Non-fiction Texts

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Non-Fiction texts overview:

A non-fiction text is based on facts. It is really any text which isn’t fiction (a made-up story or poetry). Non-fiction texts come in a huge variety of types. You find them everywhere in life, from the back of the cereal packet at breakfast, to a text book at the library. They can range from a newspaper article to a review of a new computer game. They are written for many different purposes, and are aimed at many different people or audiences.

Non-fiction texts include:

• advertisements
• reviews
• letters
• diaries
• newspaper articles
• information leaflets
• magazine articles

Literary non-fiction

Summary

Literary non-fiction is a type of writing which uses similar techniques as fiction to create an interesting piece of writing about real events. These techniques help to create non-fiction which is enjoyable and exciting to read. Some travel writing, autobiographies, or essays that consider a particular viewpoint are key examples of literary non-fiction. Their main purpose is to entertain whilst they inform about factual events or information.

Literary non-fiction texts include:

• feature articles
• essays
• travel writing
• accounts of famous events
• sketches (normally a fact file profile that gives key information about a person, place or event)
• autobiographies (where you write about yourself) or biographies (where someone else writes about you) - these texts may be written by sportspeople, politicians, celebrities or other people who aren’t well-known

Biography

• A biography is writing about someone’s life.
• If someone is writing about their own life it becomes an autobiography.
• These forms can also widen out to focus on a specific part of someone’s life, or their family.
• A biography is usually written both to inform and to entertain.
• This means it is a mix of factual information and creative writing
• The audience is usually made up of people who are interested in the person being written about
• However, sometimes biographies of people who aren’t well known can be interesting because of an experience that they’ve had.

Information leaflet

Information leaflets inform people about a particular subject. In leaflets it’s not just the content and language that’s important, but also the layout and presentation.

Letter

• Letters are written for many purposes and audiences:
  • they can be written to someone close to you, like a parent or friend, or to a stranger
  • they can be formal, such as a letter of complaint, or informal, to someone you know well
  • they are usually structured in a particular way to show that the text is directed at someone, using a salutation ‘Dear…’ and an appropriate ending ‘Yours sincerely…’

Open letters

• An ‘open letter’ is a letter which is either addressed to the public or is to a specific person, like a politician, but published in a public forum such a popular newspaper with a big audience. An open letter is often used to protest about something.

Review

• The most common types of review are film and book reviews, but people also review music, television programmes, theatre performances and computer games.
• All reviews share a number of different purposes. For example, a film review needs:
  • to inform - the review needs to tell people who is in the film, who it is by and where or when readers can see it
  • to describe - the review should describe the story, characters and some of the action - without spoiling the plot or giving too much away
  • to entertain - to use humour to provide the reader with their opinion of the item that they are reviewing
  • to analyse - a good review gives an opinion on whether the film is good or not and why
  • to advise - the review should tell the reader whether or not to go and see the film

Audience

Reviews will vary in their audiences: it could be people who are specifically interested in that film or book, who are actually considering going to see the film or buy the book. But it could also be people who are just generally interested in films or books, who like to read about them. A review of a kids’ film is probably aimed at parents, who will want to know whether or not to take their children to see it. A review in a specialist games magazine will use very different terminology than a review of a computer game in a national newspaper. The readers in the games magazine will have more specialist knowledge, and might judge the game against specific things that a games expert may want from a game. forming the reader which actor plays which role.

Newspaper article

• There are several different types of newspaper articles:
  • News articles - these are found at the front of a newspaper. They inform readers about things that are happening in the world or in the local area. They will be full of facts, like names, dates and places.
  • Feature articles - these explore news stories in more depth. The purpose of a feature is not just to tell you what has happened, but to explore or analyse the reasons why. These kind of pieces normally name the writer who wrote them - a byline.
  • Editorials, columns and opinion pieces - these are pieces by ‘personality’ writers. They might be there to inform (because the writer’s expert opinion is valued), or they might be there to entertain (because the writer has a comic or interesting way of describing everyday life). They are likely to have a more personal style that the writer regularly uses when writing - this could be shown through particular vocabulary or the opinion of the writer.
• The type of newspaper that the article is published in makes a difference to the way it is written:
  • if it is in a tabloid it will have shorter sentences and paragraphs and use more basic vocabulary
  • if it is in a broadsheet the sentences will be longer and more complicated, and the vocabulary will be more advanced
• Some newspapers also have particular political points of view, which might affect how they report events in the news.

Blog

Context

The origin of the word ‘blog’ is as an abbreviation for ‘web-log’ – that is, an online diary. Blogs are written by many people all over the world, for lots of different purposes. They can be diaries, or records of what you cook, a travel log for people visiting different destinations or book review blogs, or many other sorts of blogs. The purpose of the writing depends on what kind of blog it is.

• Blogs:
  • often have lots of pictures to make them look attractive
  • vary the size, font and appearance of text for effect
  • use links to connect to other web-pages
  • can include video clips
  • are usually quite personal – written in the first person and written partly for the author’s own benefit
  • the language is often informal and chatty
  • may not have a clear audience other than ‘anyone who’s interested’
• Blogs can also be used by organisations to communicate informally with their audience. Because they are online, they can be regular, and respond to events quickly.

Essay

Essays are not only written by students. People who are considered experts in a particular topic often write essays to show a new viewpoint on something. For example, lecturers at universities often write essays to explain a different idea about a topic. The essay is a form of literary non-fiction in which a writer expresses an opinion on something, or makes an argument, in a creative form. Essays:

• use literary devices
• are usually written using formal language and specialist vocabulary that those people interested in the subject would understand
• develop a line of argument
• have a clear structure that introduces their idea, develops their viewpoint using different points to support them, and concludes with a summary of the essay

Travel writing

Summary

Travel writing is writing about visiting different places. It can appear as a newspaper article, informing readers about a specific destination. It can also be a form of literary non-fiction, written as a book, telling a longer narrative about a journey or place. This differs from a travel blog because the writing is more detailed and less informal.

• Travel writing:
  • is usually written in the first person – using ‘I’
  • is often descriptive – telling you about the place
  • as literary non-fiction, is aiming to entertain as well as inform