A text about the author that includes facts

A text about the author that does not focus on facts

Provides a life lesson to the reader 

Has a clear controlling idea / thesis that is supported with examples

Uses fiction-like techniques / story elements to report real-world events

"Some parents are liberal when it comes to their children dating, while other parents are conservative when allowing their “babies” into the dating world."

"It was the middle of springtime and across from my house where the incident took place. There was a lake there in which my brother and I loved to explore from time to time. The humidity and water drops where reminiscent of a fully functional sauna. The onslaught of heat and burning glow of the sun was relentless."

"The 21st century is a great time to be alive. The development of fantastic technologies, solutions to or at least discussions on pressing social issues, rapidly improving medicine and education—all this is a part of global processes occurring in the modern world every single day."

"Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews....If it's that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being gassed."

"One day baby Josh came home in a soft, fuzzy yellow blanket. My mom let me hold him, and he didn’t cry. Years later, "baby Josh" and I are best friends even though we live miles apart from each other."

"The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call 'out there.' Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far Western than Middle West."

"I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free — free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my mother's hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mealies under the stars and ride the broad backs of slow-moving bulls. As long as I obeyed my father and abided by the customs of my tribe, I was not troubled by the laws of man or God."

"It was a hot summer day. My dad and I were getting ready to go out for a ride on the boat with my friend Katie and the dog. That’s when the phone call came, the call that made that bright, beautiful day a cold, dark, gloomy one.I had just put on my suit, shorts, and tank top, and packed my bag with sunscreen and everything else I would need for the day. I ran into my parents’ room to find Dad. When I saw him on the phone, he was crying."

"Finding a dream job—with comfortable work conditions and a high salary—is probably a goal everyone strives for. Indeed, in western society, where having a job is an important part of a successful person’s image, it is crucial that work brings satisfaction. However, it is not seldom when even the best job a person can find for themselves, at some point, starts to weigh down him or her."