Non-Fiction Literary Terms

1. Non-Fiction Literary Terms

2. Non-Fiction Literature about real people, places, and events. Types of non-fiction include: • Biographies • Autobiographies • Essays • Memoirs • Editorials • Newspaper articles

3. Antithesis Literally meaning opposite, antithesis is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence for achieving a contrasting effect. Example: “Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but a giant step for mankind.” • Contrasting ideas of “a small step” and “a giant step” are used in the sentence above to emphasize the significance of one of the biggest landmarks of human history.

4. Argument A type of persuasive writing in which logic or reason is used to try to influence a reader’s ideas or actions.

5. Author’s Purpose An author’s intent in writing a literary work. An author’s purpose might be to • persuade • inform • describe a process • entertain • express an opinion.

6. Bias An inclination toward a certain opinion or position on a certain topic, possibly stemming from prejudice.

7. Essay A short work of non-fiction on a single topic • Descriptiveessays describe a person, place, or thing • Narrativeessays relate true stories • Persuasiveessays promote an opinion • Reflectiveessays reveal an author’s observations on a subject.

8. Evidence The available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is valid or true

9. Memoir A type of narrative non-fiction that represents an author’s personal experience of an event or a period in the writer’s life.

10. Memoir

11. Parallel Structure or Parallelism A rhetorical device, it is a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." --Martin Luther King

12. More Parallel Structure "It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover."--Leonardo da Vinci “To err is human; to forgive divine.” "If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle."--Samuel Johnson

13. Repetition • A rhetorical device, it is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. Example: “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” • --Winston Churchill

14. Rhetorical Devices • Persuasive techniques used by public speakers and writers of literary works, especially those written to persuade: repetition, parallelism, analogy, logic, connotation, anecdote.