LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

Read the following biography.

Justin Bieber was born on March 1, 1994 at St. Joseph's

Hospital in London, Ontario, Canada and was raised in
Stratford, Ontario, Canada. He is the son of Pattie
Mallette and Jeremy Bieber. He is of French-Canadian
(mother) and German, Irish, Scottish, and English (father)
descent. He has two younger half-siblings via his father,
Jazmyn (born 2009) and Jaxon (born 2010).

Growing up, he showed a strong interest in music. He

taught himself to play many instruments, including, guitar,
drums, piano and trumpet. His mother began posting videos
http://www.aaarena.com/events/detail/justin-bieber
of him performing musically on YouTube. The videos soon
built up a fan following and caught the attention of talent agent Scooter Braun. Braun was able to secure an impromptu
audition with Usher Raymond, who was impressed and helped Bieber to sign a record deal.

His career in the music industry has grown over the years. In 2009, his first single, "One Time", was a worldwide hit
and was certified Platinum in Canada and the United States. This was followed by his debut album, "My World", which was
also an international success. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot
100. In 2010, he released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0. He also released a successful concert film, Justin
Bieber: Never Say Never (2011). In 2012, he released his third studio album, Believe. In 2015, he released his fourth studio
album, Purpose.

His passion and hard work got himself a lot of achievements. He has won a Grammy Award and an American Music
Award. He has been listed numerous times by Forbes magazine among the "Top Ten Most Powerful Celebrities in the
World." He has sold an estimated 140 million records, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous, http://www.imdb.com

Vocabulary
Use the highlighted words or words in bold letters above in answering following items.

_raised____ I was taken care until I had completely grown in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
__________ Usher really like and respect my audition.
__________ I have an English bloodline from my father and French-Canadian bloodline from my mother.
__________ He helped me signed a business agreement or contract.
__________ I have two half brothers and sisters from my father.
__________ My career in the business in the area of music has grown over the years.
__________ Braun was able let me do a short performance in order to show that I am good with Usher.
__________ My very first official album, One Times was an international success.
__________ I did an audition without any plan and preparation with Usher.
__________ I got a lot of things done successfully in the music industry
__________ I have been listed many times in Forbes magazine.
__________ I am in the top ten most powerful famous person in the entertainment business.
__________ I have sold a guessed value of 140 million records.

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LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

Biography- a written story of a person’s life written by someone else. It is usually narrative and contains
anecdotes.

Autobiography means writing about yourself.

auto- comes from the Greek word meaning self

bio- comes from the Greek word meaning life

graphy- comes from the Greek meaning write or show

Other definitions:
“The story of a person’s life as written by that person.”
-Cambridge Dictionary

“A biography written by the person it is about.”

-Merrriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary

“It is a self-written account of the life of oneself.”

-Wikipedia

“An account of a person's life written by that person.”

-Oxford Dictionary

Autobiography- a biography of the author.

Author- writer of a book, play, etc.
Narrative- a story
Anecdote- a story about a particular experience.

Point of Views

Third person point of view

Telling a story about another person.
Uses third person pronouns and possessive adjectives. (He, she, him, etc.)
Used in writing a biography.
First person point of view
Telling a story about themselves.
Uses first person pronouns and possessive adjectives. (I, me, myself, etc.)
Used in writing an autobiography.
Second person point of view.
Telling a story like the audience is part of it.
Uses second person pronouns and possessive adjectives. (You, yours, your)
Used in different kinds of texts and speeches.

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

Grammar Review

Pronouns

Subject Pronoun-1st Person

I was born and raised in Cebu Philippines

We usually go to my grandparent’s hometown during school breaks.

Object Prounoun- 1st person

Mark gave me a toy car on my 5th birthday.

Aunt Mira is very strict making us serious in school.

Possessive Adjective-1st person

My family is rich.
Our families are both from Surin, Thailand.

Possessive Pronoun- 1st person

The 1st honor award is rightfully mine because I studied hard.
That green house is ours.

Reflexive Pronoun- 1st person

I made myself a wooden toy.

We finished our thesis by ourselves.(“by” in this expression means without any help from others

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

WRITING
Rewrite Justin Beiber’s biography using 1st person point of view.

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

READING
Indicate the year based on Justine Beiber’s biography

_________ Year he was born

_________ Year his first single, “One Time” made a worldwide hit.
__________ Year he released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0
__________ Year the concert-film, Justin Beiber: Never Say Never was released.
__________ Year he released his third album.
__________ Year the album, Purpose was released.

Indicate the topic or theme of each paragraph in Justine Beiber’s biography.

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3

Paragraph 4

Text Structures in Writing:

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

What text structure/s are used in an autobiographical writing?

What is the order of events used in autobiographical writing?

What is the focal idea of an autobiographical writing?

What basic elements or parts of an autobiographical writing?

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LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

ELEMENTS OF AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY/BIOGRAPHY

Date and place of birth and childhood

short information about
family

Name

Achievements Major events

Why the person is important

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

WRITING

What is a sentence?

A sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. A
sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.

Identify the following. Indicate S if it is a sentence and NS if otherwise.

1. Is very loving and kind.

2. The students sleepy.

3. The woman bought.

4. When I finish college.

5. Listen.

Command Sentences

1. The subject is “you”, but we don’t write or say “you”.

2. The verb is always in its base form – stop, eat, go, wait, be, etc.
3. Add “don’t” before the verb to make it negative – don’t worry, don’t forget, etc.

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

ACTIVITY

1. Read the sentences.

2. Identify which ones are complete sentences and which ones are not.
3. Write CS for complete sentences and NS if otherwise.
4. Explain why the NS items are not sentences.

1. __NS__ Is very hot in summer. (There is no subject.)

2. __CS__ It is very hot in summer. ( _________________)
3. ______ My mother from north of Thailand. ( _________________)
4. ______ She can speak English very well. ( _________________)
5. ______ Is very handsome. ( _________________)
6. ______ My dream is to start my own business. ( _________________)
7. ______ Every time my father goes home from a trip. ( _________________)
8. ______ Don’t tell him. ( _________________)
9. ______ They didn’t enjoy. ( _________________)
10. ______ Enjoys reading books and listening to music. ( _________________)

POINTS TO REMEMBER

 A sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. A
sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.
 In English, the subject is always spoken or written in a complete sentence. (Except for
commands/imperatives)

SUBJECT- tells you who or what did something. It is usually a noun or a pronoun. (Noun clauses for more
advanced structures)

My mother cooks breakfast.

(Who cooks breakfast?)

The telephone rang numerous times.

(What did rang numerous times?)

The bus hit the taxi.

(What hit the taxi?)

Watching TV and listening to music are my favorite free time activities.

(What are my favorite free time activities?)

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

 VERB- usually tells the action. Sometimes it doesn’t. It only links the subject with the rest of the
sentence.
ACTION VERBS- verbs that expresses action that a person or thing can do.

My mother cooks breakfast.

The telephone rang.
The bus hit the taxi.

LINKING VERBS- verbs links/connect the subject to an information about the subject. They do not have
objects.
Watching TV and listening to music are my favorite free time activities.
I am handsome.
The food tastes good.
True linking verbs: all forms of be-verbs such as- am, is, are, was, were, has been, etc.
These words are sometimes linking and action: feel, taste, smell, look, sound, etc.

She looks angry.

She looks for food.

 OBJECT- receives the action of an action verb. It can be a noun or pronoun.

My mother cooks breakfast. (Cooks what?- breakfast is the object)

The bus hit the taxi. (Hit what?- the taxi is the object)
He visited Lisa. (visited who?- Lisa is the object)
NOTE: NOT ALL ACTION VERBS NEEDS AN OBJECT. THEY ARE CALLED INTRANSITIVE.
INTRANSITIVE - [ I ]:
(1) Action word(verb)
(2) No direct object
(3) Usually followed by prepositions or adverbs
We arrived in the classroom early.
I went to the cinema.
She lied on the ground under the tree.
She sneezes loudly.
She sits on the sofa.
Her pet died.

MANY VERBS CAN BE TRANSITIVE [T] OR INTRANSITIVE [I].

She always eats before sleeping. - eat[I]
She always eats ice-cream. – eat [T]

She runs along the road. [I]

She runs his first marathon. [T]

SOME VERBS ARE ALWAYS [T] OR NEED AN OBJECT.

They need money.
She likes rich boys.

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ACTIVITY

1. UNDERLINE THE SUBJECTS WITH ONE LINE

2. UNDERLINE THE VERBS WITH TWO LINES
3. CIRCLE THE OBJECTS
4. WRITE S, V, O ABOVE FOR SUBJECTS, VERBS, AND OBJECTS RESPECTIVELY.

1. My brother is in high school.

2. He watches Korean dramas and does homework at the same time.

3. He works at a shopping mall.

4. The instructor worked us really hard in our training.

5. James likes his job but doesn’t like his boss.

6. His job is easy and pays well.

7. He is taking extra classes.

8. She will go to Canada next year.

9. She speaks and understands English.

10. On weekends, my friends and I play soccer.

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EDITING
1. Look for missing subjects and verbs.
2. Add the missing words. (there may be more than 1 possible answer)
3. Follow the symbol and word position on the image when answering.

A Bad Habit

My officemate and friend Larry a bad habit. He is never on time to anything. Arrives 15 minutes late

everywhere. Larry always an excuse. “I missed the bus.” “My alarm did not ring.” “My mother phoned me.” He

uses each excuse at least twice a week. Every time he late, I can finish the sentence of his excuse. However,

Larry’s bad habit not a problem for me anymore. If the movie at 7:00, I tell him it starts at 6:45. Then he early!

1. Decide where sentences begin and end. (there are 14 sentences)

2. Add a period at the end of each sentence, and change the first letter of each new sentence to a
capital.
3. Follow the symbols and capital letter position on the image when answering.

Indian Neighbors

a young couple from India live next door to me the husband’s name is Ajay the wife’s name is Ann

everyone calls her Annie they have a young son and are expecting their second child in a few weeks they hope

to have a girl this time both Ajay and Ann have good jobs he is an executive in a computer company she is a

computer programmer and works in our local hospital Ann is a wonderful cook she cooks mostly Indian food

they sometimes invite neighbors on weekends for a potluck meal we all bring something to share it is fun to live

next door to them.

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 LESSON 1: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING JPAD®

LAB WORK

Compose your own autobiography. It should be 3-5 paragraphs only. It should be handwritten and leave a space
for editing and error correction after every line.

Keep in mind the following:

 Point of view: 1st person point of view

 Text structure: Chronological order

 Elements/Parts- 1 Paragraph for each element/part

 Sentence structures: S-V or S-V-O

 Capitalization and use of the punctuation, period or full stop.

Submit as soon as possible for editing and error correction by the teacher.

You have to rewrite your composition on another paper after being checked.

You will be asked to read your corrected composition in front of the class.

The 1st paragraph should be spoken without reading.

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