ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the need for sharing a common understanding of terminology and aims to extend ideas about non-fiction text types. We begin by examining some recent influences that have shaped the way we think about literacy in school. In particular, we focus on the idea of literacy as a social practice in which different texts perform different functions. We show how this perspective influences the kind of reading and writing experiences that we provide in the classroom. This leads us to a discussion of some of the terminology we use to categorise texts, focusing specifically on the distinctions first between narrative and non-narrative, and then fiction and non-fiction. In reaching a clear view of what is meant by non-fiction, the chapter concludes with an overview of different sources of information, highlighting the diversity of non-fiction texts.
