Nonfiction Elements Flashcards
Nonfictio
Forms of writing that present facts or discuss real life
Essay
An author supports a thesis and conveys his or her perspective on the topic
Thesis
A central idea about a topic
Article
Provides information about a topic
Speech
A nonfiction text that a speaker delivers to an audience
Purpose
Reason for writing
Organizational structure
The order in which information and ideas are presented
Tone
Author’s attitude towards the topic
Diction
Author’s word choice
Figurative language
Language that is not meant to be taken literally
Rhetoric
Patterning of words
To inform
Provide facts and explain how they relate to one another.
To persuade
Try to influence an audience’s attitudes or actions
To entertain
Engage and move the emotions of an audience
Narrative essays
Tell the story of the actual experiences or events
Expository essays
Inform readers about a topic and explain the ideas it involves
Persuasive or argumentative essays
Attempt to convince audiences to accept an author’s claim or motivate to take a course of action
Descriptive essays
Give vivid details about a person, place, or thing to help readers picture it
Reflective essays
Explore the meaning of an experience or offer the author’s thoughts or feelings
News articles
Provide facts about current events and are written for an objective or neutral point of view
Feature articles
Provide facts about current topics and are written in a friendly, conversational style
Speech of public advocacy
A formal, prepared speech intended to persuade an audience to take action
Talk
Informal speech presented in a conversational style
Impromptu speech
A speech with little or not preparation, often in a conversational style
Supporting details
Pieces of information that illustrate, expend on, or prove the author’s ideas
Statements of fact
Statements that can be proved true
Statistics
Numbers used to compare members of a group of people or things
Examples
Specific cases
Descriptions
Details that tell what something looks like, sounds like, etc.
Reasons
Claims that justify a belief
Expert opinions
Judgements of people with special knowledge of a subject
Chronological order
Order in which events happened
Comparison-and-contrast organization
Grouping details according to their similarities and differences
Cause-and-effect organization
Used to show the different causes and effects of various conditons
Repetition
Reuse of a keyword, phrase, or idea
Parallel structure or parallelism
Use of similar grammatical structures to express related ideas
Restatement
Expression of the same idea in different words to strengthen a point
Rhetorical questions
Inquiries that have obvious answers and that are asked for effect
