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Non-fiction (also spelled nonfiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people.[1] Nonfictional content may be presented either objectively or subjectively. Primary and Secondary sources are used in non fiction texts.Sometimes taking the form of a story, nonfiction is one of the fundamental divisions of narrative writing (specifically, prose)[2]— in contrast to fiction, which offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.[1][3]

Nonfiction's specific factual assertions and descriptions may or may not be accurate, and can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, authors of such accounts genuinely believe or claim them to be truthful at the time of their composition or, at least, pose them to a convinced audience as historically or empirically factual. Reporting the beliefs of others in a nonfiction format is not necessarily an endorsement of the veracity of those beliefs, but rather an exercise in representing the topic. Works of nonfiction need not necessarily be written text, since statements expressed by pictures or film can also purport to present a factual account of a subject.



Semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of nonfiction,[6] e.g. a fictional description based on a true story.

Major types[edit]


Journals, photographs, textbooks, travel books, blueprints, and diagrams are also often considered nonfictional.[citation needed] Including information that the author knows to be untrue within any of these works is usually regarded as dishonest. Other works can legitimately be either fiction or nonfiction, such as journals of self-expression, letters, magazine articles, and other expressions of imagination. Though such works are mostly either or the other, a blend of both is also possible. Some fiction may include nonfictional elements. Some nonfiction may include elements of unverified supposition, deduction, or imagination for the purpose of smoothing out a narrative, but the inclusion of open falsehoods would discredit it as a work of nonfiction. The publishing and bookselling business sometimes uses the phrase "literary nonfiction" to distinguish works with a more literary or intellectual bent, as opposed to the greater collection of nonfiction subjects.[8]

Specific types[edit]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b Farner, Geir (2014). "Chapter 2: What is Literary Fiction?". Literary Fiction: The Ways We Read Narrative Literature. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781623564261.
  2. ^ "nonfiction" definition via Lexico
  4. ^ The Institute of Art and Ideas. "The Art of Life". IAI. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  5. ^ Woolf, Virginia (2010). Orlando. Aziloth Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1907523687.
  6. ^ The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies G. Whiteman. N. Phillips. 13 2006, 12
  7. ^ Susan B. Neuman; Linda B. Gambrell, eds. (2013). Quality Reading Instruction in the Age of Common Core Standards. International Reading Association. p. 46. ISBN 9780872074965.
  8. ^ Archived 2014-02-13 at the Wayback Machine

External links[edit]