Biography is a Text of a Figure's Life History, Learn Its Structure and Types

Kapanlagi.com - Through reading biographies, we can follow the life journey of famous figures. Because, biographies are texts that contain the life history of a figure written by someone else. Reading biographies is not only entertaining, but also can provide learning. Because, in the life story of famous figures, there is inspiration and motivation in living life.

Because it is based on the life history of a figure, a biography cannot be written haphazardly. Every information written must be in accordance with the facts and experiences experienced by the figure being told. That is why, reading biographies is one of the best ways to get to know a figure from the past.

Biography is one of the interesting and popular readings. Therefore, it is important to understand what a biography is. Summarized from various sources, here is the review.

1. Definition of Biography

(credit: freepik)

As mentioned before, a biography is a text that contains the life history of a figure. However, it is not just any life history text, a biography of a figure must be written by the figure or someone else. Because if it is written by oneself, the text is not a biography, but an autobiography.

A biography is not only about retelling the life of a figure. More than that, a biography will also highlight the values, inspiration, and motivation that a figure possesses and is important for readers to know.

Similarly, reading biographies can broaden one's knowledge, just like other reading materials. In addition, the figures portrayed in biographies can come from various backgrounds, such as heroes, national leaders, artists, and so on. The important thing is that the figure portrayed in the biography must have an inspirational life journey. Therefore, not only will readers gain insight, but they will also learn life lessons from reading biographies.

2. Biography Structure

(credit: freepik)

Biography is not just an ordinary life story. Biography has a special structure that makes it different from other types of text stories. The arrangement of such structure will also make the biography text easier to understand by the reader. The structure of a biography text is as follows.

1. Orientation or Setting
The first part of the biography structure is orientation or setting. This part contains an initial description of the figure whose life story is highlighted in the biography text. In this part, the description is still presented in a general manner, such as about the background of the story or events experienced by the figure. Generally, the information in this part can be formulated in questions such as who, when, where, and how.

2. Events or Important Occurrences
The second part is the events or important occurrences experienced by the figure. In this part, the series of events must be arranged chronologically according to the order of time. In addition, this part often presents interesting, impressive, amazing, and touching things experienced by the figure. It is not uncommon for this part to also include the author's comments on the events experienced by the figure.

3. Reorientation
The third and final part of the biography structure is reorientation. This part contains evaluative comments and/or concluding statements about the series of events experienced by the figure that have been previously narrated. Through the reorientation section, the author tries to convey his perspective on the character being told. However, in fact, reorientation biography is optional. Therefore, its existence does not have to be absolute.

3. Characteristics of Biography

(credit: freepik)

In addition to its definition and structure, a text can be categorized as a biography if it meets several characteristics. The characteristics of a biography are as follows.

1. The content of a biography text always tells the life story or journey of a famous figure.

2. Biography texts can be presented in fiction or non-fiction form.

3. Paragraphs in a biography text are developed descriptively and narratively, so they can be read as if reading a story.

4. It uses several language elements at the same time, such as conjunctions, references, verbs, time, activities, and places.

5. The character of the figure portrayed in the biography can be depicted directly or indirectly.

6. It is written chronologically.

4. Types of Biography

Biography texts may not be unfamiliar. Since school, we have been introduced to various biography books. However, all this time we only know that a biography text is a type of text that tells the life story of a character. Many people do not know that there are actually several types of biography texts. These types can be seen from several aspects, such as content, author's side, and discussion.

The explanations of the types of biographies are as follows.

1. Types of Biographies based on Content
In terms of content, biography texts are divided into two. First, biography texts that tell about the life journey of a character. Then, the second type of biography text that discusses someone's career journey, from the struggle to success.

2. Types of Biographies based on Discussion
Meanwhile, based on the discussion, biography texts are divided into three. These three types of biography texts are political biography, intellectual biography, and journalistic biography.

3. Types of Biographies based on the Author's Side
Based on the author's side, biography texts are divided into two kinds, namely autobiographical texts written directly by the character themselves. And the second type is biography texts written by others, of course with the permission of the person involved.

Those are some reviews about biography, which is a text about the life history of a character. Hopefully, it is useful and can increase knowledge.

(kpl/psp)