Lesson video

Hi everyone, and welcome to our unit.

My name is Ms. Mullins, and today, we're starting the first lesson of a brand-new unit where we're going to be writing a biography.

In today's lesson, you will be able to identify the purpose and features of biographical writing.

Here are some keywords we're going to use.

Biography, purpose, linguistic feature, civil rights activist.

Well done.

A biography is a non-fiction text written about someone's life.

The purpose is the aim of the text.

A linguistic feature is a structure of language that uses words.

A civil rights activist is a person who is dedicated to securing equal opportunity for members of minority groups.

Today, we're going to be identifying the features of a biography.

We're going to start by learning about the purpose and structure of biographical writing, and then we're gonna move on to learning about their linguistic features.

Let's begin by having a think.

What is a biography? Have a moment to think.

If we think about the etymology of the word biography, we can work out that the letter string bio means life, and graphy is a form of writing or presenting.

So, a biography is a non-fiction text that is written about someone's life.

The purpose of a biography is to inform the reader about a particular person.

A biography is a non-fiction text written about what? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that a biography is written about a person.

Biographical writing often follows the same structure.

So we begin with a title, then we have subheadings.

Our first paragraph is an introduction, then we have main sections and finally a conclusion.

The introduction is the first paragraph that encourages the reader to read on and also introduces the reader to the person that the biography is about.

The sections contain paragraphs of information that are related to a particular aspect of the person's life.

And finally, the conclusion is the last paragraph that summarises the key information in the text.

The purpose of a biography is to inform the reader about one person.

The audience, so the people who read biographies, is anyone who's interested in learning about that person.

And the layout helps the reader learn about the person.

So when we talk about layout, we think about the title, the subheadings, and how information is organised in a biography to make it as easy as possible for the reader to learn about that person.

Match the words to their definitions, and pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that the introduction is the first paragraph, sections are paragraphs of information related to a particular aspect of the person's life, and the conclusion is the last paragraph.

Now it's time for your task.

You're going to read the biography about Maya Angelou in the additional materials and answer the four questions.

Let's begin by reading through this biography together.

Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou was a writer, poet, playwright, stage and screen performer, director and civil rights activist.

Her first work in 1968, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which was an autobiography of her life, became an instant bestseller, and it stayed on the New York Times' bestseller list for over two years.

In 2011, it was ranked as one of the most influential books of modern times.

Throughout this biography, this inspiring woman's life and legacy will be examined in greater detail.

Early life.

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on the 4th of April, 1928, in St.

Louis, Missouri, in the United States of America.

When she was only three years old, Maya went to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.

Throughout this time, Maya's uncle taught her how to read, and from then on, she loved books and reading.

At the age of seven years old, Maya experienced a tragedy in her family, which caused her not to speak for the next five years.

During her final year at high school in 1943, Maya, who was then 15 years old, applied for a job as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

However, her request for a job application was refused due to the colour of her skin.

Despite this setback, Maya refused to give in and continued to request a job application.

Eventually, the company relented after three weeks and allowed Maya to apply for the role where she successfully secured the job and became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

After a term's employment with the company, Maya decided to return to school.

Activism.

After graduating from high school, Maya became a civil rights activist.

She worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also known as SCLC, which was an organisation founded by Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

in 1957.

This organisation advocated for the rights and equal opportunities of African Americans.

In addition to this, Maya also worked for Malcolm X, who was another prominent civil rights activist.

Although Maya had many careers and interests, her true love was writing.

In 1968, she published her first work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which was about her early life and the many struggles she faced and overcame as an African American woman growing up in the mid-1900s.

The book was hugely successful, becoming the first ever bestselling non-fiction book written by an African American woman, and it made Maya an international star.

Throughout her later life, Maya continued to write many more books, plays, and poems as a full-time author.

Conclusion.

Up until her death on the 28th of May, 2014, Maya Angelou continued to write.

Throughout her career, she won many prestigious awards, including the highly esteemed Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2011 for her writing, acting, and spoken word.

Furthermore, she was awarded over 50 honorary degrees.

Undoubtedly, she is one of history's most important and influential civil rights activists.

Now, pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done if you spotted that the title of this biography was "Maya Angelou." The first paragraph was called the introduction.

An example of a subheading in this biography was "Early Life," "Activism," or "Conclusion." What's the last paragraph called? It is called the conclusion.

Great work, everyone.

Now we're going to move on to identifying the linguistic features of biographical writing.

There are a number of linguistic features in biographies.

Fronted adverbials, relative complex sentences, brackets to indicate parenthesis, dates and facts.

Well done.

These linguistic features are types of words and language that a writer chooses carefully.

Let's begin by learning a little bit more about fronted adverbials True or false? A fronted adverbial goes at the end of a sentence.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that this is false.

Now pause the video again while you decide how to justify your answer.

Well done if you spotted that the correct answer was B, a fronted adverbial goes at the start of a sentence, and it is followed by a comma.

A formal fronted adverbial starts a sentence, and it is followed by a comma.

We can use this scaffold to help us.

It's formal in tone, and it links one sentence to the previous sentence, so the one that came before it.

Formal fronted adverbials can be grouped into two categories.

We can think of them as being on our hands.

If we start with our "and" hand, these formal fronted adverbials are words that build on from the previous sentence with another related point.

Let's practise saying them together.

You can count them on your fingers as we say them.

In addition to this, as well as this, also, furthermore, moreover, building on to this.

Well done.

On our other hand, we can have our "but" formal fronted adverbials.

These formal fronted adverbials add a contrasting idea to the previous sentence so they bring a different point of view.

Let's practise saying these ones together.

However, despite this, on the contrary, in contrast to this.

Both of these types of formal fronted adverbials can be used to add a formal tone to our writing.

A fronted adverbial of cause is a sentence starter that explains the cause and the effect of something.

For example, we can use this visual to help us.

It follows the same rules as the formal fronted adverbial.

It's formal in tone, and it links on one sentence to the previous sentence.

It starts a sentence, and it is followed by a comma, so we can use this scaffold again to help us.

Let's see an example.

Let's read these two sentences together.

Maya experienced a traumatic event in her life at the age of seven.

Consequently, she did not speak for five years afterwards.

So, "Maya experienced a traumatic event in her life at the age of seven" is the cause, and the effect of this event is that she did not speak for five years afterwards.

And that fronted adverbial of cause consequently links the cause and the effect together.

We could also use "as a result" or "due to this." Well done.

A viewpoint fronted adverbial is a sentence starter that tells the reader the writer's point of view.

A point of view is what someone thinks about a subject or a fact.

We might also call this their opinion.

A writer of a biography wants the reader to find their facts as interesting as they do.

A viewpoint fronted adverbial follows some of the same rules as the other two types.

It's formal in tone, and it starts a sentence and is followed by a comma.

So we can also use this scaffold.

There are different viewpoint fronted adverbials that we can use.

Of significant interest, of particular interest, intriguingly, fascinatingly.

All of these are for very interesting facts.

Impressively, this is for facts that make you think, "Wow!" Notably, significantly.

These are for facts that are very important.

Viewpoint fronted adverbials can introduce a brand-new fact, so they don't have to be used to link two sentences together like the other two types of fronted adverbials.

Match the fronted adverbial type to its example, and pause the video while you do that.

Well done if you spotted that additionally was a formal fronted adverbial.

This is an "and" formal fronted adverbial.

"As a result" was a fronted adverbial of cause, and "notably" is a viewpoint fronted adverbial.

Now that we've already talked about fronted adverbials, we're going to learn a little bit more detail about relative complex sentences.

Relative complex sentences consist of a main clause and a subordinate relative clause.

The main clause can be interrupted by a relative clause.

Let's read this example of a main clause together.

Maya Angelou is celebrated as one of history's most influential figures.

Here's an example of a relative clause we could add to this sentence, "who was a writer, activist, and director." Now, my relative clause is about Maya Angelou, so I need to add it into my sentence right after the words Maya Angelou so my reader understands who my relative clause is about.

So this is how we can make this into a full complex sentence.

Maya Angelou, who was a writer, activist, and director, is celebrated as one of history's most influential figures.

Now, because my relative clause here interrupts the main clause, it's very important that I remember to use a pair of commas either side of the relative clause to separate it from the main clause.

I've also got my relative pronoun here, which is who.

That's because Maya Angelou is a person, so I need to use who as my relative pronoun to show that I'm talking about a person.

We can also add a relative clause to the end of a main clause.

Let's read this one together.

In 2011, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I could add this relative clause, "which is a highly esteemed award." So the relative clause is actually giving more information about the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Because that bit is at the end of the sentence, I can add my relative clause after that noun.

So my relative clause goes at the end of the main clause.

This is what it looks like as a full complex sentence.

Let's read it together.

In 2011, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is a highly esteemed award.

Now, this time, I've used which as my relative pronoun because my relative clause is about a thing.

It's about the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I wouldn't use the word who because who is saved for when we're talking about a person.

We use which when we're talking about a thing.

Also, really important for us to remember that we've got to separate our main clause from our subordinate clause using one comma and then finish the sentence using a full stop.

Pause the video now while you join the main and subordinate relative clause to form a relative complex sentence.

Well done if you've written this as a sentence, Maya, who was 15 at the time, applied to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

Now that we've talked about fronted adverbials and relative complex sentences, we are going to learn a little bit more about brackets to indicate parenthesis.

Parenthesis is additional information.

It can be removed from a sentence and the sentence will still make sense.

Brackets can be used for parenthesis in non-fiction texts.

Here's an example of a sentence we might find in a biography about Maya Angelou.

Maya's first book became an international bestseller.

Now, I could add some extra information to this sentence by giving the name of the book.

Her first book was called "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Let's see what happens when we add this parenthesis to the sentence.

Maya's first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," became an international bestseller.

So I've added parenthesis to this sentence, but I need to separate the parenthesis from the rest of the sentence so my reader understands that this is extra information that has been added in.

So now this is where I need to use my brackets.

Here, I've got my brackets to demarcate parenthesis, so they're used to separate the additional information from the rest of the sentence.

Which of these sentences uses brackets for parenthesis correctly? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that the correct answer was A, Angelou was born in St.

Louis, Missouri.

The reason this is correct because I could lift out the word Missouri from the sentence and the sentence would still make sense.

Now we've talked about fronted variables, relative complex sentences, and brackets to indicate parenthesis, let's learn a little bit more about how dates and facts are used in biographies.

These are used to give the reader factual information and help achieve the text's purpose.

Remember, the purpose of a biography is to inform the reader about a particular person's life.

Examples of dates and facts that are relevant to Maya Angelou include all of these.

Her first book was published in 1968.

She was born Marguerite Annie Johnson.

Angelou's final year in high school was 1943.

After graduating from high school, Maya became a civil rights activist.

Angelou was alive from 1928 to 2014.

All of these are facts, and some of them also have dates and years attached to them so that whenever the reader is learning about Maya Angelou, they have a clear understanding of what happened in her life and when it happened as well.

What are facts? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that facts are statements that can be proved to be true.

Now it's time for your task.

Read my biography about Maya Angelou in the additional materials.

It's the same biography we read in our first task.

Then answer the questions.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done if you have completed the task.

Now let's check our answers.

One example of a formal fronted adverbial in the text could have been any of these, however, despite this setback, in addition to this, and furthermore.

One example of a relative clause could have been any of these.

There were lots of relative clauses in this biography.

So, which was an autobiography of her life, which caused her not to speak for the next five years, who was then 15 years old, which was an organisation founded by Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

in 1957, who was another prominent civil rights activist, which was about her early life and the many struggles she faced as an African American woman growing up in the mid-1900s.

All of these are correct examples of relative clauses.

One example of parenthesis demarcated using brackets could have been any of these three, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," SCLC, including the highly esteemed Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2011.

Well done for completing your task.

Well done, everyone.

And that now brings us to the end of our lesson where we've been identifying the features of a biography.

A biography is a type of non-fiction text about a person's life.

The purpose of a biography is to inform the reader about the person's life.

Biographies have a range of layout and linguistic features to help them achieve their purpose.

Fronted adverbials, relative complex sentences, parenthesis indicated using brackets, and factual information are all linguistic features of biographies.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the features of biographies and are feeling confident now about moving through this unit and writing our own.

Well done, everyone.