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Fiction


When you first learned to read, you were likely given reading material that was fictional, because this allowed you to engage your brain visually, so you were able to create pictures about what you are reading. These are often based on the accompanying illustrations, and the visual portion of your brain takes over and creates even more pictures.

It is relatively easy to use your sense of hearing and sense of touch, as well, when you are reading fiction. You can easily visualize hearing what the characters are saying, and you can even "feel" what they are doing.

Those who are more right-brain dominant have a much easier time with this type of visualization when reading. They are more in tune with their senses, making fictional reading a very interactive experience where they are engaged visually, auditorily, and kinesthetically. Fiction reading makes it relatively easy to extrapolate what is going on with the characters.

Everyone is capable of reading fiction. However, left-brain dominant people are more comfortable reading non-fiction material.

When reading fiction material, it makes sense to ask the questions:


Evaluate these questions as you read through this example of fiction writing:

Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young, the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box, discouraged. Jim came skipping out at he gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at the pump. White, mulatto, and Negro boys and girls were always there waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarreling, fighting, skylarking. And he remembered that although the pump was only 150 yards off, Jim never got back with a bucket of water under an hour -- and even then somebody generally had to go after him. Tom said:

"Say, Jim, I'll fetch the water if you'll whitewash some."

Jim shook his head and said:

"Can't, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an' git dis water an' not stop foolin' roun' wid anybody. She say she spec' Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an' so she tole me go 'long an' 'tend to my own business -- she 'lowed she'd 'tend to de whitewashin'."

"Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That's the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket -- I won't be gone only a a minute. She won't ever know."

"Oh, I hasn't, Mars Tom. Ole missis she'd take an' tar de head off'n me. 'Deed she would."

"She! She never licks anybody -- whacks 'em over the head with her thimble -- and who cares for that, I'd like to know. She talks awful, but talk don't hurt -- anyways it don't if she don't cry. Jim, I'll give you a marvel. I'll give you a white alley!"

Jim began to waver.

"White alley, Jim! And it's a bully taw."

"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I's powerful 'fraid ole missis --"

"And besides, if you will I'll show you my sore toe."

Jim was only human -- this attraction was too much for him. He put down his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing interest while the bandage was being unwound. In another moment he was flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye.

But Tom's energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and they would make a world of fun of him for having to work -- the very thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and examined it -- bits of toys, marbles, and trash; enough to buy an exchange of work, maybe, but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour of pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a great, magnificent inspiration.

He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in sight presently -- the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been dreading. Ben's gait was the hop-skip-and-jump -- proof enough that his heart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and giving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. As he drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned far over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious pomp and circumstance -- for he was personating the Big Missouri, and considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat and captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:

"Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!" The headway ran almost out, and he drew up slowly toward the sidewalk.

"Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!" His arms straightened and stiffened down his sides.

"Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow! Chow!" His right hand, meantime, describing stately circles -- for it was representing a 40-foot wheel.

"Let her go back on the labboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ch-chow-chow!" The left hand began to describe circles.

"Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead on the stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! Lively now! Come -- out with your spring-line -- what're you about there! Take a turn round that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now -- let her go! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! Sh't! S'h't! Sh't!" (trying the gauge-cocks).

Tom went on whitewashing -- paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hi-yi! You're up a stump, ain't you!"

No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:

"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"

Tom wheeled suddenly and said:

"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."

"Say -- I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"

Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:

"What do you call work?"

"Why, ain't that work?"

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."

"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"

The brush continued to move.

"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

"No -- no -- I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awful particular about this fence -- right here on the street, you know -- but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."

"No -- is that so? Oh come, now -- lemme just try. Only just a little -- I'd let you, if you was me, Tom."

"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly -- well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it --"

"Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say -- I'll give you the core of my apple."

"Well, here -- No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard --"

"I'll give you all of it!"

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with -- and so on, and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a dog-collar -- but no dog -- the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.

He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while -- plenty of company -- and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village…

~Chapter 2, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain


Do you see how easy it is to jump into the fictional material? You can almost see Tom whitewashing the fence, feel the brush in his hand, and hear him persuading his friends to do his chores. As you can see, fiction can often be read more quickly with full comprehension.



Nonfiction

Often more challenging than fiction, nonfiction is what most people read while in school and for their careers. Many students who used to love to read soon find that they do not enjoy reading textbooks as much as they used to. This starts somewhere around middle school and follows them through college, because most learning materials are nonfiction textbooks.

Nonfiction and textbooks do not engage the brain visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically the way fiction does. Instead they work on your brain in a digital way, providing information and data. This is one of the reasons that nonfiction is a greater challenge to read and comprehend.

Here is an example of nonfiction material:

1. Celebrating the Birth of a Nation

Whether we eat red, white, and blue food, sport our nation's flag, participate in the fireworks demonstrations around the country, we are all celebrating the birth of our country. July 4, 1776 was a very exciting day, but do you know everything that led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and then the very long struggle to achieve the independence Americans of the Early Colonies so ardently desired?

Why America Declared Independence

Upuntil the 1770s, most American colonists were loyal to King George of Great Britain. However, as England continued to increase its control over the affairs of the American people across the sea, the American people began to chafe at the idea that British soldiers had the right to control their activities.

The trouble actually started after the Seven Years War, from 1756 to 1773. The majority of the conflict of this war was held in North America and Britain felt that the Americans were not carrying their weight when it came to taxing them to recover the costs of that war. The British government was intensely interested in North America, especially for its natural resources. Having chased the French away, Americans were feeling pretty territorial about their country.

Britain and the American colonists had two differing opinions about how best to use this new land. For Britain, they wanted the large stores of raw materials to be shipped to Britain, and they wanted the American colonists to purchase British-made goods. As a result, the British government increased its control over the American colonists by raising taxes and limiting their ability to practice trade and industry. Even more specifically, the American colonists were very interested in establishing new settlements in the wilderness of the new land without being told what to do by an absentee monarch who had no idea what was going on in America.

At first the British rules were relatively lenient. However, when Britain began to limit how far the colonists could expand, things began to simmer. Then in 1765 the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act were enacted. This was a direct tax on the American colonists. It had initially been proposed in 1764, and there was the clause that the Americans could come up with alternative ways to raise money needed to support their new cities and towns. The Americans used this year, instead, to choose to fight the yoke of British rule. They wanted to rule their own people and not be subordinate to the Westminster Parliament. Britain revoked the stamp act in 1766, but declared Parliamentary authority over the American Colonies.

Additional efforts to tax the American people met with resistance as Americans began to boycott products from Britain. They believed that Britain wanted total control over the American Colonies, even when Britain removed most taxes, with the exception of the duties American colonists must pay for tea. A tea boycott was enacted that lasted for years.

Boston Massacre: First came the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, a mob of Boston citizens attacked a company of British soldiers posted in the city. At first the British soldiers remained neutral, but when one of them was knocked over, they fired on the mob, killing five people. A propaganda campaign was started that spread like wildfire through the colonies. Things continued to simmer in the colonies.

Boston Tea Party: Britain tried to reduce the cost of tea to the colonists, but by now the Americans were very suspicious. They had been boycotting tea for years, and radicals feared that if this newest shipment of inexpensive tea made it to land, then their stand against Britain would have failed, because people would break the boycott and purchase the tea. To prevent this on December 16, 1773, they dressed as Native American braves, made their way onto the British ships and dumped thousands of pounds of tea into the water. Britain responded by closing Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for. Further, they tried to alter the state constitution of Massachusetts, which caused the colonists to unite against Britain.

First Continental Congress: This was the first American Government, created in 1774, which was established to show Britain they would no longer tolerate British rule. While Americans were not talking about Independence yet, Britain believed the Continental Congress was the creation of an illegal body.

The Shot Heard Around the World: The first fighting between the British and Americans was on April 19, 1775 in Concord Massachusetts. It is not known who fired the first shot, but this was the official beginning of the Revolutionary War that would lead this nation to Independence.

The Declaration of Independence

By 1776, the Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia, discussing the fundamental issue, "Are we fighting for rights as Englishmen within the British Empire, or are we fighting for independence?"

This nation was terribly divided at that time, as some colonists were willing to tolerate the tyranny of King George and the British government, while others were determined to have independence. However, once they had provoked Britain to the point of war, there was no longer any choice, and there was no going back. Americans wanted to be a free people, not be ruled by a King. They wanted some say in who governed them. The men who were appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence wanted what no other country in the world had, they wished to establish the philosophical basis for a Civil Democracy, where all people are guaranteed rights simply because they exist.

Thomas Jefferson is the main author of the Declaration of Independence, which was written between June 11 and June 25, 1776. This document, our most cherished and celebrated symbol of our liberty, lists all the reasons for rising up against the King. It was considered to be an extremely radical document that cited all the charges against King George against the American Colonists.

When this document was signed and then passed on July 4, 1776, the independence of Americans became a written fact.

What most of us don't remember is that the war took over six long years to fight after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. King George was not willing to give up so easily this great land of opportunity and raw materials. This was a long and bitter war, that divided families, brother against father, cousin against cousin, because not everyone initially believed in the bid for independence. However, as the war raged on and the atrocities of the British soldiers, the Hessian soldiers of fortune, and the Native Americans who were recruited by Britain were made known throughout the country, Americans had had enough. They would not stop until they were free of British rule. Finally on November 30, 1782, six and a half years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the war finally ended.

~Independence Day, Acreage Life Magazine – July 2011


Nonfiction takes more concentration, attention to detail, dates, information, etc. Learning to address this kind of reading will make you a more successful student.

If you recall from our previous lesson, it helps to pre-read/ preview the material and improve your ability to understand the material.

Technical

Technical material is nonfiction, but it is often even more dry and difficult than the average nonfiction book. Many people approach technical material by attempting to study it as they read.

This is the worst approach. Remember what we discussed in our preview/pre-reading activities. It is always better to look through the material to see how you can familiarize yourself with it.

Once you have completed your preview/pre-reading approach, then read the material with the intention to understand it, not necessarily to remember it. Understanding it means that you should be able to tell someone what the piece is about without referring back to the material.

Reading technical material is a much slower process than reading fiction, but it does not need to be a full-blown "study for memorization" approach.

Examples of technical writing are as near as your computer handbook, your cell phone book, a Haynes Auto Repair Manual, IRS tax form instructions, etc. As you can see, this kind of writing is very technical, and is packed full of details and information that make it difficult to remember everything one reads.

Reference books are almost always written in the form of technical writing. Pull out one of these types of manuals and experiment with the way you have always read, and then apply the techniques you've learned so far in this course.



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