Nonfiction Types and Purposes

Nonfiction: Defined Nonfiction: prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, ideas, or events. To be classified as nonfiction, a work must be true. However, opinions can also be included along with factual information.

Elements of Nonfiction Like fiction, nonfiction has characters, plot, and setting. However, these elements are real, not made up. Different types of nonfiction have different purposes: Inform: explains and provides information on a topic. Persuade/Argue: presents writer’s opinion and tries to convince you to agree or take a certain action. The writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter is called tone.

Three [main] Types of Nonfiction Journalism: newspaper, magazine, online source, television broadcasting, etc. Essays: short work about a particular subject. Five types: descriptive, expository, narrative, autobiographical, and persuasive. Personal chronicles: diary, journal, letter, memoir, autobiography, biography, etc.

Diary and Journal Diary: a private form of writing with no further intended audience; usually records events in chronological order. Journal: written for the purpose of reflection, expressing feelings, etc.; not necessarily written at regular intervals.

Letter Letter: a written or printed communication addressed to a person or organization and usually transmitted by mail. Letters can be either private or public.

Biography and Autobiography Biography: Accounts of the series of events of a person’s life. Autobiography: An account of a person's life written by that person.

Memoir Memoir: autobiographical narrative that focuses on a brief period of time or series of related events, not a great span of years. It explores an event or series of related events that remain lodged in memory.

Memoir characteristics Memoirs adhere to narrative structure, including the usual elements of storytelling. The experience of writing is therapeutic for the writer, especially when the memoir recounts a crisis or life-threatening experience. The writer maintains a first-person point of view.

Coming-of-Age Story Coming-of-age story: traces the protagonist's growth from a self-absorbed, immature individual into an expansive, mature human being concerned with the welfare of others, and his or her place in the world.

Coming-of-Age Story Characteristics The protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge gained and/or experience. The protagonist’s growth is achieved through abandonment of preconceptions, destruction of a false sense of security, and loss of innocence. The protagonist changes from ignorance to knowledge, innocence to experience, false view of world to truthful view, idealism to realism, and immature responses to mature responses

Summarizer: True or False? INSTRUCTIONS: On your own piece of paper, indicate which two of the following statements are FALSE, and then rewrite them to be TRUE. Nonfiction is entirely factual with no opinions included. The three main types of nonfiction are journalism, essays, and personal chronicles. An autobiography is an account of a person’s life, written by that person. A memoir covers the author’s entire lifespan. A coming-of-age story follows the growth of the protagonist from young and innocent, to mature and experienced. If we get through the entire PowerPoint.

Summarizer: True or False? INSTRUCTIONS: On your own piece of paper, indicate which two of the following statements are FALSE, and then rewrite them to be TRUE. Nonfiction is entirely factual with no opinions included. The three main types of nonfiction are journalism, essays, and personal chronicles. An autobiography is an account of a person’s life, written by that person. A memoir covers the author’s entire lifespan. The author of a memoir maintains first- person point of view throughout. If we only get through memoir.