MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
As with fiction, nonfiction teaches us about ourselves, but it does so by using a different approach. Through essays, we learn about different schools of thought, and perhaps ideological movements in society. We read about the lives of people just like us and completely different from us through biographies and memoirs. We delve into philosophy, science, and history to learn about who we are as human beings—where we have been, and where we are headed. On the most basic level, nonfiction can be divided into two categories: practical and theoretical.
Practical Nonfiction
Practical books (such as this one, for example) require you, as the reader to take some kind of action. Different kinds of practical books include the following: Self-help books, instruction manuals, books and guides, cookbooks, textbooks, travel guides, reference books such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauruses.
Theoretical Nonfiction
The other type of nonfiction you will encounter is theoretical. Theoretical books do not require you to take any action except thinking. An author of a theoretical book chooses an idea and then tries to prove it to you by backing up his or her idea with facts. For example, someone who writes a book on the decline of the Soviet Union will have a theory about why the Soviet system didn't work. Whereas one person might blame the decline on communist theory itself, others will insist that it was international pressure that made the system economically unsound. Then maybe someone else will determine that it was the internal politics that made the system col- lapse in the end.
In theoretical nonfiction, it's the author's job to prove his theory to you, the reader. For any argument to be valid, the author must back it up with facts and sound ideas. You are not required to do anything but read and decide for yourself whether the author has done his job.
Some categories of theoretical nonfiction include the following:
• Historical
• Philosophical
• Theological
• Scientific