2. What is a Non-Fiction Novel?
• The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking,
depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures
and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations
and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction
novel is an otherwise loosely defined and flexible genre. The
genre is sometimes referred to using the slang term "faction", a
portmanteau of the words fact and fiction.
3. What are Text Features?
• Text features are pieces of a nonfiction text that include information
about the story or article that is not included in the main part of the text.
Text features are meant to help the reader find important information
from the text without necessarily reading the main part of the text. There
are many types of text features that can be included in a story or article.
The multitude of information can be confusing to the reader if one does
not know how to identify and read text features. It is important to know
what each text feature is and what purpose they serve. These text features
include photographs, illustrations, captions, labels, graphs, and tables.
4. • The purpose of photographs and illustrations is to show what
something looks like.
• The purpose of captions is to explain what a photograph and/or
illustration is.
• The purpose of labels is to tell the names of parts of
photographs or illustrations.
• The purpose of graphs is to organize and compare the
information.
• The purpose of tables is to organize facts and information in a
way that is easier to read visually.
5. Parts of a Nonfiction Book
• In general, the parts of a book in order are: the front
cover, the front matter, the body, the back matter, and the
back cover. There are several parts particular to a
nonfiction book. The parts of a nonfiction book in order
of how they will be discussed in the sections below are:
the table of contents, the footnotes and endnotes, the
appendix, the glossary, and the index.
6. Table of Contents
The table of contents is an outline presenting the content of a nonfiction
book. It is located at the beginning of the book. The table of contents lists
each section and/or chapter in a book along with the starting page number
for each section and/or chapter. Useful aspects of a table of contents are:
1. It provides a quick look at the scope of what a book is about.
2. It shows the general organization of the contents of a book.
3. It gives a way for someone looking for specific information to find it
quickly by going to the needed section(s) and/or chapter(s).
