Senior High School Department

KING THOMAS LEARNING ACADEMY, INC. Creative Nonfiction

A decade of uplifting lives and build futures Week 5

SUBJECT: CREATIVE NONFICTION

UNIT TITLE: TYPES AND FORMS OF CREATIVE NONFICTION
LESSON TITLE: Biographical Narratives: Biography, Profile, Character Sketch, and Interview Story

Learning Competency:

✓ Present a commentary/critique on a chosen creative nonfictional text representing a particular type or form
(Biography/Autobiography Literary Journalism/Reportage, Personal Narratives, Travelogue, Reflection Essay, True
Narratives, Blogs, Testimonies, Other Forms)

Learning Objectives:

✓ Define and differentiate from one another the various types of biographical narratives, like biography, the profile,
the character sketch, and the interview story
✓ Compare and contrast the literary biography and the historical biography from the popular biography
✓ Write an interview story.

✓✓ Gaining Attention:

Guide questions:

➢ Do you often share your life experiences with your friends or

to your classmates? If so, what sort of story did you enjoy
talking about?
➢ Can you still remember the life story of your parents’ way back
before? What details you think are most significant to share
with the class.

Presentation / Content:

For writers who want to pen another person's life story, there are a few
ways to spot potential weaknesses, starting with making sure proper and ample
research has been conducted -- pulling resources such as newspaper clippings,
other academic publications, and recovered documents and found footage.

First and foremost, it is the duty of biographers to avoid misrepresenting

the subject as well as acknowledging the research sources they used. Writers
should, therefore, avoid presenting a personal bias for or against the subject as
being objective is key to conveying the person's life story in full detail.

For writers who want to pen another person's life story, there are a few
ways to spot potential weaknesses, starting with making sure proper and ample
research has been conducted -- pulling resources such as newspaper clippings,
other academic publications, and recovered documents and found footage.

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 First and foremost, it is the duty of biographers to avoid misrepresenting the subject as well as acknowledging
the research sources they used. Writers should, therefore, avoid presenting a personal bias for or against the subject
as being objective is key to conveying the person's life story in full detail.

A biographical narrative is a story that relates the key events and facts about a person's life from a first-person
perspective. The writer of a biographical narrative describes the events in a chronological or logical sequence and
reflects upon their significance. Use of descriptive details expands upon and explains shifts in the person's perspective.

Biographical narratives can be classified according to their length, scope,

and amplitude into the full-length biography, the profile, the character sketch,
and the interview story. The full-length biography can either be single-volume or
multi-volume, and be further subdivided on the basis of the subject into the
popular biography, the literary biography, and the historical biography.

Biography

As the etymology of term implies – bios (life) + graphein (writing) – a

biography basically is the narrative of a person’s life written by someone else, in
contrast to an autobiography which is the chronicle of a person’s life written by
the author himself or herself.

Biography, form of literature, commonly considered nonfictional, the

subject of which is the life of an individual. One of the oldest forms of literary
expression, it seeks to re-create in words the life of a human being—as
understood from the historical or personal perspective of the author—by
drawing upon all available evidence, including that retained in memory as well
as written, oral, and pictorial material.

A biography is a story of a person's life, written by another author. The

writer of a biography is called a biographer while the person written about is
known as the subject or biographee.

Full-Length Biography

A full-length biography typically covers the entirely of the featured

person’s existence, covering all the significant events surrounding his or her
life from womb to tomb, and usually includes a family tree and a chronology
of milestones in its appendices to further guide potential readers of the book.

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 Popular Biography

The popular biography, as the term implies, refers to the life story of a famous
and/ or successful person – a show business personality, a professional athlete, a
business tycoon, a political leader, as fashion celebrity, a reigning monarch, or even a
serial killer – which is meant for popular or mass consumption.

Literary And Historical Biography

The literary biography and the historical biography, on the other hand,
are not necessarily intended for popular or mass consumption, so they need not
cater to the common people's fondness for gossip, rumor, and hearsay. The literary
biography is defined simply by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, foremost practitioner of
creative nonfiction in the Philippines, as "a narrative of the life of a literary writer
written by another literary writer."
On the other hand, the historical biography may be defined as a narrative
of the existence of a historical figure written by another writer, usually a historian,
who is interested not only in the personal circumstances and historic events that
have shaped his or her subject, but also on how his or her subject has shaped
history in return. Both the literary biographer and the historical biographer are
more concerned in telling the truth than the popular biographer, the former in
sharing poetic truths, the latter in revealing historical facts.

To write the story of a person’s life, you need to know more than just the basic facts. A good biography
delves into what is really interesting about a person’s life—noteworthy achievements, moments of adversity, and
major turning points. The best biography can encapsulate a subject’s entire life in an engaging way and provide
enough personal details to give the reader an intimate look at their character.

According to Peter P. Jacobi, "Cities can be profiled. So can streets. So

can buildings. So can institutions. Mostly, however, we profile people. A profile
recreates the subject, makes it come alive on paper, gives the subject shape and
meaning, causes us as readers to meet and know that is subject, that city, that
institution, that person. “Shorter than a full-length biography, a profile is a kind of
biographical narrative that normally concentrates on a single aspect of the featured
person's life. Although some background information of his or her origins is
included, the profile for the most part focuses on the circumstances and events that
have made the featured person important and/or famous.

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CHARACTER SKETCH

The character sketch is a form of biographical narrative that

is shorter than a profile a visual sketch or a pen-and-ink drawing, the
character sketch can be described as a cameo or miniature life story.

INTERVIEW STORY
The interview story is a kind of biographical narrative the length of a
typical newspaper or magazine article. Like the profile and the character
sketch, it zeroes in on one particular face the featured person's life; but unlike
the other two short biographical narratives that require some research and at
least a couple of interviews, the interview story can be the product of just one
meeting between the writer (the interviewer) and his or her subject (the
interviewee).

But even if it is the result of a single prearranged encounter, the

featured person in an interview story must still come alive on the written page.
This feat is achieved through vivid description, engaging narration, bits of
interesting dialogue scattered here and there, and careful selection of the
telling details to create an overall impression of the subject.

To come up with a successful interview story, you may do the following:

 Research on the person you intend to write about to familiarize yourself with his or her background
information.
 Based on your research, prepare ten interesting questions that are not answerable by a simple “yes” or “no”,
to encourage a free-flowing conversation between you and your interviewee.
 Conduct the interview in an organized manner to maximize the time you spend with your subject.
 Take down notes for quick reference, even if you are recording the conversation.
 Review the information you have gathered through your research and interview you have recently conducted
with your subject.
 Write your interview story.

Biographies are how we learn information about another human being’s life. Whether you want to start writing a
biography about a famous person, historical figure, or an influential family member, it’s important to know all the elements that
make a biography worth both writing and reading.
The purpose of a biography is to share the life of another person with an audience. An author may choose to write a
biography because they find the subject’s story to be interesting or to have themes that apply to life today. Some authors choose
to write a biography due to a lack of information about an interesting subject, or to update the public with facts that an existing
biography may have missed. Biographical stories can be inspiring—highlighting the achievements of a particular figure, pointing
out ways the subject overcame hardship—giving the readers a sense of encouragement.
Biographies can also serve as cautionary tales, warning readers on who not to become.

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 Summary

A biography is a detailed third-person account of another person’s life story. It contains basic
information about the subject’s life—like their place of birth, education, and interests. A biography may also
chronicle relationships with family members, as well as major events in the subject’s childhood and how
those influenced their upbringing. A biography details the various accomplishments and life events of a real
person, but it’s more than facts and figures—it comes to life with great stories told from beginning to middle
to end.

Reference:

Telling the Truth: The Art of Creative Nonfiction for Senior High School
Authors: Jessie Saraza Barrot, Ph.D. and Philippe John Fresnillo Sipacio

Photo Reference:
Cloudlakeliterary.com (N.D). Photo Retrieve from: https://www.cloudlakeliterary.ca/creative-nonfiction
Reedsdyblog.com (2022). Photo retrieve from: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/creative-writing/creative-nonfiction/
iStock.com (2016). Photo retrieve from: https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image?mediatype=illustration&phrase=lake
Vectors.com (N.D) Photo retrieve from: https://all-free-download.com/free-vector/download/lemon_and_a_half_310478.html

Prepared by:

MARY JOYCE N. RAMOS

Gmail account: [email protected]

Revised by:
FLORIAN M. ECALNER
Gmail Account: [email protected]