Characteristics of Nonfiction Most importantly, nonfiction writing must involve real people, places, and events. The stories told in nonfiction works must be true. If something in the story is made-up, then it falls under fiction. Nonfiction must also contain facts, which are information that can be proved to be true.

Fictive is an uncommonly used word that means imaginary or relating to or capable of creating fiction, as in a fictive imagination. Fictional means invented as part of a work of fiction, as in Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective or This account is entirely fictional—it’s not based on a true story.

Fictional means relating to or occurring in fiction. Analyzing the structure of the word, we can say that the adjective fictional got this meaning thanks to the suffix -al added to the root noun fiction.

Major types Common literary examples of nonfiction include expository, argumentative, functional, and opinion pieces; essays on art or literature; biographies; memoirs; journalism; and historical, scientific, technical, or economic writings (including electronic ones).

Explain the four primary purposes—to inform, to explain, to persuade, and to entertain—and have students express their understanding of what they mean.

The Author’s Purpose for Writing a Nonfiction Book or Text:

• To explain or inform.
• To teach how to do something.
• To persuade.
• To entertain.

The purpose of expository writing is to present a balanced, objective description of a topic. The format of an expository essay allows for the clear and logical explanation of complex information instead of proving a point or providing the writer’s personal opinion on a subject.

Most informational and nonfiction text will have unfamiliar vocabulary. Reading this type of text will help your students increase their vocabulary and word knowledge. Defining new terms will become easier when they can use contextual clues. Nonfiction reading is a great source of graphs, diagrams, tables, charts, etc.

Reading informational text allows students to develop sophisticated comprehension skills, build critical content knowledge and vocabulary, and apply higher-order thinking skills. Challenging informational text may require scaffolding and teaching new reading strategies so students can access the text.

And…become a better version of yourself in the process” is what will happen to you when you start reading more nonfiction books.

• You’ll learn valuable life lessons.
• Your concentration will improve.
• You’ll become a better communicator.
• Reading upgrades your brain.
• You’ll become brighter.

Usually non-fiction is more difficult to understand, we often have to stop and think about the concepts and ideas. Non-fiction books are also usually written by experts in their field, and that also makes them more difficult.

The reason most nonfiction is boring is it is all about events and rarely about the character(s). Some of it will drive character behavior, and that’s where it’ll have to leak. Oh, and some will prevent the “say what” reactions from readers, hopefully turning into “Oh, cool” reactions instead.

Here are five strategies that will help your child read nonfiction successfully:

1. Identifying key concepts.
2. Recognizing how text is organized.
3. Previewing and predicting.
4. Monitoring comprehension.
5. Summarizing.