Topic:Biography and autobiography in

social sciences

Contents:

Biography and autobiography Rules for writing auto/biography What is Biography? Salient features of biography What is Autobiography? Salient features of autobiography Difference between biography and autobiography

Comparative view of biography and autobiography

Conclusion

Biography and autobiography:

Biography and autobiography are two words those are often confused us due to similarities in their meaning. Both words are different from each other in term of their meaning and implication. Before the explanation, we should remember that both words refer to the person's life stories. So these are the real stories of the real persons.

Rules for writing biography and autobiography:

Permission of writing a biography. If the person is dead you don't need permission.

Read others people’s biographies and autobiographies

What is Biography?

A biography referred as "bio" is a complete information of a person's life which is written by third person.

It gives a complete information about the person's life include his birth place, childhood, adulthood, youth, education, work, relationship and death etc.

It is mostly written about a historical personality, living or dead.

Biography is complete in nature. It often ends with the whole life of the important personality about whom the work (story) is written.

Biography is mostly in written form but it can be in any format, such as literature to film interpretation and music composition etc.

Example, if i write a biography about Iqbal or another historical personality, then that would be biography.

Salient features of biography

I. About Real personII. Written by third personIII. Give the factual information about the

personIV. Biography tells a true storyV. Describes and discuss the person’s

environment

1. About Real person

In biography a story about real person shows that the author knows a lot about the subject (person's life). The author must do very complete research on the subject by conducting interviews, reading books and scripts etc.

2. Written by third person

Biography is a life story of a person that is written by third person.ExampleIf I write the biography of Iqbal or an other historical personality, then I write it as a third person perspective.

3. Give the factual information about the person:

Author describes the factual information about the person's birth place, relationship, death and environment where, when and how he lived.

4.Biography tells a true story

A biography may contain real or factual information and these stories are non-fictional.

Biography can be authorized or unauthorized.

An authorized biography is written with the permission and input of its subject. An unauthorized biography is written without the permission or input of its subject. Hence, an unauthorized biography may be prone to contain errors as the information may not be correct and the subject need not, give the correct information.

5. Describes and discuss the person’s environment:

In a biography the author tells us about the specific person, where, when and how he lived and the author also discuss the places, times, events, and other people when the person lived.

What is Autobiography?

The word "auto" means "self" in biography. Therefore autobiography is a self-biography- and that contains all the elements of biography, but it is written by the person him/herself.

An autobiography is not complete in nature because it does not contain the whole life of the person who writes it . It may include only important periods of the person's life.

Example, if i write a biography about myself, then that would be an autobiography.

Salient features of autobiography:

Autobiography is written by the subject his/herself.

In autobiography main character is the author because s/he writes biography about his/herself.

Autobiography describes the interaction between the author and significant people in his/her life. For example, A teacher, A father and A mother etc.

Difference between biography and autobiography:

The main difference between biography and autobiography: Biography is detail information of a person's

life written by a third person author. While autobiography is written by the

subject themselves. it does not contain the whole life of the person who writes it. It may include only important periods of the person's life.

Comparative view of biography and autobiography:Biography Autobiography

A Biography is the story about real person’s life but it is written by someone else that studied that person's life.

An Autobiography is a story about Real person, but written by the same person. 

Comparative view of biography and autobiography:

Biography Autobiography

A biography is written by an author (person) that studied a lot about another person’s life.

An autobiography is written by him/her-self.

Comparative view of biography and autobiography:

Biography Autobiography

In a biography the author has to strictly study the person’s life.

It describes key facts about a person; such as where, when and how they live.

It is written in chronological order.

In an autobiography the person enjoys more the writing.

  It is written in “first person” because it contains facts about the author’s own experiences.

It is written in chronological order.

Conclusion Both autobiographies and biographies are

non-fiction stories of real person that describe the life of a person, their history, family, work, education, etc. By the end of a biography and autobiography, the reader feels like that they are well acquainted with the subject and both create an impression on reader’s mind.

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