Nonfiction says it really happened, but it isn't all written the same way. Here's one young man's arrival in a city, told three ways.
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Students will name the main kinds of nonfiction (autobiography, memoir, biography, essay, and report or news story), explain how nonfiction is like and unlike fiction, and tell objective writing from subjective writing, using three samples about one subject.
Nonfiction is writing that claims to be about real events and people. It still uses plot, character, setting and point of view, which is why a good one reads like a story.
Objective writing sticks to facts and keeps the writer's feelings out, and subjective writing shows them. Most nonfiction is a mix, and the question is how much of each.
Thinking nonfiction can't be subjective. A true account can be full of the writer's feelings, and Franklin's own account of his arrival is subjective for exactly that reason.
Treating a biography as always objective. A biographer chooses what to include and may guess at feelings, as Goodrich does with “probably thought,” which is why he sits in the middle.
Do the book's two experiments with the student. Have two relatives tell the same family event separately, then compare, and take a silent walk and write ten things you saw, heard, smelled or felt. Both show the point of the lesson better than a definition does.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.