1. Introductory Notes
Non-Fiction:

2. 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

3. 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

4. Types of Non-Fiction
Narrative Nonfiction
Informative Nonfiction

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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.

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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.  

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

18. Informational Article
Informational Article: Provides facts about a subject
Newspaper and magazine articles, feature stories
Textbooks, pamphlets, how-to books

19. 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

20. Literary Elements of Nonfiction
Author’s purpose: reason for writing
may be to entertain, to persuade, to express opinions, to describe or to inform

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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 

25. 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 

26. 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)

27. Literary Elements of Nonfiction
Plot: sequence of events
Exposition
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Resolution

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Literary Elements of Nonfiction
Structure: the particular order a writer uses to present ideas

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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