Section B - Non-Fiction

Question 1

What is a biography?

Answer 1

Accounts of someone’s life written by someone else, do they’re written in third person

Question 2

Features of (auto)biographies

Answer 2

Both tend to be written by and about famous or notable people
Written in (historic) past tense to make action seem more relevant or urgent
Information is presented chronologically
Authors use literary techniques to make emotional stories more effective
Autobiographies can be quite informal
Biographies can be seen to have a more formal tone

Question 3

What are the festers of historical writing?

Answer 3

Informs readers about particular historical events
Includes lots of facts such as names and dates
Includes lexis from specific semantic fields, e.g. War, medicine
Formal tone
Written in third person - incl. quotes and sources
Written from the writers P.O.V - have to persuade the reader that this interpretation is right
Linguistic features - personification, third person female pronoun to refer to countries

Question 4

Features of instructional texts

Answer 4

Lists of instructions, e.g. How to take medicine
Numerous imperatives
Short sentences and simple syntax
Bullet points or numbered lists - easy to follow
Written in second person - more user-friendly

Question 5

Features of informative texts

Answer 5

To inform non-specialist audiences about scientific or technological breakthroughs
Tend to explain any lexis from a specialist semantic field

Question 6

Features of texts with a dual purpose

Answer 6

To inform and persuade
FOR EXAMPLE: a leaflet on healthy eating would be written to inform people about healthy food and persuade them to eat it
Informal tone
Not use specialist vocabulary
Engage the reader by using second person pronoun ‘you’

Question 7

What is an autobiography?

Answer 7

A non-fiction text written by the person it is about