CALOOCAN HIGH SCHOOL

SENIOR HIGH Department

th
10 Ave., Grace Park, Caloocan City
1st Semester, S.Y. 2023 – 2024
Subject: CREATIVE NONFICTION

Special Types of Creative Nonfiction: Travel Writing, Food Writing, and Nature Writing
1. Travel Writing
• a form of creative nonfiction that describes a narrator9s experiences in foreign places
• usually includes a narration of the journey undertaken by the narrator from his or her point of origin to the eventual
destination, with all the hazards and inconveniences encountered along the way.

There are many reasons why people in general (and writers in particular travel:
1. physical challenge (adventure)
2. amusement and distraction (tour)
3. isolation and reflection (retreat)
4. purification and honoring the dead (pilgrimage)
5. redemption and penance (exile)

To be a successful travel writer, an author must not be afraid to explore new places and discover what they have to offer
in terms of sights and sounds, fragrances and textures, as well as delicacies and drinks.

To successfully recreate his or her travel experience for the intended readers, the travel writer must hone his or her five
senses and increase his or her vocabulary so that he or she can accurately describe what has been seen, heard, smelled,
tasted and touched

To make his or her travel writing more interesting, the travel writer must transform the journey that has been undertaken
into a coherent narrative by weaving into the article a personal anecdote or two, and then cap it off with a couple of
insights on the significance of the voyage.

2. Food Writing
• a direct offshoot of travel writing that has evolved into a literary subgenre of its own
• It is a type of creative nonfiction that focuses on gustatory delights and disaster while simultaneously narrating an
interesting story, as well as sharing insight or two about the human condition.

3. Nature Writing
• It highlights the beauty and majesty of the natural world, as well as humanity is special relationship with Mother Earth.
• As a literary genre, it is highly dependent on scientific facts and figures about the natural world, while integrating private
observations and philosophical contemplation.

Emerging Forms of Creative Nonfiction: Testimonio, Blog, and Facebook Status Report
1. Testimonio
• Defined as published oral or written “first-hand accounts of human rights violations and abuses of the powers-
that-be in oppressive societies, which the witnesses wrote themselves, or dictated to a transcriber.
• The term “testimonio” originally comes from South America and Central America after international human
rights tribunal, truth commissions, and other fact-finding boards in countries like Argentina, Chile, Guatemala.
• But from global perspective, the term can be applied to holocaust literature as written by the Jewish people who
have personally witnessed the persecutions of the Jews
• In the Philippine context, the oral history of the “comfort women” who suffered sexual and physical abuses
under the Japanese occupation army can also be
classified as testimonio.

2. Blog
• The content of a typical blog combines text (written words), digital images (photos), memes
(text and images), as well as links focusing same topic of interest or subject area.
• Literary blogs serve as online diaries of the creative writers (poets and
fictionists, playwrights and nonfiction authors) who maintain them.

3. Facebook Status Report

• FACEBOOK is the social networking website founded and further developed by Mark Zuckerberg and his
college classmates in Harvard University
• The term “face book” refers to a printed or web directory in American universities containing their respective
students9 names and pictures
distributed by school officials
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• The website quickly expanded to include students from other higher institutions of learning in the Boston are,
the Ivy League, the rest of the United States, exponentially growing with the inclusion of everyone else in
America and from there the rest of the world with Internet access.
• anyone of legal age
• desktops, laptops, tablet computers, smart phones
• “user profile” which indicates his or her name, current and past occupations, academic institutions attended, and
other pertinent and not-so-pertinent info
• can add other FB users as friends based on their discretion,
• exchange messages with, post status reports and updates with or without digital photos
• share digital videos and links
• enjoy various software apps
• receive notification when his/her FB friend uploads new posts and updates
• In its original context, the status report refers to “a report that summarizes a particular situation as of a stated
period of time” but has quickly expanded to mean “a report describing the current situation with regard to a
business, project, matter, etc. especially one in a series of such reports summarizing changing state of affairs.”
• In the age of social media, Facebook has appropriated the term to signify “an
update feature which allows users to express their thoughts, whereabouts or important information with their
friends.”
• The overwhelming popularity of Facebook as a social networking sire has made the “Facebook status report” the
most accessible Internet platform for self-expression for the millennial generation and beyond.

CREATIVE NONFICTION
 CALOOCAN HIGH SCHOOL
SENIOR HIGH Department
th
10 Ave., Grace Park, Caloocan City
1st Semester, S.Y. 2023 – 2024
Subject: CREATIVE NONFICTION

ACTIVITY 1

Look for a particular article about success story of a person. Read and evaluate the story if you are inspired and touched
by the author’s life. Write your reflection of the article.

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ACTIVITY 2
The reading selection below focuses on the struggles that the narrator had experienced while growing up and attending
school. Find out what are these struggles and how, in the end, he was able to pull through.

Still Worth Living: How I Survived Life’s Uncertainties

Atilla Roma

Because I came from working –class background, I was haunted by thespectre of financial insecurity while
growing up. The modest means of livelihoodthat my parents had was a small store that sold fish and vegetables, but we
haddays when the sales were not good. They were able to continue the business for a few years, which supported the
schooling of the children and satisfied most ofour basic needs.

My siblings and I attended the same public grade school which was aboutone and one and a half 10avourite10
away. From 1984 to 1990, I went toBayanan Elementary School. Fortunately, through those years, I did not find it hard to
socialize with classmates with whom I shared the same working- class background. It was, therefore, quite painful to part
ways with them when Igraduated from elementary.

Many of my elementary classmates and friends went to a public highschool just a jeepney ride away from home. I
had also thought that I would attend the same school, so my parents’ decisions to send me in a private high school,just a
stone’s throw our house, came to me as a big surprise. In high school, the experience of being in a bigger institution and in
the company of new classmates,many of whom had relatively comfortable lives, made me feel uneasy, and

insecure, and alienated. My lower class upbringing easily came into conflict with middle- class culture of my high
school classmates. Not wanting to feel out of place, I painstakingly tried familiarize myself with the movies, music,
reading materials (mostly foreign and comic books), and fashion that my high school classmates knew. The feelings of
insecurity became more intense whenever I went to my classmates’ well carpeted and well- furnished houses.

Money was also constant concern, I was given a partial scholarship at the beginning after my father had
personally requested the school administration. But I was not able to keep my grades high and eventually lost the
scholarship. From then on, my schooling became an uphill battle. What made matters worse was learning that my mother
had a serious lung ailment which drained our financial resources further. Before long, our small store went bankrupt and
closed down. I feared that, considering my mother’s condition and the state our finances, I would not be able continue my
schooling.

Fortunately, I was able to earn my high school diploma in 1994 despite having so many absences. Our financial
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concerns continued, however, and I felt the need to find immediate employment rather than attend college. But my parents
discouraged me from quitting school, and instead encouraged me to look for a public university where the fees were
relatively low. Although I enrolled in a university, I still continued to struggle with financial limitations, writing
promissory letters in many instances to take major exams and claim my grades on time. I also asked college teachers to
allow me to photocopy books a few pages at a time instead of buying them. That I had to take two jeepney rides to reach
school made my situation more complicated. Inevitably, I sometimes, rode the jeep or the bus without paying the fare. At
times, I would take a two – kilometer route on foot. I also engaged in odd jobs to help support my schooling and that of
my younger siblings (although they themselves were working students). For a fee, I would do the school projects of
children in our neighborhood or type the papers of college classmates.

When I graduated from college in 1999, I was determined to find a job right away in order to address my family’s
financial concerns. Because I never really wanted to teach, contented that I had survived four years of college, I applied in
at least four government offices as an ordinary clerk. But when all four applicants got rejected, despite the relatively good
score in the civil service examination I had taken a few months before, I was left with no other choice but to try my luck
in teaching. Since then, the career I have chosen – far from being my first love – has not only been rewarding financially.
It has also restored my sense of self- worth.

1. Why did the narrator say that it was painful to part ways with his elementary school classmates?
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2. How different was his high school experience from the one he had in elementary school?
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3. What challenges did the narrator face in high school and college?
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4. Can you think of a similar situation where you can say that despite of everything, I can still manage life’s uncertainties?
How?
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