What is an Autobiography?
According to the definition, an autobiography is a type of writing where you tell your own life story. An autobiography traces events in someone’s past, which they feel are relevant or interesting enough for others.
However, unlike biographies, where various people write accounts regarding one person over time (such partial memoirs), and autobiography is a personal narrative written by the person himself.
An autobiography typically covers things like education history, accomplishments obtained via work experience, etc. In addition, it contains the aspects of a person’s life from birth to the present.
The biography contains a variety of events in the life of someone else. It is not self-written; rather, someone else writes it for you. They are the reciprocal of autobiographies because in an autobiography the author himself narrates their life history and they are not written by someone else or for someone else.
Many autobiographies are written in a fictional tone. For instance, few authors write their life history in the novel by relating it to real people and giving life lessons to the readers.
Autobiographies are written for self-discovery and realization of life history.
Types of Autobiographies
The following are the six types of autobiographies:
1. Full autobiography
Autobiographies are a great way to share your story with the world. This type of autobiography revolves around an author's life, from birth all the way up until the present.
This type of autobiography tells a lot about the life of the author. It allows the reader to know about the life experience. The best example is ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank.
2. Confession
Confessing your sins to someone else is never easy, but it can be healing. Confession has been used for centuries as a way of cleansing oneself and making up for past mistakes- even if they were large ones like industrial fraud or murder.
3. Overcoming adversity
People often feel that they need to keep their emotions bottled up inside when things are difficult. Sharing the story of your life can help others in similar situations find a way out and express themselves creatively, which is one long-term solution for healing from trauma or experiencing tragedy.
A person's past does not have any control over what happens next but it sure helps if you talk about it! The most famous kind of this type of autobiography is ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou.
4. Memoir
Memoirs are a great way to share your story with the world. They can be written about any important moment in life, whether it's just one event or all of these little moments that make up who you really are as an individual person.
A memoir focuses on something specific like place and time, but sometimes people write their memories from the first-person point of view instead so they don't forget what happened at different times during history when things were happening fast.
‘Men We Reaped ’ is a famous memoir by Jesmyn Ward.
5. Psychological illness
There is nothing more therapeutic than writing down your thoughts and stories to share with others. It can be a relief for those who suffer mental illnesses or even just want someone else’s perspective on what they are going through so that maybe there's something wrong after all!
The ‘Monkey Mind’ is a famous psychological illness autobiography written by Smith, Daniel B.
6. Personal essay
The personal essay is a type of art and intimate to write about one's life as it focuses more on tone than story. In this type of autobiography, the author uses their emotions, personal realizations and thoughts.
‘Self-Reliance’ is a famous personal essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Elements of Autobiography
The following are the main elements of an autobiography; include these to write a stand out autobiography:
- Describe Your origin
It contains details like birthday, date, place, early schooling and hometown. In this, you can discuss your family background and special moments from school.
- Tell Readers about Your Personal Experiences
In this part, you can talk about important experiences of your life.
- Bad Experiences
Discuss your failure story and how the fall down impacted your life. You can talk about experiences that force you to take a new turn in life.
- Catchy Title
Make an interesting and catchy title of your autobiography, boring titles do not fascinate the reader.
- First Person-Point of View
Always write the autobiography in the first person point of view because you are writing this. Therefore, it needs to be self-written with first-person narration.
How to Write an Autobiography for College
How to write an autobiography essay?
You can simply write an autobiography for yourself by following an informative guide. Here is a guide containing steps on how to write an autobiography:
1. Read a Sample Autobiography
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a writer? To create words that other people will read and experience your story with their own imagination.
There are many famous writers, artists, and businessmen out there who have shared their life experiences in an autobiography- just take some time today for self-reflection on how great these books can really make us feel when we need help feeling low!
You can read the autobiographies of Katherine Hepburn, Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Franklin to get ideas.
2. Think about Your Past
We all have moments in our lives that we think about later on and remember with great detail. What are some of the most memorable days or times ever? Take some time today to reflect on these events to write them down in your autobiography.
You can also take help from your parents when writing about your childhood and early education.
3. Note Down Important Parts of Your Life
Make a list of significant events/incidents of your life that you want to discuss in the autobiography. For instance, you can discuss your date of birth, siblings, family in one section. Discuss schooling and other educational stages in other sections.
You do not need to mention each and everyone in the autobiography; keep it concise, interesting and simple for the reader.
4. Make an Outline
Planning is essential to completing your autobiography. Outline making will make the process easier and more organized, so it's important that you have an outline before starting writing!
The backbone of any good outline structure should include:
- Introduction (to introduce yourself)
- Body section (about what happened in this part)
- Conclusion (where we wrap up all our information together at once with one final thought or idea)
5. Writing Process
The writing process is simple. All you have to do is to narrate your personal stories. Write your life events in the chronological order, just like writing the story. Create a story arc in your writing to attract more audience.
Your place and time of birth, aspects of your personality, your favorites and special events all should be included in your autobiography.
6. Edit & Proofread
Revise your text, check out if you missed to add any important details. Proofread and make your autobiography flawless.
7. Ask Someone for a Review
You can ask your friend or family members to read the autobiography. They can suggest better ideas or can locate mistakes in it.
The above steps will help you to know how to write an autobiography for school and impress the readers with your interesting life events. You can also write a biography by following the same pattern.
We hope that the guide has helped you understand the concept of autobiography writing. You can always take the help of professional writers to compile your life events.
TheEssayWritingService.com is a professional essay writing service that helps people to write almost everything. Our writers will help you write the autobiography.
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