What are the conventions of a biography?

Read the introduction on page 34 & 35 and answer the questions:

1. What is a biography?
2. Are biographies fictional or non-fictional?
3. How long is a biography?
4. What does Sigmund Freud think about biographers?
5. How many biographies are available on www.biography.com?
6. Who is Barkhad Abdi?
7. How many types of biographies are there?
What are the conventions of a biography?

• Biographer • To be acquainted • Actual

• Concealment • To be rooted • Chronological
• Convention • To emerge • Digital
• Embellishment • To focus • Extraordinary
• Figure • To identify • Frequent
• Hypocrisy • To plagiarize • Intimate
• Non-fiction • To proceed • Mundane
• Psychoanalysis • To provide • Narrative
• Stage • To range • Reasonable
• Subject • To reveal • Significant
• To suggest • Unbelievable
• To track
Whose biography?
 Elon Musk is one of the brilliant minds who helped reshape the global economy
following the tech boom of the late 1990s. The South African native became a
millionaire many times over upon selling his shares in Zip2 in 1999 and PayPal in
2002 and made electric cars cool after taking over as CEO of Tesla Motors in 2008.
Since launching Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002, Musk has
contracted with NASA and the U.S. government to develop his company’s fleet of
rocket ships, and he fully believes in the importance of colonizing Mars to extend
human existence. Here are five things to know about the man whose ideas are
literally out of this world:

He developed and sold a video game at age 12.

The budding CEO got his start in the technology industry after seeing a computer in a store for the
first time at age 10. He learned to program and developed the code for a shooting-spaceship game
called Blastar, which he sold to a computer magazine for $500. Naturally, the boy with grand
ambitions didn't stop there, and he devised plans with his younger brother, Kimbal, to open an
arcade near their school. However, those plans were nixed when their parents refused to provide
their legal consent for a permit, and the brothers wound up selling chocolates to classmates instead.
He spent just two days at Stanford University.

Musk enrolled at Stanford in 1995 for graduate studies in applied physics, but by that point, he was consumed with the game-changing
capabilities of the internet. When applying for academic deferment, Musk said he would return in six months if his endeavors didn't pan out;
the department chairman replied that he didn't expect to see the young computer whiz again, a prediction that proved 100 percent accurate.
Musk went on to found Zip2, which established an online presence for brick-and-mortar organizations, and by the time Compaq swooped in
to buy the company four years later, there was little need to resume his formal education.

He inspired the creation of a solar power company.

In 2004, Musk was driving with his cousin Lyndon Rive to Burning Man, the annual late-summer festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
A successful software entrepreneur in his own right, Rive confessed a desire to embark on a more meaningful enterprise. Musk suggested
he consider the possibilities of solar power, and over the course of the drive and subsequent hedonism in the desert, the idea blossomed.
Rive and his brother Peter created SolarCity, which grew into the country’s largest solar provider with their cousin on board as chairman.
Something about Burning Man clearly fires up Musk’s imagination; he claims to have conceived the idea of a vertical takeoff and landing
electric plane at the festival, calling it a "very creative place.“

He is the real-life model for 'Iron Man's' Tony Stark.

When Iron Man writer and director Jon Favreau was exploring ways to humanize the character of Tony Stark, the charismatic, super-smart
protagonist of the comic book and movie series, actor Robert Downey Jr. suggested he get in touch with Musk. Favreau wound up shooting
parts of Iron Man 2 at the SpaceX factory, and Musk later found a way to replicate his fictional counterpart’s methods of designing rocket
parts on a computer screen by waving his hands across a sensor.

He owns a James Bond car.

Musk owns the Lotus Esprit from the 1977 James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me, which (spoiler alert!) turns into a submarine after Bond
and his beautiful female companion zoom off a pier to escape the enemy. Known as "Wet Nellie," the stunt car languished for years in a
storage unit before being sold to an anonymous buyer at a London auction in 2013. After the buyer was revealed to be Musk, he released a
statement in which he expressed disappointment that the car did not actually turn into a real submarine, adding, "What I'm going to do is
upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
 Personality traits
1.Openness v. Closedness
2.Conscientiousness v. Spontaneity
3.Extroversion v. Introversion
4.Agreeableness v. Hostility
5.Neuroticism v. Emotional stability
Trait Description
Being curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new
Openness
ideas.

Being organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented,

Conscientiousness
and dependable.

Being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoying social

Extraversion
situations.

Agreeableness Being affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm.

Neuroticism Being anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody.

 Week 1 - Homework
• Prepare a five-minute PowerPoint Presentation about the life of a famous
person (8-10 slides).
• Include relevant information, pictures or short videos (less than 30 seconds).
• Structure your presentation formally (introduction, body, conclusion; cite
your sources).
• Email me your presentation: paula.marcu@genesis.ro
• Deliver your presentation in front of our class.