Gathering Facts
The literary journalistic essay requires that the writer gather facts that are external to his/her own life. For instance, suppose the writer is writing an article that took place in 2000. To give the story context, a specific mood, and to make it more believable, the writer could incorporate important facts of that year, such as the top-selling books, popular songs and movies, and significant events. Where would the writer go to find this information? How would the writer gather this information? This article answers these questions.
Before writing the creative nonfiction piece, the writer needs to determine what information he/she needs and where to find this information. To gather information, the writer has several methods:
- Library. The writer can conduct research by reading and taking notes from books, magazines, articles, and microfilm.
- Internet. The writer can conduct research by using Google, the most popular search engine in the world. Not only can the writer discover what has been written, he/she can also find leads to new sources of information, such as subject matter experts. And the writer can locate facts and details for the essay.
- Public Records. Property records will tell writer what properties a person owned. Criminal records will tell the writer whether a person has been charged with a crime and what crime. Court records will tell the writer about marriage licenses, divorce, name changes, criminal records.
- Private Records. Diaries, personal journals, family videos, Facebook, and other social networking sites can be good sources of factual information.
- Immersion. The writer can become a participant in the story. For instance, before writing Paper Lion, writer George Plimpton joined the training camp of the 1963 Detroit Lions on a tryout basis, so that he could write a creative nonfiction book about NFL football. Suppose the writer wanted to write about hockey, the best way to start would be to put on the equipment and participate in a practise or scrimmage. The experience would provide the writer with a sense of how the game is played and what it feels like to play.
- Interview. To write a literary journalistic essay, the writer will need quotes and from subject matter experts, eye witnesses, or people who took part in the story. To obtain this information, the writer can conduct an interview. To do this, the writer needs a pen and note pad, or a tape recorder. The writer also needs to prepare for the interview. He/she should have a list of prepared questions to ask.
- Travel. The writer’s goal is to gather not just any facts, but facts that will be interesting, surprising, and curious to the reader. To write a good creative nonfiction piece, the writer will need to recreate the scene. The scene creates a context and mood for the story. To gather the facts, the writer will need to revisit the place. This is especially true for travel writing. Often, the writer will need to play the role of the tourist. Sometimes the writer will need to travel to visit the location where the event or experience took place, to get a feel for the place. Or the writer might need to conduct an interview with a person who is living in another city or town.
- Observation. Sometimes the writer can observe the story. For instance, suppose the writer was gathering information about the joys of cooking. He/she could observe a chef in his kitchen. Suppose the writer wanted to write about film making. The best way would be to observe the director on the setting, making a film. While observing the experience or events, the writer can make notes or record his/her thoughts in a tape recorder.
- Reading. A good writer is continuously conducting research by reading widely and deeply for next topic. By reading biographies, essays, articles, newspapers, the writer can discover and gather information for the next story. A good creative nonfiction writer is always reading about different subjects and topics. A good writer is always learning, and reading enables the writer to learn new things.
Creative nonfiction is the literature of fact. The writer will need to gather the facts by conducting research. The type of research the writer will need to complete depends on the types of facts the writer requires. The writer will often need to use different methods of research. The writer needs to gather facts that make the true story believable, interesting, and surprising.
For more information, you can read the chapter on “Finding the Facts” in Writing Life Stories by Bill Roorbach.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them to this blog, or you can send an email to me at davehood59@gmail.com .
How to Write a Literary Journalistic Essay
Literary journalistic essays are a popular form of creative nonfiction. Their purpose is to inform and enlighten. Publications such as The New Yorker , The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s publish this type of writing. It is writing about facts that are external to the writer’s own life. The writer uses literary devices, such as dialogue, setting, characterization, and plot structure to tell a true story about a person, place, event, experience, or to write about a big idea, like counterterrorism. The writer can choose any topic, so long as it can be researched. Most universities offer courses on how to write a literary journalistic essay, and many creative nonfiction textbooks include the topic of writing literary journalistic essays. Most published writers of creative nonfiction are experts on writing this type of genre. Therefore, if you are going to write creative nonfiction, you ought to know what is a literary journalistic essay and how to write it.
This article defines the term “literary journalistic essay” and briefly explains how to write one. It also provides some tips on writing a literary journalistic essay, and it identifies several good books to help you learn more.
Definition of a Literary Journalistic Essay
What is a literary journalistic essay? It is the “literature of fact.” The writer can compose an essay on any topic, such as drug addiction, rape, unemployment, spirituality, or crime. Whatever the topic, the writer needs factual and true information to write about a person, place, event, or idea. These facts must be verifiable. In fact, every important fact must be verifiable.
Most often, the literary journalistic essay requires that the writer complete some research, often extensive research, in order to uncover the facts. Unlike the personal essay or memoir, which is based on the writer’s own life, a literary journalistic essay is based on another person’s life, or events, or experiences external to the writer’s own life.
Unlike the personal essay or memoir, which is written from the first-person “I” point of view, the literary journalistic essay is written from the third person “he/she” point of view.
The writer’s goal is to dramatize the story or events by using dramatic scenes. A scene includes a location/setting, passage of time, details and descriptions, action of by the people in the story.
The writer also uses other literary devices to craft an interesting story. Popular literary techniques include simile, metaphor, and imagery.
The intention of the writer is to inform the readers and to also enlighten them with new information.
But the writer must do more than enlighten; the writer must also entertain by recreating the scene. The writing accomplishes this by using the elements of fiction, such as the use of characterization, dialogue, narrative structure, and so on.
The New Yorker magazine and the Best American Essays, a book that is published each year, includes many good literary journalistic essays.
How to Write a Literary Journalistic Essay
Unlike the formal essay taught in univesity history courses or english courses, there is no single way to write a liteary journalisitic essay. However, the writer does need to follow certain guidelines. For instance, the subject must be well-researched. The essay must include a lead that grabs the readers attention and tells the reader what the essay is about. The content of the essay must include interesting and informative facts, information that enlightens the reader about the topic. The content of the essay must also support the writer’s point of vew. And in writing the essay, the writer must use the literary devices. To close, the writer makes a final point. He/she leaves the reader with one final point about the subject.
Breifly, to write the literary journalistic essay, do the following:
- Select a topic.
- Conduct Research.
- Write a dramatic story.
- Include a lead, facts/content, and ending.
Choosing a Topic
You can write about anything. Popular topics include:
- Adventure
- Biography
- Business
- Crime story
- Family saga
- History
- Popular culture
- Science and technology
- Sports
- Travel
Choose a topic that allows you to write intimately and to dramatize the story.
Before writing, ask yourself the following:
- What type of lead do I wish to use?
- What is the story about?
- What are the themes?
- What major points do I wish to make?
- What facts do I have? What facts do I still need?
- Are my facts verifiable?
- Who have I interviewed? Who must Istill interview?
- How do I want to organize the essay? By topic? Chronological order? Logical order?
- What are my own views on the topic? How do I wish to incorporate my views into the essay?
Research Your Topic
A literary journalist is based on fact. Therefore you will need to collect the facts for your story. The best approach is to use personal reportage. Here is how:
- Observe the person, event, or experience. Afterwards, make notes.
- Interview subject matter experts. Make notes as you ask questions, or use a tape recorder.
- Immerse yourself in the story. In other words, live the experience. For instance, writer George Plimpton lived as a football player for a while to write Paper Lion.
- Use the library. Read relevant books, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings, and take notes as you read.
- Conduct a search of your topic using Google. Start by conducting a search on the Web to see what has been written on the subject.
- Complete primary research. A primary source is a record created as part of, or during an event, crisis, or time period. For instance a letter, diary, personal journal, and government records and governmental report.
Observe Your Subject
A good way to learn about the person or topic is often by observation. Find out the following:
- What is your subject wearing?
- What is your subject saying?
- How is your subject behaving?
You can also immerse yourself in the story by becoming a participant.
Conducting an Interview
An interesting quotation from a subject matter expert or witness to the events can turn a dull story into one that captures the interest of the reader. If you are going to write good creative nonfiction, you must know how to interview. Here are a few tips:
- Make a list of questions to ask.
- Take a pen and paper, or tape record.
- Interview the subject matter experts.
- Ask the person you are interviewing to stop talking while you are attempting to take notes.
- After the interview, type out your notes.
- Save the toughest questions for last.
- Don’t quote a subject matter expert out of context.
- Don’t fabricate quotations.
Use Dramatic Scenes
To write the essay, incorporate the technique of “scene building” into the essay. To do this, show the reader, don’t tell them, what happened. Scene building isn’t a narrative summary, which includes generalizes time, collapses events, provides a brief descriptions and mentions people. Scene building isn’t an exposition, which explains and analyzes. Scene building isn’t a voice over, which interprets the experience. What, then, is scene building?
The writer recreates the event or experience in the mind of the reader. Scene building creates a dream in the mind of the reader. It is like a scene from a film. A scene takes place in a specific place at a particular time. It includes action and dialogue. It includes concrete and specific details, not abstract language and generalizations. It also includes details that appeal to the senses, such as the sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. It creates a sense of movement.
To summarize, a scene includes the following elements:
- Time. A scene takes place at a particular time.
- Place. A scene takes place in a particular place. It provides context and creates a mood.
- Details. A scene always includes important details. These details are concrete and specific, not general or abstract. A scene also includes scensory details, which appeal to the readers sensese, the sense of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch.
- Action. A scene includes action, such as a confrontation, crisis, or the action and reaction of people.
- Dialogue. Not always, but often a scene include important comments and conversations.
- Details and Descriptions. Use sensory images. The details reveal the underlying story or the universal truth.
This doesn’t mean that the writer excludes expositions or a summary from a literary journalistic essay. These elements have a function. It is just that the writer keeps each of these elements separate.
Include a Lead, Content, and Ending
Whether you write about a person, place, event, idea, your story needs a lead that tells the readers the purpose of your essay and why they should read the essay. The lead also needs to persuade the reader to read the essay. So, you must write a hook. It can be a quotation, interesting fact, important point, question, anecdote.
In the body of your essay, you can write about the important facts. In addition, you can include personal opinion, thoughts, and feelings. You can also use literary devices, such as imagery, metaphor, and simile. The key point is to remember to inform and enlighten your readers.
In a short essay, you can organize your points in chronological or logical order. In a longer essay, you can organize your ideas by topic. In this case, you can use headings and subheadings.
In closing, you need to leave the reader with an important point. Otherwise, the reader will think: “So what? What was the point of writing the essay”
Your goal is not to preach or sermonize. Your goals are to entertain, inform and enlighten your reader.
For more information on how to write a lead and ending, read my earlier post. You can also learn how by reading William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well.
Tips on How to Write a Literary Journalistic Essay
There is no single method of writing a literary journalistic essay. That being said, a literary journalistic essay requires a lead, content that is based on factual information, and an ending. Here are a few tips on how to write the literary journalistic essay:
- Learn about your subject through personal reportage. Interview others, conduct research in the library and on the Web. Immerse yourself in the story.
- Outline your story before writing it. What is your lead? What important points do you wish to make? What facts do you have? How do you intend to end your essay?
- Include a lead and ending. The lead tells the reader what your essay is about; The ending leaves your reader with a final message. What final point do you want to make?
- Use your distinctive voice. You reveal your voice by your choice of diction, choice of sentence patterns, choice literary devices, such as alliteration, imagery, metaphor, simile, and so forth.
- Write a true story about a person, place, event,or idea. Make sure that the story is interesting and informative. If it isn’t, write about something else.
- Write dramatic scenes—action, dialogue, details, setting.
- Consider narrowing your topic to a brief period of time.
- Use literary devices. Popular devices include metaphor, simile, alliteration, and imagery.
- Tell your story using the third-person point of view. (he/she)
- Make use your writing reveals a universal truth or message. Otherwise your reader’s will say: “So what? What was the point?”
- Be sure your writing informs and enlightens. Before writing, use Google to check what has been written on the topic.
- Conduct extensive research on your topic. Often you will use only a partial amount of the information that you collect. Your goal is to become a subject matter expert, so that you can write as an expert.
Resources to Help You Write a Literary Journalistic Essay
There are some excellent books available to help you in the art and craft of writing a literary journalistic essay. Here are a few of the good books you should read:
- Writing Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerald. It provides good advice.
- The Art of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind. This is a must read.
- The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore. This book provides good how-to advice and an anthology.
- The Fourth Genre: The Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction by Robert Root and Michael J. Steinberg.
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This book tells you how to develop your style and how to compose any writing. Buy it and internalize the advice on writing.
- Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paula
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser. If you want to write creative nonfiction, you should buy and master the advice in this classic text.
- The Best American Essays Series. It is published each year.
If you have any questions, please post them to this blog or send me an email at davehood59@gmail.com .
Next, I will explain how to gather facts, so that you can write a literary journalistic essay.
Use a Distinctive Voice and Intimate Point of View
In the last post, I write on how to write dramatic scenes when writing a personal essay, memoir, travel article, and so forth. In this post, I will discuss two other important techniques for writing creative nonfiction: Using a distinctive voice and an intimate point of view.
The Distinctive Voice
What do we mean by voice? A writer’s voice has many elements. It refers to the writer’s choice of language, diction, or vocabulary. It also refers to the writer’s choice of syntax or sentence types and sentence patterns. It refers to the writer’s tone, which refers to the writer’s attitude toward his/her topic and the reader. A writer’s voice is also expressed in the literary devices he/she uses, such as simile, metaphor, and imagery. And the writer’s life experiences and education also contribute to his/her voice.
Good creative nonfiction is based on a distinctive writer’s voice that appeals to the reader. It is entertaining and easy to understand. It appeals to the emotions and intellect of the reader. It motivates or inspires the reader to want to read more of the writer’s work.
How to Develop a Distinctive Voice
As an aspiring writer, you will need to develop your distinct voice. It takes time and practise. It evolves with the passage of time, providing that you write on a regular basis. Your writer’s voice can change or evolve as you gain more experience in writing and learning and experimenting with the techniques of creative nonfiction.
How do you develop a distinctive voice? Here are a few tips:
- Read widely and deeply. You can start by reading the essays in The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate and the Best American Essays series. It is published each year.
- Write each day. Only through practise will you develop the art and craft of writing, which also implies that you are developing your distinctive voice.
- Read and master the principles of the Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
- Read and master the advice written by William Zinsser’s classic, On Writing Well.
- When writing creative nonfiction, write about what interests you and what you are passionate about.
- Expand your vocabulary and incorporate these new words into your writing.
- Enrol in workshops and creative nonfiction courses at university or community college.
- Read how-to-books on creative nonfiction, such as Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, and Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore. Other good books are The Art of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind and Writing Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerard
- Write in a way that comes naturally. Don’t put on airs. Don’t write in a breezy manner. Use your own language and sentence patterns and structure.
Choose an Intimate Point of View
What do we mean by point of view? Point of view refers to how the events or experience is told. A story can be told from the first person “I.” It is the most intimate point of view. The writer is a character within the story. The writer can reveal his/her thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
The story, experience, or events can also be told using the third person point of view “he/she.” This is the approach used in journalism. When using third-person, the writer has two choices: Third-person objective or third-person subjective. When using third-person objective, the story is told from the perspective of an unbiased narrator who is a character within the story. To tell the story, the writer uses “he/she.” At no time, does the narrator reveal his/her thoughts, feelings, or opinions. Truman Capote used this technique to write In Cold Blood. When using the third person subjective, the story is told using “he/she”. The writer can also reveal the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of any character within the story.
Sometimes the story is told using the second person or “you” point of view. But it is not common.
How does the writer decide on a point of view? Often, the type of writing will determine the point of view. Almost all personal essays and memoirs are based on the first person point of view. Frequently, travel writing is also told from the first-person point of view. Many literary journalistic essays and biographies are told from the third-person point of view.
The first person point of view allows the writer to share his/her thoughts, feelings, and opinions. By doing this, the writing gains the trust of the reader.
The type of voice the writer also contributes to building an intimate point of view. When a memoir, personal essay, autobiography, the writer can use a conversational, friendly tone,as though he/she is carrying on a conversation with the reader. To write in a conversational and friendly manner, the writer can use everyday language, contractions, slang, and colloquialisms.
The key points to remember when writing creative nonfiction are to use an intimate voice and distinctive point of view. Often, the best way is to combine both is to use “I” and to include your thoughts, feelings, and opinions in your writing.
To learn more, you can read The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore.
Next, I will discuss how to write a literary journalistic essay.
Writing Dramatic Scenes
In writing a personal essay, memoir, travel writing, you must retell your personal experience.
To retell your story, you must recreate the scenes for the reader by using the techniques of creative nonfiction. The most important technique is “creating the dramatic scene.”
A dramatic scene is more than expressing your thoughts and emotions about an event or experience, or describing the setting/location. A dramatic scene is not expository writing or a summary of the events or experience. Both types of writing focus on “just the facts.”
Creating a dramatic scene in creative nonfiction involves using your memory, observation, and personal reflection to retell the facts in an interesting and compelling way. It also involves using dialogue, action, and details to capture the important events. Your goal is to present the facts as accurately as possible and to retell the story. Your goal is also to inform the reader and to entertain them.
This article will explain what is meant by the term “dramatic scene” and how to craft a dramatic scene when writing a personal essay, memoir, travel essay, and so forth.
Definition of Dramatic Scene
What is a dramatic scene? A dramatic scene is like a Hollywood film, which has a set, location, details, action, characters, and dialogue. According to Dinty Moore, the author of the Truth of the Matter; Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, when you write a personal essay, memoir, literary journalism, you must craft scenes and not write expositions or summaries. A scene includes the following elements:
- Location/setting of the event or experience
- Concrete and specific details that are sensory details
- Action from characters who take participate in the story, event, or experience
- Sense of the passage of time
- Dialogue between characters to reveal something important about the character or the event or story.
Your goal is to make the experience come alive in the mind of your reader. Writing dramatic scenes is the way to recreate the experience.
Example:
Exposition or summary of an event:
This morning, I almost got into a fight with a stranger who attempted to run me over because of his careless driving.
Event based on scene:
This morning, while walking back from Tim Horton’s coffee shop, carrying my newspaper and cup of coffee, I almost got into a fight with a stranger who was driving a black Porsche. There was no sidewalk, so I had to walk home on the side of the road. Apparently, he didn’t like the fact that I was taking up the space where he intended to park. So rather than let me pass, he started to park as I was walking close to the curb. Attempting to park, he narrowly missed my feet by about 6 inches.
After he parked and climbed out of his car, I said, “You need to watch where you are going. You almost hit me with your car. There is no sidewalk, so I have to walk on the road. I have the right of way.”
He yelled, “Fuck off!”, and then walked up the street to get his morning fix of java, oblivious to how I felt or that he had done anything wrong.
I yelled back, “You are a rude person.”
I then continued to walk home. As I walked, I thought to myself: There is so much rudeness and a lack of civility in this big city of Toronto. And for a moment, I thought of going back to where he parked his Porsche, to wait for him, so that I could give him a piece of my mind. I thought of waiting for him, so that I could pour my cup of coffee on him. I thought of threatening him with bodily harm. I thought of calling the police. I thought of my mother who would tell me when I was a kid to “stay out of trouble.”
At some point during the walk home, my thoughts changed. I now felt relieved that the altercation had not escalated into something more serious or dangerous. I thanked myself for not reacting to my angry impulses.
Then I continued on my way, up the street, toward my home, enjoying the sunshine and mild spring day, one of the first since the end of the harsh, cold winter.
As I opened the front door to my basement apartment, I said to myself, “The black bears are out of their caves.”
How to Recreate the Scene
Before you recreate the scene, you need to remember what happened. Sometimes the event or experience happened recently. In this case, you can jot down the important details, action, and dialogue. Other times you will need to use your memory. You might also need to complete some research, such as reading a diary or personal journal”, visiting the place where the event took place, talking to friends or relatives who experienced the event. You won’t often remember every detail. But research and fact-checking will help you. You can also use the technique of “emotional truth.” It means that if it “feels right to you” you can write about it.
A dramatic scene has a sense of time and place. Time can refer to clock time, the time of day, the season of the year, or the time it takes for an event to occur. Place refers to location, which can refer to your family home, travel destination, nature, and so on. Be sure to include the time and location where the event or experience took place. It gives your story context and makes your story real. For instance, In September 1972, I saw the most important hockey game and sporting event in my life from the auditorium of my high school…
A dramatic scene also includes important details and descriptions. Details are concrete and specific. Details are also sensory images that appeal to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Details make your story come alive. Example: Walking in the snow, the wind howling, the cold biting my face, I could see the trail to the road in the distance. I was hungry, exhausted, my body ached from the two hour cross country skiing in the woods, along the trail to the frozen lake, a place where I swam on during the warm, hot summer months of July and August. Now, it was January. I wanted to get home to cook a juicy, spicy pepper steak on the barbeque, drink a cold ale in front of the fire place, and relax on my lazy boy chair.
A dramatic scene includes the comments you make or the conversations between two or more people. A dramatic scene requires dialogue that reveals character or advances the narrative.
A dramatic scene includes action. You can write about your own behaviour other people’s behaviour. Your goal is to not include any action but action that is important or significant, action that is related to the event or events.
A scene can also include your own thoughts, feelings, and opinions. For instance, as the events or experience takes place, you can tell the reader how your felt or what were thinking. After the experience, you can provide the reader with your own view point.
As a creative nonfiction writer, your goal is to recreate the story or experience by using the technique of “writing dramatic scenes.” It involves showing your reading and not telling them what happened. You can show your reader what happened by describing the details, setting, and action, and by restating important dialogue. Writing dramatic scenes results in a compelling, entertaining, and memorable storytelling.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them to my blog.
Next, I will discuss point of view and voice as they apply to creative nonfiction.
How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Dialogue and Action
Revealing Character through Dialogue and Action
Readers are interested the comments, conversations, and behaviour of real people. For instance, the public was fascinated about the sexual indiscretions of Tiger Woods. And the media was quick to report on the story. Some would call it tabloid journalism.
Your goal in writing creative nonfiction is to recreate the events or experience of the true story for the reader. But you must state the facts and write the story using literary techniques. Revealing character through dialogue and revealing character through action are two important literary techniques that you can use to recreate the story.
This article discusses how you can reveal character through dialogue and through action.
Developing Character through Dialogue
What is dialogue? It refers to the words spoken by real people. It can be a comment made by a person or a conversation by two or more people. Your job is to recapture the important comments and conversations. You can remember dialogue by carefully observing what a person says and then writing it down later. If you are interviewing a person, you can make notes or use a tape recorder. If you are attempting to remember dialogue, you will have to recreate the dialogue to the best of your memory. Often you will need to interview family and friends, look at old photos, or revisit the place where the event took place. Be forewarned, if you include comments, conversations, or dialogue that never occurred, you are writing fiction, not creative nonfiction.
Purpose of Dialogue
According to Dinty Moore, who is the author of the fantastic book, Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, including dialogue in your narrative has two benefits:
- Dialogue changes the flow or pace of the narrative, providing texture.
- Dialogue gives the reader the opportunity to interpret or judge the content of the dialogue and determine what sort of personality/character you are writing about.
Your goal as a creative nonfiction writer is remember and write about important comments and dialogue. It must reveal character or develop the story. For instance, a conversation between two people can be an important event in the story. It can even be a turning point. Suppose you are writing your memoir, a story in which your wife tells you she is going to leave you. She wants a divorce. This conversation might be a turning point in your life, a significant event that you might wish to share with your readers.
Writing dialogue is an important way to show, not tell your readers what happened. It helps to dramatize the story. It helps to recreate what happened. It is part of recreating the scene.
Developing Character through Action
What is action? It refers the behaviour or conduct of a person or people. In writing about a personal essay or memoir, your responsibility is to recreate the action in the story. Action moves a narrative forward and provides meaning to the readers. By writing about the conduct or behaviour of a person, you give the reader the opportunity to form an opinion about the personality or character of the person. Describing the action is part of recreating the scene and part of dramatizing the story. Without action, you have no story.
Developing character through action can involve writing about your own behaviour or other people’s behaviour. If you are writing about your own behaviour, you should be honest with yourself. Readers want to know who you are. Your foibles, character flaws, follies, and vices are part of you. If you are writing about someone else, you need to be able to observe the person’s behaviour and make note of it. You also need to become aware of your own prejudices and biases, and then explore them.
When writing about the conduct or behaviour of real people, you must show, not tell your readers. When you show readers how a person acted or behaved, you are dramatizing the story, recreating the event, and composing a realistic story, one that can engross readers.
Good creative nonfiction recreates the scene. In part, scene is composed of dialogue and action. Developing characters through dialogue and action are two techniques that allow you to dramatize your story. A dramatic story captures the attention of the reader and inspires them to read your work.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them to this blog.
Next, I will discuss how you can dramatize a scene, another important technique in writing creative nonfiction.
How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Place
Place is more than Just Location
Writing about place or location of the event or experience is an important technique in creative nonfiction. It often plays a vital role in your story. It allows you to recreate the scene and experience in the mind of the reader. It can act as a backdrop or provide context for a personal essay. It can add meaning to a memoir. For instance, if a writer creates a memoir about child abuse, the place or location is significant. Place can also be the subject of creative writing. If you are writing a travel essay, you will be writing about the place you are visiting. Often, without a place or location, you have no experience or event.
This article will define what creative nonfiction writers mean by place/location and explain how to write about place/location in your creative nonfiction.
Definition of Place
In creative nonfiction, the place or location where the event or experience took place is more than just about the name of the place. It is also the physical location of the place, the physical attributes, such as the urban setting of crowds, pollution, public transit, traffic jams or the rural setting of open spaces, fewer people, fields, farms, and small communities.
Place is also about its socioeconomic attributes of a setting. Some places are poor, while others are wealthy. Some places have high unemployment, while others have an abundance of employment opportunities. Some places have schools and hospitals, while other places have nothing.
In writing about travel, place is much more than the physical location. It is about the culture, language, values, morals, beliefs, customs, cuisine, traditions, and way of life.
In writing a memoir, place often has significant meaning. It can be a catalyst for memories of childhood, adulthood, unique experiences. In the memoir, My Life: The Presidential Years, the Whitehouse was a special place for Bill Clinton. Place can also have significant meaning for ordinary people. In writing Eat, Pray, and Love, place had a powerful meaning for Elizabeth Gilbert. After her divorce and a mid-life-crisis, Gilbert decided to travel for a year by herself in an effort to restore balance and meaning to her life. Her memoir chronicles the three places she visited: Rome, India, and Bali. Each of these places had significant meaning to herself and to her life. She wrote about this powerful meaning in her memoir.
Some creative nonfiction writers view place as character. In recreating the scene or experience, the writer views place as a character in the story. Similar to developing a character, the place needs to be developed. The writer can use personification to develop the place. It can become nurturing, menacing, foreboding.
Yet place is more than just character. It is also about meaning. A place or location often has significant meaning. We can associate a particular place with good memories or bad memories, as being a happy place or sad place, as being a relaxing place or stressful place.
Clearly, when a creative writer writes about place, the writer must consider more than just its physical attributes or location.
How to Write about Place
In writing about place, you ought to consider the following:
- Name of the place
- Location of the place
- Physical attributes
- Home as place
- Nature as place
- Travel as place
- Meaning the place has for you
- Significance of the place
When writing about place, you first need to consider its name. Where did the name of the place originate? What is its history? What does it symbolize? For example, the city of Toronto originated as the Mohawk phrase tkaronto, later modified by French explorers and map makers.
You also need to consider writing about the important features, amenities, and physical attributes of place. For instance, in writing about Toronto, you can consider writing about its multicultural population, sports teams, and public transit, shopping centers, unique neighborhoods, landmarks, popular attractions, and the fact that it is located on Lake Ontario.
A place can also be about “home.” You can begin by exploring the meaning of home. Home is suppose to be a place of escape, comfort, protection, love, stability, and permanence—even solitude. What does home mean to you? What was my home like as a child? What did a like or dislike about the place called home? What memories do you have about your childhood home? For some people, home is a transient place, especially for people who travel, who are new immigrants, who end marriages or relationships.
In writing about place, you can also consider it in relation to nature. In his memoir, “Waldon”, Henry David Thoreau viewed nature, wildlife, and the woods as having a being a special place. According to Brenda Miller, who wrote “Tell It Slant”, a popular creative nonfiction text, Thoreau viewed the “human consciousness moved through nature, observing it, reacting to it, and ultimately being transformed by it. Miller goes on to suggest that when you write about nature as place, you need to consider how nature embodies larger forces, such as the physical attributes of a person you admire or the human condition or human experience.
In writing about place as a traveler, don’t write what everyone else has written. Your purpose is to find “a purpose for your writing above and beyond the travel experience itself”. (Tell It Slant) To create a travel piece that is more than just about transcribing the experience, you need to consider the theme and the significant meaning of the place.
When writing about a particular place, you ought to consider what meaning the place has for you. You can start by ask yourself the following: What does this place mean to me? How do I feel about this particular place? Do I like it? What do I like about it? Do I dislike it? What do I dislike about it? What are my memories of this place? What favorite memories do I have about this place?
Tips for Writing about Place
When writing about place, you must be original. You must be able to write about place from a unique perspective.
- Describe the place as if it is a character in your story. What is its appearance? Its behaviour? What is the place saying to you?
- Use literary devices to describe the place, such as metaphors, personification, and simile.
- Describe the physical attributes of the place using sensory images. How does place smell, sound, taste, feel, and appear to you?
- Write about place as it means to you. Do you have fond memories of the place? What do you like or dislike about the place? What is important? What is insignificant about the place? How does the place feel to you?
- Write about the significance of place. What universal truth embodies the place?
- Write about what you have learned about the sense of place/location?
- Don’t use clichés or hackneyed expressions to describe a place.
- Use concrete and specific details. Remember as many significant details about place as you can.
The place or location of an event or experience can have many meanings. Place can be your home, a travel destination, or a walk in the woods. When writing about place, consider its name. Write about its physical attributes. Write about what the place means to you. Write about the significance of the place. Write about theme and universal truth as it applies to place. Write about place from your own unique perspective.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them to this blog.
Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Fact and Truth
Creative nonfiction involves writing about facts using literary devices, your memories or recollections, and your imagination. You can write about any topic, such as birth, love, sex, death, sports, travel, science, nature, and so forth. Often you will need to remember or recollect the details of what happened, especially if the event or story took place many years ago. Questions will arise about accuracy of the reporting, whether you are telling the truth, and your subjectivity and objectivity in presenting the truth. In addition, sometimes you will need to check your facts by interviewing friends or relatives who might not want you to write about them, or the event, or story. So, you will be faced with an ethical dilemma.
This article discusses how you draw the line between fact and fiction, gain trust from your readers, deal with ethical dilemmas, and determine your subjectivity and objectivity when writing creative nonfiction.
Drawing the Line between Fact and Fiction
In writing creative nonfiction, you must present facts accurately. You must be honest and truthful. Otherwise, you are writing fiction, a story that is made up.
To write factually and accurately, you will often need to conduct research. For instance, if you are writing a personal essay, you might have to visit the place where the event took place or contact friends and relatives who remember the event.
Even if you feel you know the facts, you will still need to complete some fact checking. You might have to look at old photos, conduct an interview, or read old journals, newspapers or magazines.
Sometimes the line between fact and fiction is ambiguous. Often the writer will need to make a judgement call. Some people believe that once a fact is distorted or embellished, it is fictional. Others believe that creative nonfiction that is based on memories or recollections will be distorted. Memories aren’t 100% accurate. The writer will have to engage in a certain amount of fabrication to present the facts. There is no objective record, only the memories and recollections of the writer about an event that happened in the past. For example, when using dialogue in a memoir, the writer will often have to “invent” the actual dialogue. There is no way the writer will remember every word that was spoken. The important point to remember is that the writer must do his/her best to remember accurately. To verify memories or recollections, the writer check the facts to be sure that his/her view is accurate.
In the essay Memoir? Fiction? Where is the Line?, Mimi Schwartz writes that the creative nonfiction writer can write about “emotional truth.” What she means is that if it feels true to you, you can write about it as though it were true. But you will need to warn your readers or provide them with a disclaimer. For instance, if you are going to write about a memory but cannot remember all the details, you can say any of the following:
- Perhaps she said…
- I imagine she said…
- To the best of my knowledge…
- As I recall…
Author Alice Laplante states in The Making of a Story that the number one rule of writing fiction is “accuracy, and the rigorous adherence to facts.”
Gaining Trust from Your Readers
When you write creative nonfiction, you are asking your readers to trust you, to believe you. But the readers trust must be earned. As the reader reads your personal essay, memoir, or travel piece, he/she might think : Do I trust this writer? Do I believe what he/she is saying? The best way to gain your reader’s trust is to tell the truth.
In writing about past events, you will struggle with memory and accuracy. There are no rules other than you must do your best to present the facts as you know them to be. For example, you might not know what your exact thoughts were on the day of the event, but you will remember the event, the date it took place, the consequences, and the significance for you. The key point to remember is to be honest with your memories. Don’t embellish them. As well, do some fact checking. You might have a diary or old photo or personal journal. Or you might be able to interview a friend or family member who can confirm your recollection. And write about the emotional truth that resulted from the event—-what it means to you, how you felt about the events that took place, what your views are .
To gain your reader’s trust, make your account as honest and interesting as you can—without fabricating it. This is how you will gain your reader’s trust, and make them believe in what you wrote.
Ethical Considerations
In writing about real people and real events, you will sometimes need to consider ethics, such as the right to privacy and the betrayal of trust.
There is a need for full disclosure when interviewing and writing about real people and events. For instance, when interviewing a person, you must make it clear that you are collecting information for a story that you intend to write about. If you don’t disclose your intention to the person you are interviewing, you are being unethical. When writing about events that happened in the past, you will often need to obtain oral or written permission to avoid being unethical.
Sometimes a writer will not want to write about a true story because he/she will hurt or offend people who were participants in the story. For instance, if you are writing about child abuse, you might be reluctant to tell your story. Not only is it embarrassing, but it will upset or anger others who were aware of the events. On the other hand, if the person is deceased or estranged from you, you might be more willing to disclose this information. Often, ethical decisions are based on your own point of view: To show and tell becomes a matter of considering the costs and benefits.
Subjectivity Versus Objectivity
In writing your personal essay or memoir, you can be subjective. You can include personal opinions, thoughts, emotions—anything that is subjective. So, while the event must be presented objectively, you can interpret it subjectively, from your own point of view.
In some creative nonfiction, you will need to make a decision about point of view. Some writers believe that you can write in the first person point of view, using “I.” Obviously, if you are writing a personal essay, you will write in the first person. It is more intimate, more real, and natural. Moreover, you are the central character in the story.
But there will be times when you are not the central character. You might be just an observer of the story or events. The question is then whether to narrate your story in the first person or third person. For instance, if you want to tell the story as the events unfolded, you might want to use the third person “he/she.”It is more objective. Clearly, the decision to place yourself in the story or out of the story is a personal decision.
When writing creative nonfiction, such as a personal essay, memoir, or literary essay, you must remember that your writing needs to be based on fact, which must be accurate. You must present the facts to the best of your ability. You must also be ethical in conducting research and revealing personal information about other people. To gain your reader’s trust be honest with yourself and tell the truth. Finally, you can include your own perspective or point of view, but you must tell the truth.
Resources
For more information on how to write creative nonfiction, you can read:
- The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice Laplante
- Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction by Brenda Miller
- The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore
How to Write Creative Nonfiction
What Writing Style is Best?
A good writing style is based on “simplicity.” In On Writing Well, a best selling classic on how to write creative nonfiction, the author William Zinsser wrote that simplicity is the basis of good writing. The writer must “strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”
Zinsser also said that clear thinking leads to clear writing. To write clearly, the writer needs to ask: What am I trying to say? After writing , the writer needs to ask: Have I said what I wanted to say?
But there are many other ways to improve your writing style when writing a personal essay, memoir, travel article, and so forth. This article defines the term “writing style” as it applies to creative nonfiction, and it provides 25 tips or suggestions that you can use to improve your writing style.
Definition of Writing Style
What is style as it applies to creative nonfiction? A writer’s style has many elements. First, there are no rules, only suggestions or guidelines of how to improve a writer’s style. Secondly, style begins with the diction used by the writer. What type of language does the writer use? Simple language? Complex language? Thirdly, it refers to the sentence patterns used by the writer. For instance, does the writer use short sentences, long sentences, or sentence fragments? Fourthly, it also includes the tone or attitude a writer has toward his/her readers. For instance, does the writer use a formal tone or humorous tone? Style is also the quality a writer adds to his/her writing. Quality has many elements, such as research and writing experience. And style includes the point of view of the writer. Does the writer express his/her thoughts using the first person “I” or the third person “he/she”? Style also includes the “voice” of the writer. For instance, the voice expressed by William Golding is different than the voice of Ernest Hemingway or Philip Roth or George Orwell or William Shakespeare. Finally, style includes the element of “craftsmanship.”
How to Improve Your Style
There are many ways you can improve your writing style. Here are 25 suggestions on how to write good creative nonfiction:
- Be yourself when writing. In other words, use a genuine writing style. Write in a way that comes naturally. Don’t put on airs.”Don’t deliberately garnish your prose. Use your own language. Tell your reader something interesting using words that come naturally to you. Use the first person point of view. When the genre doesn’t permit “I”, imagine that you are telling a personal story. You can do this by sharing personal opinions, thoughts, emotions, and memories.
- Simplify your prose. Begin by making every word count. Each word should have a function. Eliminate the clutter. For instance: Replace a long sentence with a shorter sentence. Delete redundancies and nominalizations. Change the passive construction to the active voice. For more information, read The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
- Use the active voice. To do this, the verb should perform the action for the subject. Example:Bobby Bonds slugged the baseball out of the park.
- Use action verbs. These are verbs used to indicate an action, such as researched, wrote, edit, typed, and so on.
- Write with nouns and verbs. The noun is the subject of the sentence and the verb performs that action of the subject. Example: The professor instructed the class…The student wrote a personal essay….The employer hired the candidate.
- Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly. Most adjectives and adverbs are unnecessary. They create clutter in your writing. Find the noun that accurately describes the subject rather than using adjective + noun combination. Use the adjective only when it is necessary. Find the verb that accurately describes the action rather than using a verb + adverb combination. Most adverbs are unnecessary and due to careless writing.
- Avoid using qualifiers. Eliminate words that qualify how you feel and think, such as “very, “quite”, “merely”, “extremely”, and so on. Qualifiers create clutter.
- Vary the length and pattern of your sentences. Use simple, compound, complex sentences. Use periodic, loose, and antithesis sentences. Use sentence fragments when required.
- Emphasize important ideas by placing them at the beginning or end of your sentence. Example: After completing the degree, he wrote poetry, short stories, and a novel.
- Place the most important idea in the independent clause.
- Use effective transitions between sentences and paragraphs. For instance, to create flow within a paragraph, you can use pronoun reference, repeat key words, use parallel structure, use transitional expressions, such as “also”, therefore, and “consequently.”
- Make the paragraph the unit of composition. Use a topical sentence for each paragraph. It tells your readers what your paragraph is about. All other sentences within each paragraph need to provide support or relate to the topical sentence.
- Develop your paragraphs using the appropriate method of development. Your method of development will depend on the purpose of your paragraph. For example: If you are telling a story, use narrative. If you want to want to answer a question, use question and answer. If you want to describe something, use description.
- Organize your work. Popular methods include chronological order, logical order, and topical order. For example, a personal essay is often written in chronological order, while an article is usually written in topical order.
- Use dialogue to develop character, reveal a fact, or advance the narrative.
- When appropriate, you can begin a sentence with a coordinator conjunction (And, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and end a sentence with a verb or preposition.
- Show, don’t tell your reader. To show the reader, dramatize the narrative. Use sensory language, write dialogue, and construct action scenes.
- Provide concrete and specific details. You don’t have to include all the details, just the important ones. Concrete details can be perceived by the senses. So, use language that appeals to the senses, such as the sense of sight, smell, taste, touch. Concrete details are also precise. They tell the readers exactly what they need to know. Example: He gave her one red rose for Valentine’s Day.
- Use the elements of fiction, such as setting, plot, and character to develop your narrative.
- Use literary techniques, such as simile, metaphor, imagery, and so forth to entertain and provide deeper meaning.
- Inject personality into your writing. Write about your opinions, thoughts, emotions, memories. Use the first person “I”. Use a friendly, conversational tone. Use contractions, such as “can’t”, “won’t, and “don’t.”
- Write with freshness and originality. Avoid clichés and hackney expressions. Write original similes and metaphors. Avoid jargon. Use a dictionary and thesaurus. Vary your sentence patterns. Develop your own voice.
- Choose proper diction. Avoid using foreign terms, sexist language, or words that are pompous, pretentious, or faddish. Prefer simple language to complex language. It is often the best diction. In essence, use language that your readers understand.
- Begin your essay or article with a lead, and finish with an ending. You lead needs to do three things: 1) It needs to grab your reader’s attention. 2) It needs to tell the reader the purpose of your writing. 3) It needs to tell the reader why the article/essay needs to be read.
To finish your assignment, create ending that makes a final point and leaves the reader thinking. Your writing needs to provide a new insight or point of view. You can finish by emphasizing new information.
Popular ways of ending a piece of creative nonfiction are with a reference back to the beginning, a recommendation, an opinion, a judgement, a quotation or final quote. If your ending isn’t’ strong, your reader will say, “So what?”” What was the point?”
25. After writing, revise and rewrite. You will rarely get it right the first time. Often you must rearrange sentences and choose new diction to improve the first draft. Often you must clear the clutter by eliminating unnecessary phrases, adjectives and adverbs. Sometime you will need to replace clichés with original expressions. Sometimes you will need to delete grandiloquent language with simple language.
If you want to improve your writing and increase the chances of finding employment in writing, you ought to learn these suggestions and incorporate them into your writing.
For more information about “writing style” as it applies to creative nonfiction, I suggest that you read The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and On Writing Well by William Zinsser.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them to my blog.
Next, I will write about “fact” and “truth” in creative nonfiction.
Rhetoric and Rhetorical Devices
“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men,” said the Plato, the famous philosopher.
Rhetoric and rhetorical devices are what a writer or speaker can use to evoke an emotional response and to persuade the reader/audience to view or consider an idea, concept, or point of view from a new perspective.
Rhetoric and rhetorical devices require an understanding of what the writer or speaker communicates through language and how the writer or speaker communicates the content or language. This difference was stated by Aristotle who pointed out that rhetoric is based on logos (the logical content of a speech) and lexis (the style and delivery of a speech).
According to Aristotle, the writer or speaker can persuade his/her audience by providing proof. There are three kinds of proof:
- Logos. The appeal to reason by using logical proof.
- Pathos. The appeal to emotions of the audience.
- Ethos. The appeal to one’s character, using good will, wisdom, and virtue.
Some popular rhetorical devices include analogy, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, and personification. A creative nonfiction writer can use these devices to present the facts.
This article discusses many of the most common rhetorical devices that a creative nonfiction writer can use.
Amplification
It involves repeating a word or phrase and adding detail to it for emphasis. Use amplification to expand a definition, explanation, or argument.
Example:
I was exhausted from the hike up the rocky slope, exhausted from a lack of sleep, exhausted from the damp, chilly weather.
Antithesis Sentence
It is a type of parallel construction in which two parallel grammatical structures and contrasting ideas are juxtaposed within a sentence. The writer can juxtapose two opposing ideas by using phrases or clauses.
Examples:
To err is human; to forgive, divine. –Pope
That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. –Neil Armstrong
Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing.—Goethe
Appositive
It is a word or phrase that renames the noun that precedes it. The appositive is set off with enclosing commas. Most appositives are non-restrictive and aren’t required to identify the noun.
Example:
Steve, who wrote the novel, is now attempting to write poetry.
Periodic Sentence
This is also known as the climatic sentence. It is highly emphatic. The writer adds details, one after the other, and then finishes the sentence with the main idea. The key point to remember is to present the main idea at the end of the sentence in an independent clause.
Examples:
After writing for twelve months, editing for another three months, and contacting various publishers for several weeks, he was final able to sell his first novel to a publisher.
I came, I saw, I conquered. –Julius Caesar
Loose sentence or Cumulative Sentence
It is the most common sentence structure in English. The most important idea is placed at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a series of details. The key point to remember is that information accumulates after you present the main idea in an independent clause at the beginning of the sentence.
Example:
He published his novel after traveling to the destination and conducting research for two months, and after writing full-time for 2 years.
Repetition
It is used to emphasize a point. The writer repeats key words or phrases. There are several ways to repeat key words or phrases. Here are two popular methods:
- Repetition at the beginning of sentences. (Anaphora) It is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences.
Example:
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”—Winston Churchill
- Repetition at the end of a sentence. (Anadiplosis) The writer repeats the last word of a preceding clause in the clause that follows. In essence, the writer uses word or phrase at the end of a sentence and then uses it again at the beginning of the next sentence.
Example:
“What I present here is what I remember of the letter, and what I remember of the letter I remember verbatim (including that awful French).” — Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Parallelism
The writer uses equivalent grammatical form to express ideas of equal importance. The writer can make word, phrases, or clauses parallel.
Examples:
- Verbs that are parallel in structure but equal in importance. He studied created writing, wrote poetry, and published a memoir.
- Phrases that are parallel in structure and equal in importance. He wants to compose poetry and to write fiction.
- Clauses that are parallel in structure and equal in importance.
Rhetorical Question
It is a question posed explicitly or implicitly by the writer, but not answered. In essence, the answer is already known. The rhetorical question is used to for provocation or emphasis. It is also used to ask a question that cannot be answered.
Examples:
When will human kind end human suffering?
When will our leaders bring peace to the world?
Restatement
The writer emphasizes an idea by expressing it in a series of synonymous phrases or statements.
Example:
May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him. –Psalm 68:1
Sentence Fragment
It is a word, or phrase, or dependent clause that is punctuated with a period. It is not a complete sentence, which includes a subject or predicate. Use a sentence fragment to create emphasis or suspense.
Example:
Snow. Ice. Frigid temperatures. Grey skies. These are the reasons I loathe winter.
Friendly people. Beer. Wine. Chips and dip. Pizza. Dancing. Music. These are the ingredients of a good party.
Analogy
It is the comparison of familiar idea, concept, or thing with the unfamiliar, in order to explain or clarify the unfamiliar. Sometimes the comparison is short, consisting of a few points. Other times the comparison is long, taking up several paragraphs. An analogy is often used to explain a complex or abstract concept or topic.
Anecdote
It is a short, interesting, usually true story that is designed to make an important point. The anecdote is useful because readers enjoy reading interesting stories. It also enables the writer to add a human element, which enables your reader to connect with you. You can use an anecdote to support an opinion or to provide support to your argument or claim. You can also use the anecdote to inform or persuade.
Example:
I think the public transit provides poor service. The other day, I paid my fair, but the clerk at the ticket wicket refused to say hello. Then, while riding the subway, I waited between stops for 25 minutes without explanation. On my way out of the subway, I attempted to use the escalator to the street—but it was out of service.
Induction/Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning or argument is different than a deductive argument in that it cannot guarantee the conclusion. It can only provide a reasonable amount of support to an argument. It is used to provide new knowledge, and so it is a much more powerful form of argument or reasoning. The writer can only strongly suggest that a claim is “probably” true.
Inductive reasoning, or induction, is reasoning from a specific to the general claim or statement. It draws inferences from observations in order to make generalizations.
Inference can be done in four stages:
- Observation: Collect facts and evidence to support your claim.
- Analysis: Review and classify the evidence and then identify patterns.
- Inference: From these patterns, make a generalization that can be argued.
- Confirmation: Test your inferences by engaging in additional observation.
There are three inductive forms of reasoning a writer can use:
- Inductive generalization
- Statistical syllogism
- Induction by confirmation
Inductive Generalization
Suppose you wanted to know how many people are atheist in Canada. It would be impossible to ask every person in Canada. So you would select a sample. Using the sample, you could engage in inductive reasoning.
Example:
55% of those citizens we surveyed are atheist. Therefore, it is probable that 55% of all Canadians are atheist.
Statistical Syllogism
It moves from the general to the particular.
Example:
55% of Canadians believe in atheism.
Dave is a Canadian.
Therefore, he is .55 likely to be an atheist.
Induction by Confirmation
This is the most common type of inductive reasoning, and used to support a hypothesis. The writer begins by stating a hypothesis, and then uses statistics, facts, and evidence to support his/her hypothesis. Again, the writer cannot guarantee the truth of the hypothesis, only that it is probably true.
Deduction/Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning argues from the particular to the general. It is a method of reasoning in which the conclusion follows from several premises. Moreover, deductive arguments are those whose premises guarantee the truth of the conclusion. A writer can use deduction to prove or demonstrate the truth of a claim.
The syllogism is the most common form of deductive reasoning. It has three components:
- If p, then q.
- If q, then r.
- Therefore, if p then r.
Example:
- All men are mortal.
- Socrates is a man.
- Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
There are more than 100 rhetorical devices that you can learn and use. For starters, learn the devices that are defined in this article. These are some of the most popular. Once you have learned them, use them in your creative writing to expressive your views persuasively, to provide better depth of meaning, to write logically, and to appeal to the emotions of your readers.
Resources
- Silva Rhetoricae. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
- Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/rhetoricterm.htm
- The Handbook of Literary Devices http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm
Find Your Creative Muse 