Non-Fiction Writing

Goals

  • review the genre of nonfiction writing by examining the characteristics of persuasive writing
  • write a piece of persuasive writing

The Learning Task

Last week our literacy prompts focused on generating our personal writing territoires* or ideas that we can return to for writing inspiration (heart maps, hands, life map, awesome ideas).

This week we will explore different genres of writing beginning with nonfiction. Genre is the form that a piece of writing takes. Each form of writing has its own unique characteristics or traits.

All writing that is not poetry is prose. Prose is writing that is made of sentences and paragraphs. And poetry is made up of lines and stanzas.

Non-fiction writing provides factual information about a subject; often uses exposition but may include narration, description, or persuasion.

Persuasive writing is intended to convey an opinion in a powerful way. We see this kind of writing in newspaper editorials, speeches, letters of complaint are a few examples of persuasive writing. Read about the characteristics of persuasive writing.

Your turn! Write a timely piece of persuasive writing that explores some of the issues of this unique time period. For example: Ontario (should/shouldn’t) begin to ease social distancing restrictions; or, a topic that is relevant to you and your personal context.

Daily task! Don’t forget to engage with your Writer’s Notebook: Creating a Place for Reflection

Note: please see the information in this lesson for guidance.

*term coined by Nancie Atwell