Biography Dr Alan Haffa Biography and Autobiography Autobiography

Biography Dr. Alan Haffa

Biography and Autobiography • Autobiography is the story of one’s life told in the first person. • Biography is the story of someone’s life told in the third person • The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an example of autobiography

Purpose of Biography? • To present someone’s life as an inspirational example • To present someone’s life as a warning or cautionary tale • To present someone’s life as symptomatic of some broader issue

How to go about researching the Biographical Description • Interview the subject • Interview other people who know the subject • Read what the subject has written • Read about the subject

How to Interview • Set the subject at east by asking questions early in the interview that are not too personal or too emotionally upsetting; general questions about what they like to do and where they live and have lived • Family • Home • Hobbies and interests • Work

Digging Deeper • What are their goals? Dreams? • Why are they at MPC? • Who is their hero? Or, who inspires them? • What challenges have they faced in life? How have they overcome or faced them?

What are you Seeking? • Your objective is to figure out what makes the subject unique • What is about them that will be of interest or will be compelling to your readers, other MPC students? • In short, you are seeking an “angle” that will be the focus of your description

Examples of Narrowing the Focus • An immigrant’s story of the challenges they have faced might of interest to other immigrant students who could identify with them. • A working mother and how she balances work and family. • A woman who is majoring in a traditional male discipline like Physics; or a man in a traditional female field like Nursing. • A student who is recovering drug addict and now has their life going in a positive

Directions • Gather as much information as you can • If there are other people mentioned by the subject that you may want to interview, try to find out how you could reach them.