What is a biography?
The question is interesting, which is asked by many schoolchildren, students, and adults.
The word biography consists of two roots “bio”, “graphi”, which in Greek mean “life”, “to write”.
A biography describes a person’s life. It is designed to preserve or study information about a person’s activities, achievements and merits.
Biographies are often written about famous personalities, politicians, scientists and figures whose lives may be of interest to the general public. Or it illuminates the life path of a person whose fate is connected with important historical events or cultural phenomena. Biographers usually adhere to a scientific and journalistic style, although there is also a work of fiction.
Biographies are written by biographers, historians or researchers.
In the biography, facts and vital events are narrated in the third person. The author’s position in such works is always neutral and objective.
To write a biography, it is necessary to carefully check the material and be guided only by the facts.
A biography can be written in a scientific, journalistic or artistic style.
In fact, the compilers of biographies pursue several goals. In addition to memory, the biography, which describes in detail the life path of a historical person, allows you to analyze the events of distant or not very years. It makes it possible to understand why everything happened that way. This is especially valuable from a cultural point of view. Of course, such literary or film productions are not made about all people.
True, there are situations when a biography is compiled not as a tribute or for historical or cultural analysis, but as an ordinary document that reflects a person’s life path, his professional skills, and so on.
What is an autobiography?
An autobiography is a self-written short or detailed life story. A person describes his life based on a personal assessment, and highlights those moments that he considers important.
In the word “autobiography” there is another root “auto”, which translates as “myself, my own”. Thus, an autobiography is a description of your life.
An autobiography is a unique document that is intended for the general public. Most often it is formed by famous people: writers, scientists.
A person writes only what he considers necessary. But it always starts the same way: with the indication of the surname, first name and patronymic, date and place of birth. Next, in order, he tells about himself, starting from studying at school to receiving special education.
Autobiography can be business and creative.
In a business autobiography, it is not appropriate to use complex, epithet-laden sentences. Creative ones are written by writers, poets, artists, musicians to participate in some competition. It will tell you not only about the main milestones of a person’s life, but also about human qualities and creative abilities. The main thing is to highlight the most interesting moments, show good luck and celebrate teachers, coaches who helped to achieve them.
Anyone can write an autobiography. It does not require special skills, compliance with some special format and rules. It is enough to be able to express your own thoughts competently.
To make an autobiography is most often required in the following cases:
You enter the educational institution. In most cases, it is necessary for applicants to graduate school.
Participation in various regional and federal competitions;
When applying for a grant;
When applying for guardianship or adoption.
Autobiography is often confused with a resume. Both documents help to make an impression about the person who wrote it. But the summary is quite concise information. And an autobiography gives you the opportunity to tell about yourself in more detail.
In addition, the autobiography is written by hand, which also matters, allowing you to evaluate qualities such as concentration, the ability to give out maximum information in a minimum period of time.
What are the differences between biography and autobiography?
Both autobiography and biography relate to a person’s life path.
Autobiography and biography are two terms that can be different depending on the author.
How to differ? An autobiography is a book written by a person himself about his life path. And a biography is a book written about the life path and various events by someone else.
A biography writer is called a biographer, and he needs to thoroughly study a person’s life. In an autobiography, a person writes the story of his life, shares thoughts and interesting information that have never been known to the world before. The autobiography reflects what a person considers important in his own life.
What is the difference between an autobiography and a memoir?
At first glance, autobiographies vs. memoirs are not much different from each other. After all, both of these genres, in fact, are the author’s story about the events that happened to him during his life. However, there is a fundamental difference between these two genres.
Biographies and autobiographies difference:
Memoirs are the author’s notes about the events in which he took part. Unlike autobiography, it is not the details of everyday life that play a role here, but the historical background on which the action develops. Memoirs are characterized by a documentary style of presentation. Attempts to more accurately recreate everything that happened to the author. Unlike the autobiography, the main character in the memoirs is still not the author, but the historical epoch.
