Celebrate Nonfiction

Exploring the Joy of Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Classifying Nonfiction: A Fresh Look at Nonfiction Categories

Update June 24, 2024: My thinking about nonfiction classification has evolved since I wrote this post, but I’ve decided not to delete it because there’s value in looking back at my past ideas. For my current thinking, please see the book 5 Kinds of Nonfiction as well as information on my website.


A
couple of months ago, a reader who’s an educator and well as an aspiring
children’s book author pointed out that I’ve been using the term “nonfiction
categories” in two different ways on this blog and, as a result, she was
feeling confused about the best way to classify nonfiction.

She’s
right. I’m guilty as charged. And it is confusing.

The
problem is that I think both uses have value, depending on how you’re
interacting with the text. To me, the
5-category system is more relevant for readers . . .

 

 

.
. . and the 4-category system is more
important for writers, especially if you’re writing books for children or using
children’s books as mentor texts.

Here’s
how I think the two systems are related to one another.

—Traditional
nonfiction and browse-able books are almost always survey books. They cover
broad topics.

—Expository
literature is most frequently STEM concept books, though it can be specialized
nonfiction.

—Narrative
nonfiction is generally life stories or specialized nonfiction focused on historical
events.

—Active
nonfiction isn’t quite so easy to pigeonhole, but I’m going to say it’s mostly
specialized because most of these books help readers participate in a specific
activity.

And
so perhaps survey books, concept books, life stories, and specialized nonfiction
are best described as subcategories
that are most beneficial when writers are considering the best way to present
information to their readers. Then, as the writers think about the research
process, they can switch gears to focus on which of the five major categories
(or which combination of those five) is most likely to contain the information
they need. 

 

Maybe the best classification infographic looks like this:

 

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