International speaker and author Yehuda Berg has worded accurately that,
Why do people write?
It is evident that people have been writing from the start of times to communicate with each other. The earliest known writing originated with the Sumerians about 5500 years ago. Writing was not invented for telling stories of the great conquests of kings or for important legal documents. Instead, the earliest known writing documented simple commercial transactions. Words hold the powerful propensity to leave an impression on the reader. The pen is the tongue of the mind. It communicates your ideas, beliefs, thoughts and notions to the reader. This productive venture demands creativity and sparks expressiveness and artistry.
A writer pens down their heart out by encapsulating their soul in his words. His text reflects his raging or calm mind. They covey knowledge, power, wisdom, and what not. They jot down their convoluted thoughts thereby releasing themselves from their own prison of thoughts. They pour their incapacitated subconscious in their writing. This helps them to release stress and stave off a great burden from their shoulders. In addition to that, writers write to speak and address their audience by sharing their knowledge and insightful stories. Some writers makes use of writing to simply find themselves. Out of a search through hundreds of thousands of letters, words, and phrases linked together by only one unique thread of commonality, that which is the writer who steps forward with pride and craftsmanship.
Types Of Writing
There are four main type of writings which are taught from basic to a high level;
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Persuasive
In persuasive writing, the writer solely focuses to convince his audience about the validity of a certain position or argument. It comprises of the writer’s own opinions, thought, beliefs and point of view. He thereby backs up his claims by providing justifications, evidences, explanations and examples. Persuasive writing encompasses letters of recommendation; cover letters; Op-Eds and Editorial newspaper articles; argumentative essays for academic papers. Many writings such as criticisms, reviews, reaction papers, editorials, proposals, advertisements, and brochures use different ways of persuasion to influence readers.
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Narrative
As its name suggests, narrative writings include long texts which narrate a story, experience or simply anything. A narrative text is highly engaging as it takes the reader on a journey of thrill and excitement, stacked with suspense. Narrative writing comprises of five elements including plot, setting, character, theme and conflict. Let’s have a look at five famous examples of narrative writings;
- “Goodbye to All That” by Joan Didion
- “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin
- “My Life as an Heiress” by Nora Ephron
- “Joy” by Zadie Smith
- Expository
Expository writings a re addressed to the broader audience. They are used to explain a concept and share information. However, noteworthy is the actuality that expository writings are not meant to express opinions. They are used to share and covey information. Expository writing provides evidence, statistics, or results and focuses on the facts of a certain topic. As their name suggests, they expose information. They include how-to articles; textbooks; news stories (not editorials or Op-Eds); business, technical, or scientific writing. Furthermore, they also include essays, newspaper and magazine articles, instruction manuals, textbooks, encyclopedia articles and other forms of writing, so long as they seek to explain.
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Descriptive
Descriptive writing as their name suggests comprises of descriptive texts and writings. They depict imagery to create a clear picture in the mind of the reader. This method helps the readers become more connected to the writing by appealing to their senses. This type of writing uses literary techniques which include similes, metaphors, allegory, etc to engage the audience. Examples of descriptive writing includes poetry; fictional novels or plays; memoirs or first-hand accounts of events.
There are numerous forms of writing. Ranging from novels, storybooks, self-help books, newspapers to blogs, articles, fiction-writing, screen-writing, critiques, narrations, and many other types, the writing industry is enormous and comprises of many writers from all over the world. There are uncountable writers worldwide who put their heart and soul in their writing and create masterpieces for their audience. Although the exact number of writers around the world is vague but, if we used the US as a model and included only medium-income countries, that would mean approximately 650,000 in-house writers and just over 1 million freelance writers globally.
What Is An Autobiography?
It is evident that writers write in many styles. Sometimes they write for themselves by publishing their content under their own name and identity. There they share their own life experiences, lessons, stories and other things. However, a distinct type of writing is ‘autobiography.’ Autobiographies are either written by the person himself or he or she approaches another writer to pen down their life journey. However, the autobiography is published by the person himself under his own name.
This literary genre refers to the idea of writing an account of one’s own life. An autobiography is usually treated as a self-written account based on an individual’s personal or professional life. The concept was invented by William Taylor back in 1797, and he first used the word in The Monthly Review.
Shared below is a list of some of the world’s famous autobiographies;
- P. J. Abdul Kalam – Wings of Fire – 1999
- Akira Kurosawa – Something Like An Autobiography – 1981
- Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf – 1925
- Aerosmith – Walk This Way – 1997
- Agatha Christie – An Autobiography – 1977
- Albert Einstein – Autobiographical Notes – 1949
- Andre Agassi – Open: An Autobiography – 2009
- Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl – 1947
- Annie Besant – Annie Besant: An Autobiography – 1908
- Arnold Schwarzenegger Total Recall – My Unbelievably True Life Story
- Bill Clinton – My Life – 2004
- Barack Obama – Dreams from My Father – 1996
- Benito Mussolini – My Autobiography: With the Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism – 1928
- Benjamin Franklin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – 1791
- Bertrand Russell – The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell – 1951
- Charles Darwin – The Recollections of the Development of My Mind and Character – 1887
- Charles Dickens – Autobiographical Fragment – 1847
- Charlie Chaplin – My Autobiography – 1964
- Dalai Lama – Freedom in Exile – 1991
- Hillary Rodham Clinton – Living History – 2003
- Jawaharlal Nehru – An Autobiography – 1936
- Jean-Paul Sartre – The Words – 1964
- Leo Tolstoy – My Confession – 1884
- Margaret Thatcher – Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography
- Marilyn Monroe – My Story
- Mahatma Gandhi – The Story of My Experiments with Truth – 1929
- Mark Twain – Mark Twain’s Autobiography, posthumous – 1907
- Marlon Brando – Songs My Mother Taught Me – 1995
- Maxim Gorky – My Childhood – 1913
- Michael Jackson – Moonwalk – 1988
- Muhammad Ali The Greatest: My Own Story – 1975
- Nelson Mandela – A Long Walk to Freedom – 1994
- Nirad C. Chaudhuri – The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian – 1951
- Oscar Wilde – De Profundis -1897
- Ronald Reagan An American Life: The Autobiography – 1990
- Ronald Reagan – The Reagan Diaries – 2007
- Sigmund Freud – An Autobiographical Study – 1925
- Thomas Jefferson – Autobiography 1743-1790 – 1821
- Usain Bolt – Faster than Lightning: My Autobiography -2013
- Walter Benjamin – Unpacking My Library -1931
- Winston Churchill – Memoirs of the Second World War -1959
- Winston Churchill – My Early Life: 1874-1904 – 1930
How To Write An Autobiography?
There are mainly four types of autobiographies;
- Thematic
- Religious
- Intellectual
- Fictionalized
It is evident that one requisitely requires professional help while writing an autobiography. An autobiography should encompass the right and complete information about your life. Starting from your birth till date, one should include every little bit of their life in their autobiography. This helps to convey the life experiences, struggles, good and bad moments and every little instance of your life. It fosters the reader to gain inspiration, motivation and enthusiasm to kickstart their own life and to never give up. However, noteworthy is the actuality that no one likes to read about a person for pages and pages. Hence, it is of paramount importance to make your autobiography engaging, helpful and attractive. It should maintain a streamlined flow to not bore the reader and maintain his attention span for longer times so that he or she complete the autobiography till the very end.
How To Write A Short Autobiography In One Paragraph?
Keeping that in view, it is apparent that an average person would not like to opt to read long autobiographies. They will evidently lose their attention span and lose interest in the autobiography. Hence a constructive way out is to shorten your autobiography and limit your words. This will make your autobiography short, comprehensive, highly engaging and will lure the reader to read till the very end.
However, it is also obvious that there are numerous events in the life of a person. The question arises how will one be able to include everything if they shorten their autobiography. To ease the complications of writers, we have combined a few steps on how to write an autobiography in just one single paragraph! Let’s have a look at it;
- Briefly summarize your life in the opening sentence by including when and where you were born. For example, “Alex Decker was born on 2nd august 1970, in California, to Sara and David Decker.”
- Your second sentence should encompass fine details about your life which may include details about your parents, your childhood, your house, school, or anything which can give the reader a beeetter idea about your early life.
- Following that, your succeeding sentences should comprise brief details about your school, college and university. It should mention about your education and early jobs.
- Next since, you have now reached the middle of your paragraph it is important to include engaging details about your struggles and hustles about how you toiled to get your way through in life. You should focus on your career and may include personal or family details of you deem fit.
- Further, you should briefly mention your hobbies, likes and dislikes in a line or two to keep your autobiography comprehensive yet engaging.
- Then you should update the read about your current life status. Stretching from what you have become now, where you are and what is there next to come, the writer should include everything wo give the reader a clear view of the person.
- Moving on, it is important to include your ambitions, aims and objectives to give insights about what the person is further working on.
- Lastly, your closing sentence should be motivational, open, funny, uplifting or whatever your writing style allows. It can also be direct to the readers to convey them a message to create an impression. You can also communicate how you want to be viewed.
An autobiography would also increase your chances of having official recognition on the web, such as Wikipedia. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or anyone who have an interesting story to tell, you can benefit from Wikipedia presence. Acquire Wikipedia page creation services now to get your profile established.