the narrator: look who’s talking autobiography: “self-written life” biography: “written...
TRANSCRIPT
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
Autobiography: “Self-Written Life”
Biography: “Written Life”
Practice
First- and Third-Person Narration
Feature Menu
Who’s telling this story?
The narrator is the person who tells the story.
Different kinds of narrators can tell you different kinds of information.
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
What about this one?
What does the second narrator tell you that the first one does not?
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
The first narrator is Michael. He doesn’t want to tell this information—yet.
Why doesn’t the first narrator tell the story the same way?
Michael has been late three times this week.
Michael has to go to detention on Monday.
Michael has to bring back a parent’s signature on the piece of paper.
When Michael tells his own story, he is a first-person narrator.
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
A story told from the first-person point of view
• tells one version of events—the narrator’s own version
• reveals only the narrator’s thoughts or feelings
• uses first-person pronouns: I, me, us, our, my, mine
Where is the narrator in the second story?
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
The narrator is not a character. The narrator is not in the story at all.
• can tell more than one character’s version of events
When another person—a writer—tells Michael’s story, the story is told from the third-person point of view. A third-person narrator
The Narrator: Look Who’s Talking
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• reveals words, thoughts, and feelings of all characters
• uses third-person pronouns: he, she, they, them, his, hers
Nonfiction is writing based on fact—”not fiction.”
Autobiography is the most personal kind of nonfiction.
Autobiography: “Self-Written Life”
When you write about something that happened to you, you are telling an autobiographical story.
An autobiography is the writer’s story of his or her own life, written from the first-person point of view.
Autobiography: “Self-Written Life”
auto graphybio
means
self life writing
means means
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A biography is the story of a person’s life written by another person from the third-person point of view.
Biography: “Written Life”
The biographer learns about the person through research:
interviews
historical accounts
articlesjournals
diaries letters
The biographer is not the subject of the story.
A person’s whole life can’t fit into a biography. Not every detail is important.
Biography: “Written Life”
The writer has to choose what to include—and what to leave out.
That is also true when you write about yourself.
What you had for lunch every day when you were three is probably not very important.
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2. What is the point of view in the story?
1. Who is telling this story?
Let’s Try It
“What did you do today?” she asked, as she turned the key and opened the door.
“Nothing much…really.” I knew she heard the hesitation in my voice. I knew she’d ask more questions—questions I didn’t feel much like answering.
“Nothing much. OK.” Her voice was flat. “Put your stuff away and come talk to me.”
It was my own fault. I’d given myself away. Now I would have to explain that piece of paper in my pocket.
Practice
Let’s Try It
4. Why are some third-person pronouns used?
3. How do you know this story is told from the first-person point of view?
“What did you do today?” she asked, as she turned the key and opened the door.
“Nothing much…really.” I knew she heard the hesitation in my voice. I knew she’d ask more questions—questions I didn’t feel much like answering.
“Nothing much. OK.” Her voice was flat. “Put your stuff away and come talk to me.”
It was my own fault. I’d given myself away. Now I would have to explain that piece of paper in my pocket.
Practice
Let’s Try It
6. What kinds of information does the narrator give about the other character?
5. What kinds of information does the narrator give about himself or herself?
“What did you do today?” she asked, as she turned the key and opened the door.
“Nothing much…really.” I knew she heard the hesitation in my voice. I knew she’d ask more questions—questions I didn’t feel much like answering.
“Nothing much. OK.” Her voice was flat. “Put your stuff away and come talk to me.”
It was my own fault. I’d given myself away. Now I would have to explain that piece of paper in my pocket.
Practice
On Your Own
Draw a time line of your own life. Label the left end “Birth” and the right end “Now.” Above the line, write two or three major events in your life.
Practice
Pick one of the events and write a paragraph about it from the first-person point of view, as if you were writing an autobiography. Then write about the same event from the third-person point of view, as if you were writing a biography.
First- and Third-Person Narration
The End