3321 M & W chapter 9

Nonfiction is when the writer is trying to convince you that what they are writing about is a fact. That's not always true, of course. In general, nonfiction writing is the type found in textbooks, newspapers, encyclopedias, "how to" or “to inform” books, instruction manuals, recipes, and scholarly essays. Contrast that with a work of "fiction," which is based out of the writer's imagination. These would be most screenplays, novels, poems, and comics.
When trying to decide between the two, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, "is this piece of writing true, based on some fact?"
What if your teacher asked you to write an essay about what you did last summer vacation?
That would qualify as non-fiction, usually, and would be if you wrote about what actually happened last summer. But suppose you just made up a bunch of realistic sounding stuff...your teacher would think it was non-fiction, but you would know it was fiction.

Fiction:

o Poem
o Adventure story
o Science Fiction
o Thriller
o short story
o mythology
o folk story
o fairy tale
o Parody
o most movies
o romance novel
o western

Nonfiction stories include:

o Biography
o Autobiography
o Forms and documents
o Legal documents
o Brochures
o Newspapers
o Interviews
o Historical speeches
o Textbooks