CREATIVE

WRITING

MODULE 1
__________________________________________________________________
Boost yourself
Figures of Speech

Writers use figures of speech and figurative language to create images that would deepen the
reader’s comprehension of a text. Figures of speech and figurative language create the so-called
figurative images which increase reading pleasure.

Figures of speech/ Definition Sample Text

Figurative Lan-
guage

Simile Indirect comparison of “Then she burst into view, a girl lovely as
two things using “like” morning and just as fair…”
or “as.” (Waywaya, F. Sionil Jose)
Metaphor Direct comparison “Everything that exists, aromas, light,
between two objects metals, were little boats that sail toward the
isles of yours that wait for me…”
(If You Forget Me, Pablo Neruda)
Personification Attribution of human “Because I could not stop for Death, He
qualities to a thing kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but
just ourselves And Immortality.”

(Because I Could Not Stop For Death, Emily

Dickinson)
Hyperbole Exaggeration “Well now, one winter was so cold that all
the geese flew backward and all the fish
moved south, and even the snow turned
blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all
spoken words froze solid afore they could
be heard. People had to wait until sunup to
find out what folks were talking about the
night before.”

(Babe, the Blue Ox, retold by S.E. Schlosser)

Alliteration Repetition of the first “Leap up, like that, like that, and land so
consonant of neighboring lightly.”
words

(Home Burial, Robert Frost)

Allusion Use of person, place, or “The morning wind forever blows; the poem
thing as reference of creation is uninterrupted, but few are the
ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside
of the earth everywhere.”
(Walden, Henry David Thoreau)
Onomatopoeia Use of words that mimic “Boy, I rang that doorbell fast when I got to
sounds old Spencer’s house.”

(The Catcher in The Rye, J.D. Salinger)

Diction
Diction refers to language and word choice of the writer. It shows the level of formality of a text
which helps in shaping the perception and view of the readers. There are three levels of diction.
These are formal, informal, and colloquial.

Levels Characteristics
Formal Diction Academic/ Scholarly Language
Informal Diction Conversational Language
Colloquial Diction Slang Language; Captures regional dialect

__________________________________
Warm Up
Activity 1.
Write a sentence that corresponds to the figurative languages enumerated below. Use the word
stated below in your sentence.

Figurative
Language Sentence
Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Hyperbole

Alliteration

Allusion

Onomatopoeia

Activity 2
Think of three words and write the words in formal, informal and slang diction.

Formal Diction Informal Diction Colloquial/Slang Diction

Money Cash Bucks

Activity 3.
Write an essay employing the figurative languages discussed earlier. Used informal diction in
your essay. Choose from the following subjects:
1. Riding a jeepney
2. Going to church
3. Attending a party
4. Swimming on a beach
5. Watching your favorite movie
6. Reading your favorite novel
7. Eating your favorite dish
8. Listening to your favorite song
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Rubric in grading the essay:

Indicator Rating (1-5)
The essay contains all the figurative languages discussed.
The essay is written in the informal language.
It is proper form with correct grammar, spelling, and proper
punctuations.
The essay captures the interest of the reader.
Total

______________________________________________________________________________

Cool Down
Read and evaluate your work based on the criteria below.

Indicators Rating (1-5)

The essay contains all the figurative languages discussed.
The essay is written in the informal language.
It is well-written with proper use of punctuation, correct spelling,
and correct grammar.
TOTAL

Remarks

What is/are strong point/s of the essay? What needs to be improved?

______________________________________________________________________________

Highlights
 Figures of speech and figurative language add life to a text by creating figurative images.
Simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, allusion, and onomatopoeia are
the figures of speech and figurative language discussed in this lesson.

 Diction refers to the characteristics of the language used by the writer. It has three levels:
formal, informal, and colloquial diction. Each has their specific uses.

Sharing Inner Self Through Poetry

Introduction to Poetry
Start Up
Have you ever written a poem before? How does it feel after writing the piece? Poetry is another
way of expressing self. Like all the other types of creative writing, poetry liberates the soul of the
writer.

This lesson will introduce you to the world of poetry. This will give you an overview of what
poetry is and its characteristics. This will also showcase poems of known poets which will give
you a clear view of the characteristics of poetry.

Targets
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Define poetry
2. Enumerate the characteristics of poetry
3. Differentiate poetry to other forms of creative writing
4. Appreciate the poems of known poets
______________________________________________________________________________
Boost Yourself
Poetry
Poetry is a word composition arranged in a rhythmic pattern. It is used to express one’s creative
thoughts and feelings through a specialized and heightened language.

Characteristics of Poetry
If I can stop one heart from breaking
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
 His house in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little house must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost

 What can you say about the sample poems above?

 List down all your observations regarding word choice and usage, structure, etc.

Poetry has unique characteristics if compared to other forms of creative writing which include
the following:
1. It expresses creative thoughts in much briefer way than a short story and novel.
2. It uses elements such rhythm, imagery, verse and meter, and poetic devices.
3. It has a musical quality.
4. It has structure.
5. It is used to express intense personal emotions and experiences.
6. The content of a poem shows the universal truth and connotes a deeper meaning.
7. It does not use everyday language.

______________________________________________________________________________

Warm Up
Activity 1
Making the sample poems above as an example, try to write a short poem. This is to
gauge your basic understanding of how a poem should be written.

kj

Rubric in grading the essay:

Indicator Rating (1-5)

The essay contains all the figurative languages discussed.
The essay is written in the informal language.
It is in proper form with correct grammar, spelling, and proper
punctuations.
The essay captures the interest of the reader.
Total

Activity 2.
Write down five reasons why you chose to write the poem in Activity 1.
 1. ________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Cool Down
Evaluate your poem based on the criteria below:

Indicators Rating (1-5)

The poem contains the characteristics mentioned above.
The poem is creatively written.
The message of the poem is clear.
It is well-written with proper use of punctuation, correct spelling, and
correct grammar.
TOTAL

Remarks

(What is/are the strong point/s of the poem? What needs to be improved?)

____________________________________________________
Highlights
 Poetry is another form of creative writing which is a means to express one’s thoughts and
feelings.
 It has identifiable characteristics regarding its structure, form word arrangement, word
choice, and usage, etc.

____________________________________________________
Elements of Poetry
Start Up
Poetry is a combination of words in lines, rhyme, tone, voice, theme, language, and emotion
which makes it a creative means to liberate the poet’s thoughts and feelings. While one can
freely write a poem, it is still necessary to know the different elements of poetry. This is to create
a poem that will make a huge impact on the reader.

This lesson focuses on the basic elements of poetry and on how to write poems considering those
elements.

Targets
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Define theme and tone,
2. Appreciate the importance of theme and tone in writing poetry,
3. Exercise the use of different themes and tones in making a poem

______________________________________________________________________________

Boost Yourself
Theme
The theme is the summarized statement containing the main thought or meaning of the poem.
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or with Kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Erath and everything that’s in it,
And-which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Excerpt from the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling

 What is the message the poem tries to express?

 State the theme of the poem.

Tone
Tone refers to the attitude and mood of the poem. It is the overall atmosphere of the poem which
influences the emotional response of the reader.
 ‘I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You’
I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it’s you the one I love;

I hate you deeply and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel ray,
Stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story, I am the one who dies

The only one and will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, love, in fire and blood.”

Pablo Neruda

 What is the tone of Pablo Neruda’s poem?

 Can you feel the poet’s emotion in the poem?

Rhyme
Rhyme is the link between music and poetry. It adds music quality to the poem which gives the
readers reading pleasure. The following are the different types of rhymes:
 Types Characteristics Sample
True rhyme Rhyme that occurs on the “Here Captain! Dear father! This arm
words beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.”
(Oh Captain My Captain, Walt Whitman)
Internal rhyme Rhyme that occur within “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
the lines pondered, weak and weary.”
(The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe)
Off rhyme or slant Not a true rhyme but the “In the sun and in the snow,
rhyme sound of the words are Without pleasure, without pain,
alike On the dead oak tree bough.”
(The Gallows, Edward Thomas)

Line and Meter

The line is the line of words in poetry. The verse is the line of a poem arranged in a metrical
pattern. Stanza is referred as the “unit of poetic lines”. There are different stanza forms. Below
are the following:

Forms Number of Lines

Couplet 2
Tercet 3
Quatrain 4
Quintet 5
Sestet 6
Septet 7
Octave 8
The meter is poetry’s measured accents and syllables arrangement. It is the systematic sound
pattern of a poem.

Metrical Patterns Characteristics

Accentual Meter Lines have the same number of stresses and varied count of
syllables
Syllabic meter Lines have the same number of syllables and varied count of
stresses
Accentual-Syllabic meter Lines have the same number of syllables, both stressed and
non-stressed; arranged in fixed order
Free Verse Lines have irregular number of stresses and syllables

Genre
The following are the three types of poetry:

Type Characteristics Sample forms

Descriptive Poem Focuses on details Didactic poem
Narrative poem Tells a story epic, ballad

Lyric poem Expresses the feelings and ode, sonnet, dramatic

thoughts of the poet monolog

Literary Devices
The literary devices discussed in Part 1 of this worktext should also be incorporated in the poem
such as imagery, figures of speech, and figurative language. This is to make the poem appealing
to the readers.
______________________________________________________________________________
Warm Up
Activity 1: Brainstorming. List down all the thoughts you have right now. These thoughts may
be about a person, your studies, food, books, music, idea, travel, feelings, etc. Write words or
phrases in the box relating to your thoughts.

Activity 2: Choose a genre and write a poem based on the genre chosen. Use the words or
phrases you listed in activity1 in your poem. Make sure that the elements discussed such as
theme, tone, rhyme, line and meter are present in your poem.
______________________________________________________________________________

Cool Down
Exchange your poem with your seatmate and let your seatmate analyze and rate your poem.

What is the theme of the poem?

What is the tone used?

List down all the rhymes in the poem.

What line and meters were employed?

What is the genre of the poem?

Rate the poem based on the following criteria:

Indicators Rating (1-5)

The poem contains all the elements discussed.
The poem is creatively written.
The message of the poem is clear.
It is well-written with proper use of punctuation, correct spelling, and
correct grammar.
TOTAL

Remarks

What is/are the strong point/s of the poem? What needs to be improved?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Highlights
 Theme, tone, line and meter, rhyme, and genre are some of the basic elements of poetry.

 The theme refers to the statement which summarizes the meaning of the poem. Tone
refers to the mood of the poem. Line and meter deal with the structure of the poem which
involves form and accents. Rhyme adds music quality to the poem, and genre refers to
the type of poetry used in a poem.