Most students dont do outlines because they
  cant figure out how to go from the spread out
  prewrite on the previous slide to an organized
  outline.
• Guess what? With the prewrite on the previous
  slide, the outline is already done. Go to the
  next slide to find out how.

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Based on the prewriting, this is how the outline
would look. Notice that the Introduction and
Conclusion are not numbered, though some teachers
may require that you do. The words from the
prewriting boxes become the Roman numerals, the
underlined words become capital letters, and the
specifics become the regular numbers and small
letters.

• Introduction
• Controlling Impression Statement
• An incident near the end of my 6th grade
• school year with a bully changed my life.
• I. Beginning of story
• A. Mrs. Tabors class
• 1. hot
• 2. sitting at desk working
• B. Brad Anderson hits me
• 1. favorite target
• a. overweight
• b. picked on
• c. no brothers or sisters to protect me
• 2. Brad
• a. bully
• b. muscles of a 20 yr. old
• C. Something in me snapped.

B. Me 1. trembling with adrenaline
2. heart pounding for fear of
suspension C. Mrs. Tabor 1.
sitting at desk 2. slight smile
3. glad to see me stand up for myself
4. did not get me in trouble Conclusion Thank
Brad Never picked on again Stand up for others

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Sample Autobiographical Essay

• Starting below is a sample essay based on the
  prewrite and outline on the previous slides. The
  column on the right tells you whats being done.

• INTRODUCTION
• Notice the general opening statement.
• Each sentence narrows the readers
• attention down to the specific incident.
• This is the controlling impression
• statement. It gives the reader an idea
• of what the story will be about without
• giving away too much information. Its
• like a thesis, but less specific.
• BODY PARAGRAPH 1
• This is the beginning of the story.
• Notice the characterization of both
• Brad and the narrator.
• Normally, contractions arent used in
• formal essays unless part of quotes.
• Since an autobiographical essay is
• less formal and from your personal
• point of view, contractions are OK.

Beating the Bully We go to school for hundreds
of days, and many days we learn nothing. Other
days we learn things not in the teachers lesson
plan. I learned something not in Mrs. Tabors
lesson plan when I was in her sixth grade class
at Springfield Estates Elementary School. An
incident near the end of the school year with a
bully changed my life. It was another hot day in
Mrs. Tabors class, and I was sitting at my desk
doing my work whenonce againBrad Anderson hit
me on the head with an encyclopedia. This
wasnt the first time because I was a favorite
target of Brads I was the overweight kid that
everyone made fun of and picked on. Also, I had
no brothers or sisters in the school to protect
me. Brad was the school bully, and, even though
he was only in 6th grade, he seemed to have the
muscles of a twenty- year-old. Usually, I put up
with the bullying, but that day, something in me
snapped.
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I dont know what came over me. I jumped out of
my chair and grabbed Brad in a bear hug. Much
like a dog that chases cars but cant drive, I
had caught a bully and didnt know how to fight.
I squeezed him as hard as I could, picked him
up, and threw him face first into the corner of
a very heavy wood desk. Ill never forget the
look on his face. Tears poured out of his eyes,
snot out of his nose, and blood out of his
mouth. His expression seem to say, Huh? That
wasnt supposed to happen that way. I was
trembling with adrenaline, and my heart was
pounding because I knew at any moment Mrs. Tabor
was going to grab my arm, drag me to the office,
and have me suspended for fighting. However,
when I looked at her as she sat at her desk, she
seemed to have a slight smile on her face that
indicated that she was glad that I finally stood
up to Brad, and I did not get in trouble.

• BODY PARAGRAPH 2
• This is the middle of the story or the
• event.
• BODY PARAGRAPH 3
• This paragraph provides the end of the story and
  the immediate effects.
• Notice the imagery. A good autobiography or
  biography will let the reader picture events as
  they happen.

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Some Things To Know
I really should thank Brad for that day. He
made me realize that what others saw as a
physical flaw my weightcould be used to my
advantage. Because of the pain and the
embarrassment, Brad never bothered me again.
The other bullies at school also left me alone.
Moreover, even to this day, if I see someone
being bullied, something in me snaps.

• CONCLUSION
• This is the so what paragraph. It
• explains the long-term effect the event
• had on the narrator.

• If you have read a piece of literature, and it is
  the basis for the autobiographical or
  biographical essay, be sure to connect the
  literature to the narrative in both the
  introduction and conclusion.

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Some Things To Know

• In the previous essay about the bully, each body
  paragraph could have told a separate anecdote
  (little story) about the bully that would still
  create the same controlling impression. The
  boxes in the prewrite would be labeled Anecdote
  1, Anecdote 2, and Anecdote 3.
• You many need more than one body paragraph to
  tell the beginning, middle, or the end of your
  narrative. It just depends on how much detail
  that you want to include.
• Be sure that you dont include unneeded details.
  In the essay about the bully, would knowing what
  Mrs. Tabor was wearing make any difference to the
  story?