NON-FICTION:Introductory Notes

Nonfiction:

focuses on real, rather than imaginary, subjects, (people, things, events, and places) facts rather than opinions

Writers know the importance of being clear. what they write must be of interest, or no

one will want to read what they have to say

Facts vs. Opinions

On average, adults watch double the amount of television that teenagers do.

Adults watch too much TV. The first CD pressed in the U.S. was

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA The best CD ever produced was Bruce

Springsteen’s Born in the USA

Types of Non-Fiction

Narrative Nonfiction Informative Nonfiction

Narrative Nonfiction

Tells a story, just as fictional (made=up) stories do.

Includes setting, character, theme, plot, conflict

May be told in chronological order or in flashback.

Informative Nonfiction

Informative Nonfiction: writing that explains a topic or promotes an opinion

Newspapers, journals, and reputable magazines and some websites are sources of informative non-fiction

Two types of informative non-fiction areExpositoryPersuasive

Types of informative nonfiction EXPOSITORY

Type of writing that explains, gives information, defines, or clarifies an idea

Found in news articles, in histories, in biographies, cookbooks, how-to manuals, etc.

PERSUASIVE Type of writing that is

aimed at leading the reader or listern to rethink or act in a certain way

Found in newspaper editorials, in speeches, in certain types of essays, advice columns, movie review, etc.

Types of Narrative and Informative Nonfiction Autobiography Biography Memoir Diary Essay Speech Informational articles

Autobiography

Autobiography: story of a person’s life written by that person written from a 1st person point of view and

based entirely on the author’s memory Subjective: proceeding from or taking place

within an indicidual’s mind and unaffected by the outside world

Advantage: reveals the motives, emotions, and fears that only the writer can know.

Biography

Biography: story of a person’s life written by someone other than that person, uses the third person point of view

Objective: Uninfluenced by emotion or personal prejudice

Advantage: An outsider can tell us things about background, history, influences, of another person—things that the person may not have realized

Memoir

Memoir: an account of an event or period in the author’s life that usually emphasizes the author’s personal experience of a particular event or time periodLike an autobiography, a memoir is told from

the first-person point of view.

Diary

A first-person, day-to-day account of a person’s life written as it is lived

Essay

Essay: short piece of nonfiction writing that usually deals with a single subject- Many essays share the author’s thoughts about a subject or experience.

Types of Essays Narrative: a nonfiction story

In this short form, authors present a real time and place, real people as characters, and events that actually happened.

often includes a central conflict or problem, as well as a climax and resolution (plot elements)

Knowing that a literary work is a narrative essay can help you to gain historical and/or general knowledge about other people, places and events.

Types of Essays Personal: usually informal in their language

and toneoften reflect an incident in the writer’s lifeThe writer may share a life lesson, or reminisce

about a past event.

 Descriptive: uses carefully selected details to help readers picture an object or placeWriters often use sensory details in their

description to help the reader understand what something looks like, sounds like, and feels like.

Types of Essays (Informational nonfiction)

Expository: when you write to inform, give directions, explain an idea, or make something clear

Persuasive: employs techniques designed to convince an audience to think or act in a certain wayexamples of techniques:

○ cause or effect reasoning (appeals to logic)○ emotion ○ ethics ○ authority

A good persuasive writer anticipates the possible concerns and objectives of the audience and uses this insight to directly address possible arguments.  

Speech

Speech: speaker tries to influence the listener’s ideas or actions

Informational Article

Informational Article: Provides facts about a subjectNewspaper and magazine articles, feature

storiesTextbooks, pamphlets, how-to books

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Title: the name of a work of literature

expresses themes, highlights important details, or points to a central character or event

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Author’s purpose: reason for writing

may be to entertain, to persuade, to express opinions, to describe or to inform

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Characterization: how the author

reveals the personality of the charactersDirect characterization:  author makes

direct statements about a characterIndirect characterization: author reveals a

character through his or her words, thoughts, and actions and through what other characters think and say about the character

 

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Historical Narrative: work of nonfiction

that tells the story of important historical events or developments people described have motives and writers can

reveal them through their words, actions, appearances and other details

includes events that are usually told in chronological order

some also include a central conflict, rising action and a resolution

 

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Narrator: person or voice that tells the

story Anecdote: a brief account of an

interesting or significant circumstanceWriters often use anecdotes to illustrate their

points, to get a reader’s attention, to clarify ideas or to convey a story element such as setting or rising action

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Author’s purpose: the author’s

reason for writingThe purpose may be to persuade, to

express an opinion, or to inform 

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Tone: an author’s attitude toward his or

her subject matterconveyed through elements such as word

choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and figures of speech

can convey a variety of attitudes, such as sympathy, objectivity or humor

the specific tone is often related both to the type of writing and its purpose 

Objective versus Subjective Writing Objective= facts which can be proved to be

true by the senses, the calendar, or the clockexamples: the geographic location of a city, the

time of day Subjective= details that may be true, but

are verifiable only by reference to your own state of mind examples: feelings about an event, description

of a personword connotation (associations that affect

meaning)

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Plot: sequence of events

ExpositionRising actionClimaxFalling action Resolution

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Aphorism: a short, pointed statement

that expresses a wise or clever observation about human experience

“To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.”- Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Setting: the time and place in which

events of a work occur In addition to physical characteristics,

setting also includes the history, customs and values of the people who live there

Literary Elements of Nonfiction

Thesis: main idea of an essay or other work of non-fictionIt is generally stated in one or two sentencesContains a subject, and opinions, and

reasons for that opinionIndentifying the thesis of a work can help

you better understand the work as a wholeThe thesis may be stated directly or

indirectly

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Structure: the particular order a writer

uses to present ideas

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Dialogue: a conversation between

characters in a literary workusually set off with quotation marks and

dialogue tags, or markers that let the reader know who said what

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Rhetorical devices: techniques that an

author uses to create particular effects or to engage the attention of the readerUse language in artistic ways that make

passages more memorable as well as more persuasive

ParallelismRepetition

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Antithesis: a contrasting relationship

between two ideasAn author uses antithesis by placing

contrasting ideas together, often in parallel structure

Mentioning two ideas next to each other highlights their differences

Can lead the reader to certain conclusions or opinions

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Humor: quality of a literary work that makes

the characters, situations, or events seem funny or ridiculousRecognizing the author’s use of humor can help

you determine how serious a selection is, as well as if it is fictional or factual

Often used to point out human failings or ironies of every day life○ Sarcasm○ Exaggeration○ Puns ○ Verbal irony