Focus on Genre: Text Features in Fiction and Nonfiction
• Headings, Subheadings, Bold Type, and Italics
• Charts, Graphs, Sidebars, and Maps
• Photographs and Illustrations
Nonfiction text gives information about real events, people, and places. Writers use text features to help readers locate, use, and analyze information.
In fiction, writers may use text features such as titles and illustrations to help readers picture the characters and events in the story.
How It Works
Text features will help you notice the most important ideas and better understand what you read.
• Headings tell what the selection is about. Subheadings help organize the text. Boldfaced and italicized words help important words stand out.
• Images, such as charts, diagrams, graphs, maps, and realia, as well as illustrations and photographs, show information visually instead of in words.
• Sidebars and online links often provide additional information related to the topic.
Study the example below to see how text features help you understand this nonfiction selection.
map
Christopher Columbus was a European explorer and colonizer. His journey across the Atlantic Ocean eventually caused European settlers to come to the Americas to live. The first place he landed was on an island in the Bahamas called San Salvador. He mistakenly called the people there “Indians” because he thought he had found a trade route to India.
Boldfaced and italicized words call attention to important words.