nonfiction Archives - Page 619 of 620

Identify and Evaluate Advertising (Info Wise)
by Valerie Bodden (Author)

Booktalk: Here’s another hot topic for the back to school shopping season! What is advertising, and why should you care? Learn how to think critically about advertising. Who created and paid for an ad? What do the people who made the ad want you to do? Why does it matter if a website includes advertising? Find out how to pinpoint and evaluate common persuasive techniques used in advertising, including the bandwagon approach, emotional appeal, repetition, and more.

Snippet:
What is Advertising?
Every year, companies pour more than $500 billion into producing and distributing ads around the world. Why? It’s simple: they want to convince you to buy their products.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Word Choice The book’s goal is clearly stated in the title. In four short words the scope of the book is defined:

Identify and Evaluate Advertising

Notice that there are two steps in the book title and both are stated as verbs: Identify and Evaluate. And what will readers be identifying and evaluating? The noun in the title: Advertising.

Trait: Organization The simplest way to organize a nonfiction book is to begin at the beginning. First, you define the topic. The chapter title asks a question.

What is Advertising?

The first two sentences in chapter one begin the explanation.

Every year, companies pour more than $500 billion into producing and distributing ads around the world. Why? It’s simple: they want to convince you to buy their products.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Doyli to the Rescue: Saving Baby Monkeys in the Amazon
by Cathleen Burnham (Author)

Booktalk: With the help of her family, ten-year-old Doyli rescues endangered, orphaned monkeys from the perils of native hunters and the black market. At her island home in the Peruvian Amazon, she nurtures the little monkey orphans until they are old enough and strong enough to be released them back to their natural habitat: the Amazon rainforest.

Snippet:
As Doyli swept, she spied a dugout canoe paddling toward shore. Steering the canoe was the Yagua Indian hunter from the day before. Doyli ran down to greet him just as his canoe scraped ashore. Without saying a word, he handed her a limp, red howler baby. She took the monkey, nodded thanks to the Indian, and watched him paddle away.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Word Choice An entire scene takes place in these five sentences. The word choices make the scene come alive.

What was happening as this scene opened?

Doyli was sweeping. She saw a canoe coming.

That is a simple way to describe what happened in the first line. For children just learning to read, this very simple explanation would work best. For older fluent readers we can add more words. Let’s look again at what the first line really said.

As Doyli swept, she spied a dugout canoe paddling toward shore.

With word choice, simple verbs are replaced with descriptive ones:

saw changes to spied

coming is now paddling

Adding specific details lets the reader “see” the scene more clearly:

a canoe becomes a dugout canoe

coming turns into paddling toward shore.

The action is still the same. Doyli was still sweeping as she saw a canoe coming. Adding small details with a word choice edit made the writing much more vivid.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!