Types of Nonfiction

1. Types of Nonfiction Argumentative Informational/Explanatory Narrative

2. Nonfiction Genre • About REAL: • People • Ex. President Trump or Mr. Kahler • Places • Ex. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or MFMS Gymnasium • Ideas • Ex. worship or knowledge • Experiences • Ex. moving to a new town or earning an A+ on a test

3. Common Forms of Nonfiction • Letters and Journals • Contain personal thoughts and reflections • Biographies • The life story of someone written byanother person • Autobiographies • The writer’s account of his/her own life • Memoirs • The writer’s record of experiences from of his/her own life

4. Common Forms of Nonfiction • Media Accounts • Works written for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio • Essays • Medium in length • Discussion of a topic • Can tell a lot about the author • Express author’s personal feelings • Audiences and Purposes • Found in Magazines • Attract readers looking for information and inspiration

5. Common Forms of Nonfiction • Articles • Small in length • Focus on the facts of a subject • Express an author’s bias • their strong opinions on a topic • Audiences and Purposes • Found in newspapers and encyclopedias • Attract readers looking for facts

6. Types of Writing • Argumentative Writing • Attempts to convince the reader to think about or act on something or accept a writer’s opinion using evidence for support • Informational/Explanatory Writing • Presents facts, discusses ideas, or explains a process

7. Types of Writing cont. • Narrative Writing • Conveys a real experience

8. Elements of Nonfiction Writing • Organization • Presents information clearly and logically • It makes sense! • Compare/Contrast • Cause/Effect • Problem/Solution • Chronological Order • Author’s Purpose • Information is related to the author’s reason for writing

9. Purposes of Nonfiction • To EXPLAIN • Tells you how to do something • Describes someone/something in a step-by-step process • To ENTERTAIN • Provides an escape • Something to do for fun during free time

10. Purposes of Nonfiction • To INFORM • Gives you information • To PERSUADE/ARGUE • Attempts to change your view/opinion about something

11. Author’s Viewpoint • What the author thinks and feels about his/her subject. • Identifying an author’s viewpoint is important because the reader can: • Understand why the author is interested in the subject • Understand what the author thinks about the topic • Understand what the author may want the reader to think

12. Author’s Viewpoint • Readers can often establish what the author’s viewpoint is by: • Thinking about the facts and opinions given in the text • Thinking about the language used by the author • Determining the author’s purpose for writing

13. Author’s Viewpoint • Ask yourself these questions as the reader: • What opinions or belief statements are evident in the article? • What evidence did the author include to support his/her opinions? • What words/phrases did the author use to present the information? • Why did the author write this selection?