Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VI – Western Visayas
Schools Division of Iloilo
ESTEBAN S. JAVELLANA MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL
Guiso, Calinog, Iloilo

Name: _______________________________________ Date: _________________________________

Grade & Section: _____________________________ Score: ________________________________

Teacher: JULIE ANN D. PAJARILLA Period Covered: ______________________

Module No.: 2

I. CONTENT STANDARD:

 The learner understands the literary conventions that govern the different genres. (e.g., narrative convention
of fiction, etc.)

II. PERFORMANCE STANDARD:

 The learner clearly and coherently uses a chosen element conventionally identified with a genre for a written
output.

III. LEARNING COMPETENCIES/OBJECTIVES:

 Create samples of the different literary elements based on one’s experience (e.g.
metaphor to describe an emotion)

Code: HUMSS_CNF11/12-Ib-d-4

IV. LESSON/COVERAGE/TOPIC:

 Literary Elements of Creative Nonfiction

V. PRE-TEST:

A. Directions: Read the following questions and circle the letter of the correct answer.

1. It refers to the perspective from which a story is told?

A. Setting B. Point of View C. Character D. Plot
2. Words the author used to show how they feel about the given topic?
A. Tone B. Mood C. Perspective D. Angle
3. The way the writer creates and develops character is known as
A. Characterization B. Imagery C. Dialogue D. Narrator
4. Writing in a way to appeal to the senses.
A. Symbolism B. Alliteration C. Imagery D. Personification
5. Language that communicates ideas beyond the ordinary, literal meaning of words.
A. Irony B. Figurative language C. Theme D. Imagery
6. What is the organized pattern or sequence of events in a story?
A. Imagery B. Plot C. Theme D. Setting
7. Contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.
A. Irony B. Symbol C. Imagery D. Conflict
8. The feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader.
 A. Tone B. Symbol C. Mood D. Perspective
9. It refers to the time and place of the action in the story.
A. Character B. Setting C. Theme D. Plot
10. Objects that represent something important in the story or the characters.
A. Symbolism B. Theme C. Tone D. Irony

B. Directions: Identify the following figures of speech used in a sentence. Circle the letter of the
correct answer.

1. I am trying to solve a million issues today!

A. Metaphor B. Personification C. Hyperbole D. Metonymy
2. Polly Peters positively played Ping-Pong.
A. Alliteration B. Assonance C. Simile D. Irony
3. “Hadn’t she felt it in every touch of the sunshine, as its golden finger-tips pressed her lids
open and wound their way through her hair?”
A. Personification B. Metonymy C. Synecdoche D. Oxymoron
4. The water was a glove that enveloped the swimmer’s body
A. Simile B. Paradox C. Antithesis D. Metaphor
5. The coach was as upset as a lion when his team lost the game.
A. Metaphor B. Simile C. Anaphora D. Understatement

VI. LESSON PROPER:

A. Objective: Create samples of the different literary elements based on one’s experience
(e.g. metaphor to describe an emotion)

B. Concept/Discussion:

 Creative nonfiction combines the validity of facts and the imaginative stance of storytelling.
The word “creative” in creative nonfiction refers to the use of literary craft in the writing of
Nonfiction - to produce factually accurate essays or narratives about actual events
and people in a compelling and interesting way.

 The main elements of creative nonfiction are setting, descriptive imagery, figurative
language, plot and character. The overarching element or requirement that distinguishes creative nonfiction
from any other genre of writing is that while other literary genres can spring from imagination, creative
nonfiction is, by definition, true.

 Setting is the place where the story takes place. Creative nonfiction becomes more realistic if the physical,
social, psychological environment in depicting setting. Atmosphere or mood is the element that evokes
certain feelings or emotions. It is conveyed by the words used to describe the setting or reflected by the way
your subject speaks or in the way he or she acts.

According to Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, “ The most successful pieces of creative nonfiction are rich in
details. Bare facts are never enough. They need to be fleshed out; they need to be humanized. But besides
giving information, details serve other purposes. Details should be accurate and informative first. And then
must be suggestive or evocative. The right details arouse emotions, evoke memories, help to produce the right
response in your reader. Details are extremely important in evoking a sense of time and place. It must evoke a
period as well as location. Descriptive details are of particular importance for travel writing, the point of which
is, to begin with, to literary transport the reader to the place to which the traveller has been.

Example: I think I liked Kuala Lumpur best. Because it’s a curious combination of Baguio, Davao, and
Zamboanga. Because of its curving lanes, its hills, its old trees. It is a small city, too. Not a busy, brawling
metropolis at all. And, of course, it is Moslem and modern at the same time. Which seems to me an
incongruity, though I’m not sure why it should be.

There are Mosques standing right beside skyscrapers, and women wearing the traditional sarong along with
Christian Dior dark glasses. Some of the government offices are old colonial mansions, complete with
sweeping driveways beneath a canopy of drooping branches of gnarled trees, massive wooden doors, and
great chandeliers dripping crystal tears.
 But there is a building boom. So pretty soon, K.L.’s skyline will be vastly different. I only hope they don’t
tear down all the nostalgic landmarks. - ”Letters to Rita” from Sojourns, Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo

 Descriptive imagery is the way the writer paints the scene, or image, in the mind of the reader. It usually
involves descriptions of one or more of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste.

Example: Imagine you are describing a lemon to someone who has never seen before. How would you
describe it using the five senses?
One might describe a lemon as yellow, sour-smelling and tasting, and with a smooth, bumpy skin. They might
describe the sound of the lemon as a thump on the table if it is dropped, or squelching if it is squished
underfoot. By painting a picture in the reader’s mind, it immerses them in the story so that they feel they are
actually there.

 Figurative language is a phrase or word which means more that its literal meaning. It conveys meaning by
identifying or comparing one thing to another. It has connotation or meaning familiar to the audience.
 Alliteration. It involves using words that begin with the same sound.
Example: “Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.”
 Anaphora. It uses a specific clause at the beginning of each sentence or point to
make a statement.
Example: “Good night and good luck”
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
 Assonance. It focuses on the vowel sounds in a phrase, a line of text or poetry
Repeating them over and over to a great effect.
Example: “Hear the mellow wedding bells”(Edgar Allan Poe)
“If I bleat when I speak it’s because I just got…fleeced” (Al Swearengen)
 Hyperbole. It uses exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Example: “I am so hungry I could eat a horse.”
“I’ve told you a million times.”
 Irony. It expresses one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the
opposite.
Example: “I love cold pizza!” (a sarcastic response when one is served cold food)
“Oh great! Now you have broken my new camera.”
 Metaphor. It compares two things that are not alike and finds something about them
to make them alike.
Example: “My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.”
“ Her voice is music to his ears.”
 Simile. It compares two things that are not really the same, but are used to make a
point about each other, usually using the words “like or as”.
Example: “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.”
“She is as beautiful as Mona Lisa.”
 Metonymy. A thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of
something associated with that thing or concept.
Example: “The pen is mightier than the sword.” (The word pen stands in for the written word while the
sword stands in for military aggression and force)
 Onomatopoeia. It is the use of a word that actually sounds like what it means.
Example: “hiss” for the sound made by snakes
 Paradox. It completely contradicts itself in the same sentence. It s seemingly absurd or
self-contradictory statement or opposition that when investigated or explained may proved to be well-
founded or true.
Example: “This is the beginning of the end.”
 Personification. It is the way of giving an inanimate object the qualities of a living thing.
Example: “The sun smiled down on her.”

 Pun. This play on words uses different senses of the word, or different sounds that make
up the word, to create something fun and interesting.
Example: “She had a photographic memory but never developed it.”
 Synecdoche. It is a figure of speech in which one thing is meant to represent the
whole.
Example: “He earns the bread.” (Bread refers to money.)
 Understatement. It is a situation in which the thing discussed is made to seem much less
important than it really is.
Example: “I am delighted to win 10 million dollars.”
 Antithesis. It is a contradiction that pits two ideas against each other in a balanced
way.
Example: “To err is human , to forgive is divine.”
 Euphemism. It contains words that are used to soften the message of make it sound
better than it is.
Example: “My mother passed away.”
 Oxymoron. It contains two contradicting words that are put together.
Example: “open secret”

 PLOT is one of the basic elements of every story. It is a sequence of events that has
beginning, middle, and an end. It is a pattern of actions, events and situations showing
the development of the narrative. The plot of creative nonfiction is based on actual
people, experiences, and events as they actually happened.

 How to Begin
 Catchy and clever titles have an advantage. Examples: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Wild Man of the
Green Swamp and Edward Hoagland’s The Courage of Turtles are examples of catchy tiles. Titles
which are too long are at a disadvantage. Titles should not also be misleading.
 Titles should give the reader a quick idea of what to expect, without giving away the whole story
(Hidalgo, 56-57).

The First Paragraph. According to Hidalgo, the key to good creative nonfiction is dramatic writing;
and the key to dramatic writing is action. There are many ways of beginning: with a passage of vivid
description, with a quotation, with a bit of dialogue, with a list, with a little scene, with an
anecdote, with a question, with a striking statement, with a reference to a current event which
serves as context, or, with what in fiction is called in medias res - a plunger right into the middle of the
action.

Examples:
Passage of Vivid Description
For eight months in 1975, residents of the edge of Green Swamp, Florida, had been reporting to the
police that they have seen a Wild man. When they stepped toward him, he made strange noises as in a foreign
language and ran back into the saw grass. At first, authorities said that the Wild man was a mass hallucination.
Man-eating animals lived in the swamp, and human being could hardly find a place to rest without sinking.
Perhaps it was some kind of a bear that children had seen. - “The Wild Man of the Green Swamp,” Maxine
Hong Kingston

Quotation
"Thou shall not be dirty" and "Thou shall not be impudent" were the two commandments of my
Grandmother Henderson upon which hung our total salvation. Each night in the bitterest winter we were
forced to wash faces, arms, necks, legs and feet before going to bed. She used to add, with a smirk that
unprofane people can’t control when venturing into profanity, “and wash as far as possible, then wash
possible.” - “Grandmother’s Victory,” Maya Angelo
List
“Keep his mom-in-law in chains, meet Kills son and feeds corpse to pigs.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Teenager twists off corpse’s head…to get gold teeth meet Strangles girlfriend, then chops her to pieces.”
“How you doing?”
“Nurse’s aide sees fingers chopped off in meat grinder, meet I left my babies in the deep freeze.”
“It’s a pleasure.” - “Pornoviolence,” Tom Wolfe

Little Scene
One summer, along about 1904, my father rented a camp on a lake in Maine and took us all there for
the month of August. We all got ringworm from some kittens and had to rub Pond’s Extract on our arms and
legs night and morning, and my father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on; but outside of that the
vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place in the world like that
Lake in Maine. - “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White

Anecdote
Perhaps my first formed sentence, my first whole memory was “Ewan ko ba kung bakit type kita.
  How to End. It is expected that the ending of a creative nonfiction piece is the logical conclusion of the
flow of your narrative or of the development of ideas. You must constantly bear in mind that the reader
should be left with a sense of completion. However satisfying the ending does not mean that you need to
answer or resolve the issues that you raised in the essay you may even wish by suggesting new problems or
asking other questions. (Hidalgo, 109)

Structure. Organization is very important component in creative nonfiction. Readers expect a certain structure
that shows the writer’s ideas flowing smoothly.

Types of Structure
 Chronological structure. It refers to the arrangement of events in linear fashion, as they occurred in time.
This is ideal for an account of a trip or a travelogue.
 Explanation-of-a-process structure. This is best for a how-to article since it tells readers what to do step-by-
step.
 Flashback structure. It begins at some point in time and then moves back into the past. This
works best when you write a memoir.
 Parallel structure. This type has a several stories, running side by side, with occasional
cross-cutting or convergence. It is a technique that may have been influenced by cinema.
 Collage or Mosaic structure. This type was influenced by painting and film. When you write accounts of
disasters, this is most convenient. It involves pasting together of small fragments, which all together build up
to the total picture of what happened. This is an excellent device for capturing the complexity of an event and
also creating a sense of immediacy, of speed.
 Diary or Log book structure. It is a variation of the chronological structure and gives a sense
of immediacy to the narrative. It also makes the narrative seem more personal.
 Question-and-answer structure. This type is a logical choice for interview stories which allows the reader to
hear the subject’s voice without the awkwardness of having to repeat “he said” or “she said” before every
direct quotation.
 Frame or the story-within-a-story structure. It is a good structure to use when you wish to tell two stories--
 say, in a travel narrative, where the actual physical journey is paralleled by an inner journey.

 Symbols/Symbolism. Symbol is a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning. It is a concrete thing that
represents something in the abstract. For example, a rock may symbolize strength; a dove may signify peace; a
flower may symbolize beauty; an apple may symbolize temptation. However, remember that symbols do not
always stand for any particular meaning.

 Characters. It is an important element of creative nonfiction. They are the actual people including the writer
himself. Characterization is the development of characters through actions, descriptions, and dialogue. The
devices utilized by the nonfiction writer in “creating”, developing,or, more accurately, revealing characters are
direct description, action and reaction, other character’s opinions, dialogue, monologue and focusing on
a character’s distinct or idiosyncratic behavior.(Hidalgo, 76)
Dialogue or the actual conversation the writer has remembered or recorded is an effective
device for revealing characters. What the characters say or how characters express
themselves provides readers ideas of the kind of people they are.
Monologue a long speech by one person in a conversation.

Two Ways of Characterization

A. Directly - through specific description of the character.
B. Indirectly - through behaviors, speech, and thoughts of the character

 Point of View refers to the narrator of the story, the vantage point from where readers observe the events of
the story, or the writer’s special angle of vison, the one whose perspective is told. Creative nonfiction employs
a specific point if view. Hidalgo emphasizes that a good piece of creative nonfiction has a personal voice, a
clearly defined point of view, which will reveal itself in the tone, and be presented through scene, summary
and description, as it is in fiction. All its strategies are designed to reach out to the readers and draw them in-
again-, as in fiction-without losing track of the facts (p.6).

Types of Point of View

 First Person Point of View - uses pronouns (I/me/mine or us/we/ours).
 Second Person Point of View - uses pronouns (you/your)
 Third Person Point of View - uses pronouns (he/him/his,she/her/hers,they/theirs)
A. Third Person Limited - Sometimes called “close” third person. Observes and narrates but sticks near one
or two characters.
B. Third Person Omniscient - observes and narrates from an all-knowing perspective. Can include internal
monologue (motives, thoughts, feelings) of all characters.
 Stream of Consciousness - narrator uses inconsistent pronouns, or no pronouns at all. Approximates the
digressive, wandering, and ungrammatical thought processes of the narrator.

Approach may also refer to the angle or handle you choose. This is your “take” on your
subject. It may either be subjective or objective.
Tone the emotional register of the story’s language.
Mood the emotional register a reader experiences

VII. LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEETS (LAS)

Directions:Write sentences based on your experiences or emotions using the different literary
elements given.

1. Simile ___________________________________________________________________________

2. Personification __________________________________________________________________

3. Hyperbole ________________________________________________________________________

VIII. ASSESSMENT:

Directions: Write a one to two pages memoir. One that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Write
it in a long bond paper. You may opt to print it or make it hand written. You may write about any of the
following:
 A memorable or important moment in your high school life
 A personal struggle you were able to overcome
 A person who inspires you
 A life changing experience
 A major decision you had to make
 A movie, book, or song that had a significant impact in your life

IX. REFLECTION NOTE:

(Please complete the statement by stating what you have learned in the lesson.)

I learned that…