WRITING FOR THE

SELF

A Study of Autobiography, Biography, and Diaries

The way in which we express ourselves

NAME: .

LANGUAGE OF THE SELF

Throughout this unit you will be asked to work on the following Learning
Objectives.

Spell words correctly

Increase knowledge of spelling patterns
Use a dictionary and thesaurus effectively to further develop meaning
Learn a range of vocabulary appropriate to the topic, and use words
precisely in writing to clarify and extend meaning, and to interest the
audience.
Use a wide range of punctuation to make meaning clear, including
generally accurate use of commas in complex sentences and to present
dialogue.
Use correct grammar, including articles, word order and tenses in a range
of genres and text types.
Clarify relationships between ideas with an increasingly accurate and
growing use of connectives.
Provide clarity and emphasis in writing, a variety of sentence lengths,
structures and subjects.
Use a range of increasingly complex sentence structures to communicate
meaning and to give fluency to writing.
Use inference and deduction to recognise implicit and inferred meanings.
Give an informed personal response to a text and provide some textual
reference in support.
Extract the main points and relevant information from a text or ICT source,
using a range of strategies such as skimming and scanning.
Make relevant notes to select, collate and summarise ideas from texts.
Develop different ways of generating, organising and shaping ideas, using
a range of planning formats or methods.
Understand the conventions of standard English and how to use them
consistently in writing.
Use vocabulary precisely and imaginatively to clarify and extend meaning
and create specific effects.
Write an informed response on an individual
Write an informed response on another person.

Your assessment will consist of presenting your own piece of writing based on
the information in this booklet and your classroom notes.
Your teacher will inform you of the date and expectations of the assessment.
2

Lets start at the very beginning its a very good

place to start when we write in our own voice we
tend to use a greeting just like the ones you see to
the left of this column of writing.
Greetings begin letters, blogs and diaries. In nonfiction writing (writing the truth or about events that
actually happened from the point-of-view of someone
who actually existed) these are called salutations. In
the same way, phrases like kind regards; or yours
sincerely; or even goodbye or ciao are considered
salutations.
So welcome to this Year 7 Literature and Language course for writing for
yourself.
Throughout the workbooks this year you will find that there are some words that
are written in bold. You should make a note of these words in your spelling book
as you will receive spelling tests on them as part of your language study, and
you will be expected to use them when talking about these different genre of
writings.
ACTIVITY: Create a diagram for what you know about diaries in general.
A concept map shows the relationship between one idea or concept and another.
You can use circles or boxes to show planning, but you should start with a main
idea, topic or issue to focus on. Then think about the key ideas or conventions
(things you expect to see eg a date or Dear).
Copy this example down into your book and continue to add to the ideas.

DIARY

Entries go in
order

Starts with
the date

Discuss your ideas with the person next to you and see how many are the same
or similar.

A diary is sometimes not called a diary,

but a journal or a notebook. It includes
personal writing about events or
experiences in a persons life that they
want to record to remember at a later time.
Someone who keeps a diary is called a
diarist.
If you do write a diary, chances are you
want to keep it private. This means that the
audience will only be you or people who you choose to read it.
Sometimes people keep a diary so that they can write something else like an
autobiography.
Within a diary it is usual to write about yourself, therefore you use the
pronoun I which is called first-person narration. There are some other
expectations of writing in a diary, these include;

Chronological Order This means organising your writing into their

order of events. Generally things follow one another in time and so you
need to write the first thing that happened first, and then follow on from
there. Think about telling a story, you dont jump all over the place, you
tell it from the beginning and then work through until the end.
Time Connectives These are words or phrases that are used to tell a
reader when things happened for example This morning, I ate breakfast
then I went shopping for some new books. These can sometimes also be
called discourse markers.
Personal Tone Think about the way you speak to your friends or
family, you are open, honest and allow more of yourself to be expressed
than if you met someone for the first time. What is different about the
way you speak? Writing in a personal tone means that you use words
and phrases that allow your voice to come through, the same as if you
were speaking to a close friend. Which of the following do you think has
the most personal tone?

I opened my eyes contentedly before kicking my legs out to make

a starfish. I stretched. Rolling over I saw the clock and I
SCREAMED! The next minute I was running down the stairs yelling
to mum that I loved her, skidding past the cat and finally jumped
in dads car waiting for me. I hate being late, it always puts me in
such a bad mood!
o I was late to school this morning because I overslept.
You will see that the first one gives you more of an insight into why the
persona is late and more voice. The second is more factual and less
emotive.
Self-reflection Thinking seriously about the actions of the day and
perhaps analysing why you do things.
Rhetorical Questions Questions that are designed to make the
audience (you) think. Expressions like Why did I do that? are common
in diary entries.
Facts and opinions This is about giving evidence to help your story
telling. It may be a test score, or the date of something, or whatever you
can think of. Remember that opinions are what makes up most of a
diary.
Anecdote An anecdote is a short story about an incident or a person.
It might be your version of events and either subjective (meaning you
were involved in it) or objective (meaning you saw it happening to
someone else).
o

Diaries like Diary for a Wimpy Kid are not diaries at all (and not the sort of
thing we will be studying), but novels that use a diary format as an interesting
way to tell the story.
Before we start to look at some of the examples that we will be studying, we
need to establish what it is we are looking for.
The first skill is annotation. The ability to annotate is one that you need to
learn and get your head around as fast as possible as it will make learning
English as a subject so much easier. Annotation is when you write comments,
explanations, thoughts or highlight key ideas on a text you are studying. A text
5

refers to anything that you study in English; from a novel, to a poem, to a film, to
an image they are all referred to as a text.
Interacting is a funny way to think about how you read a book, but writing
down your thoughts, asking questions, responding to words you read and so on is
the best way to understand and find meaning in a book. Annotation is just that:
interacting with your text and finding meaning in what you read as you read it.
There are lots of ways to interact with what you read, all of which involves
recording your thoughts as they pop into your head. You can write directly onto
the text, or you can have post-it notes that can be stuck onto the text. Here are
some ideas on how to start.

AS YOU READ ANNOTATION

3.
4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

1. Ask questions - Are you confused about

something? Write the question down. You
may find out the answer later in the text,
or you might get an opportunity to look
further into it with the teacher, or a
classmate.
2. React to what you read Think about
how something makes you feel. Are you
mad? Startled? Surprised? Tearful? Write down your reaction.
Give an opinion Do you like or dislike an idea? Do you think the piece is
too wordy? Record your ideas next to the passage that inspired them.
Locate and highlight important words / phrases / passages - Is there
something in the passage that makes you think? Or something you feel you
could use at a later date? Is there a big idea that is the foundation of the
piece? There are important to locate, and record why you highlighted it.
Remember to put a little tag on important quotes so that you can find them
later.
Make connections Maybe something you read connects to something
you know from your own life, or maybe it relates to something that
happened earlier in the text.
Define new words When you read a word that you dont know, get a
dictionary from your classroom, use your device or make a note to look it
up later. It is so important to start expanding your vocabulary so that you
can express yourself better! Use your spelling notebook to record this.
Track themes If you notice an idea family relationships or conflict in
a text, highlight it and write the idea next to it. It will help you understand
the message that the passage is trying to show.
Interesting imagery Remember that authors use words to create a
perspective of a character or setting, often they use comparisons in their
writing the sun looked like ... Or the forest smelled like fresh rain
Highlight them as you see them.
Make a key You may like to use a shorthand style of annotation
meaning you dont write in long sentences all the time. Perhaps link a
6

coloured highlight to a particular character or a star means a theme

reference

AFTER YOU READ ANNOTATION

Too many of us think that once you read a text; thats it. NO! Its only just the
beginning. You now need to consolidate your knowledge to ensure that you get
it.
1. Title your chapters or sections While some novels or texts have titles
to sections already, you should give them (and others that havent created
titles for chapters or sections) your own title. This will help you remember
what happened in which section. For example, instead of Chapter 20 write
when Mike meets Dave.
2. Summarise what you have read You should by now have a book for
consolidated notes from class this is the process of rewriting your notes
into a form that you can keep especially for exams. Use this book to
summarise sections or chapters of the text you are studying. You will find
that this allows you to recap and revise what you have gone through in
class.
3. Respond to what you read - Sometimes a summary isnt enough. You
might want to comment on what you just read, give an opinion about a
concept, or complain about the authors insight/viewpoint.
4. Make a prediction - Predicting is a great thinking exercise. Theres not
a better place to do so than after youve read one section and before
you begin the next. You might be surprised to find your prediction is
right... or wrong!

You might be asking yourself, How do I

know if I am annotating enough?
Considering that everyone reads (and
annotates) differently, this question is
difficult to answer. Because annotating
helps assess understanding though, you
should find a system that explores many
levels of transfer and reflection.
Balance and flexibility of strategies has
always been key to finding success with
annotating. You may choose to write a lot
of notes while you read and a minimal amount after you read. Oppositely, you
might write whole paragraphs in the space after each section, and find only a
few noteworthy moments while you are reading the section. Either is fine so
long as you balance these options appropriately.
Lastly, remember that, even though annotation shouldnt feel like a burden,
its an important part of understanding what you read.

Choosing not to do so is choosing to reject a strategy that will help

you become a more thoughtful and thorough reader.
Try annotating the following piece from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Use
the above to help you chose what to annotate.
Saturday January 3rd
HAVE A GO!

I shall go mad through lack of sleep! My father has

banned the dog from the house so it barked outside my
window all night. Just my

luck! My father shouted a swear-word at it. If he's not careful he will get done by
the police for obscene language.
The spot on my chin is getting bigger. It's my mother's fault for not knowing
about vitamins. Just my luck to have it where everybody can see it.
I pointed out to my mother that I hadn't had any vitamin C today. She said, 'Go
and buy an orange, then'. This is typical.
She still hasn't worn the lurex apron. Ten days have gone by since Christmas Day
but my mother still hasn't the best thing I could have bought her for Christmas!
She will get bathcubes next year. I will be glad to get back to school.
Edmund Hillary extract from his diary from the day he reached the top of Mt
Everest the highest mountain in the world on 29 May, 1953.
Annotate this piece and write down the emotions that you think are being
expressed.

Tenzing and I shook hands and he so far forgot himself as

to embrace me. It was quite a moment! We took off our O2
and for ten minutes I photographed Tenzing holding flags,
the various ridges of Everest and the general view. I left a
crucifix on top for John Hunt and Tenzing made a little hole
in the snow and put in some food offerings, lollies and
biscuits and chocolate. We ate a Kendal Mint Cake and
then put back on our O2. I was a little worried by the time
factor so after 15 min on top we turned back at 11.45am.
The steps along the ridge made progress relatively easy and the only
problem was the rock step which demanded another jamming session. At 12.45
we were back on the South Summit both now rather fatigued. Wasting no time
(our O2 was getting low) we set off down the great slope still in considerable
trepidation about its safeness. This was quite a mental strain and as I was
8

coming down first I repacked every step with great care. Tenzing was a tower of
strength and his very fine ability to keep a tight rope most encouraging.
After what seemed a lifetime the angle eased off and we were soon
leading down onto the narrow snow ridge and finally to the dump of O2 bottles.
We loaded these on and then rather tired wended our way down our tracks and
collapsed into our Camp at 2pm.

TIME TO

LOOK
AT THAT PART

You need to be aware of words in a piece of writing and the function that they
play in the study of language. Each word in the English language belongs to a
category or part of speech.
In dictionaries, the part of speech is put next to the word itself. So here you see
food is a noun.
Choose some words from the diary of Edmund Hillary and find out what part of
speech they are.
You must find a verb; a pronoun; an adjective; an adverb; a conjunction; an
article and a preposition.
Structure it as follows
Verb (dictionary definition of Verb)
Example quote
For some dictionary definitions of the parts of speech you will find multiple
definitions. Copy them all into your book.

DICTIONARY
SKILLS
How do you quickly find in the dictionary two words that start with the same
letter? First, find the letter that the word starts with. The words are then listed in
alphabetical order by the rest of the letters in the word. For example:
9

2nd Letter
sang
sent
sing
song

3rd Letter
slant
sleep
slip
slurp

4th letter
strange
stretch
string
strong

Put the following words into alphabetical order

fade

fire

feath
er

flint

fiddle

fun

first

feelin
g

fury

fling

All computers have spell checkers now; however just because a word is spelt
correctly does not mean that it is the right word! What are the mistakes in the
following sentence? Write out the sentence correctly.
Too people wanted two watch the film, to.

Learning objective spell words used correctly.

When you say a word out loud, you can hear that it is made up of one or more
beats or sounds called syllables. For example, concentrate has three
syllables. It will help you spell a word if you break it into smaller parts
Beat 1

Beat 2

Beat 3

con

cen

trate
10

Split the following words below into beats or syllables. Write them out with a line
between each beat. The first word has been done for you. Add the words to your
personal spelling list.
1. mistake
=
2. original
3. improve
=
4. definite
5. completely =
6. development
7. holiday
8. separate
=
9. restaurant =
10.business
=
11.friend
=
12.secretary
=

mis / take
=
=
=
=

A mnemonic is a tool to help remember facts or a large amount of information.

It can be a song, rhyme, acronym, image, or a phrase to help remember a list of
facts in a certain order.

1. Music Mnemonics
How many lyrics to songs do you remember? How did you come to
remember them? The same method you used to recall song lyrics
also can work just as well in school work and learning. Music can
be used to help you remember important details to main ideas. Its
the same way that advertising works. Think of the Pizza Hut jingle!
You can make a song or jingle using any type of music you choose
for any list of items. Music Mnemonics work best with long lists.
For example, some children learn the ABC's by singing the "ABC"
song.
Think of another song that you know that is to help you learn.
Share it with a partner.
2. Name Mnemonics
In a Name Mnemonic, the 1st letter of each word in a list of items
is used to make a name of a person or thing. Sometimes, the items
11

can be rearranged to form an easier to remember name

mnemonic. For example:
ROY G. BIV = colours of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green,
Blue, Indigo, Violet.)
3. Expression or Word Mnemonic
This is by far the most popularly used mnemonic. To make an
Expression or Word mnemonic, the first letter of each item in a
list is arranged to form a phrase or word. Examples:
In English, the 7 coordinating conjunctions are For, And, Nor, But,
Or, Yet, So = FANBOYS. We will come to these later.
Create an Expression Mnemonic to remember how to spell the
word BECAUSE. There is the famous example of Big Elephants
Can Always Upset Small Elephants but you will need to think of a
new example!

4. Model Mnemonics
In a Model Mnemonic, some type of representation is constructed
to help with understanding and recalling important information.
Examples include a circular sequence model, a pyramid model of
stages and a pie chart. Models should be used in addition to words
and lists because they make recall at test time much easier.
5. Rhyme Mnemonics
An Ode or Rhyme Mnemonic puts information in the form of a
poem. Examples include:
A commonly used Rhyme Mnemonic for the number of days in
each month is:
30 days hath September, April, June, and November.
All the rest have 31
Except February my dear son.
It has 28 and that is fine
But in Leap Year it has 29.
Remember this one? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
12

How is your spelling?

i before e except after c
or when sounding like a
in neighbour and weigh
6. Note Organization Mnemonics
The way your school notes are organised can actually stop learning
and recall, or it can promote it. There are two ways you can make
your class notes and learning better;
Notecards
Notecards are an easy way to organize main ideas and relevant
details to be recalled. If main ideas are formatted into possible test
questions, notecards can give learners practice in seeing questions
and recalling answers as they must do on exams.
Outlines
Outlines clearly separate main ideas from details. This helps
organise the information in the mind making it easier to remember.
Eg. PARTS OF SPEECH
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Etc

13

14

15

16

17

Writing an effective diary

You need to add lots of detailed information relating to people, places, events
and objects.
Include your personal thoughts and feelings about these things to make your
writing more appealing to the reader.
Explain Why . . .
Help your reader to understand your moods.
By explaining your different emotions and feelings the reader can VISUALISE and
put themselves in your shoes.
If you are sad explain why you are sad.
If you are happy explain why you are feeling happy.

ACTIVITY: Choose one of the following scenarios and write a diary using the
patterns shown in each example. You must make up names and dates but be
realistic.
Scenario 1 - The school team is playing a match against another local school.
For some reason, you have not been asked to play. Write your diary for the day
when you found out you wouldnt be playing. How did you feel? Why werent you
asked to play?
Day 1: The day before the game. You presume that you will automatically be
chosen to play. How do you feel? What sport is it? Who will you be playing?
Where will the game be?
Day 2: The day of the game. You find out that you will not be chosen. How do
you find out? Why arent you chosen? How do you feel? What do you do?
Scenario 2 - You are on holiday, somewhere you have never been before.
Whats it like? What have you been doing? You go out to the busy local market
with your mum or dad, but you get lost. How do you feel? Remember, you dont
know anything about where you are. After wandering around aimlessly in a panic,
you find your way back to where you are staying. Write a diary of your
experience.
Day 1: The first day of your holiday. Describe the place? Where are you? Who
are you with? What do you enjoy doing in the day?
Day 2: You go out as usual with your parents, but get lost. How do you feel?
What does the place look like? What happens? Describe the events.

HOW TO PLAN:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Create a summary of your day

Give details about what happened
What are you worried / happy about
Whats happening tomorrow?

18

REMEMBER SPELLING!
Anne Frank is famous for the diary that she
kept from 12 June 1942 until 4 August 1944.
She was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt,
Germany, and was the second daughter of Otto
Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander. Her sister
Margot was three years older. She enjoyed four
happy years growing up in Frankfurt until the
Nazi's came to power.
Of German Jewish descent, she and her family
moved to Holland in 1933, where her father set
up a business. By 1934, Edith and the two girls
were living in Amsterdam, where they both
attended school. From a young age, Anne
showed an aptitude for reading and writing,
while her outspoken and energetic personality
shone through. When Holland was occupied by
the Nazis in 1940, their heritage put the family
under threat.
The family were subjected to the same rules as
German Jews, namely Jewish children could only
attend Jewish schools; they faced curfews, were
not allowed to own a business and were forced
to wear a yellow star. Otto transferred his shares
in his company to a friend and resigned as
director leaving the family with enough income to survive.
On her 13th birthday, Otto gave Anne an autograph book bound with white and
red checked cloth and closed with a small lock. She proceeded to use this as her
diary, with the first entries detailing how her family were segregated and
discriminated against. In July 1942, her sister Margot received a call up notice
from the Central Office of Jewish Emigration ordering her to report for a
relocation to a work camp. This made the family move into hiding earlier than
planned.
On 6 July 1942, Anne, her sister Margot and her parents went into hiding, along
with four other families. Their hiding place, the annex, was in a specially
prepared space above the offices of their business.
Whilst in hiding, they were supported by a group of friends, who brought them
food as well as anything else they needed.
Anne started each diary entry 'Dear Kitty' and what followed was an incredibly
honest and articulate account of her life in confinement. It expresses her fear,
boredom and confusion at the situation she found herself in.
As well as giving the reader an insight into what it was like to live under such
extreme circumstances, it also shows Anne struggling with the universal problem
of growing up.
Her diary ends in 1944 when the annex was raided by the Nazi authorities. Anne
and Margot were first sent to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belsen where they
died of typhoid in 1945.
She was survived only by her father Otto. Anne's diary was kept safe by the
family friend, Miep Gies, who gave it to Otto when he returned to Holland. When
Anne was still alive she had expressed interest in having her diary published as a
record of her experience. After her death, her father edited it, and it was first
published in 1947.
(Taken from history.co.uk)
19

This is a passage from The Diary of Anne Frank

A wooden staircase leads from the downstairs hallway to the third floor. At the
top of the stairs is a landing, with doors on either side. The door on the left takes
you up to the spice storage area, attic and loft in the front part of the house. A
typically Dutch, very steep, ankle-twisting flight of stairs also runs from the front
part of the house to another door opening onto the street.
The door to the right of the landing leads to the Secret Annex at the back of
the house. No one would ever suspect there were so many rooms behind that
plain gray door. There's just one small step in front of the door, and then you're
inside. Straight ahead of you is a steep flight of stairs. To the left is a narrow
hallway opening onto a room that serves as the Frank family's living room and
bedroom. Next door is a smaller room, the bedroom and study of the two young
ladies of the family. To the right of the stairs is a windowless washroom with a
sink. The door in the corner leads to the toilet and another one to Margot's and
my room. If you go up the stairs and open the door at the top, you're surprised to
see such a large, light and spacious room in an old canalside house like this. It
contains a stove (thanks to the fact that it used to be Mr. Kugler's laboratory) and
a sink.
This will be the kitchen and bedroom of Mr. and Mrs. van Daan, as well as the
general living room, dining room and study for us all. A tiny side room is to be
Peter van Daan's bedroom. Then, just as in the front part of the building, there's
an attic and a loft. So there you are. Now I've introduced you to the whole of our
lovely Annex!

DICTIONARY SKILLS
Words have phrases have denotations and connotations and can create
tone.
Look up the following words in the dictionary.

Denotation

Connotation

.
20

Tone

Atmosphere

Pick out 2 words from the Anne Frank piece and explain how she is able to create
a tone / atmosphere with those words.

21

An autobiography is someones life story, which they

have written themselves. They can choose what gets
entered in an autobiography and so they can be very
positive about the image they create.
A biography is when someone writes about another
persons life.
An autobiography uses first person narration (I, our,
we, my) but a biography uses third person narration
(he, she, John, Susan) because the writer is writing
about someone else. Also biographies rely on secondhand experiences which means that it is generally a story told to the writer
either by the subject of the biography; or by a friend of the subject. It can
therefore be more factually true, but doesnt necessarily explore the true feelings
of the subject.
Auto-biographies and biographies will often use words that the subject has
said, this is called dialogue.

This is an extract from Roald Dahls autobiography called Boy.

In the piece below chose one colour and highlight the information that you
think relates to feelings or emotions, and in another colour highlight the
information that is based on events or actions. Also underline all the dialogue in
the passage.

My four friends and I had come across a

loose floor-board at the back of the
classroom, and when we prised it up with the
blade of a pocket-knife, we discovered a big
hollow space underneath. This, we decided,
would be our secret hiding place for sweets
and other small treasures such as conkers
and monkey-nuts and birds' eggs. Every
afternoon, when the last lesson was over,
the five of us would wait until the classroom
had emptied, then we would lift up the floorboard and examine our secret hoard,
perhaps adding to it or taking something
away.
One day, when we lifted it up, we found a
dead mouse lying among our treasures. It was an exciting discovery. Thwaites
took it out by its tail and waved it in front of our faces. 'What shall we do with it?'
he cried.
'It stinks!' someone shouted. 'Throw it out of the window quick!'
'Hold on a tick,' I said. 'Don't throw it away.'
22

Thwaites hesitated. They all looked at me.

When writing about oneself, one must strive to be truthful. Truth is more
important than modesty. I must tell you, therefore, that it was I and I alone who
had the idea for the great and daring Mouse Plot. We all have our moments of
brilliance and glory, and this was mine.
'Why don't we', I said, 'slip it into one of Mrs Pratchett's jars of sweets? Then
when she puts her dirty hand in to grab a handful, she'll grab a stinky dead
mouse instead.'
The other four stared at me in wonder. Then, as the sheer genius of the plot
began to sink in, they all started grinning. They slapped me on the back. They
cheered me and danced around the classroom. 'We'll do it today!' they cried.
'We'll do it on the way home! You had the idea,' they said to me, 'so you can be
the one to put the mouse in the jar.'
Thwaites handed me the mouse. I put it into my trouser pocket. Then the five
of us left the school, crossed the village green and headed for the sweet-shop.
We were tremendously jazzed up. We felt like a gang of desperados setting out to
rob a train or blow up the sheriff's office.
'Make sure you put it into a jar which is used often,' somebody said.
'I'm putting it in Gobstoppers,' I said. 'The Gobstopper jar is never behind the
counter.'
'I've got a penny,' Thwaites said, 'so I'll ask for one Sherbet Sucker and one
Bootlace. And while she turns away to get them, you slip the mouse in quickly
with the Gobstoppers.'
Thus everything was arranged. We were strutting a little as we entered the
shop. We were the victors now and Mrs Pratchett was the victim. She stood
behind the counter, and her small malignant pig-eyes watched us suspiciously as
we came forward.
'One Sherbet Sucker, please,' Thwaites said to her, holding out his penny.
I kept to the rear of the group, and when I saw Mrs Pratchett turn her head
away for a couple of seconds to fish a Sherbet Sucker out of the box, I lifted the
heavy glass lid of the Gobstopper jar and dropped the mouse in. Then I replaced
the lid as silently as possible. My heart was thumping like mad and my hands
had gone all sweaty.
'And one Bootlace, please,' I heard Thwaites saying. When I turned round, I saw
Mrs Pratchett holding out the Bootlace in her filthy fingers.
'I don't want all the lot of you troopin' in 'ere if only one of you is buyin', ' she
screamed at us. 'Now beat it! Go on, get out!'
As soon as we were outside, we broke into a run. 'Did you do it?' they shouted
at me.
'Of course I did!' I said.
'Well done you!' they cried. 'What a super show!'
23

I felt like a hero. I was a hero. It was marvellous to be so popular.

ACTIVITY: Which of the two colours you have used is more dominant? Why do you
think this is?

Find the meaning of the following words from a dictionary and copy them down
below.
1. prised

.
2. strive

.
3. tremendously

.
4. desperados

5. strutting

6. brilliance

7. malignant

8. victors
24

9. victim

10.marvellous

A lot of these words are now considered old-fashioned or archaic. Who do you
think the audience would be for Roald Dahls autobiography? How is this
different to the audience for one of his novels (like The BFG or The Twits)?

Visit the library now and find out a few names and titles of autobiographies and
biographies.
What do you notice about all the subjects of the autobiographies and biographies
you have found? What do they have in common?

Wikipedia page: Research 2/3 people in history who you can find online
25

biography websites for and make notes (use your annotation

skills). Write a 100 word biography that could be the opening
paragraph on a Wikipedia page in your books on each of your
chosen people. You may not simply copy the existing
Wikipedia page.

This is an extract from Bill Brysons The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt
Kid. Bill Bryson is well-known to be a humorous writer. Remember to use your
annotation skills and highlight the use of emotive language in the piece.
Underline any words that you do not understand in red pen.

The only downside of my mother's working was that it

put a little pressure on her with regard to running the
home and particularly with regard to dinner, which
frankly was not her strong suit anyway. My mother
always ran late and was dangerously forgetful into the
bargain. You soon learned to stand aside about ten to six
every evening, for it was then that she would fly in the
back door, throw something in the oven, and disappear
into some other quarter of the house to embark on the
thousand other household tasks that greeted her each
evening. In consequence she nearly always forgot about
dinner until a point slightly beyond way too late. As a
rule you knew it was time to eat when you could hear
baked potatoes exploding in the oven.
We didn't call it the kitchen in our house. We called it the Burns Unit.
"It's a bit burned," my mother would say apologetically at every meal,
presenting you with a piece of meat that looked like something - a much-loved
pet perhaps - salvaged from a tragic house fire. "But I think I scraped off most of
the burned part," she would add, overlooking that this included every bit of it
that had once been flesh.
Happily, all this suited my father. His palate only responded to two tastes burnt and ice cream - so everything suited him so long as it was sufficiently dark
and not too startlingly flavorful. Theirs truly was a marriage made in heaven for
no one could burn food like my mother or eat it like my dad.
As part of her job, my mother bought stacks of housekeeping magazines House Beautiful, House and Garden, Better Homes and Gardens - and I read
these with a curious avidity, partly because they were always lying around and in
our house all idle moments were spent reading something, and partly because
they depicted lives so absorbingly at variance with our own. The housewives in
my mother's magazines were so collected, so organized, so calmly on top of
things, and their food was perfect - their lives were perfect. They dressed up to
take their food out of the oven! There were no black circles on the ceiling above
their stoves, no mutating goo climbing over the sides of their forgotten
saucepans. Children didn't have to be ordered to stand back every time they
opened their oven doors. And their foods - baked Alaska, lobster Newburg,
26

chicken cacciatore - why, these were dishes we didn't even dream of, much less
encounter, in Iowa.
Like most people in Iowa in the 1950s, we were more cautious eaters in our
house. On the rare occasions when we were presented with food with which we
were not comfortable or familiar - on planes or trains or when invited to a meal
cooked by someone who was not herself from Iowa - we tended to tilt it up
carefully with a knife and examine it from every angle as if it determining
whether it might need to be defused. Once on a trip to San Francisco my father
was taken by friends to a Chinese restaurant and he described it to us afterwards
in the sombre tones of someone recounting a near-death experience.
"And they eat it with sticks, you know," he added knowledgeably.
"Goodness!" said my mother.
"I would rather have gas gangrene than go through that again," my father
added grimly.
In our house we didn't eat:
pasta, rice, cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, mayonnaise, onions, corned
beef, pastrami, salami, or foreign food of any type, except French toast;
bread that wasn't white and at least 65 percent air;
spices other than salt, pepper and maple syrup;
fish that was any shape other than rectangular and not coated in bright orange
breadcrumbs, and then only on Fridays and only when my mother remembered it
was Friday, which in fact was not often;
seafood of any type but especially seafood that looked like large insects;
soups not blessed by Campbell's and only a very few of those;
anything with dubious regional names like "pone," or "gumbo" or foods that
had at any time been an esteemed staple of slaves or peasants.
All other foods of all types - curries, enchiladas, tofu, bagels, sushi, couscous,
yogurt, kale, rocket, Parma ham, any cheese that was not a vivid bright yellow
and shiny enough to see your reflection in - had either not yet been invented or
was yet unknown to us. We really were radiantly unsophisticated. I remember
being surprised to learn at quite an advanced age that a shrimp cocktail was not,
as I had always imagined, a pre-dinner alcoholic drink with a shrimp in it.
All our meals consisted of leftovers. My mother had a seemingly inexhaustible
supply of foods that had already been to the table, sometimes many times. Apart
from a few perishable dairy products, everything in the fridge was older than I
was, sometimes by many years. (Her oldest food possession of all, it more or less
goes without saying, was a fruitcake that was kept in a metal tin and dated from
the colonial period.) I can only assume that my mother did all of her cooking in
the 1940s so that she could spend the rest of her life surprising herself with what
she could find under cover at the back of the fridge. I never knew her to reject a
food. The rule of thumb seemed to be that if you opened the lid and the stuff
inside didn't make you actually recoil and take at least one staggered step
backwards, it was deemed OK to eat.
Both of my parents had grown up in the Great Depression and neither of them
ever threw anything away if they could possibly avoid it. My mother routinely
washed and dried paper plates, and smoothed out for reuse spare aluminium foil.
If you left a pea on your plate, it became part of future meal. All our sugar came
in little packets spirited out of restaurants in deep coat pockets, as did our jams,
jellies, crackers (oyster and saltine), tartar sauces, some of our ketchup and
butter, all of our napkins, and a very occasional ashtray; anything that came with
a restaurant table really. One of the happiest moments in my parents' life was
when maple syrup started to be served in small disposable packets and they
could add those to the household hoard.

27

Make a list of all the words you have underlined in your spelling book. You will
need to learn these as part of your spelling programme.
What do you think is meant by emotive language?

Can you see examples of where the author is creating images? Give 2
examples of imagery.

On the next page is a coat of arms. Your teacher will give you a larger copy to
work with but this is your draft copy. On your coat of arms you need to include
your last name, a favourite pastime or hobby, your favourite book or a book you
are reading. You should colour it in ready to be put onto the wall.

COAT OF ARMS

28

Remember a biography is the story of someone elses life. Here is an extract

from
the biography of Willie Apiata. Apiata is a Kiwi army officer who was awarded the
Victoria Cross for bravery. Remember to annotate!
It was a special mixture of qualities imagination, independence, courage,
Loyalty, hard work and stamina that saw Willie Apiata perform the deeds that
Earned him the Victoria Cross. While growing up in rural New Zealand, he gained
many of those qualities. Quite simply, at times, Willies childhood was exciting,
demanding, inspiring, funny and magical.
There is a military background in Willies family. His mothers father, Jim, was a
POW*
In the Second World War. His fathers father fought in the same war and his
fathers brother fought in Vietnam.
Not only were there soldiers in his family but there were many hard workers
too. His grandfather Jim was a fencer famous for his physical power and energy.
He built fences on all types of land including rock. He had no explosives so he
had to chip away at the rock with a crowbar until it became rubble. Jim often
worked at night by the light of kerosene-tin lamps. He and his dog camped where
they stopped. They slept in a large corrugated-iron tank with a wire strapped
over the top and pegged into the ground so it wouldnt roll away.
When they were old enough, Willies mum and her brother Harry often helped
out. They would strip smaller branches off the fence post before Jim chopped
them into the right size. Jim also taught his children to find and catch food on the
land.
Willies mother is Pakeha and his father is Maori, of Nga Puhi descent. His
parents worked in many small towns where timber was being milled. Willie was
born in one of them Mangakino in 1972. He was named Bill Henry Apiata Bill
after a family friend and Henry after his mums father.
29

Willie has two older sisters and one younger sister. Because more than one of
the children was born around the same time of the year, Willies practical mother
celebrated all their birthdays on June 15. It was only when he was much older,
when he saw his birth certificate, that Willie discovered he was actually born on
June 28.
Wherever the family lives, they were never far from native forests. When the
weather was warm, they often packed up and headed deep into the bush.
Sometimes there were huts to sleep in but, if not, they camped out in their
sleeping bags. They lived on what they hunted.
During the day, Willie and his sisters wandered further into the bush. Alone for
hours, they made huts, played hide-and-seek. They would also spear eels and
throw them onto the bank. They found out quickly that work and play, gathering
food and learning how to live, were all connected in their daily lives. The bush
was a food store and a playground. It was their backyard the biggest backyard
imaginable.
*POW - Prisoner of war
1. What is the main difference between this story about Willie Apiata, and the
story about Bill Bryson on page 19 & 20?

2. What impression do you get of Willie Apiata in this extract?

In the examples given so far you will have noticed that the writers do not always
use formal language. What is formal language?

Find two examples from the extracts you have looked at so far where informal
language has been used.

Why do you think that informal language has been used?

30

Look up the word slang what does it mean?

Why might a writer use slang?

31

Spelling list
1. high
2. every
3. near
4. west
5. dress
6. best
7. next
8. else
9. checked
10.grand
11.stand
12.matter
13.forms
14.value
15.area
16.between
17.own
18.base
19.country
20.plant
21.slip
22.lunch
23.pond
24.front
25.thump
26.inches
27.stored
28.motion
29.motion
30.expand
31.calculate
32.save
33.school
34.father
35.keep
36.safe

37.grade
38.reached
39.raise
40.theme
41.scream
42.easy
43.batteries
44.fuel
45.iron
46.solve
47.science
48.trade
49.start
50.city
51.earth
52.hope
53.stone
54.follow
55.broke
56.sign
57.tiny
58.whole
59.waves
60.current
61.electric
62.digit
63.round
64.upon
65.thought
66.gun
67.strong
68.story
69.burst
70.strip
71.stream
72.street
73.distance
74.least

32

75.hundred
76.east
77.object
78.sum
79.difference
80.yard
Topic specific
1. self
2. autobiography
3. biography
4. diary
5. greeting
6. salutation
7. journal
8. notebook
9. audience
10.pronoun
11.narration
12.annotate
13.annotation
14.text
15.noun
16.adjective
17.adverb
18.article
19.conjunction
20.preposition
21.quote
22.syllable
23.mnemonic
24.denotation
25.connotation
26.tone
27.atmosphere
28.emotive
language

Assessment
You are required to choose one of the following.
1. Write an autobiography about yourself and your experiences so far.
2. Choose a family member and write a biography about them.
Your piece should include an image of the subject and should include detail about
their life using the examples in the booklet and your own words.
Autobiography option
You are to write the first or last chapater of your autobiography. You can call it
either: Chapter 1: Early years or Final chapter: Me and my family
You should include other peoples opinions on things, not just you own
perceptions; for example My mother often commented on how I can become
really annoyed when.

Biography option
You are to write one chapter about the life of a family member and include
significant events and details from that persons life. It may be their schooling, or
their first job, or having a family. You will need to ask this person questions so
make sure you can get in touch with them easily. Make a list of questions you
would like to ask them and then get them to include as much detail as they can
so you can make notes and write about it. You should re-read the Willie Apiata
piece to give you more of an idea.

Overall
Drafting: You will have 2 long lessons to draft. You can bring along all your notes
but you must not write a piece at home and copy it out during this time. It must
be your own writing. You will have access to dictionaries during this time.
After your drafting periods you will have your work photocopied and then you
may type it up at home and include pictures. You should use Calibri font (or
something similar not Comic Sans), size 10-11 and remember the need for
good English vocabulary, spelling and grammar is needed.
You need to write about 250 500 words for this task.
You will receive a marking rubric in class.

Remember there are ways to explain things in writing instead of saying I was
hungry you may like to use My stomach growled. This is called show, dont
tell. Try to use this in your writing.

Checklist for your own use

Chapter of Autobiography / Biography
Yes

Not yet

I have used correct narrative point of view

throughout
I have included headings
I have used paragraphs
I have made links between paragraphs
I have used some direct speech / dialogue
I have recounted events using detail
I have included some description
I have made links between sentences
(however, although)
I have varied my sentence subject
I have used variation in my sentence length
I have used different sentence types
(declarative, exclamatory, imperative,
interrogative)
I have attempted to use a range of
connectives eg. But, although, as, if, when,
where
I have used a range of punctuation
I have used a range of vocabulary
I have spelled correctly

Copyright acknowledgements
Permission to reproduce items where third part owned material is copyright is included and has been sought and cleared where
possible. Every reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (ACG Parnell) to adhere to copyright regulations. If any
items requiring extra clearance have unwittingly been included, the publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest
possible opportunity.