Aspects of Nonfiction Selections

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Aspects of Nonfiction Selections

• CIM R14
• 4th 9 weeks
• 4/8/8 4/9/8

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• Most of the passages that you will encounter on a
  Reading test will be nonfiction sections.
  Newspaper articles, essays, speeches, textbooks,
  and travel guides are just some examples of the
  many different genres, or forms, of nonfiction
  writing. In this lesson you will learn about
  some of the important features of nonfiction,
  including the subject, thesis, mode, purpose, and
  method of organization.

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Subject and Thesis

• The subject of a piece of writing is what the
  selection as a whole is about. The thesis is its
  main idea. When reading a nonfiction selection
  on a test, make sure that you ask yourself, What
  is the subject? or What is this piece about?
  and What is the authors main idea, or thesis?
• The thesis is often expressed in a thesis
  statement, a single sentence, or sometimes two or
  there sentences, stating

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• The main idea of the essay or composition. In
  rare cases the main idea might be implied rather
  than directly stated. The thesis statement
  usually appears in the introduction. It might be
  restated in different words in the conclusion.
  Author might, for example, take the end of
  slavery in the United States as a subject for an
  informative essay. The thesis advanced in the
  essay might be that slavery was not ended by one
  person or group in one fell swoop but was ended
  gradually, in stages, over time. The thesis
  statement in the

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• Introductory paragraph of such an essay might
  read like this
• Slavery in the United States did not die suddenly
  but gradually, over a period of years, beginning
  with measures to limit the spread of slavery
  before the war, followed by the Emancipation
  Proclamation during the war, and ending with the
  Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

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Mode, Purpose and Aim

• Traditionally, textbook authors have classified
  nonfiction writing based upon its mode. A mode
  is simply a kind of writing done for a particular
  purpose. The purpose is what the writer wishes
  to accomplish. The modes of writing
  traditionally discussed in writing tests are
  narration, description, persuasion, and
  exposition.

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Narrative writing (Traditional)

• Narrative writing has as its main purpose related
  events. Biographies, autobiographies, histories,
  and news reports all employ narration. Sometimes
  narration makes use of dialogue, or speech.

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Descriptive writing (Traditional)

• Descriptive writing has as its main purpose
  presenting a portrayal of subjects in words.
  Rarely is a piece of writing purely descriptive.
• On your paper write 1. a narrative paragraph and
  2. a descriptive paragraph.

STOP