
The word biography has the same roots as autobiography but without the “auto” prefix. Biographies are typically based on interviews, letters, personal journals, photos, reference books, newspapers, and digital media.

What is a biography?Ī biography is also a nonfiction account of someone’s life, but it’s written by someone else. The etymology of the word autobiography is made up of three Greek root words: “auto,” meaning self “bio,” meaning life and “graph” meaning write.
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The author might be a politician, change-maker, business figure, professional athlete, or celebrity. Many autobiographies are written by people who have some claim to fame who write about their journey to becoming famous. They’re often used as resources by historians. The events recounted in autobiographies are factual and fact-checked. Usually, an autobiography covers the author’s entire life up to the point of writing in chronological order and is sometimes (though not always) drafted in the later years of the author’s life.

Memoirs typically fall into one of these structures: Storytelling basics like plot and setting.Supporting details and events from the past and the people who were present.While a memoir is a flexible genre, it should include these things: Memoir authors can experiment with how they order the events they’re recounting, whether they write in the past or present tense, use a linear narrative, or divide their memoir into sections. There isn’t one right way to structure a memoir. These days, some memoirs are even graphic novels illustrated by the author. They might focus on their childhood and family, a spiritual journey, their experience with fame, a big adventure, or many different but thematically related events in a collection of personal essays. What is memoir as a literary genre?Ī memoir is a literary nonfiction genre in which the author recounts their experiences during a significant period of their life. The beginning is “mem” just like “memory.” The end is essentially an elongated pronunciation of “war.” Put together phonetically, it sounds like “MEM-waar.” You can consult an online dictionary to hear an audio recording of this word being pronounced out loud.

Memoir can seem like a tricky word to pronounce, but it’s actually quite simple. Memoirs focus on intimately conveying their perception of these memories in a way that is emotionally truthful but isn’t fact-checked. A memoir is a nonfiction but subjective collection of narratives in which the author remembers experiences, emotions, and events from a certain period in their life. Memoir comes from the French word mémoire, which means memory. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly What is a memoir?
