This document provides techniques for improving nonfiction writing. It recommends focusing on narrative structure, developing a unique voice, experimenting with point of view, adding sensory details, writing tight scenes, drawing from personal experiences, maintaining a writing schedule, keeping an idea archive, continuing to learn, improving prose style, and practicing self-editing. Mastering these techniques can help writers craft compelling, engaging nonfiction.

1. Understanding
Conventions of
Traditional Genres

3. 3A’s
Attendance
Achievement
Attitude

4. Cellphones
away unless
allowed for
use!

5. •is a French word meaning

6. •A category of literature. The
main literary genres are
fiction, nonfiction, poetry,
and drama.

7. A category of
Composition characterized by a particular
style, form or content

8. Uses characters,
setting and plot to
convey events that
are

9. Uses people,
setting and plot to
convey actual event

10. Use exaggerated
characters and
obstacles and have
been

11. Uses characters,
and action to
tell a story through
conflict or emotions

12. Uses sound, rhythm,
and word choice to
convey ideas,
emotions or thoughts

13. • Story including
such as talking animals or
• Magic users ( ); royalty ( );
(dragons); hero/heroine
• Quest to overcome obstacles

14. places, castles, forest,
medieval time
• Good versus evil honorable qualities,
friendship
• Successive volume

15. • A type of fantasy that uses science and
technology
• Robots, space, time, machines, aliens,
time travel
• Conflicts with invaders

16. • A quest to overcome obstacles
• Set in the future (advanced or
regressive)
• Good vs Evil
• Friendship, honorable qualities, human
potentials, ethics

17. • Crime solved by detective involves
interpretation of clues, villains,
mysterious settings, danger, weapons,
suspense and tension.

18. • Story using made-up characters that
could happen in real life.

19. • Fictional story that takes place in a
particular time period in the past
• Often the setting is real, but the
characters are made up from the
author’s imagination

20. • Stories that are passed down from one
group to another in history.
• Includes folktales, legends, fables,
fairytales, tall tales and myths from
different culture

21. • Fictional story that takes place in a
particular time period in the past.
• Love match, overcoming obstacles,
becoming a couple, happy endings

22. • Baddies, supernatural creatures like
vampires, victims, believers and
sceptics of the supernatural, innocent
children and young women, hero,
saviour, slayers, mad scientist, clever
experts

23. • Isolated places, dark places,
cemeteries, good versus evil, revenge,
courage, justice, suspense, killing

24. Autobiography
•An autobiography is a story about
a person’s life and is written by the
person who lived it. An
autobiography can be about the
person’s whole life, part of that
person’s life, or a single event.

25. Biography
•A biography is a
selection about a real
person's life that is
written by another
person.

26. Case Study
•This type of nonfiction
explains in detail how
investigators find answers to
hard questions or solutions to
hard problems.

27. Expository Nonfiction
• Expository nonfiction provides information
about real-life persons, objects, or ideas.
• Expository nonfiction may include graphic
sources, such as charts and photos, that show
information.
• A chart is a sheet of information.
• Facts are arranged in an easy-to-read form.

28. Humorous Fiction
• Humorous fiction tells the story of
imaginary people who seem real. Story
events are true-to-life and often funny.
• Humorous fiction has characters and
actions that can make you laugh and
wonder how things will turn out.

29. Interview
•In an interview the interviewer asks
questions. The other person, the
subject, answers.
•Interviews usually appear in
magazines or newspapers.

30. Narrative Nonfiction
•A narrative is writing that
tells about events. Narrative
nonfiction tells about events
that really happened.

31. Play
• Like a novel or a short story, a play
tells a story but it is written to be
acted out for an audience. Plays have
many unique literary elements such as
acts, scenes, stage directions, and
speech tags.

32. Tall Tales
•Tall tales are amusing stories
told with great exaggeration
and bigger-than-life characters.

33. ANY
QUESTION?

34. • In groups, you are to collect images, film titles, authors, novel
cover, etc that are classified to different genres discussed
earlier.
• Make a collage in arranging your images. Then make sure to
answer the following questions:
• What elements need to be in story to classify it under a
certain genre?
• Write lists that others could use to recognize which text are
part of this genre.
• Present your findings to the class.

39. 11 Techniques to Improve Your
Nonfiction Writing
1. Work on narrative
structure.
2. Hone your voice.
3. Play with point of view.
4. Focus on details
5. Write tight scenes.
6. Mine your life.
7. Develop a schedule.
8. Keep an idea archive.
9. Always learn.
10. Improve your prose.
11. Practice self-editing.

40. 1. Work on narrative structure.
Rather than writing a simple chronological
narrative, consider starting in the middle of your
action to hook your reader and increase
dramatic tension. Playing around with time
frame and structure can also help you subvert
your readers’ expectations and craft a more
compelling narrative.

41. 2. Hone your voice.
Don’t panic if you feel like your writing lacks a
concrete voice, especially if you’re still new to the
world of nonfiction. Developing your writer’s voice
takes time and experience. One way to improve is to
read as much nonfiction as you can get your hands
on. You’ll start to identify styles and subject matter
that appeal to you and fit with your sensibilities. You
can also focus on writing about the material you have
an existing familiarity with in order to better access a
natural, candid voice.

42. 3. Play with point of view.
It is easy to structure all nonfiction pieces from
the same point of view, be it third-person or first-
person. Push yourself to play around with different
points of view when you’re writing creative
nonfiction, but do it in a way that makes sense. Don’t
change the point of view in the middle of the scene,
for example. Consider how different points of view
can better serve a creative nonfiction piece, and play
around with them in the editing process to breathe
fresh life into your writing.

43. 4. Focus on details.
Including sensory details can help establish
setting and place as well as aid in character
development. Try not to lean on clichés and well-
established tropes in place of specific details,
especially when you are in a rush. Do an editing pass
specifically looking for places that you can make your
your nonfiction writing more specific and rich with
details.

44. 5. Write tight scenes.
Think of structuring your nonfiction stories like
a fiction novel, with a plot arc and a clear beginning,
middle, and end. It’s easy for a nonfiction writer to
lose a sense of drama and urgency, especially when
you are focused on relaying the proper, chronological
chronological narrative and important facts. If you
think of the key moments in your narrative and
approach those scenes as if they were in a novel or
play, it can make your story come alive and help
hook your readers’ attention.

45. 6. Mine your life.
Use your personal story or collection of life
experiences as a source of inspiration. Oftentimes
your personal history can produce a compelling
narrative populated with real people from your own
life.

46. 7. Develop a schedule.
Most writers find that having a set writing
schedule with blocks of time devoted to personal
projects helps them stay on task and keep up with
their personal and professional writing
responsibilities.

47. 8. Keep an idea archive.
Starting to brainstorm a book idea from
scratch can be a daunting process. Always have a
journal or diary on hand to record ideas that may
occur unexpectedly. Remember that being a good
writer means being a keen observer. In addition to
carrying a notebook, keep a centralized file or
archive where you can store and back up creative
ideas. This way, you always have a place to turn to
when you are brainstorming ideas or dealing with
writer’s block.

48. 9. Always learn.
Nonfiction writers are never done learning.
Seek out classes or higher education programs that
can help improve your writing. Whether you take a
free workshop at a community center or enroll in an
established MFA program, taking classes can expose
you to good writing techniques and introduce you to
other writers to collaborate with.

49. 10. Improve your prose.
Developing a unique and dynamic prose style
in your creative nonfiction writing is a great way to
avoid writing stale and static factual accounts
without personality or perspective. Play with different
techniques, like alliteration, to vary your sentence
structure and inject a bit of variety into your prose.

50. 11. Practice self-editing.
The editing process is arguably the most
important step in book writing. As a writer, it’s
essential that you become good at editing and
rewriting your first draft and any subsequent drafts.
Developing a keen eye for typos and overwriting can
help you write a marketable creative nonfiction piece
that appears professional and tight.