From Long Walk to Freedom

by NELSON MANDELA

What is Nonfiction?

• Writing about real people, places, and events– Biography– Autobiography– Essay– Informative Article– Interview

Autobiography

• The story of a person’s life

• Told by that person

• First-person point of view

• Normally book length to cover whole life

• Shorter versions:– Journals, diaries, letters, and memoirs

Biography

• The story of a person’s life

• Told by someone else

• Contains same elements as fiction– Plot, character, and setting

Main Idea and Supporting Details

• Most nonfiction focuses on a main idea.

• Main idea is the most important point or message that the writer wants to communicate.

• Supporting Details give more information about the main idea.

Main Idea

Detail Detail Detail

resiliency

• Noun• The ability to recover

quickly from illness; change or misfortune

incomprehensible

Adj Not understandable

(hard to understand)

transitory

Adj Lasting only a short

time; temporary

curtailed (curtail)

• Adj (verb)

• Cut short

indivisible

• Adj

• Incapable of being divided