Transcript Biography and Third-Person Point of View

What Is the Difference Between
First- and Third-Person Narration?
Feature Menu
Introduction
Autobiography and First-Person
Point of View
Biography and Third-Person
Point of View
Shifting Points of View
Your Turn
Introduction
Who is speaking?
That is one of the first
questions you should
ask when you read.
Introduction
Nonfiction writers often tell their own life stories,
but they also frequently describe the lives of
others.
Autobiography An account of a
person’s own life
Biography
An account of
another person’s
life
Introduction
When you read nonfiction, it’s important to
• identify the speaker, or
narrator
• recognize different types
of narration
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
The most personal kind of nonfiction writing is
autobiography.
An autobiography is a writer’s
account of his or her own life.
auto“self”
+
-bio“life”
+
-graphy
“writing”
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
First-Person Narration
An autobiography is written from the
first-person point of view.
The writer uses first-person pronouns:
we
me
I
us
our
my
mine
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
Here is an example of the first-person point of
view in an autobiography.
I was eleven years old when I visited a
big city for the first time. Everything
amazed me: the crowds, the traffic,
the excitement. What impressed me
most was the sight of a man washing
windows near the top of a skyscraper. I
couldn’t believe how calm he looked
while hanging in midair. I decided right
then that when I was old enough, I’d
learn how to do that job.
Autobiography and First-Person Point of View
Quick Check
I didn’t know anything about my
heritage until I was almost ten
years old. Then my cousins from
Armenia came to visit our family
in Fresno for two weeks. What a
wild experience that was!
Fortunately, they spoke English
very well. They told us
fascinating stories about the
village where our greatgrandparents lived.
What words in this
paragraph tell you
it is written from
the first-person
point of view?
[End of Section]
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
A biography is a person’s
life story written by another
person.
Biographers spend a lot of
time—sometimes many
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Author: Sarah Bradford
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
A biographer may collect information from many
different sources.
Firsthand Accounts
Secondhand Accounts
• interviews
• newspaper and
magazine articles
• letters
• diaries
• historical accounts
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
If the person lived long ago, the biographer reads
historical accounts of the time.
• These sources help the
writer understand the
world in which the
subject lived.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
If the subject is still living, the biographer may
interview him or her.
• If the person died in
the recent past, the
writer often can find
and interview people
who knew the person.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Third-Person Narration
Biographers do not write as “I” because they are
not the subject of the life story.
Instead, they write from the third-person point
of view.
They use
third-person
pronouns
such as
his
her
he
she
they
their
them
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Here is an example of third-person narration in a
biography.
The famous writer William Saroyan was
born in Fresno, California, in 1908. His
parents, who were Armenian
immigrants, struggled to support their
four children. William’s father died
young, and William and his siblings
spent several years in an orphanage.
William left school early but continued to
educate himself at Fresno’s public
library. Smart and talented, he knew by
age twelve that he wanted to be a
writer.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
No book is large enough to tell everything about
a person’s life.
A biographer must decide
what to include—and what
to leave out.
The biographer chooses
events that reveal
something important
about the person.
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
When you read a biography, think about
• what details are
included
• what they tell you
about the subject
Biography and Third-Person Point of View
Quick Check
Success was slow in coming to
William Saroyan. Despite many
rejections, he kept writing his unique
stories and sending them to
magazines. Finally, in 1933, Story
magazine published his story “The
Daring Young Man on the Flying
Trapeze.” Saroyan then boldly wrote
to the editors to tell them that he
would send one new story a day for a
whole month. He did—and many
were later published.
What important
details does the
writer give? What
do they tell you
about the subject?
[End of Section]
Shifting Points of View
In both autobiographies and
biographies, writers may
change the point of view from
which they record events.
First-Person Point of View
Allie was my best friend in middle school. We
spent hours playing kickball in my backyard,
studying together, and sharing secrets.
Third-Person Point of View
When her mother got sick, Allie had to take
over many of the household chores.
Amazingly, she still got straight A’s that year.
Shifting Points of View
Quick Check
I heard the following South
African folk tale when I was a
child. One day, a jackal and a
hyena took turns jumping up
onto clouds and eating them.
When the jackal had to come
down to earth, the hyena
caught him. When the hyena
needed help, however, the
jackal played a mean trick.
At what point in this
passage does the
point of view change?
[End of Section]
Analyze Elements of Nonfiction
Your Turn
1. Explain the difference between an autobiography
and a biography.
2. Choose an event from your life, and write about it
using first-person narration.
3. Write about the same event using third-person
narration.
4. How are your two accounts different? How are they
the same?
The End