2 Responses

1. Would you consider a "moment in time" nonfiction text a subcategory of category 1 or 3? Or do you think it depends on if you're focusing more on a specific person's actions or on the event itself?

2. That's a great question, Jilanne. Without knowing more about your "moment in time" text, I'd guess that it's an episodic narrative, which I consider one kind of sequence structure. (See past posts about structure for more info about this.) Examples include Ballet for Martha by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Brave Girl by Michelle Markel,
   and When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan. Perhaps you can use these as mentor texts.

   As you say, it could be either specialized nonfiction or a life story depending on whether the focus is more on a person or an historical event. But (again, without more info) my guess is that it is (or should be) a life story because editors seem to like manuscripts in which a person is a window into past events. It's hard to sell a book just about the events, as evidenced by the lack of such books on the market.

   What I'm eventually going to get to through in this series of posts is the idea of a nonfiction triumvirate. It's helpful to consider category, writing style, and structure simultaneously. Certain combinations are more common than others. For example, nearly all life stories are narratives, whereas nearly all concept books are expository. Hope that helps.