Nonfiction Vocabulary Terms

The description or the documenting of historical, or "real life" events. The main types are autobiographies, encyclopedias, essays, feature stories, interviews, newspaper articles, and textbooks.

• Biography

• Fiction

• Nonfiction

• Tall Tales

A book written about a person's life or one main event. The author's purpose is to inform the reader.

• Autobiography

• Biography

• Interview

• Memoir

A biography written by the author about his or herself.

• Encyclopedia

• Autobiography

• Website

• Novella

The phrase most often located at the top of the page. It provides the name of the passage and often refers to the main aspect, or point of the paper.

• Literary Nonfiction

• Subtitle

• Website

• Title

An attention grabber that often includes the main idea of the paper.

• headings

• boldface

• main ideas

• supporting details

A heading underneath the main heading.

• cause and effect

• captions

• subheadings

• headings

A short description or reference of a drawing or picture.

• chart

• sidebar

• italics

• captions

Text that is made darker because of significant importance.

• boldface

• italics

• primary sources

• cause and effect

Slanted text that could be of importance occasionally used in website, references, books, or articles.

• font

• captions

• boldface

• italics

More information about the main idea.

• central idea

• main idea

• supporting detail

• secondary sources