The Examined Life
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
This page has been established for exploring personal reflections, memoir writing, autobiography, biography, the role of the interview, writing personal profiles and tributes.
With electronic media, the written word is advancing in popularity. More individuals are engaged in email activity, researching genealogy, writing and maintaining blogs, keeping
personal journals, posting opinions, writing restaurant and movie reviews or the annual holiday letter regarding the family activities of the past year.
What about taking the written word a step further?
This page offers a series of questions. The answers will make a short biography. You can
use them to interview your older relatives, or to write your autobiography.
You are welcome to write your biography in free form fashion if desired. There are no
restrictions. Use the questions as a guide to trigger your memory, ideas and imagination. You may skip over questions and topics that are not pertinent to you or are of no interest. You may add questions or topics of your own choosing. Again, the questions are merely a
guide.
There is power in the interview process. Whether you are interviewing a friend, family member
or yourself, the questions can present cathartic responses that will enhance the overall biographical experience.
One more thing, we often know more than we think. On the surface, we may look upon events and ideas as obscure memories. When we challenge ourselves through the interview process, we often reflect on more than we realize.
The following is a longer, more detailed narrative.
Biography Outline
We have also assembled a more concise listing of
Life Story Questions.
Questions, comments, compliments or complaints? E-mail: TedPack@fire2wire.com
logs on in the morning? Did your mother do all the cooking or did the kids help?
How were chores assigned? By age? By gender?
Tell me about the town you lived
in. What was it like? Did you know everyone in town? Did your parents perform
any civic duties besides voting? Did they attend city council meetings, hold any
office etc. ?
Where did you have to go to get
your mail? Where did you have to go to get the staples you needed for living?
Did you buy clothes or did Grandma make them for you?
Tell me about the first home you
lived in after your marriage. Where was it and what was it like? What did you
like the most about it? What did you like the least?
Tell me about your travels.
What did you get in trouble for
the most when you were a child? How were you punished? Did you feel that Grandma
or Grandpa had any favorite children? Least favorites? Or did you feel that you
were all treated equally?
What was the one thing that you
learned as a child that you carry with you to this day?
What is the biggest problem
facing our country today?
What time of the day do you like
the best and why?
Final Words and a
Warning:
Julia Case, editor of
Missing Links,
a weekly e-mail magazine for genealogists, published a link to this page in
August 2000 and again in June 2002. (Brag, Brag, Brag). So many people asked if
they could reprint the questions or use them as a questionnaire that I added
this permission and warning:
Permission:If you'd
like to reprint the questions, feel free. I'd be honored. If you put my name on
the page I'd be famous, too. You may link to the
page.
Warning:If you are
going to use these questions as a questionnaire, I suggest you copy the page
into a word processor and re-format it. Change the margins. Take out the
illustrative examples and put in a LOTof
blank space after each question. Better yet, list the questions on one or two
sheets then give your interviewee a new yellow pad and two
pens.
I have a
personal reason for this suggestion. My second great grandfather served for
three years in the 118th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War. He
marched with Sherman to the sea. He kept a small (6 inch x 3
inch) diary for a year. It had the dates pre-printed, two days per page. Each
day he filled a 3-inch square and stopped writing. We all wish he'd written
more. Don't let the size of the space limit the length of the
answer.
More
Suggestions: Several people sent me tips,
more questions to ask and other suggestions. I found two professional web sites
with biography questions for further reading. This page was getting long, so I
started a second
page. You can go back to the Top,
too.
Questions, comments, compliments or complaints? E-mail:
show_addr("com","fire2wire","TedPack")
TedPack@fire2wire.com
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
This page has been established for exploring personal reflections, memoir writing, autobiography, biography, the role of the interview, writing personal profiles and tributes.
With electronic media, the written word is advancing in popularity. More individuals are engaged in email activity, researching genealogy, writing and maintaining blogs, keeping
personal journals, posting opinions, writing restaurant and movie reviews or the annual holiday letter regarding the family activities of the past year.
What about taking the written word a step further?
This page offers a series of questions. The answers will make a short biography. You can
use them to interview your older relatives, or to write your autobiography.
You are welcome to write your biography in free form fashion if desired. There are no
restrictions. Use the questions as a guide to trigger your memory, ideas and imagination. You may skip over questions and topics that are not pertinent to you or are of no interest. You may add questions or topics of your own choosing. Again, the questions are merely a
guide.
There is power in the interview process. Whether you are interviewing a friend, family member
or yourself, the questions can present cathartic responses that will enhance the overall biographical experience.
One more thing, we often know more than we think. On the surface, we may look upon events and ideas as obscure memories. When we challenge ourselves through the interview process, we often reflect on more than we realize.
The following is a longer, more detailed narrative.
Biography Outline
We have also assembled a more concise listing of
Life Story Questions.
Questions, comments, compliments or complaints? E-mail: TedPack@fire2wire.com
logs on in the morning? Did your mother do all the cooking or did the kids help?
How were chores assigned? By age? By gender?
Tell me about the town you lived
in. What was it like? Did you know everyone in town? Did your parents perform
any civic duties besides voting? Did they attend city council meetings, hold any
office etc. ?
Where did you have to go to get
your mail? Where did you have to go to get the staples you needed for living?
Did you buy clothes or did Grandma make them for you?
Tell me about the first home you
lived in after your marriage. Where was it and what was it like? What did you
like the most about it? What did you like the least?
Tell me about your travels.
What did you get in trouble for
the most when you were a child? How were you punished? Did you feel that Grandma
or Grandpa had any favorite children? Least favorites? Or did you feel that you
were all treated equally?
What was the one thing that you
learned as a child that you carry with you to this day?
What is the biggest problem
facing our country today?
What time of the day do you like
the best and why?
Final Words and a
Warning:
Julia Case, editor of
Missing Links,
a weekly e-mail magazine for genealogists, published a link to this page in
August 2000 and again in June 2002. (Brag, Brag, Brag). So many people asked if
they could reprint the questions or use them as a questionnaire that I added
this permission and warning:
Permission:If you'd
like to reprint the questions, feel free. I'd be honored. If you put my name on
the page I'd be famous, too. You may link to the
page.
Warning:If you are
going to use these questions as a questionnaire, I suggest you copy the page
into a word processor and re-format it. Change the margins. Take out the
illustrative examples and put in a LOTof
blank space after each question. Better yet, list the questions on one or two
sheets then give your interviewee a new yellow pad and two
pens.
I have a
personal reason for this suggestion. My second great grandfather served for
three years in the 118th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War. He
marched with Sherman to the sea. He kept a small (6 inch x 3
inch) diary for a year. It had the dates pre-printed, two days per page. Each
day he filled a 3-inch square and stopped writing. We all wish he'd written
more. Don't let the size of the space limit the length of the
answer.
More
Suggestions: Several people sent me tips,
more questions to ask and other suggestions. I found two professional web sites
with biography questions for further reading. This page was getting long, so I
started a second
page. You can go back to the Top,
too.
Questions, comments, compliments or complaints? E-mail:
show_addr("com","fire2wire","TedPack")
TedPack@fire2wire.com