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SSLM-CREATIVE NONFICTION-Q3-WEEK 1 - New Cartoon
SSLM-CREATIVE NONFICTION-Q3-WEEK 1 - New Cartoon
SSLM-CREATIVE NONFICTION-Q3-WEEK 1 - New Cartoon
Quarter: 3 Week: 1 SSLM No. 1 MELC(s): Analyzing the Themes and Techniques
Used in a Text
Objectives:
1. contrast creative writing to creative nonfiction; and
2. identify the themes and techniques used in the texts
Let Us Discover
There are techniques used in creative nonfiction that can also be used also in fiction.
However, the techniques listed below are features mainly used for creative nonfiction.
Literary techniques are definite and intentional use of words that the authors use to
convey the message of the text. These usually occur within a word or phrase, or phrases,
at one single point in a text. However, literary techniques are not really required to be
always in the text unlike the literary elements.
1. Creative license. It is a technique in creative nonfiction wherein the author
exaggerates or alters the objective realities for the purpose of enhancing and clarifying
the meaning in the context of fiction. It is the author’s freedom to go away with the
conventions or rules in writing. For example, the phrase “you and I” is used instead of
“you and me” in order to create and effect. Another is applying small distortions as a way
of handling factual materials.
2. Figures of Speech. These techniques are also related to figurative language wherein
the intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. Examples are
simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, and lot more.
3. Symbolism. The use of objects or images to represent ideas not only in fiction but also
in nonfiction is called symbolism. A symbol is something that is tangible and visible and
the idea that it symbolizes is abstract although the meaning sometimes may vary. For
example in the statement “I was born when the locusts came,” the word locust signifies
problem as it is associated with pests. The word “rock” may signify strength; “couch”
implies for comfort; and “dove” symbolizes peace.
4. Exposition. It is in this part that the author interrupts the story to explain something
or to give important background information. Look at the excerpt from a memoir entitled
“A Virtuous Woman” below. Notice that the second paragraph provides additional
knowledge about the writer’s mother.
6. Imagery. This refers to the language that describes in detail appealing to the senses
like visual imagery and sound imagery. The images are those that can be seen, touched,
heard, smelled, and tasted. For example, the phrases “she had extreme difficulty of
breathing” and “cursing in a loud voice” create an auditory imagery because of the word
“breathing” and “cursing” that appeal to the hearing. Another example is “he shortened
his grip on the arm…” makes a tactile imagery because of the word “grip” that the reader
can imagine the act of holding or touching the arm.
7. Irony. There are three types of irony: verbal, dramatic, and situational. Verbal irony is
about the disparity between the words of the characters and what they meant;
situational irony is the opposite of what the characters or readers’ expectation and what
actually happens; while the dramatic irony is the contrast of what the character knows
and what the reader knows. The statement “The cop was caught parking on a wrong side”
is an example of situational irony.
Moreover, theme is another element needed in analyzing the text. It means the central
idea, the thesis, or the overall message that the text is communicating to the readers. It
should be expressed also in complete sentence and should not be mistaken as the topic.
It should be the topic plus the idea about the topic. Below are the examples of themes.
As a student of public school, what struggles have you faced and conquered before? What
motivated you to study and keep going? In the text that you are about to read, you will discover
that indeed, whatever hindrances in life, if there is the will to succeed, a person will surely rise
above his or her circumstances.
As a son of illiterate parents, who came from the poorest of the poor families, he suffered a
hand-to-mouth struggle in order to survive. His father had not gone to school, while his mother
had only reached Grade III. None of his elder sister and brother graduated in elementary. He,
the youngest of the three children, barely finished Grade V when his right eardrum was
perforated and infected, because of muro-ami-like fishing. He and his friends used to swim
deep into the seabed to hammer layers of rocks, so fishes would move out for them to hit with
their self-made arrow. Financially and educationally incapacitated, he was left in the healing
ritual of the albularyo and became hearing impaired.
Walking and crossing a river to go to school with cooked corn grains and bulad (dried fish),
ginamos/bagoong (salted fish) or salt, wrapped in banana leaf as baon was bearable, but being
bullied due to his handicap drained his self-esteem. He had to quit schooling. “I remember
during my elementary, I used to climb a Mabolo tree in school and (food) took my lunch there,
because I was ashamed to let my schoolmates see my baon, but it was the bullying of my
schoolmates of my defect that hurt me more” he said.
He helped his landless parents in the farm or worked as a child laborer in sugarcane
plantations to augment their family income. But then, he realized later that the only way to
haul his family from the quagmire of poverty was through education. At the age of 15, he went
back to school as working student, matured and tough enough to endure the bullying that
went with his hearing impairment. This time he vowed to himself that no amount of bullying
and poverty could bar him from succeeding.
He was not an elementary graduate when he enrolled in high school, but he consistently
ranked first of his class since his first year and graduated valedictorian at Surallah National
Agricultural School in South Cotabato. He gained and maintained his academic scholarship with
his highly satisfactory grades and finished his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration –
Accounting and Bachelor of Science in Education - History as cum laude at Mindanao State of
University-General Santos City. He was also a consistent academic excellence, journalism and
college leadership awardee.
Not resting from his laurels, he obtained his Master of Arts in Education –Educational
Management at Notre Dame of Marbel University, Koronadal City in1997 and his Doctor of
Philosophy in Educational Management in MSU-General Santos City in 2018.
“My student life was a constant struggle. When the degree of the intensity of my hearing is too
low, I resorted to lip-reading. I had to borrow notebooks from my classmates or spend almost
As school paper adviser, he accumulated medals as the Best School Paper Adviser of the
Philippines for eight times (NSPC 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008). In 2004,
he was awarded as the Most Outstanding School Paper Adviser of the Philippines at the National
Schools Press Conference - Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Last June 1, 2019, Asia-Pacific Global Citation and
Center for the Promotion of Campus Journalism bestowed on him the Gawad Dyornalismo
Lifetime Achievement Award in Campus Journalism in Tagaytay City.
An author of campus journalism books, an award-winning short film actorand stage play
writer/director, division, regional, and national trainer and resource person on campus
journalism and theatre arts, these are but a few of the achievements that this very loving
husband and supportive father of four children has accumulated.
Needless to say, he has proven to the whole world that there is life beyond handicap and
wallowing in the quagmire of poverty is but a lame excuse not to succeed in life.
This man whom I admire so much, started from the rock-bottom and sky-rocketed to the peak of
success. I am so immensely lucky and proud that he is my best friend, my teacher, my idol and
my father.
After reading the above text, try analyzing the themes and techniques in the text using the
creative nonfiction analysis framework. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.
Let Us Do
In your own words, how do you describe the functions of the techniques and themes in
analyzing creative non-fiction?
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Let Us Apply
Read the text below and identify the theme and techniques used in the text using the creative
writing analysis framework.
Illustration on watermelon peperomia, anthurium, magnificum, and queen of the night. plants.
Plantdemic Chronicles
“Why will I buy plants this pandemic time? They’re not basic needs! They cannot be
eaten.” These were the words I reciprocated to Jane who was so obsessed
of looking for plants with her Aunt Sol. They even went to the market as early as 4:00
a.m. just to catch up with the cheaper plants.
“You see, you have eaten your words, Ading.” Jane added who used to call me Ading.
She graduated two degrees in doctoral but look at her, she loves to collect plants.
“When I retire, these plants will be my leisure,” she added. Those were her words as
she told me, gardening is the thing for the oldies. I wondered her notion about
gardening that it is for the oldies because even I was young, all of my family members
loved to garden, sweeping the ground, planting ornamentals, watering the plants,
grooming them after waking up in the morning to find out that nobody was cooking at
the kitchen to prepare for the meals.
5 GSC-CID-LRMS-ESSLM, v.r. 03.00, Effective June 14, 2021
Make comic strips and write a script for each of the following scenarios presented below.
Make sure to employ the different communicative strategies along the dialogues of your
But these pandemic times, everybody becomes the plantita and plantito. These
are coined terms from the words plant and tita or tito referring to the men and women
in all ages and even the celebrities became such. Some of the very popular of these
celebrities presenting their expensive plant collections in the social media are Jinky
Pacquiao, Aubrey Miles, and Gretchen Fulido. These people love to post their plants or
collections in their Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms. They
actually call their new collection as “babies” referring to the different floras and foliage
they newly bought, planted, and collected. Even Ethel Booba had a spoof of her pricey
indoor plant collection from other countries which are eggplant and banana in a pot
and placed inside the house.
There are other plants which were sensationalized just like the Mimosa pudica
(sensitive plant) or commonly known as makahiya that I thought only as a grass in
the fields but is being sold in the gardens. It is called sensitive plant because when
one touches it, the leaves fold. But be careful, you will be pricked because of its
thorns. It is like shy person that can retaliate when being hurt or touched.
Another is the Queen of the Night (Epiphyllum oxypetalum), a special kind of
orchid cactus with white flower resembling water lily and grows from leaf cuttings. It
is very expensive flower in other countries like India, and Sri Lanka because this
nocturnal plant shows its petals late at night for two hours only. Not only that, it
blooms only once every three to five years and the petals’ extract can be used as
perfume. Sometimes it is called “wishing flower” as people say, you can wish if the
petals are open. There was even a belief that fairies are attracted because of its
fragrance. Sometime in 2012, I was able to take picture of its petals. It was beauty in
the dark, majestic yet exclusive and the scent was so strong and irresistible. I even
went back inside the house right away after taking a picture thinking that there were
bad spirits around. That was almost 12 midnight when I witnessed it.
“Here’s your soil, Ate.” Mike, my cousin called me from inside the house
because I started planting during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) time. I
have already different collections before the pandemic because every festival at the
oval plaza, I always buy plants for my collections. Other plants came from my parents
which they bought from Makilala, North Cotabato wherein there are both vast and
small gardens just along the National Highway. In other words, I was already plantita
even before the plants became sensationalized. It means that the prices of the plants
puffed up even the pots, the pumice, and other garden supplies.
“I should have tried what you taught Mike to this giganteum variegata. I was so
excited and I cut and planted it,” I told Mike regretting of what I’ve done. He told me
some techniques how to plant that is to half cut the stem, let it stay for a week or
month before totally removing from the mother plant. You will see the cutting is
already dry and consequently will not rot and die. I did this way of propagating to my
other philodendron large foliage just like Jose Buono, dark lord, black majesty, and
melalonii and it worked. The plant did not adjust so much and the leaves did not
wither.
After finishing my job related tasks, I go directly to my backyard garden and
check my plants. I talk to them when they look sad, and appreciate them when I see
them lively and vibrant. After the rain, they look revived, taken a bath, and refreshed.
Looking at these plants, I can see the wonders of God’s creation. Just imagine the
different genus of plant with different species, and each has its own beauty, design,
and characteristics. For instance, I was so amazed by the peperomia genus that it can
be propagated through its leaves. It has 1,000 species but what I have collected are
only peperomia scadens, watermelon peperomia, peperomia obtusifolia, and
pepperomia obtusifolia variegata. That means I still do not have the 996 kinds of
6peperomia varieties. (Variegata isGSC-CID-LRMS-ESSLM, v.r. 03.00,
a botanical term being used Effective June 14,that
to indicate 2021the
leaves or the stems have variegation, patches or spots in different colours because of
mutation or genetics.)
One time I bought an army and pink rose caladiums from an online seller
together with the anthurium magnificum but the leaves were torn. “If not because of
my daughter’s medicine, I would not sell my plants,” he said. Well, I said, at least I
was an instrument by God that this man can buy medicine for his ailing child. His
not so pretty and small anthurium magnificum now flaunts its magnificence and
thanking me for the care that I gave.
However, I had also bad experience when I was really attracted at the pictures of
hosta plants available in seeds posted in the one of the ornamental groups in
Facebook in South Cotabato. The pictures posted were very colourful and vibrant in
different colors of pink, yellow, and yellow green with variegations. I let my husband
picked the seeds in Digos City. After a week or two, it grew but very, very far from
what I expected. It was a zinnia flower (resembling sunflower tribe.) It is sad to know
that there are people who would fool others even during crisis just to make money.
Looking at the plants would mean inspiration. It rejuvenates me, it makes me busy
taking care of them that I am already satisfied staying at home. There percussion is
so strong that it gives me inner peace, joy, and contentment. It means hope, that
when I see a budding leaf, a shoot, or another flower, it implies that’s God’s grace is
there. If God blesses them with beauty and let them grow, how much more we, His
people who are very precious in His eyes.
Referencerences
7 GSC-CID-LRMS-ESSLM, v.r. 03.00, Effective June 14, 2021
Creative Writing Curriculum Guide. (2016). K to 12 Senior High School Humanities
and Social Sciences Strand