Introductory Notes Non-Fiction:

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 are Expository Persuasive

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 period Like 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 tone often reflect an incident in the writer’s life The writer may share a life lesson, or reminisce about a past event.  Descriptive: uses carefully selected details to help readers picture an object or place Writers 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 way examples 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 subject Newspaper and magazine articles, feature stories Textbooks, 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 characters Direct characterization:  author makes direct statements about a character Indirect 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 circumstance Writers 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 writing The 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 matter conveyed 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 clock examples: 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 person word connotation (associations that affect meaning)

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Plot: sequence of events Exposition Rising action Climax Falling 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-fiction It is generally stated in one or two sentences Contains a subject, and opinions, and reasons for that opinion Indentifying the thesis of a work can help you better understand the work as a whole The 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 work usually 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 reader Use language in artistic ways that make passages more memorable as well as more persuasive Parallelism Repetition

Literary Elements of Nonfiction Antithesis: a contrasting relationship between two ideas An 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 ridiculous Recognizing 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