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How do factual texts differ from fictional texts?

When you’re researching a topic, the best sources of information are factual texts and videos. However, you can learn some important things about a topic by reading fictional accounts, too.

Serious teenage boy using digital tablet while sitting on the couch in living room at home.

You’ve already seen two examples of this: the video you watched at the beginning of this lesson and the scene in the novel you’re reading, when Esperanza and her friends talk about their quinceañeras. To learn more about the differences between factual and fictional texts, study the tabs below.

The most obvious difference between facts and fiction is that facts are based on information that is known to be true. This may mean that scientific studies were conducted to arrive at the facts or that numerous eyewitness accounts can verify the truthfulness of a statement. Either way, facts are based on evidence. The details in a fictional story come from the writer’s imagination. Even if the writer bases a story’s events on a similar true story, the actual events in the novel never occurred in real life.

Vintage photo of a cowgirl with a black horse.

Of course, historical fiction is a little different—it includes both historical facts and made-up characters and situations. Certain kinds of facts typically appear in historical fiction. These include interactions between large groups of people, a country’s government, important historical events, and well-known customs and traditions of the time. However, in historical novels, the day-to-day accounts of one person’s life almost always come from the writer’s imagination.

Question

Historical fiction stories tend to include major events that are historically accurate while the characters’ day-to-day activities are fictional. Why does that make sense?

The historical accounts that writers use to learn about history usually focus on really big, important events. These sources don’t usually discuss the day-to-day activities of the people who lived through the events. Therefore, writers have to imagine those.