What do you see as the primary differences among fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction?

What do you see as the primary differences among fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction? Why might creative non-fiction appeal more to the average reader?

RESPOND TO THESE STUDENT POST and do the following: Ask a probing question. Offer a suggestion. Elaborate on a particular point. Provide an alternative opinion.

Cynthia post

I got a 10/10 on this week’s quiz. The question that I struggled most with was Q3 which was on ethnographic study. I got the correct answer by process of elimination.  Gall, Gall, and Borg (2015) describe an ethnographic study as the study of the characteristics of a culture. For me, this was an issue of knowing the definition of ethnography.

I think the most important questions in understanding qualitative research were the ones that focused on what is used in qualitative studies for data such as interviews, pictures, ect. and question 8 which addresses how the data is analyzed are important. One needs to know what type of data is being used and how it is being analyzed in order to decide if the research is relevant to the question you are asking or relevant to the problem you are trying to solve.

Katherine post

Strategies utilized to analyze quantitative and qualitative research reports are based on the report.  The question one must ask is what type of question is one wanting to answer.  Some quantitative research reports provide causal effects.  An educator may want to learn how a specific strategy may work prior to utilizing the strategy as a grade-level; therefore, a pre-test will be provided to the entire grade-level prior to the specific strategy being implemented with one or classes within the grade-level.  The educators will administer a post-test after six or nine weeks of implementation.  How did students perform?  How did the treatment (implemented strategy) group compare to the control group (the group who did not have the implemented strategy)?  This is one way to implement a quantitative strategy within the educational setting.  When analyzing this type of report educators should be mindful of the sample size.  How large was the sample of the population in the educational setting?  What quantitative methods were utilized to determine if the sample size was large enough to support the study?  Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle (2010) described the sample as “a smaller version of a population” (p. 25).  In addition to the size of the sample, one must identify if the measure was suitable for the sample.

According to Gail, Gail, and Borg (n.d.), “researchers should report the population for whom the measure was developed” (p. 561).  This was the case in the state of Georgia many years ago when they were administering the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) to students across the state.  Students were not performing well on some of the test items.  Educators analyzed the data and determined that many of the questions presented in the assessment did not pertain to students living in the state of Georgia.  Students were not familiar with the terminology of the assessment because they did not live within the state of Iowa.  Georgia revised their assessment system and prepared assessments more suitable to their population.

Olivia post

Fiction is simply made up. It is not real. It’s details of a fantasy strung together to make a creative story. Nonfiction is facts or information put together to retell an event. It does tell the information with much flair; it just simply states the information. A creative nonfiction is similar to nonfiction, but it retells information with a lot of imagination and expression. I feel creative nonfiction might appeal to the average reader more so than the others because it is not as formal as a nonfiction but it is a lot more relatable than a fiction story. Creative nonfiction allows a reader to get a sense of connection to a story. It is something that a person can compare to their own lives. It also allows a person to get the information they need without possibly getting bored because the reading is too stately. Personally, I enjoy fiction over all three genres because fiction usually create entire new worlds I can conjure up into my own head how I picture it, but I do see the appeal in creative nonfiction because it is a lot more fun to read than regular nonfiction.

 

Sheena post

 

For me, non-fiction has always been more interesting than fiction. The biggest difference between the two is non-fiction is based on true events and fiction are stories that are fabricated. Knowing that the things happening in the story and the emotions the characters are feeling give it a sense of believability and makes the reader more interested. For example, anything about the WWII intrigues me and a big part of that is because I know millions of people were mistreated and killed in concentration camps. Real people were killed and it’s especially interesting to me because my mother’s family left Poland because of the war and were directly affected by it. I think creative non-fiction is more appealing to readers because it’s a true story based on personal events of a historical event. It gives a personal perspective and conveys the true emotion that person felt at helps the reader feel the same emotion.