what is the basic structure of a non fiction essay

The Structure of Non-Fiction Texts

Understanding the structure of non-fiction texts involves analysing how writers organise information, ideas, and arguments to effectively convey their message. Here's Revision World’s comprehensive guide to help you revise structure in non-fiction texts, along with examples:

Introduction:

Introduces the topic and sets the tone for the rest of the text.

Example: In an opinion article about climate change, the introduction might begin with a startling statistic or a thought-provoking question to grab the reader's attention.

This states the central argument or purpose of the text.

Example: In an argumentative essay on the importance of exercise, the main statement might be: "Regular physical activity is essential for maintaining physical health and mental well-being."

Body Paragraphs:

Present supporting evidence, examples, and arguments to develop the main idea.

Example: Each body paragraph in a persuasive speech about animal rights might focus on a specific aspect of the topic, such as cruelty in factory farming or the environmental impact of animal agriculture.

Transitions:

Connect ideas and paragraphs smoothly, ensuring coherence and logical progression.

Example: Transitional phrases like "furthermore," "in addition," and "however" signal shifts between different points or perspectives in an argumentative essay.

Counterarguments and Rebuttals:

Address opposing viewpoints to strengthen the argument.

Example: In a debate script about the benefits of renewable energy, the writer might anticipate and refute common objections, such as concerns about the reliability of solar power.

Conclusion:

Summarises key points and restates the main theme, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.

Example: In a documentary exploring the impacts of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems, the conclusion might encourage viewers to adopt eco-friendly practices such as reducing single-use plastic consumption and supporting organisations dedicated to ocean conservation.

Chronological Order:

Presents events or information in the order they occurred.

Example: A biography of Nelson Mandela might follow his life chronologically, from his childhood to his time in prison to his presidency of South Africa.

Cause and Effect:

Explores the relationship between events, actions, or phenomena and their consequences.

Example: In a journalistic investigation into the root causes and consequences of rising crime rates in urban areas, the article may explore factors such as socioeconomic inequality, lack of access to education and employment opportunities, and ineffective law enforcement strategies. It would then discuss the resulting impacts on communities, including increased rates of violence, property crime, and strained police resources.

Problem-Solution:

Identifies a problem or issue and proposes solutions or strategies for resolution.

Example: A policy brief on homelessness might outline the root causes of homelessness and recommend interventions such as affordable housing initiatives and support services for at-risk populations.

Comparison and Contrast:

Examines similarities and differences between two or more subjects or ideas.

Example: In a blog post comparing the benefits and drawbacks of electric cars versus traditional petrol or diesel powered vehicles, the writer may discuss factors such as environmental impact, cost of ownership, driving range, and availability of charging infrastructure. By highlighting both the advantages and limitations of each type of vehicle, readers can make informed decisions when considering their next car purchase.

Understanding the structure of non-fiction texts helps readers follow the flow of ideas and arguments, aiding comprehension and critical analysis. By identifying the components of structure and their functions, you can better appreciate how writers organise their writing to effectively communicate with their audience.

Creative Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write It

Sean Glatch  |  March 31, 2024  |  7 Comments

What is creative nonfiction? Despite its slightly enigmatic name, no literary genre has grown quite as quickly as creative nonfiction in recent decades. Literary nonfiction is now well-established as a powerful means of storytelling, and bookstores now reserve large amounts of space for nonfiction, when it often used to occupy a single bookshelf.

Like any literary genre, creative nonfiction has a long history; also like other genres, defining contemporary CNF for the modern writer can be nuanced. If you’re interested in writing true-to-life stories but you’re not sure where to begin, let’s start by dissecting the creative nonfiction genre and what it means to write a modern literary essay.

What Creative Nonfiction Is

Creative nonfiction employs the creative writing techniques of literature, such as poetry and fiction, to retell a true story.

How do we define creative nonfiction? What makes it “creative,” as opposed to just “factual writing”? These are great questions to ask when entering the genre, and they require answers which could become literary essays themselves.

In short, creative nonfiction (CNF) is a form of storytelling that employs the creative writing techniques of literature, such as poetry and fiction, to retell a true story. Creative nonfiction writers don’t just share pithy anecdotes, they use craft and technique to situate the reader into their own personal lives. Fictional elements, such as character development and narrative arcs, are employed to create a cohesive story, but so are poetic elements like conceit and juxtaposition.

The CNF genre is wildly experimental, and contemporary nonfiction writers are pushing the bounds of literature by finding new ways to tell their stories. While a CNF writer might retell a personal narrative, they might also focus their gaze on history, politics, or they might use creative writing elements to write an expository essay. There are very few limits to what creative nonfiction can be, which is what makes defining the genre so difficult—but writing it so exciting.

Different Forms of Creative Nonfiction

From the autobiographies of Mark Twain and Benvenuto Cellini, to the more experimental styles of modern writers like Karl Ove Knausgård, creative nonfiction has a long history and takes a wide variety of forms. Common iterations of the creative nonfiction genre include the following:

Also known as biography or autobiography, the memoir form is probably the most recognizable form of creative nonfiction. Memoirs are collections of memories, either surrounding a single narrative thread or multiple interrelated ideas. The memoir is usually published as a book or extended piece of fiction, and many memoirs take years to write and perfect. Memoirs often take on a similar writing style as the personal essay does, though it must be personable and interesting enough to encourage the reader through the entire book.

Personal Essay

Personal essays are stories about personal experiences told using literary techniques.

When someone hears the word “essay,” they instinctively think about those five paragraph book essays everyone wrote in high school. In creative nonfiction, the personal essay is much more vibrant and dynamic. Personal essays are stories about personal experiences, and while some personal essays can be standalone stories about a single event, many essays braid true stories with extended metaphors and other narratives.

Personal essays are often intimate, emotionally charged spaces. Consider the opening two paragraphs from Beth Ann Fennelly’s personal essay “ I Survived the Blizzard of ’79. ”

We didn’t question. Or complain. It wouldn’t have occurred to us, and it wouldn’t have helped. I was eight. Julie was ten.

We didn’t know yet that this blizzard would earn itself a moniker that would be silk-screened on T-shirts. We would own such a shirt, which extended its tenure in our house as a rag for polishing silver.

The word “essay” comes from the French “essayer,” which means “to try” or “attempt.” The personal essay is more than just an autobiographical narrative—it’s an attempt to tell your own history with literary techniques.

Lyric Essay

The lyric essay contains similar subject matter as the personal essay, but is much more experimental in form.

The lyric essay contains similar subject matter as the personal essay, with one key distinction: lyric essays are much more experimental in form. Poetry and creative nonfiction merge in the lyric essay, challenging the conventional prose format of paragraphs and linear sentences.

The lyric essay stands out for its unique writing style and sentence structure. Consider these lines from “ Life Code ” by J. A. Knight:

The dream goes like this: blue room of water. God light from above. Child’s fist, foot, curve, face, the arc of an eye, the symmetry of circles… and then an opening of this body—which surprised her—a movement so clean and assured and then the push towards the light like a frog or a fish.

What we get is language driven by emotion, choosing an internal logic rather than a universally accepted one.

Lyric essays are amazing spaces to break barriers in language. For example, the lyricist might write a few paragraphs about their story, then examine a key emotion in the form of a villanelle or a ghazal . They might decide to write their entire essay in a string of couplets or a series of sonnets, then interrupt those stanzas with moments of insight or analysis. In the lyric essay, language dictates form. The successful lyricist lets the words arrange themselves in whatever format best tells the story, allowing for experimental new forms of storytelling.

Literary Journalism

Much more ambiguously defined is the idea of literary journalism. The idea is simple: report on real life events using literary conventions and styles. But how do you do this effectively, in a way that the audience pays attention and takes the story seriously?

You can best find examples of literary journalism in more “prestigious” news journals, such as The New Yorker , The Atlantic , Salon , and occasionally The New York Times . Think pieces about real world events, as well as expository journalism, might use braiding and extended metaphors to make readers feel more connected to the story. Other forms of nonfiction, such as the academic essay or more technical writing, might also fall under literary journalism, provided those pieces still use the elements of creative nonfiction.

Consider this recently published article from The Atlantic : The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar by Lawrence Weschler. It employs a style that’s breezy yet personable—including its opening line.

So I first heard about Shimmel Zohar from Gravity Goldberg—yeah, I know, but she insists it’s her real name (explaining that her father was a physicist)—who is the director of public programs and visitor experience at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, in San Francisco.

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Common Elements and Techniques

What separates a general news update from a well-written piece of literary journalism? What’s the difference between essay writing in high school and the personal essay? When nonfiction writers put out creative work, they are most successful when they utilize the following elements.

Just like fiction, nonfiction relies on effective narration. Telling the story with an effective plot, writing from a certain point of view, and using the narrative to flesh out the story’s big idea are all key craft elements. How you structure your story can have a huge impact on how the reader perceives the work, as well as the insights you draw from the story itself.

Consider the first lines of the story “ To the Miami University Payroll Lady ” by Frenci Nguyen:

You might not remember me, but I’m the dark-haired, Texas-born, Asian-American graduate student who visited the Payroll Office the other day to complete direct deposit and tax forms.

Because the story is written in second person, with the reader experiencing the story as the payroll lady, the story’s narration feels much more personal and important, forcing the reader to evaluate their own personal biases and beliefs.

Observation

Telling the story involves more than just simple plot elements, it also involves situating the reader in the key details. Setting the scene requires attention to all five senses, and interpersonal dialogue is much more effective when the narrator observes changes in vocal pitch, certain facial expressions, and movements in body language. Essentially, let the reader experience the tiny details – we access each other best through minutiae.

The story “ In Transit ” by Erica Plouffe Lazure is a perfect example of storytelling through observation. Every detail of this flash piece is carefully noted to tell a story without direct action, using observations about group behavior to find hope in a crisis. We get observation when the narrator notes the following:

Here at the St. Thomas airport in mid-March, we feel the urgency of the transition, the awareness of how we position our bodies, where we place our luggage, how we consider for the first time the numbers of people whose belongings are placed on the same steel table, the same conveyor belt, the same glowing radioactive scan, whose IDs are touched by the same gloved hand[.]

What’s especially powerful about this story is that it is written in a single sentence, allowing the reader to be just as overwhelmed by observation and context as the narrator is.

We’ve used this word a lot, but what is braiding? Braiding is a technique most often used in creative nonfiction where the writer intertwines multiple narratives, or “threads.” Not all essays use braiding, but the longer a story is, the more it benefits the writer to intertwine their story with an extended metaphor or another idea to draw insight from.

“ The Crush ” by Zsofia McMullin demonstrates braiding wonderfully. Some paragraphs are written in first person, while others are written in second person.

The following example from “The Crush” demonstrates braiding:

Your hair is still wet when you slip into the booth across from me and throw your wallet and glasses and phone on the table, and I marvel at how everything about you is streamlined, compact, organized. I am always overflowing — flesh and wants and a purse stuffed with snacks and toy soldiers and tissues.

The author threads these narratives together by having both people interact in a diner, yet the reader still perceives a distance between the two threads because of the separation of “I” and “you” pronouns. When these threads meet, briefly, we know they will never meet again.

Speaking of insight, creative nonfiction writers must draw novel conclusions from the stories they write. When the narrator pauses in the story to delve into their emotions, explain complex ideas, or draw strength and meaning from tough situations, they’re finding insight in the essay.

Often, creative writers experience insight as they write it, drawing conclusions they hadn’t yet considered as they tell their story, which makes creative nonfiction much more genuine and raw.

The story “ Me Llamo Theresa ” by Theresa Okokun does a fantastic job of finding insight. The story is about the history of our own names and the generations that stand before them, and as the writer explores her disconnect with her own name, she recognizes a similar disconnect in her mother, as well as the need to connect with her name because of her father.

The narrator offers insight when she remarks:

I began to experience a particular type of identity crisis that so many immigrants and children of immigrants go through — where we are called one name at school or at work, but another name at home, and in our hearts.

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: the 5 R’s

CNF pioneer Lee Gutkind developed a very system called the “5 R’s” of creative nonfiction writing. Together, the 5 R’s form a general framework for any creative writing project. They are:

• Write about r eal life: Creative nonfiction tackles real people, events, and places—things that actually happened or are happening.
• Conduct extensive r esearch: Learn as much as you can about your subject matter, to deepen and enrich your ability to relay the subject matter. (Are you writing about your tenth birthday? What were the newspaper headlines that day?)
• (W) r ite a narrative: Use storytelling elements originally from fiction, such as Freytag’s Pyramid , to structure your CNF piece’s narrative as a story with literary impact rather than just a recounting.
• Include personal r eflection: Share your unique voice and perspective on the narrative you are retelling.
• Learn by r eading: The best way to learn to write creative nonfiction well is to read it being written well. Read as much CNF as you can, and observe closely how the author’s choices impact you as a reader.

You can read more about the 5 R’s in this helpful summary article .

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Give it a Try!

Whatever form you choose, whatever story you tell, and whatever techniques you write with, the more important aspect of creative nonfiction is this: be honest. That may seem redundant, but often, writers mistakenly create narratives that aren’t true, or they use details and symbols that didn’t exist in the story. Trust us – real life is best read when it’s honest, and readers can tell when details in the story feel fabricated or inflated. Write with honesty, and the right words will follow!

Ready to start writing your creative nonfiction piece? If you need extra guidance or want to write alongside our community, take a look at the upcoming nonfiction classes at Writers.com. Now, go and write the next bestselling memoir!

Sean Glatch

Thank you so much for including these samples from Hippocampus Magazine essays/contributors; it was so wonderful to see these pieces reflected on from the craft perspective! – Donna from Hippocampus

Absolutely, Donna! I’m a longtime fan of Hippocampus and am always astounded by the writing you publish. We’re always happy to showcase stunning work 🙂

I like how it is written about him”…When he’s not writing, which is often, he thinks he should be writing.”

[…] Source: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-complete-guide-to-writing-creative-nonfiction#5-creative-nonfiction-writing-promptshttps://writers.com/what-is-creative-nonfiction […]

So impressive

Thank you. I’ve been researching a number of figures from the 1800’s and have come across a large number of ‘biographies’ of figures. These include quoted conversations which I knew to be figments of the author and yet some works are lauded as ‘histories’.

excellent guidelines inspiring me to write CNF thank you

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49 Introduction to Creative Non-Fiction

Dr. Karen Palmer

Introduction to Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction has existed for as long as poetry, fiction, and drama have, but only in the last forty years or so has the term become common as a label for creative, factual prose. The length is not  a factor in characterizing this genre: Such prose can take the form of an essay or a book. For this chapter’s discussion, we will focus on the essay , since not only will this shorter version of the form allow us to examine multiple examples for a better understanding of the genre, but also, you may have written creative nonfiction essays yourself. Looking carefully at the strategies exhibited by some successful essay writers will give us new ideas for achieving goals in our own writing.

Currently, creative non-fiction is the most popular literary genre. While generations past defined literature as poetry, drama, and fiction, creative nonfiction has increasingly gained popularity and recognition in the literary world.

Creative nonfiction stories depict real-life events, places, people, and experiences, but do so in a way that is immersive, so readers feel emotionally invested in the writing in a way they probably are not as invested in, say, a textbook or a more formal autobiography. While “nonfiction” (without the creative designation) tells true stories as well, there is less emphasis upon and space for creativity. If regular nonfiction were a person, it might say “just the facts, ma’am.” Creative nonfiction, on the other hand, might ask “and what color were her eyes as the moonlight reflected off the ocean into them, and what childhood memories did that moment dredge up?”

The best creative nonfiction tells a true story in an artistic — or literary — way. This means that the story has certain elements, such as descriptive imagery, setting, plot, conflict, characters, metaphors, and other literary devices. Usually, a work of creative nonfiction is narrated in first-person, though sometimes it can be written in third-person. It can be lyric and personal or representing important moments in history. They also might be more objective and scholarly, like many pieces of investigative journalism.

Key Takeaways

Creative Nonfiction Characteristics

• True stories
• Prose (usually, though sometimes poetry)
• Uses literary devices/is more creative and artistically-oriented than “regular” nonfiction
• Often told in first person
• The narrator is often the author or a persona of the author, but not always

When reading a work of creative nonfiction, it is important to remember the story is true. This means the author does not have as much artistic freedom as a fiction writer or poet might, because they cannot invent events which did not happen. It is worthwhile, then, to pay attention to the literary devices and other artistic choices the narrator makes. Readers should consider: what choices were made here about what to include and what to omit? Are there repeating images or themes? How might the historical context influence this work?

First, let’s do what we can to more clearly define the creative nonfiction essay. What is the difference between this kind of essay and an academic essay? Although written in prose form ( prose is writing not visually broken into distinct lines as poetry is), the creative nonfiction essay often strives for a poetic effect , employing a kind of compressed, distilled language so that most words carry more meaning than their simple denotation (or literal meaning). Generally, this kind of essay is not heavy with researched information or formal argument; its priority, instead, is to generate a powerful emotional and aesthetic effect ( aesthetic referring to artistic and/or beautiful qualities).

In this video, Evan Puschak discusses the evolution of the essay with the advent of technology and gives some really interesting insight into the importance of essays.

How YouTube Changed The Essay | Evan Puschak | TEDxLafayetteCollege

Four Types of Essay

A narrative essay recounts a sequence of related events.  Narrative essays are usually autobiographical. Events are chosen because they suggest or illustrate some universal truth or insight about life. In other words, the author has discovered in his/her own experiences evidence for generalizations about themselves or society.

Argumentative/Persuasive:

An argumentative essay strives to persuade readers. It usually deals with controversial ideas, creating arguments and gathering evidence to support a particular point of view. The author anticipates and answers opposing arguments in order to persuade the reader to adopt the author’s perspective.

In this video, the instructor gives an overview of the narrative and argumentative essays from the writer’s perspective. Looking at the essay from the author’s perspective can provide an interesting insight into reading an essay.

Descriptive:

A descriptive essay depicts sensory observations in words. They evoke reader’s imagination and address complex issues by appealing to the senses instead of the intellect. While a narrative essay will certainly employ description, the primary difference between the two is that a descriptive essay focuses only on appealing to the senses, whereas a narrative essay uses description to tell a story.

Expository:

An expository essay attempt to explain a topic, making it clear to readers. In an expository essay, the author organizes and provides information. Examples of this type of essay include the definition essay and the process analysis (how-to).

In this videos, the instructor gives an overview of the descriptive and expository essays from the writer’s perspective. Looking at the essay from the author’s perspective can provide an interesting insight into reading an essay.

Choosing a Topic & Reading the Essay: Steps 1 & 2

Your first step in writing a paper about an essay is to choose an essay and read it carefully. Essays confront readers directly with an idea, a problem, an illuminating experience, an important definition, or some flaw/virtue in the social system. Usually short, an essay embodies the writer’s personal viewpoint and speaks with the voice of a real person about the real word. Essays might also explore & clarify ideas by arguing for or against a position.

When reading an essay, ask yourself, “what is the central argument or idea?” Does the essay attack or justify something, or remind readers of something about their inner lives?

In this video, I do a close reading of the essay “ The Grapes of Mrs. Wrath .” As in any type of literature, you want to read first for enjoyment and understanding. Then, go back and do a close reading with a pen in hand, jotting down notes and looking for the ways in which the author gets his/her point across to the reader.

Virginia Woolf’s 1942 “The Death of the Moth” is an illuminating example of an argumentative essay. While the essay does not present a stated argument and proceed to offer evidence in the same way conventional academic argument would, it does strive to persuade . Consider this piece carefully and see if you can detect the theme that Woolf is developing.

“The Death of the Moth”

Here are some important items to consider when reading an essay.

1. The Thesis:

What is the point of the piece of writing? This should be your central concern. Once you know what the author’s main idea is, you can look at what techniques the author uses to get that point across successfully.

The title of Woolf’s essay, “The Death of the Moth,” offers us, from the start, the knowledge of the work’s theme of death. What impression does the essay, as a whole, convey? The writer acknowledges that watching even such a small creature as the moth struggle against death, she sympathizes with the moth and not with the “power of such magnitude” that carries on outside the window—that of time and inevitable change, for this power is ultimately her own “enemy” as well. In her last line, “O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am,” what lesson has she internalized regarding herself , a human being who at first observed the autumn day with no immediate sense of her own mortality?

2. Structure & detail:

• opening lines capture attention
• endings offer forceful assertions that focus the matter preceding them
• body converts abstract ideas into concrete details

While this piece is not a poem, what aspects of it are poetic ? Consider the imagery employed to suggest the season of death, for all of nature. The writer describes her experience sitting at her desk next to the window, observing the signs of autumn: the plow “scoring the field” where the crop (or “share”) has already been harvested. Although the scene begins in morning—characterized by energetic exertions of nature, including the rooks, rising and settling into the trees again and again with a great deal of noise, “as though to be thrown into the air and settle slowly down upon the tree tops were a tremendously exciting experience”—the day shifts, as the essay progresses, to afternoon, the birds having left the trees of this field for some other place. Like the moth, the day and the year are waning. The energy that each began with is now diminishing, as is the case for all living things.

The writer is impressed with the moth’s valiant struggle against its impending death because she is also aware of its inevitable doom: “[T] here was something marvellous as well as pathetic about him.” As is common in poetry, Woolf’s diction not only suggests her attitude toward the subject, but also exhibits a lyrical quality that enhances the work’s  effect: She introduces words whose meanings are associated with youth and energy, as well as sounding strong with the “vigorous” consonants of “g,” “c,” “z,” and “t”—words such as “vigour,” “clamour,” and “zest.” Yet, the author counters this positive tone with other words that suggest, both in meaning and in their softer sounds, the vulnerability of living things: “thin,” “frail,” “diminutive,” and “futile.” In a third category of diction, with words of compliment—”extraordinary” and “uncomplainingly”—

Woolf acknowledges the moth’s admirable fight. In addition to indicating the moth’s heroism, the very length of these words seems to model the moth’s attempts to drag out its last moments of life.

3. Style and Tone

• Style: writing skills that contribute to the effect of any piece of literature
• Tone: attitude conveyed by the language a writer chooses

Woolf’s choice of tone for an essay on this topic is, perhaps, what distinguishes it from the many other literary works on the subject. The attitude is not one of tragedy, horror, or indignation, as we might expect. Rather, through imagery and diction, Woolf generates a tone of wistfulness . By carefully crafting the reader’s experience of the moth’s death, through the author’s own first person point of view, she reminds us of our own human struggle against death, which is both heroic and inevitable.

Step 2: Personal Response

For Further Reading

Believe it or not, people actually add essays to their reading lists! Here are a few folks talking about their favorite essay collections. 🙂

https://youtu.be/ta68Bj7n0o4

Attributions

• Content created by Dr. Karen Palmer. Licensed under CC BY NC SA .
• Content adapted from “Creative Nonfiction, the 4th Genre” from Writing and Literature , licensed under CC BY SA .
• Content adapted from “ What is Creative Non-Fiction ” licensed CC BY NC .

The Worry Free Writer Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Karen Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Creative Nonfiction: An Overview

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The Creative Nonfiction (CNF) genre can be rather elusive. It is focused on story, meaning it has a narrative plot with an inciting moment, rising action, climax and denoument, just like fiction. However, nonfiction only works if the story is based in truth, an accurate retelling of the author’s life experiences. The pieces can vary greatly in length, just as fiction can; anything from a book-length autobiography to a 500-word food blog post can fall within the genre.

Additionally, the genre borrows some aspects, in terms of voice, from poetry; poets generally look for truth and write about the realities they see. While there are many exceptions to this, such as the persona poem, the nonfiction genre depends on the writer’s ability to render their voice in a realistic fashion, just as poetry so often does. Writer Richard Terrill, in comparing the two forms, writes that the voice in creative nonfiction aims “to engage the empathy” of the reader; that, much like a poet, the writer uses “personal candor” to draw the reader in.

Creative Nonfiction encompasses many different forms of prose. As an emerging form, CNF is closely entwined with fiction. Many fiction writers make the cross-over to nonfiction occasionally, if only to write essays on the craft of fiction. This can be done fairly easily, since the ability to write good prose—beautiful description, realistic characters, musical sentences—is required in both genres.

So what, then, makes the literary nonfiction genre unique?

The first key element of nonfiction—perhaps the most crucial thing— is that the genre relies on the author’s ability to retell events that actually happened. The talented CNF writer will certainly use imagination and craft to relay what has happened and tell a story, but the story must be true. You may have heard the idiom that “truth is stranger than fiction;” this is an essential part of the genre. Events—coincidences, love stories, stories of loss—that may be expected or feel clichéd in fiction can be respected when they occur in real life .

A writer of Creative Nonfiction should always be on the lookout for material that can yield an essay; the world at-large is their subject matter. Additionally, because Creative Nonfiction is focused on reality, it relies on research to render events as accurately as possible. While it’s certainly true that fiction writers also research their subjects (especially in the case of historical fiction), CNF writers must be scrupulous in their attention to detail. Their work is somewhat akin to that of a journalist, and in fact, some journalism can fall under the umbrella of CNF as well. Writer Christopher Cokinos claims, “done correctly, lived well, delivered elegantly, such research uncovers not only facts of the world, but reveals and shapes the world of the writer” (93). In addition to traditional research methods, such as interviewing subjects or conducting database searches, he relays Kate Bernheimer’s claim that “A lifetime of reading is research:” any lived experience, even one that is read, can become material for the writer.

The other key element, the thing present in all successful nonfiction, is reflection. A person could have lived the most interesting life and had experiences completely unique to them, but without context—without reflection on how this life of experiences affected the writer—the reader is left with the feeling that the writer hasn’t learned anything, that the writer hasn’t grown. We need to see how the writer has grown because a large part of nonfiction’s appeal is the lessons it offers us, the models for ways of living: that the writer can survive a difficult or strange experience and learn from it. Sean Ironman writes that while “[r]eflection, or the second ‘I,’ is taught in every nonfiction course” (43), writers often find it incredibly hard to actually include reflection in their work. He expresses his frustration that “Students are stuck on the idea—an idea that’s not entirely wrong—that readers need to think” (43), that reflecting in their work would over-explain the ideas to the reader. Not so. Instead, reflection offers “the crucial scene of the writer writing the memoir” (44), of the present-day writer who is looking back on and retelling the past. In a moment of reflection, the author steps out of the story to show a different kind of scene, in which they are sitting at their computer or with their notebook in some quiet place, looking at where they are now, versus where they were then; thinking critically about what they’ve learned. This should ideally happen in small moments, maybe single sentences, interspersed throughout the piece. Without reflection, you have a collection of scenes open for interpretation—though they might add up to nothing.

AQA GCSE English Language

Understanding structure in non-fiction texts, recognising organisation and layout.

Non-fiction texts come in various forms, each with its own typical structure. For example, essays often follow a clear introduction-body-conclusion structure, while reports may be divided into sections with headings and subheadings. Articles might start with a lead paragraph that summarises the main points, followed by supporting paragraphs.

As you read, note the layout of the text. How is it organised? What sections can you identify?

Understanding Text Features

Non-fiction texts often include features like headings, subheadings, bullet points, captions and diagrams. These features serve specific purposes, such as organising information, emphasising key points or providing additional information.

• Headings and Subheadings – These are used to organise information into manageable sections. They give a snapshot of what the following section is about, helping you to navigate the text. 
• Bullet Points – These are used to list information in a clear, concise manner. They’re often used to summarise points, list steps in a process or highlight key pieces of information.
• Captions – These are short descriptions that accompany pictures, diagrams or graphs. They help explain what the visual element is showing and how it relates to the text. 
• Diagrams – These are visual representations of information. They can help explain complex ideas or processes in a simple, visual way.

Identifying the Argument or Main Point

In non-fiction, the author’s main argument or point is the central idea they want to communicate to their readers. This could be an opinion, a fact, a discovery or a perspective. It’s the ‘why’ behind the text – why the author felt it necessary to write this piece. The main argument or point is usually stated clearly in the introduction and then developed throughout the text.

For example, in A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, the main point is to explain complex concepts in cosmology to a general audience. This point is developed through detailed explanations and examples.

Try to summarise the main argument or point in one sentence. Then, identify how this point is developed throughout the text.

Analysing the Structure’s Contribution

The structure of a non-fiction text can contribute to its clarity, persuasiveness or impact. A well-structured text will present information in a logical and coherent way, making it easier for readers to understand and engage with the content.

Consider how the structure of the text affects your understanding. Does it make the argument clearer? Does it make the text more persuasive or impactful?

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Reading Skills

Analyzing the text structure of non-fiction texts.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: June 26, 2023

Introduction

Exploring the world of non-fiction is like embarking on an exciting treasure hunt. Each piece of non-fiction literature presents a wealth of knowledge and perspectives to uncover. A crucial tool on this quest? Understanding non-fiction text structure. Grasping this concept can transform your reading experience, providing you a map to navigate the text’s content more efficiently.

What is Text Structure?

Text structure is how an author sets up what they’re writing. Think of it like a builder using a plan to make a house. An author uses a certain structure to share their thoughts in a clear way. This could be telling events in order they happened for a history story, showing a cause and then its effect for a science paper, laying out a problem and then its solution for a persuasive article, or looking at similarities and differences in a critical review.

Authors use these structures to make their text make sense and guide their readers. Knowing the text structure helps readers guess what comes next, understand complex ideas, and connect better with the text. It’s like a hidden support that keeps a text together and gives it its aim and meaning.

Why Should Readers Analyze Text Structure?

Analyzing text structure is like looking under the hood of a car; it shows us how things work and lets us see the hard work that goes into making it. When we look into how a text is structured, we get a chance to understand how the author thinks and how they built their story or argument. This doesn’t just help us understand the text better; it also improves our ability to think critically and relate to others

By spotting patterns, picking out main ideas, and getting the flow of thoughts, readers can feel more connected to the text, making reading more enjoyable. Plus, analyzing text structure helps readers have good conversations, write better essays, and, in a bigger sense, be more critical when they take in information. So, looking at text structure gives readers useful skills that they can use not just in school, but also in their daily life.

Common Text Structures

Understanding non-fiction texts involves recognizing their underlying structure. Let’s explore five of the most common text structures found in non-fiction:

• Cause and Effect
• Problem and Solution
• Description
• Compare and Contrast

Cause and Effect Text Structure

This kind of text shows how one thing leads to another. The cause is why something happened, and the effect is what happened as a result. You might see this in science or history books. These books carefully link an action or event (the cause) with what changed or happened afterward (the effect). Spotting this structure helps you understand the reason behind different events and processes.

Problem- Solution Text Structure

Texts using the problem-solution structure talk about a problem, then suggest ways to solve it. You’ll see this a lot in work about social, political, or environmental problems. These texts discuss a problem and then suggest possible ways to fix it. Knowing this structure lets you think critically about the suggested solutions to different problems

Sequence Text Structure

The sequence structure puts information in a certain order, often the order things happened. This structure is used a lot in history books, biographies, how-to guides, or instructions. It gives readers a step-by-step rundown or timeline of events. Spotting this structure can help you follow the chain of events or steps accurately.

Description Text Structure

Texts with a description structure give lots of information about a topic, often using words that paint a picture for the reader. These texts can be about anything from scientific ideas to historical events. They dive into the details to give readers a full understanding of the subject. Knowing this structure helps you visualize and understand complex ideas.

Compare and Contrast Text Structure

This structure analyzes the similarities and differences between two or more topics. It’s used to provide nuanced perspectives on multiple subjects. Non-fiction authors often use this structure to compare different theories, concepts, events, or entities. Understanding this structure can help you see different perspectives and make informed comparisons.

How to Analyze the Structure of Non-Fiction Texts

Now that you’ve learned about the different types of text structures, it’s important to understand how to determine the structure of a particular text. Analyzing the structure of non-fiction texts involves a few important steps.

Step 1 : Begin with an open mind and read through the text. Try to understand the big picture without focusing too much on little details.

Step 2 : Pay attention to how the author shares information. Are events told in the order they happened? Does the author talk about a problem and then suggest a solution? Or maybe the text gives a lot of information about one subject? Spotting these patterns will help you figure out the text’s structure.

Step 3: Try to think about why the author picked this structure. How does it help get the main ideas and themes across? How does it change how you understand the text as a reader?

Step 4: Link the text structure to the author’s goal or point of view. Ask yourself, “How does this structure support what the author is trying to say or do?”

By following these steps, you’ll get a deeper understanding of the text, which will help you understand what you’re reading and think critically about it. If you do this often, you’ll become a stronger, more analytical reader.

How Text Structure Contributes to the Author’s Purpose

A non-fiction author’s purpose or point of view can shape their text structures. For instance, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is a complex piece of non-fiction writing that integrates various text structures, as it addresses different aspects of the civil rights struggle. King’s purpose is shaped by the use of two primary text structures: problem-solution and cause and effect.

• Problem-Solution: Throughout the letter, King identifies various problems related to racial injustice and segregation. For instance, he discusses the problem of unjust laws and racial discrimination. He then proposes nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as solutions to these problems.
• Cause and Effect: King also uses the cause and effect structure to demonstrate the relationship between racial discrimination (cause) and the resulting civil unrest and protest (effect). He explains how systemic oppression leads to nonviolent resistance and protests, emphasizing that these actions are the effects of ongoing racial prejudice and inequality.

Understanding the structure of non-fiction texts allows you to appreciate these nuances and gain a more profound insight into the author’s message. Just like each author’s personal background and purpose shape a novel, these factors influence the structure and presentation of non-fiction works, making each one a unique contribution to our collective knowledge.

Text Structure Practice: Analyzing George Bush’s 9/11 Speech

Let’s use what we know about text structures to look at George W. Bush’s speech after the 9/11 attacks.

Read through the speech carefully. While you read, underline or mark important points and transitions.

Think about possible text structures. Think about whether ‘Cause and Effect’ or ‘Chronological’ structures might apply. In ‘Cause and Effect’, we would expect the text to talk about a cause (like the terrorist attacks) and then focus on what happened because of it. In a ‘Chronological’ structure, the speech would mostly be organized by time. However, while there are pieces of these structures, the speech doesn’t mainly follow them.

Confirm the text structure. Based on what you’ve looked at, figure out the main text structure. In this case, the speech’s focus on a problem (the attacks) and the suggested solution (actions for safety and unity) fits the ‘Problem and Solution’ structure.

Spot the ‘Problem’. In Bush’s speech, this is the 9/11 attacks. Pay attention to how he talks about the events and how they’ve affected the country. For example, the quote “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.” identifies the problem.

Look for the ‘Solution’. Bush talks about this when he shares the steps being taken for the country’s safety and his call for unity and strength. A good example of this is in the line: “We go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.” This is where Bush is discussing bringing the country together, promoting unity, and encouraging strength.

By following these steps, you can dissect the ‘Problem and Solution’ structure of Bush’s speech. This approach will help you understand the speech’s purpose, see how it was designed to reassure a shocked nation, and grasp how the speaker encouraged unity and resilience in a time of crisis. Applying these steps to other non-fiction texts will enhance your comprehension and analytical skills, revealing deeper layers of understanding.

In this digital age, understanding how to analyze and comprehend non-fiction text structures is a crucial skill for students. By recognizing and understanding structures like Cause and Effect, Problem- Solution, Sequence, Description, and Compare and Contrast, you can unlock a deeper understanding of the texts you encounter.

Whether it’s a novel by a renowned author, an informative article, or a powerful speech like George W. Bush’s 9/11 address, recognizing these structures will empower you to grasp an author’s purpose, viewpoint, and strategy more fully.

Practice Makes Perfect

By analyzing non-fiction texts, you not only develop your reading comprehension skills but also gain a deeper understanding of the underlying ideas and themes. However, just like any skill, effective analysis of text structure requires regular practice.

Here at Albert, we offer engaging and comprehensive resources to help you perfect this skill. Our practice questions and reading exercises are specifically designed to hone your understanding of different non-fiction text structures.

For more practice with this essential skill, check out our Text Structure Practice Questions in our Short Readings course , designed to provide thorough, step-by-step practice. Readers at all ability levels may enjoy our  Leveled Readings  course, which offers Lexile® leveled passages focused on a unifying essential question that keeps all students on the same page regardless of reading level. Learn more about the Lexile Framework  here !

So, keep practicing, keep breaking down texts, and keep working on this important skill. Remember, every new text you read is a chance to get even better at analyzing.

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The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

How To Write Narrative Non-Fiction With Matt Hongoltz-Hetling

posted on August 24, 2020

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:14 — 52.2MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

What is narrative non-fiction and how do you write a piece so powerful it is nominated for a Pulitzer? In this interview, Matt Hongoltz-Hetling talks about his process for finding stories worth writing about and how he turns them into award-winning articles.

In the intro, I talk about Spotify (possibly) getting into audiobooks and Amazon (possibly) getting into podcasts as reported on The Hotsheet , and the New Publishing Standard . David Gaughran's How to Sell Books in 2020 ; a college student who used GPT3 to reach the top of Hacker News with an AI-generated blog post [ The Verge ]; and ALLi on Is Copyright Broken? Artificial Intelligence and Author Copyright . Plus, synchronicity in book research, and my personal podcast episode on Druids, Freemasons, and Frankenstein: The Darker Side of Bath, England (where I live!)

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling is a Pulitzer finalist and award-winning investigative journalist. He's also the author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear .

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

• From writing for pennies an article to writing a Pulitzer – nominated article
• What is narrative non-fiction?
• How does narrative non-fiction differ from fiction?
• Where ideas come from and how to begin forming a story idea
• The necessity of being respectful of the real lives being examined and written about
• Portraying interview subjects with shades of grey
• Turning hours of source material into something coherent
• Finding the balance between story structure and meaning
• Knowing when an idea is appropriate for a book

You can find Matt Hongoltz-Hetling at matt-hongoltzhetling.com and on Twitter @hh_matt

Transcript of Interview with Matt Hongoltz-Hetling

Joanna: Matt Hongoltz-Hetling is a Pulitzer finalist and award-winning investigative journalist. He's also the author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear . Welcome, Matt.

Matt: Hey, thanks for having me on, Joanna.

Joanna: It's great to have you on the show.

First up, tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing.

Matt: I got into writing when I was eight years old and I wrote this amazing book. I don't want to brag, but I wrote this book about an elf that was fighting in a dungeon, and this elf had some items of a magical persuasion and used them to defeat all sorts of monsters. So, that was pretty awesome. And I've been writing stuff ever since.

I grew up knowing that I wanted to write, loving to read, all that. And then my career path never really seemed to go that way. I actually started a student newspaper when I was in college in the hopes that that would be primarily a writing occupation, but I found very quickly that it was more small business skills that were needed.

I was selling advertisements much more so than writing to fill the newspaper sadly. And so, at some point I had just got the pile of rejection slips that I think we're all familiar with. I just didn't really know how to go about getting into the industry.

I was literally writing articles for, like, 25 cents an article, these, like, ‘How do you fix an engine?' or not even an engine, nothing that complicated, but, ‘How do you clean a window?'

Joanna: Content farms.

Matt: Yes, right. Content farms. Yes. Thank you. But I was writing.

My wife encouraged me to submit an article for my local weekly newspaper in a small town in the state of Maine. And that led to me being able to write more articles, still for very small amounts, 30 bucks an article. And that led to me getting a full-time job as a journalist at a weekly newspaper in rural Maine.

And even though that was fantastically exciting for me, I always knew that I wanted to do more. And so, I was always pushing, looking for that next level that would allow me to write more of the stuff that I wanted to write. And so, that led to larger newspapers, and then magazine opportunities, and then magazine opportunities led to a book opportunity. Now, I'm happy that I am just on the cusp of publishing my first book. I'm very excited about that.

Joanna: We're going to get into that in a second, but I just wonder because this is so fascinating.

How many years was it between writing for a content farm to being a Pulitzer finalist?

Matt: That was actually the shortest journey that you can imagine. Within, let's say, two years of my first newspaper article. I wrote the article that led to my highest-profile resume point which was that Pulitzer finalist status. And that article was about substandard housing conditions in the federal Section 8 program. It's federally subsidized housing and it's meant to be kept up to a certain standard, and the article which I wrote with a writing partner demonstrated that it was not and that there were a lot of people at fault.

What really elevated that article, it was a good article and all of that, but what really got it that level of recognition was that it also turned out to be an impactful article. It happened to come at a time when other people were looking at the housing authority for various reasons. It really struck a nerve and our Senator, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, she took a very avid interest in our reporting and was motivated to encourage reforms of the national Section 8 system.

She was in a political position to do that because she held the purse strings for the housing authorities. And so, it happened to have this very disproportionate impact and because it led to a positive change for the Section 8 housing program in the United States.

I think the people in the Pulitzer committee must've loved the idea that this tiny little rural weekly newspaper where we had three reporter desks, one of which was perennially vacant, had managed to write a story that was really relevant to the national scene.

Joanna: Absolutely fascinating. And I hope that encourages people listening who might feel that they're in a place in their writing career where they're not feeling very successful and yet you bootstrapped your way up there to something really impactful, as you say.

We're going to come back to the craft of writing, but let's just define ‘narrative nonfiction.' Your book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear , which is a great title.

What is narrative nonfiction and where's the line between that and fiction or straight nonfiction?

Matt: Narrative nonfiction, the way that I think of it is i t's basically just like any other fiction book, or novel, or piece that you might pick up except for the events described in it actually happened .

When I think of the difference, it just seems, to me, to be such a small, tiny little difference between fiction and nonfiction because when you write fiction, you're starting with an infinite number of possible events to write about. And when you're writing nonfiction, you're starting with a universe of events.

You're starting with everything that ever happened in the entire universe. That's the material that you can draw on. It is so close to infinite that really, it's just a method of curation. You're going to select some of these facts and arrange them in an order that will create the same exact experience as a powerful piece of fiction writing.

A narrative piece emphasizes the same things that a fiction story would in terms of there's character arcs, there are transformations, there's setting. We want a climax, we want everything that you would want when you're writing a fiction piece.

Joanna: Interesting. And you said at the beginning that it's a tiny difference between fiction and nonfiction. And I'm like, ‘No, surely, this is the biggest separation.' So, I feel like people would have quite a different view on that, but it's interesting because you said there, ‘a method of curation,' and you select the facts, whereas with fiction, obviously, you make it up.

How can you curate truth in a way that serves your story but doesn't distort what really happened?

Matt: That's an excellent question. And I think you do have to be careful to keep things in perspective.

So, I was thinking, ‘What if I was writing about someone in the aeronautics industry or who was an astronaut or maybe someone else within the industry who is motivated by this idea that people want to,' or yeah, ‘that he would like people to colonize the stars?' That's, I think, a very common sci-fi-type theme, and it's also very apparent in the people who go into those fields.

And so, you might take a set of facts. I would ask that person, ‘What are some of the seminal moments in your career? What were the turning points? What were the important things that shaped you as a person?' And this was just an idea that I had, I would look at the amount of cosmic matter in our atmosphere. So, every time a meteor hits the atmosphere, we know it burns up, dust rains down on the earth and that dust becomes part of us. We breathe it in.

Then I would try to draw a timeline between some natural spike in the amount of cosmic dust in the air that might've gone into our subject's body, and that person's decision to get into aeronautics. So, you maybe get to describe that this fantastic spectacular event of a comet the size of a blue whale entering the atmosphere, burning up, raining dust down on, let's say, North America.

And this aeronautics person is 12 years old at the time, he's thinking about baseball, but then he goes to a museum two weeks later and he's breathing in more cosmic dust on that day than he would on an average day, and then he decides to become an astronaut.

You can paint a very poetic scene with that, but it's also very important that you're not actually suggesting or theorizing that the cosmic dust had anything to do with that person's decision.

It's a way to wax poetically about this character and to maybe access a greater idea which is that we all want to go colonize the stars to some extent. That's a very human thing. It appears in our very earliest writings on both fictional and non-fictional.

And you can talk about this amazing spectacular event, you can talk about this person's decision, and if you do it right, the audience will understand that you've just used this as a jumping-off point to explore some of these bigger concepts and cool narrative opportunities without actually saying in a false way that cosmic dust is what makes us want to go out there. So, I'm just saying that you can arrange those events in a way that gives it life, and vibrancy, and maybe some creativity.

Joanna: I like that example. And you brought up so many things that I'm thinking about there.

First of all is using the individual to highlight the universal. If you wrote a piece about how big the universe is or whatever, that's not narrative nonfiction. That might be one of your how-to articles back in the day. So, you've used someone's experience to highlight something universal.

Where do you start? Because this is a question that fiction writers think about all the time. Do you start with the theme of, say, space? Do you start with a character, say you met someone and you want to interview them, or are you starting with, in your case, I guess, a commission or are you starting with just your own curiosity and following where it goes? So, I guess, as you said, that you could write about anything in the whole world.

How do you decide what to write?

Matt: I've spent a lot of my freelance writing career trying to craft pitches that will convince editors to give me a green light and offer me compensation in exchange for a piece of writing. And so, that undergirding structure allows for all those sorts of scenarios that you posit.

I'm always keeping my eye out for things when something interests me and lights me up, then I try to think about how I can make that subject or person who has just lit me up into a pitch that is marketable. I saw a freestyle street rapper a few weeks ago and I was really into what he was doing. I just thought he was amazing because his shtick was that he would incorporate things about the world around him into his rhymes really seamlessly.

I thought, ‘Oh, this guy has got this really amazing talent.' And so then you start thinking like, ‘Is this something that I would pitch to maybe a magazine about rhyme and rhyme structure or is this something that might be more like…is this a cognitive or a neurological skill that he's developed and how might that fit into maybe more of a neuroscience type magazine or is this just a guy who's got the great American story of, he developed a skill on the streets as it were, and then launched it into a career, in which case, we have maybe more of a universal story that could appear in any major market magazine?'

I suppose usually what sparks my interest is a person but it's not at all uncommon for my interest to also be sparked by just a topic. And then I'm searching for those characters who can exemplify that topic.

Joanna: Your writing does focus very much on people and all characters, as you say, but I'm wondering where do you take it from then? How do you tease out the story? Do you interview them?

And again, when you have this material about that person, how do you highlight your story, but also respect the person because you might say that, so, you've got the pitch with the neurological aspect. So, you think, ‘Okay. I want to write about how his brain works differently to someone else, how he can do that,' but then you find out some awful thing and you think that, ‘Okay. How do I respect this person, but how do I also deliver on my pitch?'

How do we ask the right questions to make our characters real, but also be respectful, because this is real life you're writing about?

Matt: My own inclination and approach is typically to just jump in and that's often great because it allows me to maintain forward momentum and use real wishful positive thinking to just hope that everything's going to pan out.

But sometimes its failing is that I will go very confidently striding down what turns out to be a dead end. And so, maybe I pitch this thing as a neurological sciencey story, and then a magazine editor says, ‘Yes, let's do this.' And so then I go back to the subject and I say, ‘I'd like to interview you,' and tell them what's going on.

And in the course of the interview, it turns out that they are not at all representative of the category of box that I want to put them into. And then I've suddenly got this big, awkward problem where I am looking for a different subject to satisfy the magazine editor and trying to get value out of my initial subject and my interview with him by placing him into something that is more appropriate for him. But when I get to that interview phase, I typically like to already have a commission in place before I do that because it's quite a time investment.

When I do interview someone, I like to make them very lengthy, in-depth interviews. Rarely do I talk to someone for less than two or three hours. And in the course of that two or three hours, my interview style is to not necessarily focus too much on asking the right questions so much as just unlocking how they see themselves and what is important to them, and get them talking about what lights them up.

And by not having a very firm idea of where I want to lead a subject, and being flexible in what they can say, what I find is that I often wind up with a really interesting story that maybe doesn't quite fit the mold precisely for where I thought it would go, but it's close enough that I can bridge that gap and the narrative is so compelling and good that nobody cares if there's maybe a slight sidetrack, a slight departure.

And as far as what if you find out something bad about someone while you're in the course of that interview? You're interviewing a person and they suddenly put the interview on pause and speak very sharply or meanly to their spouse or child and suddenly you get the feeling like, ‘You know what, this isn't really actually a very good person.' So, what do you do there?

I think it is very important to acknowledge the bad in people. And it's almost a necessary component. If I am not writing something both bad and good about a person that I'm writing about, then I know I'm not really doing a very good job because I don't know any people who are 100% good and I don't know any people who are 100% bad.

Oftentimes, if I'm talking to someone who we might think of as the hero of a narrative, they're doing good work, we're spotlighting them because of some amazing accomplishment they've done, I think it's really important to throw in a couple of negative character traits or details that will add a note of reality to your writing.

And conversely, if I'm interviewing someone who has committed murder or if I'm interviewing them because they're a bad person, then I'm always really looking for that redeeming quality because some murderers have just had a very bad day or gone through a very bad period in their life and maybe had some disadvantages in the first place.

Even though they've done this terrible, awful thing, there's still some context that you can provide that humanizes them. I think that most of my subjects, I think, appreciate that. Certainly, I've written about some people who've been very unhappy with how they've been portrayed. But I think most people appreciate it when you portray enough facets of their character that their true personality comes through.

Joanna: I've not done this kind of writing. So, I find it fascinating. I've been doing this podcast for 12 years and I have many, many, many hours and a lot of transcripts of material and I've thought many times, ‘It'd be great if I could go through and find all these snippets and turn this into something.' Working with transcripts is really hard. You just mentioned, you have a three-hour interview. So, presumably, you're recording this and you're taking notes as well.

How do you turn all this source material into an article? What's your curation and what's that process?

Matt: I am the kind of person who hates to throw things out. My wife will tell you that that can drive her nuts. And the same is true of my writing. I like to start with everything that has been said, even in a three-hour interview, and then just slowly apply criteria that squeezed some things out.

I always wind up with more material than will fit in the space that I have allotted. And then that encourages me to try to cram more words and more facts into smaller spaces and that results in this real efficient distillation. I think that's another good thing maybe about not being too goal-oriented when you write.

What I typically do is I'll interview someone, we'll have the three-hour interview. I've got copious notes, I got an audio transcript. If I am feeling up to it, I will transcribe every word of that audio interview which is grueling. Sometimes I will use one of those online programs that will convert it and spit out a transcript for you. And that transcript is never perfect, but you can make it perfect by listening and going through. And then I just slowly go through and clean it up.

Often, it's not like writing at all. It's like just fixing things. I might go through it and just correct all the typos in my transcription. And then I might go through and remove all the garble and then I might go through and anything that seems like a cohesive thought, I might put quotation marks around and put on the, ‘he said,' or the, ‘she said.'

Then I will maybe strip out, I'll say, ‘Oh, here, this person talked for 10 minutes about their mother and they were actually quite redundant, but here, this one time they said it, it was the most striking of the eight times they said the same thing.' And so, I will move those other seven iterations down to a notes section at the bottom.

And in this way, I am slowly shrinking and squeezing the text that is there. And if there are things that they've said, points they've made that are important, but that they didn't say it particularly well, then I might write a paraphrase and put the originals down in my notes section.

And then at some point, I will create a series of categories that represent different areas of the story, and then I will sort all of their quotes into those different categories. And all of this stuff that I've just talked about is very mechanical. So, even if you're not feeling particularly inspired, you can go through this rote, brute-force process and nibble away, and nibble away, and nibble away.

What you find at the end is that you actually have the bones of a story.

Often, the story will also involve going through the same process with multiple people and other sources of information, but once you've arranged all that stuff under the subheadings, and then you start to rearrange things within those sections, you find that you are suddenly, magically two-thirds of the way there.

Joanna: That's fascinating. I want to ask about this Pulitzer thing because I know everyone's so interested. And really, this is one of those prizes that is, for many people, a life goal, and you've actually won other awards. You're a multi-award-winning writer.

What's interesting to me is you talked about a story that made an impact. Substandard housing conditions is not the most inspirational thing for most people, but it's interesting. Presumably, you're not winning these prizes for your beautiful sentence structure.

For those authors who obsess with grammar and exact sentences, where's the line between that and story and meaning?

Matt: I think it is all-important including the sentence structure. I always take the position that grammar, and grammar is not really all that important other than in the service of making points very clearly. I really tend to take these very esoteric grammar points and just chuck them out the window because I want somebody to be able to understand what I'm saying.

Oftentimes, adhering very strictly to the rules of grammar impedes the knowledge of the layperson who I want to be able to read, and digest, and appreciate my article . I don't want to poo-poo sentence structure too much. I think there are so many articles written that you're trying to break through the noise of, and stand out in some way. I think the stories that I've been awarded from various organizations and for various things, they've all gone through the same basic process as many of my stories that have not been so recognized and have not turned out necessarily all that good.

But for whatever reason, there was a perfect alignment where the person that I happened to be talking to happened to exemplify that issue just right and the setting happened to work out and the climax of their personal story… there's a lot of just happenstance, I suppose, in that once you've been commissioned to write a story, you're writing that story.

And sometimes the material will support a real cracker-jack breakout story. What's more often is that as you go through the process, you hit an obstacle that you have to smooth over in some way and you turn in a very serviceable, perfectly good story.

But the things that I think really allow it to break through and get head and shoulders above tend to be things that are out of your control. You're going to do your very best job of research, you're going to do your very best job of writing, you're going to use all the good phrases, you're going to exert full control of your mastery of time and space, you're going to jump around in the narrative if that's in the timeline rather, if that's what the narrative calls for.

If you want to focus on the beating of a fly's wings, for some reason, you will do that. If you want to jump back into prehistory, you'll do that. And after you've employed all of those tricks and techniques to craft the very best story that you possibly can from the material, sometimes the material itself will just harmonize perfectly and get you to that place to achieve that potential that you hoped that you could. It's a little bit of luck and magic, I suppose. We can't always summon it or bottle it.

Joanna: Coming to the book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear , which, again, I love the title. It's great. What was it about this idea that made you decide to turn this story into a book-length project rather than a long-form article?

How did you know, ‘Right, I'm going to write a book about this?'

Matt: I was first commissioned for an article on the same topic. The story for those who don't know, it's about a group of libertarians which is a fringe political movement within the United States and their emphasis is on personal freedoms and personal rights.

This national group of libertarians decided to come to one small town, and just take over the town, and turn it into their utopia. Soon after they tried to enact this kind of crazy heist of the town, the town started experiencing bear problems. And so, the book is about how those things are connected.

I was initially commissioned to write an article based on the unusual bear activity that was seen in that town. I was interviewing a woman for my local newspaper about her difficulties in accessing VA benefits. And she was what we stereotype as a crazy cat lady. She was a little bit of a shut-in, she had a bunch of cats milling around, and I asked her about her cats because it's a good icebreaker, and I like cats.

She said, ‘I used to let them outside, but that was before the bears came.' I was like, ‘Oh, well, that sounds really interesting. Forget about the VA. Tell me about bears.' She just started talking about how a bear had eaten two of her cats and how the bears had become very bold and aggressive and were doing weird things.

I started asking around town, asking other people if they had also had bear experiences that seemed unusual. And when I had a feeling for what was going on in that town, I pitched the magazine article and I was really excited to get this magazine article. I really wanted to do a great job on it because ‘The Atavist Magazine' is a good platform and I knew that it would help me to make the case to other magazines that I could write really good narrative stuff.

I went back to town and went through all the interview process and all of that. And when I wrote my first draft for that magazine article, it was 32,000 words. And they would have accepted 4,000 words. So, the article, which I was very happy with, was still very much of a compromise of what I wanted to say about this bizarre situation involving libertarians and bears in this town.

I got in a couple of the best anecdotes including a situation where a bear fights a llama, but there was so much left unsaid, so many colorful things. In that case, I just had this massive trove of colorful materials sitting in my pocket. I knew that there was a very large narrative there because I had already written probably half of the book-length on it. So, it just seemed very natural to write a book about it.

Joanna: Is it a comedy?

Matt: I would call it a dark comedy. There is a lot of very funny stuff, I think, and I do stray into the comedic quite a bit. But there are also some very, kind of, weighty issues. A woman gets attacked by a bear. That's not funny, but there's also just all sorts of goofy stuff.

The llama thing is great. There's one situation where there are two old women who live next door to each other on a hill, and one of them is absolutely terrified of bears. Every time she cooks steak inside, she won't go outside for a day because she's afraid that the bears will smell the steak on her. And meanwhile, her neighbor has been feeding the bears doughnuts for 20 years and has a crowd of bears sitting outside her home waiting for her to come out with doughnuts and buckets of grain twice a day.

There's just a lot of really absurd situations that I was privy to. And I milk them for all I've got.

Joanna: That's so funny. It's so funny there because, of course, the truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. And I guess that's what you're doing with narrative nonfiction is you are finding these stories.

We're almost out of time, but I do want to ask you because in your original email to me, you said, ‘I think a lot of writers start off like I started out, isolated and bereft of helpful connections and not the person who is going to schmooze at an event or something.'

How you have managed to do these things and even interview these people and get over those initial issues?

Matt: I think for most of my life, even while being very passionate about writing, I never felt like I was plugged into the writing community. I feel like everyone who went to get an advanced degree in writing, their professor could hook them up and their former colleagues would go out and join the industry and in places that would be helpful to them.

I just felt, like, really locked out of all of that. And schmoozing is definitely helpful, but, Joanna, I know that there's a certain component of your audience that is never going to schmooze because it's not their thing, and if they try really hard to force themselves to schmooze, they will sound like they're someone who's trying really hard to schmooze, right? It's just not going to be in everyone's nature and it wasn't in my nature.

I think even though the non-schmoozers have a disadvantage relative to the schmoozers, the non-schmoozers can get by on the basis of purely professional relationships which is what I did. As a journalist, I did develop a certain skill set in talking to people, but I've never been the guy at the cocktail party of other writers and editors who is like, ‘Hey, hire me for your next opportunity.'

I think for me, the key was to always I started small, I started writing for newspapers. I sent endless pitches and queries with different ideas and I slowly got better at sending those pitches . And every time a story of mine turned out that was something that I was proud of, that turned out pretty good, I added that to my portfolio.

And when one editor gives you a chance, lends you that sympathetic ear and gives you a chance to write for the next tier of publication that you're interested in, if you satisfy that editor, you may not have schmoozed them, but you have a working relationship with them. If they're happy with your work, that's all you need.

If you don't have the ability to schmooze your way into that, you still have an editor that you're working with. And perhaps you can ask that editor if they have other people in the industry who might also be willing to look favorably upon a submission from you where you're not just in the slush pile.

And you go through that process 100 or 1,000 times, and if you pay attention while you do it, you walk out of it with a group of a dozen editors that you can send a pitch to who have some idea of who you are and whether or not they like your work and your writing. And you're just always working to increase that circle of editors who look on you favorably.

Over the years, what I found and was very happy about was that those editors also bounce around from one position to another. Every time someone you know moves from one publication to the other, you want to try to maintain some contact with their initial publication and approach them in their new position and see if that might allow you to expand your horizons a little bit.

It's an iterative, slow process. It's not as easy as going to a cocktail party or a bar and palling around with the people who hold the reins to these publications, but it does get you there.

Joanna: That's great advice because I know I'm an introvert, many people listening are introverts, and knowing that the long-term professional approach is great. I think that's true if it's people submitting to short stories or if people want to get into traditional publishing, then all of that's quite true.

Where can people find you and your work and everything you do online?

Matt: Oh, thank you so much for asking. You can find me on Twitter @hh_matt . If you Google my name, you'll get to my website at matt-hongoltzhetling.com , and you can find my book, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear , on Amazon, any major online retailer, and through the publisher which is PublicAffairs, a subsidiary of Hachette.

Joanna: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Matt. That was great.

Matt: Joanna, thank you so much. This has been fantastic.

Reader Interactions

August 24, 2020 at 4:19 am

You always ask great questions Joanna but you outdid yourself this time on a topic I knew nothing about. That bear book sounds fascinating!

August 24, 2020 at 8:47 am

Thanks, Julie! Glad you found it interesting 🙂

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This Reading Mama

Non-Fiction Text Features and Text Structure

*This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure policy for more information.

What are Text Features?

Text features are to non-fiction what story elements are to fiction.  Text features help the reader make sense of what they are reading and are the building blocks for text structure (see below). So what exactly are non-fiction text features?

Text Features and Comprehension

Text features go hand-in-hand with comprehension. If the author wants a reader to understand where a country is in the world, then providing a map helps the reader visualize and understand the importance of that country’s location. If the anatomy of an animal is vitally important to understanding a text, a detailed photograph with labels gives the reader the support he needs to comprehend the text.

Text features also help readers determine what is important to the text and to them. Without a table of contents or an index, readers can spend wasted time flipping through the book to find the information they need. Special print helps draw the attention of the reader to important or key words and phrases.

In my experience, readers of all ages, especially struggling readers tend to skip over many of the text features provided within a text. To help readers understand their importance, take some time before reading to look through the photographs/illustrations, charts, graphs, or maps and talk about what you notice. Make some predictions about what they’ll learn or start a list of questions they have based off of the text features.

Sometimes, it’s even fun to make a point to those readers who like to skip over the text features by retyping the text with no features and asking them to read the text without them first.  Once they do that, discuss how difficult comprehension was. Then, give them the original text and help them to see the difference it makes in understanding.

Find our free Nonfiction Text Features Chart !

Some Common Text Features within Non-Fiction

• Captions: Help you better understand a picture or photograph
• Comparisons: These sentences help you to picture something {Example: A whale shark is a little bit bigger than a school bus.}
• Glossary: Helps you define words that are in the book
• Graphics: Charts, graphs, or cutaways are used to help you understand what the author is trying to tell you
• Illustrations/Photographs: Help you to know exactly what something looks like
• Index: This is an alphabetical list of ideas that are in the book. It tells you what page the idea is on.
• Labels: These help you identify a picture or a photograph and its parts
• Maps: help you to understand where places are in the world
• Special Print: When a word is bold , in italics , or underlined , it is an important word for you to know
• Subtitles: These headings help you to know what the next section will be about
• Table of Contents: Helps you identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented

What is Text Structure?

Simply put, text structure is how the author organizes the information within the text.

Why do text structures matter to readers?

• When readers what kind of structure to expect, it helps them connect to and remember what they’ve read better.
• It gives readers clues as to what is most important in the text.
• It helps readers summarize the text.  For example, if we’re summarizing a text that has a sequence/time order structure, we want to make sure we summarize in the same structure.  (It wouldn’t make sense to tell an autobiography out of order.)

Examples of Non-Fiction Text Structure

While there are differences of opinion on the exact amount and names of different kinds of text structure, these are the 5 main ones I teach.

You can read more about each one on day 3 and day 4 of our Teaching Text Structure to Readers series .

1. Problem/Solution

The author will introduce a problem and tell us how the problem could be fixed.  There may be one solution to fix the problem or several different solutions mentioned. Real life example : Advertisements in magazines for products (problem-pain; solution-Tylenol)

2. Cause and Effect

The author describes something that has happened which has had an effect on or caused something else to happen.  It could be a good effect or a bad effect.  There may be more than one cause and there may also be more than one effect. (Many times, problem/solution and cause and effect seem like “cousins” because they can be together.) Real life example : A newspaper article about a volcano eruption which had an effect on tourism

3. Compare/Contrast

The author’s purpose is to tell you how two things are the same and how they are different by comparing them. Real life example : A bargain hunter writing on her blog about buying store-brand items and how it compares with buying name-brand items.

4. Description/List

Although this is a very common text structure, I think it’s one of the trickiest because the author throws a lot of information at the reader (or lists facts) about a certain subject.  It’s up to the reader to determine what he thinks is important and sometimes even interesting enough to remember. Real life example : A soccer coach’s letter describing to parents exactly what kind of cleats to buy for their kids.

5. Time Order/Sequence

Texts are written in an order or timeline format. Real life examples : recipes, directions, events in history

Note: Sometimes the text structure isn’t so easy to distinguish.  For example, the structure of the text as a whole may be Description/List (maybe about Crocodilians), but the author may devote a chapter to Compare/Contrast (Alligators vs. Crocodiles).  We must be explicit about this with students.

More Text Structure Resources:

• 5 Days of Teaching Text Structure to Readers {contains FREE printable packs for Fiction AND Non-fiction, as seen above}
• Fiction Story Elements and Text Structure
• Teaching Kids How to Retell with Fiction (Fiction Text Structure)
• Teaching Kids How to Summarize

• Our Favorite Nonfiction Series Books , perfect companions for working on text features/structures!

Enjoy teaching! ~Becky

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• Table Of Contents

nonfictional prose , any literary work that is based mainly on fact, even though it may contain fictional elements. Examples are the essay and biography.

Defining nonfictional prose literature is an immensely challenging task. This type of literature differs from bald statements of fact, such as those recorded in an old chronicle or inserted in a business letter or in an impersonal message of mere information. As used in a broad sense, the term nonfictional prose literature here designates writing intended to instruct (but does not include highly scientific and erudite writings in which no aesthetic concern is evinced), to persuade, to convert, or to convey experience or reality through “factual” or spiritual revelation. Separate articles cover biography and literary criticism .

Nonfictional prose genres cover an almost infinite variety of themes, and they assume many shapes. In quantitative terms, if such could ever be valid in such nonmeasurable matters, they probably include more than half of all that has been written in countries having a literature of their own. Nonfictional prose genres have flourished in nearly all countries with advanced literatures. The genres include political and polemical writings, biographical and autobiographical literature, religious writings, and philosophical, and moral or religious writings.

After the Renaissance, from the 16th century onward in Europe, a personal manner of writing grew in importance. The author strove for more or less disguised self-revelation and introspective analysis, often in the form of letters, private diaries, and confessions. Also of increasing importance were aphorisms after the style of the ancient Roman philosophers Seneca and Epictetus, imaginary dialogues , and historical narratives, and later, journalistic articles and extremely diverse essays. From the 19th century, writers in Romance and Slavic languages especially, and to a far lesser extent British and American writers, developed the attitude that a literature is most truly modern when it acquires a marked degree of self-awareness and obstinately reflects on its purpose and technique. Such writers were not content with imaginative creation alone: they also explained their work and defined their method in prefaces, reflections, essays, self-portraits, and critical articles. The 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire asserted that no great poet could ever quite resist the temptation to become also a critic : a critic of others and of himself. Indeed, most modern writers, in lands other than the United States , whether they be poets, novelists, or dramatists, have composed more nonfictional prose than poetry, fiction , or drama. In the instances of such monumental figures of 20th-century literature as the poets Ezra Pound , T.S. Eliot , and William Butler Yeats , or the novelists Thomas Mann and André Gide , that part of their output may well be considered by posterity to be equal in importance to their more imaginative writing.

It is virtually impossible to attempt a unitary characterization of nonfictional prose. The concern that any definition is a limitation, and perhaps an exclusion of the essential, is nowhere more apposite than to this inordinately vast and variegated literature. Ever since the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers devised literary genres , some critics have found it convenient to arrange literary production into kinds or to refer it to modes.

Obviously, a realm as boundless and diverse as nonfictional prose literature cannot be characterized as having any unity of intent, of technique, or of style. It can be defined, very loosely, only by what it is not. Many exceptions, in such a mass of writings, can always be brought up to contradict any rule or generalization. No prescriptive treatment is acceptable for the writing of essays, of aphorisms, of literary journalism , of polemical controversy, of travel literature, of memoirs and intimate diaries. No norms are recognized to determine whether a dialogue , a confession, a piece of religious or of scientific writing, is excellent, mediocre , or outright bad, and each author has to be relished, and appraised, chiefly in his own right. “The only technique,” the English critic F.R. Leavis wrote in 1957, “is that which compels words to express an intensively personal way of feeling.” Intensity is probably useful as a standard; yet it is a variable, and often elusive , quality, possessed by polemicists and by ardent essayists to a greater extent than by others who are equally great. “Loving, and taking the liberties of a lover” was Virginia Woolf ’s characterization of the 19th-century critic William Hazlitt ’s style: it instilled passion into his critical essays. But other equally significant English essayists of the same century, such as Charles Lamb or Walter Pater , or the French critic Hippolyte Taine , under an impassive mask, loved too, but differently. Still other nonfictional writers have been detached, seemingly aloof, or, like the 17th-century French epigrammatist La Rochefoucauld, sarcastic. Their intensity is of another sort.

Prose that is nonfictional is generally supposed to cling to reality more closely than that which invents stories, or frames imaginary plots. Calling it “realistic,” however, would be a gross distortion. Since nonfictional prose does not stress inventiveness of themes and of characters independent of the author’s self, it appears in the eyes of some moderns to be inferior to works of imagination. In the middle of the 20th century an immensely high evaluation was placed on the imagination, and the adjective “imaginative” became a grossly abused cliché. Many modern novels and plays, however, were woefully deficient in imaginative force, and the word may have been bandied about so much out of a desire for what was least possessed. Many readers are engrossed by travel books, by descriptions of exotic animal life, by essays on the psychology of other nations, by Rilke’s notebooks or by Samuel Pepys’s diary far more than by poetry or by novels that fail to impose any suspension of disbelief. There is much truth in Oscar Wilde ’s remark that “the highest criticism is more creative than creation and the primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it really is not.” A good deal of imagination has gone not only into criticism but also into the writing of history , of essays, of travel books, and even of the biographies or the confessions that purport to be true to life as it really happened, as it was really experienced.

The imagination at work in nonfictional prose, however, would hardly deserve the august name of “primary imagination” reserved by the 19th-century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge to creators who come close to possessing semidivine powers. Rather, imagination is displayed in nonfictional prose in the fanciful invention of decorative details, in digressions practiced as an art and assuming a character of pleasant nonchalance, in establishing a familiar contact with the reader through wit and humour. The variety of themes that may be touched upon in that prose is almost infinite. The treatment of issues may be ponderously didactic and still belong within the literary domain. For centuries, in many nations, in Asiatic languages, in medieval Latin, in the writings of the humanists of the Renaissance, and in those of the Enlightenment, a considerable part of literature has been didactic . The concept of art for art’s sake is a late and rather artificial development in the history of culture , and it did not reign supreme even in the few countries in which it was expounded in the 19th century. The ease with which digressions may be inserted in that type of prose affords nonfictional literature a freedom denied to writing falling within other genres. The drawback of such a nondescript literature lies in judging it against any standard of perfection, since perfection implies some conformity with implicit rules and the presence, however vague, of standards such as have been formulated for comedy, tragedy, the ode, the short story and even (in this case, more honoured in the breach than the observance) the novel . The compensating grace is that in much nonfictional literature that repudiates or ignores structure the reader is often delighted with an air of ease and of nonchalance and with that rarest of all virtues in the art of writing: naturalness.

Course Syllabus

Shapes of Stories

Even good first drafts are often shapeless, with fragmentary scenes and images, anecdotes and episodes; it’s in the revision process that we more fully understand how to develop and connect all of these elements as we carve out the shapes of our stories. This course will help you expand your writer’s tool kit by experimenting with a variety of structures—everything from straightforward, traditional presentations to offshoots of the lyric essay, such as braids, collages, or the many varieties of borrowed forms that we find in “hermit crab” essays. You will read great examples and then try out each shape, if only briefly. Over the course of 10 weeks, you can choose to write about one subject using these different shapes, or let the shapes inspire an essay you hadn’t planned to write.

Students are encouraged to write at least 800 words each week for the first six weeks to become familiar with each shape, and to choose two essays to complete. Throughout the course, writers will submit work for peer and instructor critique and engage in online discussion—please see below for more details.

How it works : 

Each week provides:

• discussions of assigned readings and other general writing topics with peers and the instructor
• written lectures and a selection of readings

Some weeks also include:

• opportunities to submit a full-length essay for instructor and/or peer review (up to 1,350 words each)
• writing prompts and/or assignments
• optional video conferences that are open to all students in Week 2

Aside from the live conference, there is no need to be online at any particular time of day. To create a better classroom experience for all, you are expected to participate weekly in class discussions to receive instructor feedback on your work.

Week 1: Narrative Arc

Storytelling expectations that date all the way back to Aristotle can inform our creative nonfiction, helping us to dig deep into the significance of our experience and shape our work to foster connections with our audience. This week, we’ll look at the elements of a typical story arc as defined by Aristotle and reinterpreted by a variety of writers, and experiment with how it might apply to a story you want to tell.

Week 2: Models, Diagrams, Patterns, and Metaphors

Writers including Janet Burroway, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jerome Stern have proposed methods of looking at story structure. We’ll explore a number of models, diagrams, patterns, and metaphors, many of which draw from fiction and all of which offer us varied and flexible approaches to thinking about our stories.

Week 3: Frame

A frame story begins with an introduction that may disappear altogether or reappear only at the end, providing an entry into a story that might otherwise seem foreign to the reader. A really complex frame story might contain several nested stories, like a Russian doll. You will explore this technique by writing a frame story.

Week 4: Lyric

John D’Agata and Deborah Tall describe the lyric essay as a form that “takes from the prose poem in its density and shapeliness, its distillation of ideas and musicality of language.” This week, we will look at how our essays can take structural cues from poetry.

Week 5: Braid

The braid weaves together complementary or contrasting threads. It can be an artful way to switch between past and present, to offer two perspectives, or to introduce a metaphor that takes the story deeper. Explore what happens when you interweave complementary or contrasting topics or time periods or perspectives through reading examples and trying it yourself.

Week 6: Collage

The fragmented essay relies on contrast and resonance to achieve a sense of continuity, and often incorporates external material: photos, quoted material, lists, etc. This week, you may choose to turn in for feedback an essay that employs any techniques we have discussed so far.

Week 7: Hermit Crab: Intro to Borrowed Forms

The term hermit crab was coined by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola to describe an essay that “appropriates existing forms as an outer covering, to protect its soft, vulnerable underbelly. It is an essay that deals with material that seems born without its own carapace—material that is soft, exposed, and tender, and must look elsewhere to find the form that will best contain it.” Also called found, borrowed, or appropriated, these essay forms take their shapes from other written texts, such quizzes, recipes, liner notes, questionnaires, field guides, bibliographies, reviews, footnotes, indexes, or letters.

Week 8: Hermit Crab: Instruction Manual

A particularly popular form of the hermit crab essay takes its form from the instruction manual. We will look at offshoots of this form and play with them in our own work.

Week 9: How to Find the Right Form

Read the essay by John McPhee about how he finds the structures for his essays and write about what shape you find most attuned to your style of writing. This week you will choose another essay to complete and turn it in for feedback.

Week 10: Returning to the Narrative Arc and the Flexibility of Form

We’ve isolated these shapes for the purpose of learning how to use them, but they inform and merge with each other when used skillfully. This week, we’ll revisit the traditional story arc and consider how it is enhanced, transformed, or even challenged by the other forms and shapes we’ve explored.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Introduction

Most of your familiarity with essays probably comes from your own coursework. When you are assigned an essay for a class, perhaps you’ve been assigned an expository essay or a persuasive essay. In other words, you may have been assigned an essay with a clear purpose.

Literary essays are an exciting departure from those essays that many of us have been assigned. Employing techniques akin to those used by novelists, poets, and short story writers, essayists work to explore an idea. In fact, the word “essay” is etymologically linked to the notion of experimenting, weighing, or testing out. Essayists rarely produce straightforward manifestos or polemics. Instead, they entice the reader to care or understand or learn by using elements and techniques common to and found in literature. The more adept you are at recognizing those elements, the better you’ll be able to appreciate a work of creative nonfiction.

In order to analyze creative nonfiction, you should be aware of the different rhetorical structures writers use. Most of these structures will be familiar to you. What is important to consider, though, is how creative nonfiction writers use literary structures and techniques to achieve a particular effect.

Analyzing Nonfiction

Analysis of Nonfiction

Like analysis of fiction, poetry, and drama, analysis of a nonfiction requires more than understanding the point or the content of a nonfiction text. It requires that we go beyond what the text says explicitly and look at such factors as implied meaning, intended purpose and audience, the context in which the text was written, and how the author presents his/her argument. Before you can analyze, however, you must first comprehend the text and be able to provide an objective summary.

When working with a complex text, it is best to start with short excerpts, go through several reads of the piece if possible, and focus on moving from basic comprehension on the first read, to deeper, more complex understandings with each subsequent reading. For an example of an effective strategy, use the “SOAPSTone” strategy, which consists of a series of questions that provide a basis for analysis. Remember that regardless of analysis strategy, you must always provide evidence taken directly from the text to prove their point.

Subject: What is the subject? This is the general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text. Try to state the subject in only a few words or a short phrase so as to concisely summarize the topic for your own comprehension purposes.

Occasion: What is the occasion? It is the time and place of the piece; the context that encouraged the writing to happen. This can be a large occasion (an environment of ideas and emotions that swirl around a broad issue) or an immediate occasion or specific event.

Audience: Who is the audience? The audience is the group of readers to whom the piece is directed. The audience may be an individual, a small group, or a large group of people. It may be specific or more general.

Purpose: What is the purpose? It is the reason behind the text. What does the author want the audience to think or do as a result of this text? Does the author call for some specific action or is the purpose to convince the reader to think, feel or believe in a certain way? Too often readers do not consider this question, yet understanding the purpose of a nonfiction text is crucial in order to critically analyze the text.

Speaker: Who is the speaker? This is the voice that tells the story. What is their background? Is there a bias? Does that impact how the text is written and the points being made? Typically in nonfiction, the speaker and the author are the same; however, when we approach fiction, we must realize that the speaker and the author are often NOT the same. In fiction the author may choose to tell the story from any number of different points of view. In fact, the method of narration and the character of the speaker may be a crucial piece in understanding the work, particularly in satire. However, in nonfiction, the speaker and the author of the text are most likely going to be the same, which allows us a different avenue for analysis, as we can critique a text alongside what we know about the author.

Tone: What is the tone? This is the attitude a writer takes towards the subject or character: It can be serious, humorous, sarcastic, or even objective. Examine the author’s choice of words, sentence structure, and imagery. Consider providing students with a list of tone words to help them find the exact word. Often in informational text, the tone is objective because the author is simply relaying information and is not trying to sway the audience; however, in literary nonfiction as with fiction, the author may want his/her audience to feel a certain way about the situation, characters, etc.

“Text-Dependent Analysis: Nonfiction.” Licensed under Standard Youtube License https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzMzHrroZGM

“Analyzing Nonfiction.” Licensed under Standard Youtube License https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_k6RXWMHas

“How to Analyze Non-Fiction.” Licensed under CC BY SA 4.0 http://www.rpdp.net/literacyFiles/literacy_101.pdf

The world of creative nonfiction is broad, but learning to analyze the techniques used by literary and personal essayists is a good way to understand how much crafting goes into making a true story, told well. And though the word “essay” may have once been associated with homework assignments and tests, rest assured, there’s much more to the form.

Like fiction, creative nonfiction relies on the careful choices made by a writer. What separates creative nonfiction from fiction, of course, is the writer’s tacit promise to be conveying a story or set of events that is purported to be true. In order to accentuate that truth or present it in its most compelling fashion, creative nonfiction writers use a variety of literary elements and techniques. Everything from the structure of an essay to its shape to its tone influences how a reader makes sense of the content.

ENG134 – Literary Genres Copyright © by The American Women's College and Jessica Egan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Mar 16, 2022

Creative Nonfiction Structures (& Prompts to Try Them Out)

This month, Creativity Matters is digging into the ways you can explore creative nonfiction writing in your work. Even if writing a hard-hitting doesn’t interest you, there is a lot more to this diverse genre than most people think.

As we saw last week, everybody is “ready” to write creative nonfiction . It’s just a question of which topic suits your interests best.

But it isn’t just about having great topic ideas. Once you know what you want to write about, you need to consider what structure will best convey that topic to your readers.

Every topic you want to write about has a structure that fits it best. Your job is to find it.

Finding the Right Structure

Last fall, I went to see the Immersive van Gogh art exhibit in Cleveland, an interactive experience with van Gogh’s paintings that has been showing at different locations throughout the country.

The show does indeed immerse you in the artist’s work. Set in a cavernous, darkened room, van Gogh’s art paints itself across the walls and floor, places you in its settings, and allows you to get up close and personal with his most well-known work.

You can walk around the room, lie on the floor, sit on a cushion next to the walls, or sit on a bench, and the more times you sit through the show, the more opportunities you have to view it from different angles.

What caught my attention about experiencing van Gogh’s body of work in this manner was just how diverse his paintings are. Most people know him for the cool, calming shades of yellow and blue in The Starry Night , but this style doesn’t characterize all his work.

Van Gogh was known for using different color palettes depending on the subject he was portraying. For example, his paintings of the working class use darker colors, while his art inspired by natural settings and flowers explodes with lighter shades.

If he had reversed the two color palettes, it would have created an uncomfortable dissonance in his work—the difficult lives of miners and farmers would not come across as well with vibrant yellows, greens, and blues.

Van Gogh was also meticulous about his choice of medium, as he did not only colorful works, but simple sketches. His drawings using graphite and charcoal are less recognizable than his paintings, but convey so much about his subjects and natural settings that the use of color would detract from.

The point is that the real-life subjects you choose to write about can take any structure and use any media that will best communicate the ideas behind them.

The most thought-provoking essays play with form and structure in a way that creates a unified experience for readers, helping them to better understand the topic.

Here are a few creative nonfiction structures you can play with as you experiment with topics that intrigue you.

Frame Story

A framed essay features an opening and conclusion that connect in some way, providing bookends for the main story. You see this a lot in novels and films—think Old Rose in Titanic telling the sub crew about how her voyage on the ship changed the course of her life, or adult Gordy in Stand by Me writing his memoirs after learning that his childhood friend has been killed.

One way I like to use this structure is to think of a present-day event that triggers a memory from the past. Begin with the present event, then segue into the memory, then return to the present day at the end. The idea is that the introduction and conclusion should reinterpret the events of the past, showing how they remain relevant to your life today.

Lyric Essay

Nonfiction is a great genre for poets to try because it is inquisitive in the same way poetry is. Just as poetry can help uncover meaning through unique images and combinations of words, evocative language can also be used to explore your topics.

While frame essays are driven by storylines, lyric essays are driven by the musicality, tone, and rhythm of language. One experiment I’ve had some success with is to take a poem you’ve written and rewrite it as prose. You may find that it translates to this new structure word for word, or that individual phrases and images remain with new scaffolding in place.

I’ve written in the past about the importance of writing in other genres , and lyric essays are a great way for poets in particular to get their feet wet with nonfiction.

(NOTE: Do you want a free poetry workbook? You can grab one here .)

Hermit Crab Essay

I had a hermit crab when I was a kid, and once, I saw it change its shell. It was fascinating to see that for these fragile creatures, a shell offers protection and shelter, and that multiple different shells can fit that purpose.

I would even decorate the shells and leave them around its aquarium to see which ones it would pursue.

Hermit crab essays use different forms to portray deeply vulnerable and sensitive stories. They can, for example, take on the structure of grocery lists, postcards, letters, social media posts, personality quizzes, instruction sheets, how-to guides, and more.

Think of a genre apart from a traditional essay that you can use to convey the topic you want to write about, specifically, how you can use the conventions of the genre to explain it to readers.

Braided Essays

This nonfiction structure takes two or three ideas that may not appear related and weaves them together in interlocking segments, using numbers or white space to indicate a break between the sections.

I find that this structure can help you see the relationship between different things that come to mind when you think about your topic. Writing about those relationships can help you interrogate your thoughts on the subject, making you consider why these diverse subjects come to mind.

I’ve also discovered that braided essays work well when art is used as inspiration. Pick a work of art that inspires you—a book, movie, song, theatrical production, visual work, etc—and freewrite about what the experience of that art makes you think of.

Then, write an essay in alternating sections that relates that work to a particular experience or moment in your life.

There are many more structures for creative nonfiction, but these are the most fun to experiment with, and after all, that’s our goal for this Creativity Matters series.

Remember, your goal in using these prompts isn’t to write a completed essay or become a nonfiction expert. Your job is to have fun and see what you can make!

In the meantime…the Ultimate Writing Project Workbook can help you get started.

This free workbook contains prompts, worksheets, templates, and more cool stuff to help you work on your writing.

Plus, you get BOTH the fiction and nonfiction editions of the book when you sign up.

Click here to get more information and request your FREE copy!

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• Jan 6, 2020

Non-fiction in Middle School ELA: Using Research, Essay Writing, and Book Creation for Skill Focus

Updated: Dec 29, 2021

As with most reading workshop units, my non-fiction unit is based all around REAL books chosen by students. With non-fiction, this can be tricky to navigate. Over the years, I've used Lucy Calkins units to guide my non-fiction instruction. As is with most of her work, it is not very straightforward and sometimes a bit too open-ended for my students. So, I've morphed her ideas and came up with my own major approach to teaching non-fiction reading and writing.

What Skills Should be Taught

The first thing every teacher should do is determine what skills they want to teach . Obviously, we all have standards to follow, but a lot of standards overlap.

For non-fiction, these are the major skills that should be taught in middle school:

Main idea and supporting details- Specifically crafting main idea statements and using these statements to make summaries.

Text structure - Identifying and writing using text structure.

Text features - Beyond identifying...determining their purpose and also creation of text features. This will help.

Author's purpose and opinion - What motivated the author to write this? What is his/her point-of-view of the topic?

Synthesizing - Using various sources about one topic and analyzing commonalities and differences.

Research - Finding and using appropriate research to prove a claim.

These should NOT be taught in isolation. Students should be reading authentic texts to learn these skills.

Step #1 : Research

Depending on your grade level, research may look differently compared to others. I teach 6th, so I have my classes first choose a topic they'd like to research . I give them about 10 choices using a Google Form. From there, I group students based on common choices. This is for a group activity later on and allows students to meet and talk about their research.

After their topics are chosen, they request books from the public library on their topics . I give them very specific guidelines for book choice (less than 100 pages, juvenile or young adult non-fiction, expository not biography). I give them plenty of time to pick up their book(s) before beginning our unit. ( See my post about this ).

Then, they start their research in their books. Each day, I focus on a different skill from above and they need to use those non-fiction skills to guide their research. In my mini-lesson, I show how I use the skill with a mentor text. The pictures here show a sample student's digital notebook. These are a few pages.

Once they've done about a week or so of research in their texts, I provide them with articles on their topics. You may opt to have them find the articles themselves; I chose not to with my 6th graders because they get into that more in upper middle. For the articles, they focus on main idea statements and summarizing with lots of prompts.

They wrap up their research with provided videos on their topic, using main idea statements without prompts.

The very last component of their research is to see what topics all the sources have in common. What do all of them say about the topic? What are some major sub-topics they all touch upon?

This whole process takes about 2 and half weeks.

Step #2 : Essay Writing

All of their research leads to this a research essay . Students are not just writing an essay about their topic...it is not an all about [topic]. This essay centers on an opinion on their topics . The students start with claim about their topic. I say to them, "you've just read and researched [topic]. What do you have to say about it?". This becomes their claim. It is not a fact, it is an opinion that can be proved with evidence from their research.

From there, students work on pulling research from their research notebooks that could support their thinking. So, they already have a lot of research... what do they have already that could support their claim?

Developing topic sentences for body paragraphs is next on the to-do list. The topic sentence is the core of the body paragraph. It sets the stage for what the paragraph is about. Students are provided with sentence frames to build their sentences. For this particular essay, each topic sentence focuses on a different source. Students are encouraged to include their claim and focus of the source within their topic sentence. Once they finish, I check the sentences before they can move on to the next step.

After approval, students transfer topic sentences over to a new slide and start gathering the final evidence they want to add to their essays . They find three pieces of text evidence to support their topic sentences, especially the claim. These details can be from research they gathered already, however, they do need to be quoting , so my students often have to go back into their sources for quotes. Throughout the research process, they are supposed to be tagging page numbers, so they should easily be able to grab a quote when going back to the research notebooks.

Once all evidence is gathered, students must explain their text evidence. This is super important in middle school and may be a shift from elementary. They must explain how the evidence they chose supports their claim. They do this by using digital sticky notes over each piece of evidence.

Students then spend time looking over my sample essay . Yes, I write an essay, too ( see my blog post about that ). It's a lot of work, but once it's done, it's done. I give them a key of highlights to focus on. They read through my essay with a partner and highlight specific aspects of the paragraphs. This helps them see how their essay is supposed to be written. From there, they start drafting their own body paragraphs with a given checklist.

I have them write their body paragraphs first , then I talk about their introductions and conclusions. In the past, I used to teach elaborate intros and conclusions. I've learned, though, that the less wordy these are the better. So I teach them a basic three-sentence format for them. When it comes to state testing, especially, those who grade the essays just want to get to the nitty-gritty. The first picture here are the colors I tell them to focus on in their body paragraphs. The other picture is how I tell them to set up their intros and conclusions.

This whole process takes about a week. I conference with students the entire time. We spend a bit of time on revision, mostly focusing on how to not be repetitive with their writing of claims.

I have another blog post that explains this in more detail!

Step #3 : Digital eBook

All of this research and essay writing culminate in a group project . Students work in groups based on common topics. The ultimate goal is to create an informational book on Google Slides that looks like an expository text one would find in book stores! Students must create text features, headings, chapters, table of contents, and more.

They first spend time determining what topics they want to focus on in their books. They discuss common research they found. Once students come up with a decent list of topics, they put the topics under text structure categories with the goal of using that text structure when explaining the topic. I also have the students change the topics into chapter titles.

After they get all of the above organized, chapters are determined and students start gathering evidence that could fit into certain categories (mini-stories, quotes, statistics, etc.) with the intention of using the information in that chapter and to avoid just listing facts.

Then it's time to create ! They go into Google Slides and we discuss some of the tech tools they can use to create their books. Students set up chapters, create diagrams and charts, add pictures, color, etc. and overall set it up like an expository informational text. These come out great and I always share them with the school and parents.

Bottom Line

This is a huge undertaking, but it so much more authentic to build a unit around non-fiction and research with one specific topic so students can hone skills. Going digital with this makes organization so much easier. The whole process takes about a month and a half in my 82 minute classes (factoring in our daily reading and grammar/vocabulary.)

Interested in this unit ? Click below!

A super mini-version of this is available in my store as well for Martin Luther King Jr. Day !

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Four ways to structure a nonfiction book

There are multiple ways to structure a nonfiction book. The right structure can be the secret to writing well and quickly. Some writers take years to finish their books, some take months, and some take weeks. Believe it or not, some can even finish their book in a few days .

When you clearly structure a nonfiction, not only will your readers love you, but you’ll boost your credibility as an author who’s written a damn good book.

Yet the most common issues my editing team and I see in our clients’ books are related to structure. Their chapters don’t have a logical flow. They have repeated the same ideas several times throughout the book. They have rambled and gone of on tangents (sometimes for thousands of words at a time). And there are gaping holes in their content – holes their readers will need filled in order to get the most value from their book.

But you’re not a writer, and this is probably your first (if not only) book. Isn’t it expected that your first draft will need a lot of work.

In most cases, yes – you’ll need a good editor to overhaul your draft. However, if you spend the time to structure a nonfiction book properly, you'll know what to include and where. You'll also avoid much of the heartache that can come in rounds of edits and rewrites. Ultimately, you’ll make the writing and editing process easier, faster and cheaper.

So how should you structure a nonfiction book? Here are four of the best structures, as well as some tips to help you decide which is right for you.

1. Structure a nonfiction book: The how-to book

Often structured as X steps to achieve a certain result, in a how-to book you teach your readers how to do something using your unique process. If you own a service business and work with clients or groups, this will probably be a good choice. You'll already have a process you take your clients through to achieve a certain result. (Note: you may not realize you have a process at first. But look deeper and you’ll find the common threads that exist for every client – this is the beginning of your step-by-step process.)

How do you structure a how-to book?

If you’re wondering how to write a how-to book, the good news is that this is the simplest ways to structure a nonfiction book:

• 1 Introduction
• 2 First step
• 3 Second step
• 4 Third step
• 5 Fourth step
• 6 Fifth step
• 8 Conclusion

Start with your introduction, finish with your conclusion, and then each chapter in the middle should cover one of the steps your readers need to complete, or topics they need to address, to achieve the results they want.

How do you organise those chapters?  Check out my other article on chapter structure .

Who does it well?

Some great examples of client how-to books include  Property Prosperity  by  Miriam Sandkuhler , which goes through seven steps to investing like an expert or  Secret Mums’ Business  by  Angela Counsel , which takes mums in business through six steps to create balance in their lives. Some how-to books with a slightly different structure include Elizabeth Gillam’s  Would You Like Profits with That?  and  Adam Hobill’s   Nail It! , which take their readers through broader processes that take place in phases (e.g. Nail It! , which gives you the ins and outs of building a home, takes readers through the Idea Stage, through to the Design, Quote and Build Stages), and each phase is broken up into areas or steps.

2. Structure a nonfiction book:  The essay (aka "thought leadership") book 

Rather than taking readers through a process to achieve a certain result, this book is more persuasive, focusing on making your case for something you believe in. This can be an excellent way to structure a nonfiction book for entrepreneurs who:

• 1 Have a highly customised process that can’t easily be broken into steps.
• 2 Have a highly involved process with many steps that happen at the same time, so they are difficult to explain in a sequence (this often happens with very large corporate projects).
• 3 Work in a field that isn’t widely understood or accepted.

How do you structure an essay book?

Unfortunately, while these books can be very powerful, they are much more challenging to write than how-to books. The reason for this is because the content you include, and how you organise it, is very dependent on your research, meaning it’s less formulaic.

So how do you write an essay book? Here are the major points to cover:

• 1 Discuss the problem facing your industry/society – expanding on this with evidence that demonstrates the prevalence of the problem.
• 2 Introduce your solution to this problem – expanding on this with evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of your solution.
• 3 Introduce your framework at a high level.

To give a client example, Graham Hawkin’s book  The Future of the Sales Profession   is a cross between a thought leadership book and a how-to book – Part 1 shares the history of sales, and how B2B sales professionals have gotten where they are today. Part 2 shares the problems facing the industry – not least of which is a prediction that 20% of B2B sales professionals will find themselves without a job by 2020. And Part 3 gives a high-level overview of Graham’s framework, which teaches readers how they can protect themselves from the impending cull.

Another example of this type of book is Lissa Rankin’s Mind over medicine , which makes the case for the power of the mind to heal our bodies.

3. Structure a nonfiction book: The list book

The bulk of the content in this type of book comes from a collection of elements related to a certain topic. This is a very accessibly type of nonfiction book, especially if you aren’t pushing a strong idea or opinion, like in a thought leadership book. The challenge with this type of book is filling in some content between the list elements to link them together cohesively and add value as the curator and expert author.

How to write a list book

While a list book is a great way to gather a lot of content without needing to write much from scratch, the challenge is that a book where you’ve simply enumerated a list of items doesn’t make the most engaging reading experience.

Your job as the author is to give your readers the information they need in a format that’s easy to digest, and adding context and insight that helps them make productive use of what you're sharing.

I recommend grouping your list items into themes (which can form your chapters), then adding context to each theme through your chapter introductions and conclusions.

What does this look like?

• 1 Write an introduction that shares the main message you want to convey through your book.
• 2 Group your list items into common themes/areas relating to that message.
• 3 Add an introduction to each theme/area explaining what is to come, and a conclusion that gives your reader context about how they can make best use of the list in each chapter.
• 4 Curate the list items so each item is useful and provide enough description and detail about each item for your readers to understand each one, and consider adding call outs and key takeaways so it’s easier for them to find what they need.
• 5 Finish with a conclusion that summarises how the complete collection of items in the book can be used and gives your readers some ideas about where to go from here.

If you’re determined to write a list book, I highly recommend reading Stacey Platt’s What's a Disorganized Person to Do? , which is an example of a list book done well. The book lists "317 Ideas, Tips, Projects, and Lists to Unclutter Your Home and Streamline Your Life", all grouped by room.

4. Structure a nonfiction book: The Parable (including Memoir) book

The parable sounds pretty self-explanatory – it’s just you telling a story, isn’t it? Yes, it is telling a story (perhaps your story, in the case of a memoir), but you need to do it in a way that people will want to read about it.

How to write a parable or memoir people will want to read

Simply, your parable can’t just be a chronology of events. You need to be clear on a single message you want to share or story you want to tell, and share the experiences that are relevant to that message or story.

For the story approach, think of the parable as sharing a single chapter of the hero's life. Ask yourself, when did that chapter begin? When did it end? What did the hero learn along the way, and how will it benefit your readers? Having a container around what you’re going to share will help you stay on track.

For the message approach, you need to be very clear on the message you want to share. Is it about regaining self-love, building a successful business, or adapting to a new culture? Once you are clear on your message, break it into subtopics you want to discuss. Then, for each of those subtopics, think about how you're going to tell the story so that it effectively lands that message.

When it comes to the ‘share a chapter of your life’ approach, one great memoir is Llew Dowley’s  Crazy Mummy Syndrome , which shares her story of postnatal depression, from trying for her first child to raising $10,000 for the Black Dog Institute. Because Llew focused on this single part of her life, rather than her life in general, she ended up with a powerful narrative.

For the message/theme approach, I love  Almost French by Sarah Turnbull. In the book, Sarah shares her experience of meeting a Frenchman in her late 20s and moving to Paris. The main message or theme of the book is adjusting to the new culture and, after a few positioning chapters about the initial move, her chapters each discuss a different area of French life – etiquette, fashion, food, pets and more. In each of those chapters, she shares a number of anecdotes related to the chapter topics, as well as her reflections on the French culture. If you love France or travel stories, I highly recommend it.

Can I mix and match book structures?

Regardless of which book type you choose, the key thing is to pick one type and stick with it – you can’t change your mind halfway through and expect a great result. If you do change your mind and think a different type of book would be better for your business, often it’s better to start again than to try to mould your old content into a new shape.

Now I know what you’re thinking,  can’t I tell a parable in a ‘how to’ book?  or  can’t I use lists in a thought leadership book?

Yes, sometimes content can cross genres. However, the difference is how it’s used. While you might have chapters detailing a particular life experience in your memoir, in your ‘how to’ book it would be a short example used as evidence to illustrate a certain point, rather than going into the same level of depth. Either way, you need to commit to one type of book.

Ready to write your book?

Awesome! This post is based on a chapter from the best-selling books Entrepreneur to Author by Scott A. MacMillan and Book Blueprint  by Jacqui Pretty . Order a copy or download the first two chapters for free at entrepreneurtoauthor.com and grammarfactory.com/bookblueprint .

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What is the structure for non-fiction writing?

If MRU's, scene and sequel and 3 act structure can can represent fiction structure from macro to micro, what is the equivalent for non-fiction writing? I'm curious if there is a similar breakdown of structure and if anyone can lead me to any resources?

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How to write an essay: structure and composition.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed when trying to write an essay? From choosing the topic to the final draft, the process can seem complex and daunting. An essay is a text where the author examines a specific topic, expresses their point of view, and defends it with clear and objective arguments to convince or make the reader reflect. In this article, we will explore how to structure an essay effectively, from the introduction to the conclusion, and provide you with techniques and practical examples to improve your writing.

Basic Structure of an Essay

The basic structure of an essay is essential to guide the reader through your ideas in a clear and organized manner. A well-structured essay is divided into three main parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Each of these sections serves a specific function: the introduction presents the topic and states the main thesis, the body explores the topic in depth through arguments and evidence, and the conclusion summarizes the main points and reaffirms the thesis, leaving the reader with a lasting impression.

Understanding the structure of an essay not only helps keep your thoughts organized but also makes it easier for the reader to follow and understand your argument. In the introduction, you should capture the readers attention and clearly present your thesis. The body, which is the longest part, should be well-argued and structured in paragraphs that logically connect. Finally, the conclusion should not only recap what has been discussed but also close the topic with a final reflection that underscores the relevance of what has been presented.

Writing an Effective Introduction

An effective introduction is crucial to capture the reader’s attention from the first lines. To achieve this, it is recommended to start with a hook that can be an impactful quote, a surprising statistic, or a provocative question that invites reflection . Additionally, it is important to clearly establish the thesis of your essay and briefly outline the points you will develop. This not only prepares the reader for what is to come but also sets the purpose and tone of the essay.

Developing Content in an Essay

The body of an essay is where you delve into your argument, supported by data, quotes, and analysis. It is crucial that each paragraph has a clear point and that all points are interconnected to maintain a coherent flow. Here is where you should:

• Develop each argument logically and sequentially.
• Support your points with solid evidence such as studies, examples, and expert quotes.
• Analyze and discuss the implications of your argument.

In addition to presenting your arguments, it is essential to address possible counterarguments and show different perspectives to enrich the discussion. This not only demonstrates a deep understanding of the topic but also reinforces your credibility as an author. At the end of the body, ensure that all the ideas presented logically lead to the conclusion, setting the stage for an effective and convincing close.

Conclusion: Closing Your Essay Strongly

The conclusion of an essay is your opportunity to make a final impact on the reader. You should briefly summarize the main arguments and reaffirm how they support your initial thesis. It is important to offer a final reflection that can provoke further contemplation or action from the reader. Avoid introducing completely new ideas in this section; instead, close the essay in a way that reflects a comprehensive understanding of the topic and leaves the reader with a clear and memorable impression of your argument.

Improve Your Essay with the Help of Samwell.ai

Samwell.ai is a free essay generator that helps you write all types of academic essays in seconds without any plagiarism issues.

In addition to helping you keep your content free of plagiarism, Samwell.ai facilitates the creation of accurate citations and references in various academic styles. This is essential for any academic essay, as proper handling of sources reflects respect for the intellectual work of others and strengthens your arguments .

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