Elements of Nonfiction

Four Major Elements of Nonfiction

1. Lay out

2. Information

3. Characterization

4. Style and Tone

Lay out

Layout should attract the reader and encourage reading and progression through the book.

 Format is interesting, attractive, magnetic

 Index

 Glossary, pronunciation key

 Table of contents

 Book size

 Photographs compliment text, located near the related text, captions accurate. Illustrations are
important but if the writer relies too much on pictures, the reader/listener/viewer may not get a
comprehensive understanding of the information that would be better communicated with
words.

Information

Information includes facts, little known information, and ideas that spark curiosity, create mystery, and
propel the listener/reader/viewer to discover and learn.

o Qualifications of the creator suggest appropriate experience or exceptionality

o Accurate - information can be verified with other sources-

o Includes source information

o Timely or current

o Supports the story

o Covers the topic in significant detail

o Moves from simple to complex and familiar to unfamiliar

 o Creates a feeling of the setting

o Presents information in an organized sequence that enhances the topic

o Non-biased - neutral position

o Is not overly didactic

o Includes safety precautions as needed

Characterization

o Characters are well developed

o No stereotype or biased characterization

o Creates empathy for the characters

o Uses quotations and anecdotes. Particularly in biographies it is important to use the

character's real words and anecdotes that originate from someone with first-hand
knowledge of the incidents.

Style and tone

Style should maintain the reader's interest. Nonfiction presents information, but the
listener/viewer/reader doesn't need to be bored by a collection of information in choppy sentences.
Good style adds interest to the story.

o Narration creates interest and understanding

o Clear

o Precise

o Distinguish between fact, theory, and opinion

o Vivid

o Could be personalized

o Objective non-biased or condensending or sarcastic

o Is not didactic

o Does not use propaganda techniques

o Builds suspense or sustains interest and encourages further investigation

o Moves from simple to complex and familiar to unfamiliar

 o Presents information in an organized sequence that enhances the topic

o Scope is appropriate for the target audience and increases in complexity at an

appropriate rate

o Avoids anthropomorphism

o Vocabulary is relative

o Underlying themes are appropriate and helpful

o Presents ideas/topic in a unique manner or new perspective

o Illustrations compliment and don’t over power the message

o Includes a table of contents, glossary, and index

o Has a theme(s)

o Has a conclusion

Style and tone that presents information - interestingly

Readers are attracted to nonfiction because they have a question or curiosity. With the question
answered or curiosity satiated what is there to keep the reader reading? Therefore, authors of
nonfiction sequence information to create wonder for the reader as s/he uncover facts that lead from
discovery to discovery. In doing so the scope of information must be presented from simple to complex
to provide the reader essential information for understanding ideas presented and prepare them for
more complex ideas to come.

The author must also decide the scope of information to present; giving enough detail for
comprehension but not so much as to overwhelm. Mary Lou Clark does this in You and Relativity, she
introduces the concept of relativity by saying: "relative to the sixth floor, the third floor is down, but
relative to the first floor, the third is up." Then describes frame of reference building the vocabulary and
associated concepts needed for later understanding of relativity.

Isaac Asimov, is very good in doing this in books he wrote for children and adults. An example is when
he tells the story of how Mendeleev spent years sorting, classifying, and arranging cards that
represented elements, until he arranged them in the order of the periodic table, Chemistry.

Jean George in  Spring Comes to the Ocean creates curiosity by her descriptions of the animals.

"First he unhooked the muscle at the spiral end of his old shell. Then he pulled himself out and stood
vulnerable, so naked that even a wind-blown grain of sand could kill him. His exposed belly was so
delicate that a nodding grass blade could cut him in half... He slashed his tail through the air and stuck it
into the new shell. Backing carefully, he reached his tail down and around until he felt the last coil of the
shell. Then he hooked onto it with a grip so strong that few could pull him out. When at last he had a
firm hold, he contracted all his muscles and slammed himself deep into the shell."

Rachel Carson in The Sea Around Us  , increases wonder by telling no one was around when the ocean
was created long ago. We would expect it impossible to tell how, when she surprises us by telling a us
that it is possible.

"Beginnings are apt to be shadowy, and so it is with the beginnings of that great mother of life, the sea.
Many people have debated how and when the earth got its ocean, and it is not surprising that their
explanations do not always agree. For the plain and inescapable truth is that no one was there to see,
and in the absence of eyewitness accounts, there is bound to be a certain disagreement. ... It must be a
story pieced together from many sources and containing whole chapters the details of which we can
only imagine. The story is founded on the testimony of the Earth's most ancient rocks which were young
when the earth was young."

Style and tone of a narration

Many authors use a continuous narrative to join topics in books and sustain interest, Isaac Asimov was
an expert with this technique.

Another technique, to make facts interesting, is to personalize the readers' experiences by making
comparisons and using I and you. Why Can't I?; by Jeanne Bendick , compares the child's feet to a flies
and uses you.. "The bottoms of your feet are smooth and slippery. You can make them a little sticky by
wearing sneakers. But you're still too heavy to walk up a wall or across the ceiling."

Another consideration in the narrative is the words. Many times authors will use smaller words, because
of readability tests or fear that children can't understand big words. But the size of the word is less
relevant than if the word is part of every child's vocabulary: like McDonald's, hamburger, refrigerator,
aluminum, dinosaur, telephone...

Another error is personification and sentimental distortion in animal stories. Authors should tell the
story through observation not how they think the animal thinks or feels. Yellow Eyes, by Rutherford
Montgomery gives very good and interesting descriptions.

Many children want stories that have real people telling the story, use of the pronouns we and you
achieve this.

Watch for condescension and sarcasm. Superstition in different cultures is often treated in this manner.
Edwin Tunis treats his subject this way:

"There was no Indian who was even reasonably free from superstition; it covered everything in the
world. When every animal and every tree, and every stream and every natural phenomenon was
possessed of a spirit, probably malevolent, it took a lot of finger-crossing and wood-knockin to ward off
evil. The Indian was afraid of everything ... of killing snakes and wolves ... of witchcraft and of the owls
he associated with it ... superstition ... pervade all Indian living."
Milton Meltzer in All Times, All Peoples: A World History of Slaverywrote: "white, black, brown, yellow,
red- no matter what [your] color, it's likely that someone in [your] family way back, was once a slave."
we’re told why: "It was hard for [the earliest peoples] to feed themselves... That is why, when they
raided other people, they killed them instead of taking them prisoner. If the winners had spared the
lives of the losers, they would have been unable to feed them." Then we are told that as farming and
food production grew, and it was possible for conquerors to feed prisoners, they kept them as slaves.

Condescension in animal stories is often in the form of anthropomorphism, suggesting the animal is so
boring that the author has to make it human to create an exciting story.

Didacticism and propaganda - it is hard for some authors not to preach, especially when the subject is
as important as drug abuse. But if the facts are carefully arranged, the evidence presented, ideas will
build to prove the point. If not the book may cause students to dismiss it as pure propaganda or to
create doubt and mistrust in what the authors have written. The author is obligated to present the
information in a scientific manner. If there are differing theories or evidence, then the author needs to
address them.

Objective  -  Creators of nonfiction have the obligation of being objective. The creator must sort through
information and decide what to include or omit. How much fact and how much narration. If the
information should just be possible or probable and if controversial information should be included.

Underlying themes are essential in nonfiction. The manner in which the information is presented creates
an underlying theme that may be positive, condescending, negative, curious... or what ever. It is
important to consider that the reader's/viewer's/listener's understanding and attitude will develop with
respect to the ideas, subjects, or people in the text; shaping the reader's/viewer's/listener's
understanding and attitude by the themes; shaping the ideas and emotions that they take from the
piece, which may be carried with them for life. The Invincible Louisa,  Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, and Up
From Slavery,  all have underlying themes which unify the story. Again this is best done with reasoning
and examples not by being didactic or preachy.