4/9/2021 Nonfiction - Wikipedia

Nonfiction
Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to
present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people.[1] Nonfictional content may be
presented either objectively or subjectively. Sometimes taking the form of a story, nonfiction is one of the
fundamental divisions of narrative writing (specifically, prose)[2]— in contrast to fiction, which offers
information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and
how the work refers to reality.[1][3]

Nonfiction's specific factual assertions and descriptions may or may not be accurate, and can give either
a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, authors of such accounts genuinely believe
or claim them to be truthful at the time of their composition or, at least, pose them to a convinced
audience as historically or empirically factual. Reporting the beliefs of others in a nonfiction format is
not necessarily an endorsement of the veracity of those beliefs, but rather an exercise in representing the
topic. Works of nonfiction need not necessarily be written text, since statements expressed by pictures or
film can also purport to present a factual account of a subject.

Contents
Distinctions
Major types
Specific types
See also
References
External links

Distinctions
The numerous literary and creative devices used within fiction are generally thought inappropriate for
use in nonfiction. They are still present particularly in older works but they are often muted so as not to
overshadow the information within the work. Simplicity, clarity and directness are some of the most
important considerations when producing nonfiction. Audience is important in any artistic or
descriptive endeavor, but it is perhaps most important in nonfiction. In fiction, the writer believes that
readers will make an effort to follow and interpret an indirectly or abstractly presented progression of
theme, whereas the production of nonfiction has more to do with the direct provision of information.
Understanding of the potential readers' use for the work and their existing knowledge of a subject are
both fundamental for effective nonfiction. Despite the claim to truth of nonfiction, it is often necessary to
persuade the reader to agree with the ideas and so a balanced, coherent and informed argument is vital.
However, the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction are continually blurred and argued upon,
especially in the field of biography;[4] as Virginia Woolf said: "if we think of truth as something of
granite-like solidity and of personality as something of rainbow-like intangibility and reflect that the aim
of biography is to weld these two into one seamless whole, we shall admit that the problem is a stiff one
and that we need not wonder if biographers, for the most part failed to solve it."[5]

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Semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of nonfiction,[6] e.g. a fictional description based on a
true story.

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).[7]

Journals, photographs, textbooks, travel books, blueprints, and diagrams are also often considered
nonfictional. Including information that the author knows to be untrue within any of these works is
usually regarded as dishonest. Other works can legitimately be either fiction or nonfiction, such as
journals of self-expression, letters, magazine articles, and other expressions of imagination. Though such
works are mostly either or the other, a blend of both is also possible. Some fiction may include
nonfictional elements. Some nonfiction may include elements of unverified supposition, deduction, or
imagination for the purpose of smoothing out a narrative, but the inclusion of open falsehoods would
discredit it as a work of nonfiction. The publishing and bookselling business sometimes uses the phrase
"literary nonfiction" to distinguish works with a more literary or intellectual bent, as opposed to the
greater collection of nonfiction subjects.[8]

Specific types
Academic paper
Academic publishing
Almanac
Autobiography
Biography
Blueprint
Book report
Creative nonfiction
Design document
Diagram
Diary
Dictionary
Factual television (e.g. television documentaries)
Encyclopedia
Essay
Guides and manuals
Handbook
History
Journal
Journalism
Letter
Letter collection
Literary criticism
Memoir

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Natural history
Nonfiction films (e.g. documentaries)
Philosophy
Photograph
Popular science
Self-help
Science book
Scientific paper
Statute
Technical writing
Textbook
Thesaurus
Theology
Travelogue

See also
Documentary practice
List of writing genres

References
1. Farner, Geir (2014). "Chapter 2: What is Literary Fiction?". Literary Fiction: The Ways We Read
Narrative Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=qXXHAgAAQBAJ&pg). Bloomsbury
Publishing USA. ISBN 9781623564261.
2. "nonfiction" definition via Lexico (https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/nonfiction)
3. Culler, Jonathan (2000). Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 31.
"Non-fictional discourse is usually embedded in a context that tells you how to take it: an instruction
manual, a newspaper report, a letter from a charity. The context of fiction, though, explicitly leaves
open the question of what the fiction is really about. Reference to the world is not so much a property
of literary [i.e. fictional] works as a function they are given by interpretation."
4. The Institute of Art and Ideas. "The Art of Life" (http://iai.tv/video/the-art-of-life). IAI. Retrieved
14 January 2014.
5. Woolf, Virginia (2010). Orlando. Aziloth Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1907523687.
6. The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies (https://ssrn.com/abstract=9
81296) G. Whiteman. N. Phillips. 13 2006, 12
7. Susan B. Neuman; Linda B. Gambrell, eds. (2013). Quality Reading Instruction in the Age of
Common Core Standards (https://books.google.com/books?id=mzbNGWVonZIC&dq). International
Reading Association. p. 46. ISBN 9780872074965.
8. www.us.penguingroup.com (http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/adult/penguinp
ress.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140213211558/http://www.us.penguingroup.com/
static/pages/publishers/adult/penguinpress.html) 2014-02-13 at the Wayback Machine

External links
What is Creative Nonfiction? (https://www.creativenonfiction.org/what-creative-nonfiction)

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