Non-Fiction Writing

Reports incorporate the 5 Ws:

WHO was involved?

WHAT happened?

WHEN did it occur?

WHERE did it occur? (all in opening paragraph)

WHY did it happen? (in development)

Be aware of your:

AUDIENCE – Who will read your writing?

PURPOSE – What are you writing and why?

TONE – What voice/mode of language best fits?

The main purpose of a newspaper is to inform.

There are two types of newspapers.

TABLOIDS

• Sensationalist
• Short sentences and paragraphs
• More colloquial
• Purpose is also to entertain

BROADSHEET

• Dense text
• Highly formal
• More complex issues
• Sparse use of images
• Purpose is also to explain and analyse

To write catchy tabloid headlines use:

• Present tense
• Telegraphic writing
• Emotive language
• Hyperbole
• Exclamatory
• Alliteration
• Puns and wordplay
• Imperitives
• Direct address
• Enigma and intrigue

PERSONAL LETTER

Dear/To/Hey...

Correspondence convections are looser because there's no need to be formal with friends and family.

Love from/All the best/Laters...

FORMAL LETTER

Dear Sir or Madam/To whom it may concern (salutations when name of recipient is unknown)

Formal conventions

Yours sincerley (name known)

Yours faithfully (name unknown)

SPELLING

PUNCTUATION

AND

GRAMMAR

To beef up opinions:

• Turn into an imperative
• Support with a fact or statistic
• Corroborate with expert opinion
• Use a rhetorical question
• Use emotive language
• Use direct address to appeal to audience
• Inject some humour or satire

review = opinion + analysis

This is highly recommended because

Add relish to your reviews by using:

• Alliteration
• Emotive language
• Wordplay
• Exclamation
• Hyperbole
• Rhetorical questions
• Direct address
• Personalisation
• Expert opinion
• Humour

Objective voice is used to state facts.

Subjective voice is used to represent feelings.

A travelogue must be:

Informative (5ws, facts)

Entertaining (anecdotes, wordplay, hyperbole, emotive language)

Diary

Audience: yourself

Purpose: reflection and release

Tone: whatever you want

Fanzine

Audience: groups with a shared interest

Purpose: to eulogise

Tone: colloquial

Blog

Audience: unlimited

Purpose: to communicate thoughts

Tone: informal, unauthorised

Audience – tailor your response accordingly.

Good reasons – needed to justify any action taken.

Options – you could do this or that: one size doesn't fit all.

Never take sides – maintain an objective viewpoint.

You – direct address using the personal pronoun helps engage the reader.

Authority – convince with expert opinion.

Understanding – display empathy.

Never be negative – negativity is unconstructive and unwelcome.

Tone – strike a supportive tone: serious but not sombre.

Modal verbs

Suggest the possibility or probability of something happening.

e.g. could, would, should, might, must

Imperative verbs

Form a command or request.

e.g. go, do

When writing instructions:

• You could include illustrations.
• You should think carefully about tone.
• You must consider layout and sequencing.