CNF
Practical Nonfiction
Literary nonfiction is a type of prose that employs the literary
techniques usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on
persons, places, and events in the real world.
Creative Nonfiction
Creative nonfiction writers provide factual information in
creative ways. Creative nonfiction can be described as a hybrid
genre that pulls in elements of fiction (literary techniques), the
writers perspective, and factual information.
Literary Elements
Narrative: A narrative is simply a story.
Storytelling - A story requires several events (or
scenes), goals, challenges or obstacles, a
climax or turn of events, and of course, a
resolution.
Character - Every story needs a central theme,
which in most cases will be the main
character. Although chances are, the main
character will be you, the reader does not
know you, but they desperately want to. Help
them know you.
Imagery - Describe your surroundings. Describe
your emotions with actions. Instead of
saying, I was angry, you could say, I why, the underlying ideas of what happens in the piece of
stormed out of the room; I punched a hole in
the wall. You want your reader to see what
you see. They want to be there and
experience it for themselves.
Dialogue - Include vital conversations between the
characters in your story. This is especially
important for all Non-Fiction. Your readers
will want to see an account of what was said
by whom and to whom.
Theme: Although the main character and topic for the story
will often be you, there still must be a theme - a
lesson, something your reader can take away from
your story.
Setting: Where is this all taking place? Make sure you
ground the story in a place and allow the reader to
visually see what it is you see. You may know what
your home looks like, or your city, but the reader
probably does not.
Plot / Structure: These are your scenes, chapters, and the
order they go in.
ELEMENTS
Character
Character is the mental, emotional, and social qualities to
distinguish one entity from another (people, animals, spirits,
automatons, pieces of furniture, and other animated objects).
Character development is the change that a character
undergoes from the beginning of a story to the end. Young
children can note this.
The importance of a character to the story determines how fully
the character is developed. Characters can be primary,
secondary, minor, or main.
Types of characters
Round characters are those the reader/listener/viewer gets to
know well
Flat characters are less well developed and have fewer or
limited traits or belong to a group, class, or stereotype.
Anthropomorphic characterization is the characterization of
animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena as people.
Dynamic characters are rounded characters that change.
Plot
Plot is the order in which things move and happen in a story.
Chronological order is when a story relates events in the
order in which they happened.
Flashback is when the story moves back in time
Progressive plots have a central climax followed by
denouement.
Episodical plots have one incident or short episode linked to
another by a common character or unifying theme (maybe
through chapters).
Sentimentality is a natural concern or emotion for another
person
Foreshadowing is the planting of clues to indicate the
outcome of the story.
Sensationalism: the thrilling and the startling.
Climax: The peak and turning point of the conflict, the point at
which we know the outcome of the action.
Resolution is the falling action after the climax. When the
reader is assured that all is well and will continue to be, so the
plot has a closed ending. If the reader is left to draw their own
conclusions about the final plot then the ending is open.
Coincidence: events that happen by mere chance.
Setting includes time and place.
Backdrop setting is when the setting is unimportant for the
story and the story could take place in any setting.
Theme
Theme is the main idea that weaves the story together, the
literature, often a statement about society or human nature.
Explicit theme is when the writer states the theme openly and
clearly.
Implicit themes are implied themes.
Multiple and secondary themes: Since a story speaks to us
on our own individual level of varying experiences, many
individual themes will be obtained from a good piece of
literature
Didacticism: If we give students stories that are too preachy,
they will turn off and nothing is gained.
Point of view
Point of view is determined by the authors' descriptions of
characters, setting, and events told to the reader throughout
the story.
First-person is told with I,
Omniscient: third person (he, she, they) is all-knowing in
every detail of action, thought, and feeling (conscious or
unconscious)
Objective or dramatic point of view: There is no explanation
to the reader of what is going on or what the characters think or
feel.
Style
Style is how the author says something, the choice of words
and the use of language, sentence construction, imagery... not
what the author says. It adds significance and impact to the
author's writing.
Exposition: narrator or third person passages to provide
background information to explain story events.
Dialogue between characters.
Vocabulary words used. Two kinds of words are combined to
add meaning: connotation and denotation:
Connotation is the associative or emotional meaning of a
word.
Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word.
Sentence structure
Imagery words used to create mental sensory impressions
(sights, sounds, textures, smells, and tastes). It creates setting,
establishes mood, or describes characters.
Figurative language is language used in a non literal context
to add intensity of meaning.
Figure of speech is an expression used in a non literal context
to add intensity of meaning.
Personification is a figure of speech that gives human This true story has all the elements of fiction: characters,
qualities to inanimate objects, nonhuman organisms, or setting and plot. Those elements all come from a real person's
abstractions. life, so the characters are real; the setting is an actual place,
Simile is a figure of speech that makes comparisons using like and the events truly happened.
and as and occasionally than. That describe something in a
manner that communicates a deeper understanding with
economy of words or beyond a physical or direct description.
Metaphor is a figure of speech that transfers an idea
associated with one word to another word.
Hyperbole is a figure of speech that exaggerates or uses an
extravagant statement.
Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.
Allusion is a figure of speech that refers to something in our
common understanding, our past or our literature. Allusion is
difficult for children since it relies on background information
which they often lack.
Symbol is a person, object, situation, or action that operates
on two levels of meaning, the literal and the figurative or
suggestive. Dove: peace, flag: nationality of a country,
handshake or gift: friendship.
Puns or wordplay
Devices of sound
Onomatopoeia is when a word sounds like what it represents.
Alliteration is repetition of initial consonants
Assonance is repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Consonance is the close repetition of consonant sounds.
Rhythm or in music meter, in prose cadence. Rhythm in Greek
means flow.
Tone
Tone tells us the author feels about his or her subject. Words
express the writer's attitude toward his or her work, subject,
and readers. Without vocal inflection to help convey tone, the
writer must choose words with great care. We often describe a
writer's tone but are not aware of how we discovered the tone.
It sort of creeps into our consciousness. Tone can be serious,
humorous, satirical, passionate, sensitive, zealous, indifferent,
caring, caustic...
Humor is an important tone in children's literature.
Parody is a device that retains the original form but changes
the words and the tone for humorous effect
Variety of tone: even though tone should relate to the story it
needs to vary according to the situation. Tone varies from
person to person to create people as individuals and group to
group to create different social groups. Tone also changes to
change the pace, create character-conflict, fit the theme, add
pleasure.
Condescending tone is when the author looks down upon the
reader or treats them as though they are unintelligent or
immature.
Didactic tone: refer to plot.

The Personal Essay:

A piece of writing, usually in the first person, that focuses on a
topic through the lens of the personal experience of the
narrator. It can be narrative or non-narrative-it can tell a story in
a traditional way or improvise a new way for doing so.
Ultimately, it should always be based on true, personal
experience.

The Memoir:
A memoir is a longer piece of creative nonfiction that delves
deep into a writer's personal experience. It typically uses
multiple scenes/stories as a way of examining a writer's life (or
an important moment in a writer's life). It is usually, but not
necessarily, narrative.

Biography
is a true story of a person's life that is written by someone else.