A biography is a narrative text that tells the relevant events in a person’s life in chronological order to understand their personality, motivations, problems and the background of their successes and failures.
Through the art of storytelling, better known as Storytelling , we can inspire our readers, help them overcome the fear of failure and, no less important, leave them with a lesson that they can apply in their life or business.
Therefore, since biography is about telling a story, in this article we will explore the different types that exist using some practical examples, so that you understand what their specific characteristics and functions are.
Let’s get started!
Characteristics of a biography
The biography has special characteristics singapore telegram data that differentiate it from other narrative texts. Below we present some of them:
- It is a type of text framed within the historical literary genre;
- Its origins date back to the Ancient Age, however, it has existed as we know it since the Modern Age;
- It is prepared by a third person, who will objectively and rigorously investigate the most important aspects of the life of the person being portrayed according to the story they want to tell;
- It narrates real events framed in a historical context, so there is no room for rumors or unverified information;
- It is different from an autobiography, as it tells the story of a life directly from the perspective of the protagonist;
- It follows a chronological narrative thread, that is, it has an introduction (who the subject of the biography is and what his main contributions are), a development (what difficulties he had to overcome to achieve success) and a conclusion (what his legacy is or what lesson can be learned from his life);
- describe the character until you find essential features of his personality;
- highlights places, dates and characters that are related to the protagonist;
- It can take a written format (books or articles) or a graphic-visual format (photographic exhibitions, documentaries or films).
4 examples of biographies that exist
Although there are different ways to blogger or wordpress? these are the main differences classify biographies, here we will focus on distinguishing them according to their function, accompanying them with real examples of each type.
1. Biographical books
Biographical books serve to explore ba leads the life and contributions that a person of public interest had in society at a certain time and historical context.
You can use them to share the experiences a character had to go through before achieving success and, in this way, extract a lesson that you can share with your readers using storytelling .
An example of biography in literature is “Lincoln” by Cesar Vidal.
The Spanish author reviews the most important events in the life of the sixteenth president of the United States, such as the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and matters of his private life, including his Christian faith.
Also popular are autobiographies, in which the character himself describes his story and recounts his life experiences, such as “A Brief History of My Life” by Stephen Hawking:
The famous physicist recounts his life from his childhood in London, then one of those grey and troubled post-war cities, as well as his time as a student at Oxford, his doctorate at Cambridge, the onset of his illness, his marriages and his life as one of the most famous scientists in the world.
2. Social Media Bio
The biography on social networks is the business card that people or companies have for their audience.
Unlike the biographies we have been analyzing, these have to inform what you do in approximately 280 characters.
This is about making it clear and entertaining to show who you are in order to attract users’ attention to your profile.
An example of a social media bio is Rock Content’s Instagram profile .
In two lines we managed to say what we do and why we are different from our competitors. We used simple language and also added a link of interest to our audience.
3. Professional biographies
You can use professional bios to establish professional connections or create new job opportunities. In this type of bio, you should showcase your skills, knowledge, and experiences to highlight your value proposition.
A professional biography includes personal details that reveal the main features of your personality, beyond your professional quality.
Philip Kotler ‘s official website is a good example of a professional biography.
Known as the father of Marketing , Philip Kotler’s biography recounts his main professional achievements and how his work has positively impacted large companies.
4. Informative biographies
These biographies are part of non-literary texts, since they accumulate and present biographical data, facts, places and dates without room for interpretation. They require great research efforts to verify the validity of the information.
An informative biography is pure data about the subject’s life, and will therefore surely be useful to other biographers who want to write about the same person. This makes them an ideal type of biography if you want to generate authority.
A good example of this kind of narrative is the Biography of Gabriel García Marquez on the Historia y Biografía website. This text presents chronological facts from the life of “Gabo”, one after the other without going into depth or commenting on any of them.
This biography mainly highlights his literary work and does not address many aspects of his personal life.
