Biographical Text: Definition, Structure, Characteristics, Types, Rules & Examples

Definition of Biography Text

A biographical text is a person's biography that presents the life history, experiences, and success stories of the person being reviewed (Kemdikbud Team, 2017, p. 209). Of course, biographies are usually written by someone else. Generally, biographies discuss famous figures, successful people, or someone who plays a big role in something that concerns people's lives.

The statement above is also in line with the opinion of Sukirno (2016, p. 55), which states that a biographical text is writing that tells or tells the life of a person or other people.

Characteristics of Biographical Text

The Ministry of Education and Culture Team (2016, pp. 209-210) stated that the characteristics of a biographical text are as follows.

1. The biographical text must contain fact-based information on the characters told in narrative form.
2. It contains a fact of the life experience of a character in solving problems until it is finally successful, so it should be an example.
3. The biographical text has a clear structure and does not vary because it tries to reveal the facts experienced by the characters being reviewed.

Biography Text Structure

Judging from the structure, the biographical text still has similarities with the narrative text. It's just that the needs of parts of the structure are quite different, for example, how conflict and climax are not needed here. The following is the structure of the biographical text according to the Ministry of Education and Culture Team (2017, p. 215).

1.      Orientation or settings (aim)

Contains information about the background of the story or event to help the reader understand the context needed in the next section. The information in question includes: when, where, who, and how.

2.      Important events (important events, records of events)

It is a series of events arranged chronologically (in order of time). The events presented include the main events experienced by the characters. The narrator's comments on some parts can also be included in this section.

3.      Reorientation

contains evaluative comments or concluding statements regarding the orientation and series of events told previously. This section may or may not be present in the biographical text, depending on the author's style.

Biographical Text Language Rules

The linguistic elements of the biographical text use several dominant linguistic rules. According to the Ministry of Education and Culture Team (2017, p. 235), the linguistic characteristics include several pounds below.

1. Many use pronouns or third-person singular pronouns. This pronoun is used in various ways by mentioning a character's name or a character's nickname. For example, he, he, the child of cassava, the genius from Papua, the father of computers.
2. It uses action verbs to describe various events or actions that have been carried out by the character being reviewed. For example: studying, reading, walking, throwing.
3. Often uses adjectives or adjectives to provide detailed information about character traits. Example: Adjectives describing character traits: polite, diligent, tenacious. Often, these adjectives are preceded by a copulative such as: is, is.
4. Many use passive verbs to describe events experienced by characters as the story's subject. For example: selected, assigned, given.
5. Using verbs related to mental activity to describe the role of characters, for example: inspire, approve, understand, love.
6. Often use conjunctions, prepositions, or nouns related to time order. Examples include: next, before, already, at the time, then, until, until, next, on the date, during, then.

Biographical Text Analysis

Like other texts, various aspects can be analyzed from biographical texts, including structure, elements, linguistic rules, which have been discussed in this article above. However, usually, the main aspect in the analysis of biographical texts is the character's superior character.

To find the character's superior character, it can be done by identifying what events/problems a person is experiencing and how to deal with all of them.

In addition, it can also be identified by knowing how to describe the character first. There are two ways of depicting superior characters, namely as follows.

1. Directly, the writer or narrator mentions the characters.
2. Indirectly, through character dialogues and other characters' dialogues, and what other characters do,

Biography Text Type

The Ministry of Education and Culture Team (2016, p. 231) The types of biographical texts can be divided into four types. The following is an explanation.

Based on the author's side

1.      Autobiography is a life story written by the character himself. 

2.      Biography story or story of a character in his life written by someone else.

Based on the contents

1.      Life journey biography

It contains a complete life journey of a character or is taken from parts that are considered to have an impression.

2.      Career running biography

It contains a character's career path starting from the beginning to the current career, or it could be a career journey to achieve a certain success.

Based on the issues discussed

1.      Political biography

They are writing the life story of a country's figure from a political point of view. This kind of biography gets material from a collection of various researches. However, political biographies usually cannot be separated from the requirements of the interests of the author or character who are asked to be written.

2.      Intellectual biography

A biography is a collection of materials obtained from various researches. The writing is also poured in a scientific language style.

3.      Journalistic biography

A biography whose writing is obtained from the results of interviews and other press procedures with the character to be written or the character who becomes a reference as supporting material for the story.

By publisher

1.      Own book

Production costs starting from writing, printing, and marketing are borne by themselves, although the publisher still produces them. This biographical writing usually aims to sell well in the market or get public attention.

2.      Subsidy book

Writing biographies of figures whose production costs are borne by the sponsor. Usually, the consideration is because biographies like this are less commercial (hard to sell).

Biography Text Function

Zulfikar (2012, p.42) says there are several functions in writing biographical texts, including:

1. Tell the life experiences of the characters,
2. Take the wisdom of exemplary and wisdom of the characters told,
3. A means of reflecting on the character's life experiences,
4. Document history,
5. Create a positive image for the character being reviewed,
6. Legitimize the power and thought of the character.

Benefits of Biography Text

Sukirno (2016, p. 55) argues that the benefits of biographical texts are as follows.

1. Get to know someone's life story for others to know.
2. Get various information about the characters written.
3. Inspire the experiences of life stories of characters in biographies.

Sample Biography Text

According to the Ministry of Education and Culture Team (2017, p. 215), the following is an example of a biographical text.

BJ Habibie's Biography Text and Its Structure

Orientation

BJ Habibie is a role model and a source of pride for many people in Indonesia. He is the third President of the Republic of Indonesia. His full name and title are Prof. DR (HC). Ing. Dr. Sc. multi. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. He was born in Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi, on June 25, 1936. He is the fourth of eight children, Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie and RA. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo. Habibie married Hasri Ainun Habibie on May 12, 1962 and they have two sons, Ilham Akbar and Thareq Kemal.

Important Events (Important Events)

Habibi has been orphaned since his father died on September 3, 1950, of a heart attack. After his father died, his mother sold his house and vehicle and moved to Bandung with his children. His mother worked hard to support the lives of her children.

In Indonesia, Habibie was Minister of State for Research and Technology/Head of BPPT for 20 years, chairman of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI), led a strategic BUMN company, was elected vice president of the Republic of Indonesia, and became the 3rd President of Indonesia after Suharto stepped down in 1998. During his tenure with Habibie, there was a referendum in East Timor until finally, East Timor separated itself from Indonesia. In his short tenure, BJ Habibie has laid the foundation for democratic life and regional unity in Indonesia by passing the law on regional autonomy and the law on political parties, the law on elections, and the law on the composition of the positions of the DPR/MPR.

reorientation

Descending as President, Habibie returned to Germany with his family. In 2010, Ainun died of cancer. As a therapy for the loss of a loved one, Habibie wrote about a love story with Ainun, which was later recorded under the title "Ainun and Habibie." This book was filmed with the same title.