15 Most Common Autobiography Questions

The first thing you should remember when writing an autobiography is that all types of clichés can kill your paper. The standard scheme “was born – went to school – went to college” won’t impress anyone. However, the following autobiography quiz, which contains most common questions, can be an effective start for brainstorming the subject:

• Where is your family from?
• Who are your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on?
• Does your family tree contain any heroes or famous people?
• What are some stories which are passed from generation to generation in your family?
• What is your first/best/worst childhood memory?
• Do you have any siblings and/or cousins?
• Did you ever have a pet?
• What was your favorite pastime as a child/ teenager/ adult?
• What did you want to be when you were a child?
• Do you like sports? Describe your notable achievements, if any.
• Who were the most influential people in your life?
• Have you traveled much? What was your most memorable trip and why?
• What is your favorite place and why?
• What advice would you give to your 15-year-old self?
• What do you consider as your most important achievement in life so far?

5 Exclusive Autobiography Questions

The 15 questions discussed above focus on the most common ingredients, which can become good building blocks for your autobiography. However, you should add some spice to your life story to prevent your readers from falling asleep. To do this, here are 5 exclusive questions to find topics for an autobiography that will breathe life into your memoir, making it uniquely interesting:

1. Has the world changed during your life? Do you like these changes? (Here you can mention for instance the rise of innovative technologies, advent of internet, social networking and their impact on your life.)
2. What is your contribution to the future of this planet and how did you choose it? (Maybe, you do not use plastic bags or do not own a car.)
3. What would you tell your family/ friends/ neighbors/ all people in the world if you knew that you had only 1 day more to live on earth?
4. What occupation would you choose if you did not have to earn your living?
5. If you, just like Goethe’s Mephistopheles, could exclaim, “Stay moment, you are so fair!”, would you do it at a certain moment of your life? Or, do you think that you will have this moment in the future?

Any autobiography question from this exclusive list can turn a boring life story in a captivating memoir which could become a bestseller if it was sold.
So, with these most common and exclusive prompts by your side, you have pretty good chances of success. Use the most common ingredients and then add some spice to win the hearts of your teachers!

1. Understand the essence of reflective essays

   One of the reasons why students failed to write a good reflective essay is due to their failure of distinguishing one from custom essay writing. While the latter consists of essay writing in consideration about the facts provided for a certain topic, writing reflective essays requires writing about your own personal experiences and point of views.

2. Draw out your own perspective about the particular subject

   Your own emotions and thoughts should be the main element of the content of your essay. Express your standpoint and assert what you strongly agree or disagree about the issue and provide your justification. Write in a manner that you will not offend your readers when expressing your thoughts.

3. Support your own standpoint with references

   Although you are expected to write your own observations, beliefs and convictions regarding a subject matter, students are required to support their own reflective standpoint using references in some cases. You can find useful references to cite in support of your personal stand on a subject matter using journals, books and other reputable resources online. It is important to keep in mind however that you need to benchmark your own experiences and your references are used only to support your own point of views.

4. Observe word ethics when expressing your opinions in the reflective essay

   In reflective essays writing, freedom is given upon you to express your ideas and feelings. However, you should always observe ethics in your own choice of words. Your commentaries should not mention words that are offensive as to sex, religion and race. Avoid cursing words and other words denoting hate and attacking persons.

5. Topic ideas to write

   Do not hesitate to write about your own personal experiences that may be related to your subject matter. It can be about life changing experience and your own reflection about how a particular event affected your personal life. After all, the main essence of reflective essay papers is to draw out your own personal ideas.

• Begin the discussion section with one element of the research and link it to another area of research conducted earlier that it clarifies, supports, or discredits. If your research offers a new perspective on older research, discuss it here also. Dissertation discussions are the tool by which the student locates his or her research in the global field; therefore, a dissertation discussion format must assert its place immediately.
• Once you have located the results in their proper research context, immediately discuss the global implications of your results. Discussion format for dissertations functions best when it reads as a standalone essay that outlines the global implications of your research.
• Next, link your specific results to the research problem articulated in the introduction. Include their relevance to studies that have been conducted in other areas of the world with similar research problems.
• Use the discussion section of your dissertation to convince the reader of the soundness of your conclusions. Do not leave it until the conclusion section to achieve this. If you have not demonstrated sufficient logic in the discussion section, the conclusion section will fail.
• Focus your discussion section by continually referring back to the research problem and identifying how it has changed as a result of your research. Confront any discrepancies or surprises that the research revealed and identify what bearing they have on the problem.

Write a persuasive essay on the subject of politics:

• Convince your reader that communism is the political system of the future. Point to the failures in modern communism and outline the ways that communism will save the world.
• Convince your reader that the feudal system is the political system of the future. Point to the failures in modern capitalism and communism, and outline the ways that the feudal system will save the world.
• Convince your reader that anarchy is the political system of the future. Point to the failures in modern capitalism and communism and outline the ways that anarchy will save the world.
  

Write a persuasive essay on the subject of the environment:

• Write one or more persuasive essays about why global warming is a fake. Deconstruct the arguments of one or more scientists to make your point.
• Write a paper about the damage done by Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and show how its scientific basis is flawed and hysterical. Persuasive essays typically depend on reputable sources of evidence, so make sure that your critique is grounded in viable scientific data.
• Write a paper about the power of science to solve the problems caused by global warming.

Write one or more persuasive essays about the problem of overpopulation in the world:

• Use evidence from reputable scientific sources such as Scientific American or peer-reviewed science journals such as PLoS ONE to show that humans need to stop reproducing immediately.
• Use evidence from reputable scientific sources such as Scientific American or peer-reviewed science journals such as PLoS ONE to show that the earth can support human life in excess of 10 billion.

Answering Yes to These Questions Means that You Have a Good Thesis Conclusion

1. Have I included the thesis statement in my conclusion, though not rewriting it word by word?
2. Have I managed to address all main points of the thesis in my conclusion?
3. Have I emphasized the significance of the researched issue in the thesis conclusion?
4. Have I managed to communicate the sense ending in the thesis conclusion?
5. Have I included new information in my thesis conclusion?

Some other Issues to Consider When Writing a Thesis Conclusion

When writing a conclusion and answering the questions given above, the student should also keep in mind that every conclusion (as any other part of the academic writing text) has to fulfill a certain set of functions. Speaking about conclusions in general, one should not the following functions:

• Restating and emphasizing the thesis statement;
• Summarizing the argument of the whole work;
• Making the final impression on the reader.

However, conclusions of theses are still a bit more different from smaller works, and this type of conclusions performs the same functions, but in a bit more different way:

• Since the thesis involves conducting a particular study, the conclusion should present a concise summary of research process and results;
• It is allowable to perform the comparison and contrast of various theories, frameworks, writings considered in the process of composing the thesis for the sake of making inferences of the most proper ones in the context of the present research;
• The conclusion for such a large work as a thesis should also contain limitations of the present study, and should delineate recommendations for improvement, as well as guidelines for further research to eliminate those limitations.

Fiction Writing Definition and Various Elements: What’s Cooking?

Well, okay, writing fiction is fun, but what is fiction writing after all?
 
Fiction writing is the writing of a (short) story with imaginary characters and/or plot.
 
And this is what it’s made of:

• Characters;
  E.g., a knight and a dragon, a man with superpowers and a damsel in distress, a saucepan and a cheesecake, etc.;
• Plot;
  E.g., a quest for a captive princess, a crime investigation, a night in a haunted house, etc.;
• Setting;
  E.g., city suburbs, a Texan farm, a secret lab, etc.;
• Theme;
  E.g., convince the readers that a criminal has to be punished, divorce is painful, people can make friends with aliens., etc.
• Style.
  E.g., cheerful and simple, gloomy and dark, edgy and thrilling, etc.

That’s what fiction story writing is made of. All in all, you’re more than welcome to let your imagination loose. Let’s get it started!

Fiction Writing Secrets: Seventeen Easy Steps to Becoming a Pro.

Like in any line of work, in writing fiction there are some rules to follow. Try to:

1. Be creative.
2. Pick a specific character.
3. Think of an unusual adventure (s)he/it could have.
4. Put the character in a specific setting.
5. Create a sidekick for your character.
6. Think of the writing style that suits the plot and the genre.
7. Draw an outline of the adventures the character will have.
8. Create an unusual and non-trivial ending.
9. Focus on the action, not the descriptions.
10. Make your character change throughout the story.
11. Think through the key message of your story.
12. Write the draft of the first and the last paragraphs.
13. Take a break and read what you’ve written.
14. Correct what you think is wrong and go on writing.
15. Take a short break and read the entire paper.
16. Find someone to critique your work.
17. Add the final touches and get ready to become famous!

Whenever you follow these tips on writing fiction, you’ll get a top-notch result!

Fiction Writing and Non-fiction Writing: Find Five Differences.

When writing a fiction story, you should keep it as far from non-fiction as possible.
Well, what is non-fiction writing then, you might ask.
 
Non-fiction writing means telling simple facts, and it’s the plain opposite of writing fiction novels:
 

 
That’s what short fiction writing and nonfiction writing differ in. Now let’s see some examples of fiction writing!

Fiction Writing. Gross Errors and Horrendous Clichés: Keep Away!

 
The cliché
 

Fiction Writing: An Essential Recommendation. Take Your Chance!

And now, the word from the Wisest Writer of All:
 
“Think of the readers’ impression of each element/passage/character.” Now you don’t have to search any further for answers to questions like “What is fiction writing?” Follow the pieces of advice above, and you’ll always win!

How to Write a Critique: Preliminary Steps

Prior to writing a critique paper, a student should carefully evaluate the book or article that will be critiqued. There are several ways of making this process more interesting and productive. This is how you can do it:

1. Use asterisks and colors to highlight the most important quotations and paragraphs in the book. If you do so, it will be easier for you to find the most important information later on.
2. Briefly summarize the key arguments that the author or authors advance. You should write them down using bullet points. Again, you need to write down the number of the pages where they appear in the book, so that you easily find them again when writing the paper.
3. Look at the data that the author discusses. When were these data collected? Does this information come from credible sources? Is it fully relevant to the ideas that the writer discusses?
4. Think how the author’s arguments can be disputed. Does the researcher acknowledge possible limitations of his or her ideas? Suppose that you were an opponent of the writer’s arguments, how would you criticize them?
5. Write down the new ideas or concepts that you have learned from this book or article. Has it been of any use to you?

How to Write a Critique: An Outline for Your Paper

Very often, students struggle with their critique papers because they don’t know how to structure them. You should look at this detailed outline explaining how to write a critique:

1. Introduction. In this section of your paper you need to describe the main idea the writer focuses on. More importantly, you should give an overall evaluation of this book or study.
2. Main body. In this part, you should evaluate the authors’ theories or arguments in more detail. Focus on the hypothesis or theories that the author advances. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
3. In the main body, you also need to assess the examples that the writer gives. Do these examples really back up the author’s claims? Are these examples relevant to the topic?
4. Furthermore, you need to discuss the practical implications of the writer’s work. Can his or her ideas be used to solve a certain problem or answer some important question?
5. Finally, it is necessary to determine whether this book or article offers any original ideas.
6. Conclusion. In the last part, you should briefly restate your thesis about this book or article.

How to Write a Critique: Follow-Up

So, now you know how to write a good critique. Hopefully, you will remember the suggestions provided in this article. If you take them into account, you will see that critical papers are not as hard to write as they seem to be. So, good luck to you!

Critique essay: what it is and what it is not

A critique essay is an objective and well-argued analysis of somebody’s creation. Critical writing should not be confused with:

• negative criticism (critique essays discuss both positive and negative aspects);
• review (NO PERSONAL OPINIONS or IMPRESSIONS in critique essays, please);
• summary (summaries may be present in critique essays, but they always have to be accompanied by evaluation and critical discussion).

Only having these simple principles in mind, you may proceed to writing an essay.

Critique essay: step 1 – choose a topic

If you wonder how to write a critique essay, start from choosing a good topic. Make certain that it is narrow, manageable and interesting. For example, if you are assigned a critique essay about a movie, it can be nearly impossible to evaluate all aspects, such as plot lines, implied messages, symbols, play of actors, music, light, costumes etc.
 
Be realistic when choosing topics for your critique essays. For instance, if you are to write a critique essay about the movie Titanic, you may want to analyze the play of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and how it contributes to making the development of their relationship believable. Or, you can make it even narrower and research the way in which face expressions of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet contribute to the development of the love story plot line in the movie.

Critique essay: step 2 – investigate what you critique

The next thing you should do when writing a critique essay is to investigate the work you are going to critique. Make sure that you have a perfect understanding of the creation you are going to analyze and evaluate. In other words, carefully, even meticulously, watch the movie, read the book, article or poem that you are going to critique. Pay special attention to the aspects you have chosen as your topic in step 1. Here are some guiding questions for your note taking:

1. Are the author’s messages clear?
2. Did the author choose the best methods for communicating his/her messages?
3. Is the choice of techniques appropriate for the chosen genre and target audience?

Do not rely on your memory only, no matter how brilliant it may be. Take notes when watching a movie (reading a book, article or poem).

Critique essay: step 3– organize your notes

The next step is to look through your notes and logically organize them. Check this example of a critique essay outline:

1. Introduction (introduce the author, his/her work, the aspects you are going to analyze and present your judgment in a clear and concise thesis statement).
2. Main body
   • A brief summary (make it ice-cold, no emotions and no personal impressions, please.)
   • A well-argued evaluation (At last! Here you should place the meat of your essay critique. Discuss main strengths and weaknesses you have found in the creation, supporting your every claim with concrete arguments giving clear examples from the movie, text or artwork that you are analyzing.
3. Conclusion (sum up your evaluation and restate your thesis sentence; do not add any new information in this part).

Critique essay: step 4 – write an essay

Use your notes and the outline and write a critique essay. If you have any doubts as to your notes, be sure to rewind certain episodes of the movie or reread some passages of the book (article, poem etc.). Use only verified information in your critique essays.

Critique essay: step 5 – proofread, proofread, proofread

After completing your critique essays, have a good rest and start proofreading your papers. Here are some niceties to consider if you want to proofread effectively:

• Print your essay instead of proofreading from a computer screen.
• Read it aloud to detect any flaws in style or inconsistencies in content.
• Finally, read it backwards if you want to see the paper from a new perspective and correct even the slightest errors.

So, now you have a clear understanding of how to write a critique essay. Use these five easy steps, make an effort and you will never have problems with your critique essays.

1. Learn more about the genre of the movie you are analyzing. For instance, if you have to write about Hitchcock’s film Strangers on a Train, you’ll need to read about such a genre as film noir.
2. In case your movie is based on a novel or a short story, you may find it useful to learn more about the literary origins of the movie.
3. It is also necessary to write down the names of the movie’s director, actors, scriptwriters, and studio. Students should also specify the release date. You will use this information when compiling a bibliography for your paper.
4. Apart from that, students should focus on such aspects of a movie as the running time, use of camera, or setting.

So, you can see that the analysis of a movie must be based on some research. If you intend to write a movie analysis essay, you should discuss such issues as:

1. The setting of the movie. You need to tell where and when the action takes place.
2. The role that the music plays. Your movie analysis should explain how music supplements the plot. Moreover, you should tell how music bridges various scenes.
3. The use of special effects, lighting, and color. For example, you can explain how colors are used to describe the main characters.
4. Professional movie critics often focus on various elements of a plot. So, students can describe the use of flashbacks and flashforwards in the movie and explain how they support the main idea.
5. The main characters. In this part of your paper, you can assess actors’ performance and determine whether the main characters are convincing or not.
6. Brief evaluation of the movie. Finally, you need to give a brief assessment of the film, and describe its strengths and weaknesses

By following these tips, you will easily write your paper. Hopefully, you’ll see that movie analysis can be both interesting and enjoyable.