Elements of Nonfiction

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Elements of Nonfiction

• Chronological Order

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Chronological Order

• Is the arrangement of details in time order.
  This means that the writer explains an event,
  experience, or series of steps in the order in
  which they actually occurred.

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Chronological Order

• Nonfiction writers often arrange details in the
  order in which they happen in time. The upcoming
  passage from a biography entitled Galileo covers
  events in a nine-year period.

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Example from Galileo by Leonard Everett Fisher

• In 1575 eleven-year-old Galileo was sent to the
  school of Jesuit Monastery of Santa Maria di
  Vallombrosa to study...
• At seventeen Galileo enrolled as a medical
  student at the University of Pisa. His
  financially strained family wanted him to become
  a rich doctor.
• Three years later...Galileos attention was
  caught by a lamp swinging overhead. He timed its
  movements with the beat of his pulse.

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Chronological Order

• In chronological order, events are described in
  the order they happened in time. You can tell if
  a piece is written chronologically by watching
  for times, dates, and transition words such as
  FIRST, NEXT, LATER, and so on. Listing items or
  making a Timeline can help you track the order of
  details.

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Chronological Order Example Timeline

• 1564Galileo born
• 1575goes to school
• 1581enrolls as medical student
• 1584notices lamp swinging and makes discovery