Nonfiction

= Literary Nonfiction =

Literary Nonfiction texts mentioned in the ELAR Reading TEKS include essays, speeches, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs. The ELAR Writing TEKS include expository writing (analytical essays, interpretative responses to an expository or literary text) and persuasive texts.

Speeches
American Rhetoric Speech Bank has full text of hundreds of speeches with audio and video files whenever possible. Search by 100 Greatest Speeches, rhetorical devices used in speeches, author, and title.

Speeches and Remarks on the official White House website has full text transcripts of the President, the First Lady, and members of the administration.

The Nobel Peace Prize website has a complete list of Nobel Prize recipients with full text transcripts of their acceptance speeches.

The Pulitzer Prize website contains a complete list of Pulitzer winners by category with a biography and list of each recipient's works beginning with the 1995 prize winners.

Britannica's Hispanic Heritage in the Americas website has speeches and essays by noted Hispanics dating from 1800's through present day.

Radio and Television Transcripts
Although transcripts are not necessarily considered literary nonfiction, they are a type of nonfiction informational text. They are also valid sources for student research. The EBSCO databases (http://search.ebscohost.com) contain a wealth of radio and television transcripts from sources such as television news shows and National Public Radio (NPR). Locate these resources in the Student Research Center by checking the box under Radio and Television Transcripts. Locate transcripts in EBSCO Host Research Databases interface by checking Newspaper and Topic Search on the Choose Databases screen. **Remember that Texas tax dollars are providing teachers and students free access to these amazing resources. See your school librarian for your school's user name and password!**

Literary Essays
EDSITEment has an excellent lesson for introducing the essay to high school students that use essays by Mark Twain and Frederick Douglas.

Time Magazine's article on Mark Twain, "Getting Past Black & White" explains Twain's method of fighting racial injustice by drawing readers into a story, including a discussion of Huck Finn as an anti-slavery novel.

Read Write Think has a lesson on Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue," an essay included in some high school anthologies.

Annenberg's Developing Writers series includes interviews with six noted authors, including Amy Tan.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The New York Times website contains a complete archive of their Writers on Writing columns that invites writers to explore literary themes.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Writing About Our Lives
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Purdue's OWL resource on the personal memoir contains an explanation of the difference between a personal essay and memoir, as well as generating ideas for memoirs.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Analysis
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Purdue University's Online Writing Lab, OWL, has good resources on writing about literature and poetry.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Silva Rhetoricae website contains a wealth of information on the subject of rhetoric, the study of effective speaking and writing. The information on appeals, analysis, and glossary of rhetorical terms are excellent resources for analyzing literary nonfiction. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Slide Share has a good presentation on teaching text structure, as well as many other professional resources.