Question

Essays, articles, and speeches are all works of nonfiction. Which of the following is an accurate statement about the authors of nonfiction?

A. They are always real people.

B. Their style is always full of figurative language.

C. They usually focus on retelling historical events.

D. Their tone is always objective.

Answer 1

The answer is D: their tone is always objective.

When writing nonfiction, the author should always use an objective tone in order to convey an idea, or set of ideas, in formal language, trying to achieve precision, conciseness, accuracy and demonstrability (this latter characteristic entails that any claim made in the piece of writing can be corroborated by anybody else). Objectivity and formal language are aimed at avoiding ambiguities and miscomprehension.