C

REATIVE NONFICTION
Module 1:

INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY
GENRES

Fig. 1: That Girl

This subject introduces the reading and writing of creative nonfiction as a literary form. It
focuses on formal elements and writing techniques that develops in you the skills in reading and
critical and creative thinking that will help you to be imaginative readers and writers.

Understanding the theme and techniques used in a literary piece is critical to deciphering
an author’s message. It serves as a jigsaw puzzle that should be arranged in order to attain the
coherence and logical arrangement of the text. Theme serves as the golden thread that weaves
the storyline and its elements. Learning the techniques and theme in nonfiction helps you weave
your own nonfiction piece.

In this lesson, you are expected to analyze the theme and techniques used in a
particular text. Techniques and theme will be discussed in this lesson for you to be well
equipped in analyzing a given text.
 OBJECTIVES

In this lesson you should be able to:

 Identify dominant literary conventions of a particular genre.

 Compare and contrast how the elements are used in the different genres.
 Analyze the definition of creative nonfiction and interpret the theme and techniques used
in a particular text.

EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES

TASK 1: Write your understanding on the elements below. Tell if you think that the elements are
still part of creative nonfiction. Write “YES” or “NO” in the space provided.
Elements of Fiction Your Definition Is it still present in Creative
Nonfiction?
Characters
Setting
Theme
Point of View
Plot

TASK 2: Among the stories, reading selections or films that you have read or watched can you
give the top five themes that you usually encounter?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

LEARN ABOUT IT

INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY GENRES

What is a story? Why do we write stories? These are what we commonly ask
ourselves, isn’t it?

A story is a narration of how something happened. It tell us who, what, when, where and how a
particular event took place. A story could be real and imaginary. What makes a good story?
What are the elements of different genres?
A Literary Genre is a writing style in making or writing a piece. The genre is a category used to
classify the work of an author.
Classification of Literary Genres
1. Fiction – these are writings or stories created from the mind or imagination.
2. Nonfiction – are writings that are factual, realistic, and existing. They are not
imaginary.
Each genre has different elements however let us remember that generally a genre has four
different elements namely:
1. Character – These are the persons, animals, things, or creatures doing and
performing the actions in the story.
2. Story – the narration of the actions that took place in the story.
3. Plot – The sequence of events that took place in the story.
4. Setting – The place and time where the story happened.

THE 5’Rs OF CREATIVE NONFICTION

Lee Gutkind, who is a writer, professor, and expert on creative nonfiction, wrote an
essay called “The Five R’s of Creative Nonfiction.” In this essay, he identified five essential
elements of creative nonfiction. These include:
1. Creative nonfiction uses a real life element. The writer creates concepts of a story using
the vital and real information about the subject, which can be associated on close
attributes of the real experiences.
2. Creative nonfiction lets the writer to engage on his personal reflection about the subject.
After gathering information, the writer needs to scrutinize and analyze the gathered
information. Assessing and considering his ideologies and beliefs. Through this, it will
help the writer to be more factual based.
3. Creative nonfiction instructs the author to do a complete research. The author needs to
find out relevant and vital information about the subject. The writer needs to finish
investigating and weighing information that will be included in the story. Finishing
auxiliary examination will lead to create a complete and substantial content. For an
instance, looking into an individual diary, or meeting a companion or relative, to
guarantee that the data is honest and genuine.
4. The fourth aspect of creative nonfiction is reading. Reading while conducting research is
not enough. The writer must recall the components through reading to improve and
make some modifications.
5. The final element of creative nonfiction is writing. Writing imaginative true to life is both
a workmanship and specialty. The craft of inventive true to life necessitates that the
essayist utilizes his gifts, senses, innovative capacities, and creative mind to compose
paramount imaginative true to life.
TYPES OF CREATIVE NONFICTION
Creative nonfiction always deals on reality. Reality can be about using the topics like the
use of individual encounter, occasion, or issue in the open eye. There are different classes or
categories to consider in creative nonfiction such as the individual article, journal, and life
account.
1. Personal Essay. The writer uses information that is based on personal experience or a
single event, which leads in significant personal meaning or a lesson learned that he
encountered. The writer uses the first person “I.”
2. Memoir. The writer creates a real story within a time or period of life, one that
contributed a significant personal meaning and truth. The writer uses the first person “I”
in the story.  Literary journalism essay. The writer creates an output on an issue or topic
using the understood literary devices, such as the elements of fiction and figurative
languages.  Autobiography. The writer writes his/her own life story, from birth to the
present, using the first person “I.”
3. Travel Writing. The writer creates article narration about travel using literary devices
and figurative languages.
4. Food writing. The writer crafts stories about food and cuisine using literary techniques
that mat lead to a review and recommendation.
5. Profiles. The writer constructs life stories of people using literary devices.

ACTIVITIES
INSTRUCTION: All your answers should be written in a separate sheet of paper. Do not forget
to write your name and section especially for student who chose Printed Modules.

ACTIVITY 1: DO YOU STILL REMEMBER

Try to revisit your childhood memories. Do you still remember your favorite bedtime story, or
any childhood story? Can you still recall the joy it brought you whenever you are reading it or
when somebody reads it for you? Why do you think that story captured your heart completely?
Write your reactions on the space provided.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 2: THINK LIKE A WRITER

If you are going to write your own story, what do you want to write about? How would you like
your story to go?
1. What topic would you like to write and why?
2. If you have a chosen topic already, give a small detail about what you would like to
happen in the story.
EXAMPLE
TOPIC: Mother’s Love
DETAILS: This is a story about how unrequited and limitless the love a mother
can give to her children.
YOUR ANSWER
TOPIC:
 DETAILS:

ACTIVITY 3: TIME TO WRITE DOWN THAT IDEA

Now, that you have all the idea for your chosen topic, why don’t you start to organize and
develop your ideas so that you can create a draft of your own piece. You must complete 5 to 10
sentences.
RUBRIC IN GRADING
CRITERIA RATING

The topic is interesting. 5 4 3 2 1

The writer presented his thoughts about the 5 4 3 2 1

chosen topic clearly.
The ideas were developed and organized 5 4 3 2 1
properly.
The writer has used literary conventions of a 5 4 3 2 1
genre.
The theme of the story was developed 5 4 3 2 1
effectively.

LEARN ABOUT IT
THEME
In writing or developing a story, you are writing not just, because you need to write
something. You have to use the different elements of the story such as Plot, Character, Story,
and Setting in order for you to create a theme.

How you combine or use these elements in writing your story, will serve as the
technique in developing your theme.

WHAT IS A THEME?
A Theme of a story is a message that the writer is trying to tell the readers. It is the idea,
belief, moral lesson or insights that a reader can find while reading the story. It is also the main
message that the author or writer is trying to make the reader understand. The theme most of
the time answers the WHY’s of the story. A story can have a single or multiple themes
depending upon the author.

Green (2018) defined theme as a thread that runs throughout a whole book. When done well,
the theme relates to every subject, story, and piece of advice. It ties everything together.
Sometimes, themes are obvious. In Harry Potter, there are treats battling baddies, and the
primary subject is acceptable versus evil. It likewise has subjects of bigotry and
correspondence. In a literary text, theme is the broader message of the story. In nonfiction
informational texts, the central ideas are the most essential ideas.

How can we use the elements of the different genres in developing or making a theme?
When writing or making a story, the authors use their imagination. They will look at the things
around them and from there they start to write the story depending upon the situation they have
seen. They use these situations as the basis in creating something that would allow them to
express their views, ideas or opinions creatively. They will incorporate these ideas into their
writings putting it as an important part of the story such as the plot, character or settings. The
writers will then be able to connect with their reader by making them understand the theme that
they are trying to say.

The following are the commonly used themes in writing:

1. Love 5. Survival
2. Death 6. Power and Corruption
3. Good vs Evil 7. War
4. Courage and Heroism

How to develop a theme? What do we need to do?

Remember, in developing a theme, it is important to choose first a topic. A topic can be
anything that you would like to talk about. It can be about love, success, failures, etc. From the
chosen topic, you can then create or develop your theme. Please use the example below as
your guide.

Chosen Topic: Love

Theme: Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It can either make you or break you
and most of all, it can bring the best or worst in you.

WRAPPING UP
 We write not just because we want to write, we write with a purpose.
 A story is a narration of how something happened. It can either be real or imaginary
 Literary Genre is a writing style in making ones piece.
 Literary Genre can be either a fiction or nonfiction.
 Fiction is a story or writing created from the mind or imagination of the author.
 Nonfiction is a story or writing that is factual, real and existing.
 Characters are the person, animals, things or creatures doing and performing the
actions of the story.
 Story is the narration of actions that took place in the story.
 Setting is the place and time where the story happened.
  Theme or Theme of the story is the message that the writer is trying to tell the readers. It
contains the belief, moral lesson or insights that a reader can find while reading the
story.
 The 5R’s of creative nonfiction: real life, reflection, research, reading, and writing.
 Different types of creative nonfiction: personal essay, memoir, literary journalism essay,
autobiography, travel writing, food writing, and profiles.
 How you combine or use these elements in writing your story, will serve as the technique
in developing your theme.

LET’S PRACTICE
TEST 1: IDENTIFICATION
Direction: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write your answer in the space provided and
it must be in capital letter. (2 points each)
__________ 1. Which type of genre was used in writing the life story of Jose Rizal?
__________ 2. What do you call the writing style used by the author when writing his or her
story?
__________ 3. How do you call the persons, animals, things or creatures doing the actions in
the story?
__________ 4. What do you call the writings or stories created mainly from the author’s
imagination?
__________ 5. How do you call the narration of how something happen.
__________ 6. What do you call the writings that are based on facts, existing and not
imaginary?
__________ 7. How do you call the narration of actions that took place in a story?
__________ 8. Which type of genre did the author use in writing the story of Harry Potter?
__________ 9. How do you call the place and time where the story happened?
__________ 10.What do you call the sequence of events that took place in the story?
TEST 2: COMPLETE THE TABLE
A. Given below are the 5R’s of Creative Nonfiction – complete the table with the uses of each R
in our daily lives.
5 Rs of Creative Nonfiction Uses and Observations
Real Life
Reflection
Research
Reading
Writing

TEST 2: REFLECTION
A. If you are to write a story for the whole world to read, what would it be and why? Please
elaborate your answer by explaining completely the topic and the theme and remember, your
theme contains the message, the idea, belief, moral lesson and the insights that you wish to
give the reader. Your overall story must consist of 8-10 sentences.

You can use the story in the previous activity and you can just write your own reflection for your
story and explain the reason why you want that story to be read by the world.

Topic:
Details:
Complete story ( If you will create a new piece)
Reflection (If you’re going to use the story in your other activity (Activity 3)

PHOTO CREDIT

Figure 1: That Girl

https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/72831718961807493/

REFERENCES:
Definition of Themes
Source: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/writing/what-exactly-is-a-theme-of-
astory-and-how-can-i-recognize-it

California Department of Education "Literary Genres" Last modified November 15, 2018.
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/rl/litrlgenres.asp

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt "What exactly is a theme of a story, and how can I recognize it?"
Accessed January 31,2020.
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/writing/what-exactly-is-atheme-of-a-story-and-
how-can-i-recognize-it

Green, L. (2018). Why your non-fiction book needs a theme. Retrieved August 16, 2020 from
https://greengoosewriting.com/blog/why-your-non-fiction-book-needs-atheme