Lesson 4

THE WRITING PROCESS

In this lesson, you are expected to write a draft of a short piece (Literary Journalistic
Essay OR Personal Essay) using any of the literary conventions of genre following these
pointers: 1. Choosing a topic 2. Formulating a thesis statement 3. Organizing and developing
ideas 4. Using any literary conventions of a genre 5. Ensuring that theme and technique are
effectively developed

Now that your have an idea on what a creative non fiction is, we will take a closer look
at the two kinds of CNF; the personal essay and the literary journalistic essay.
Read and examine the two articles/texts below from https://www.vox.com/future
perfect/2020/6/9/21279258/coronavirus-pandemic-new-quarantine-habits and
https://www.thoughtco.com/an-apology-for-idlers-by-stevenson-1690215
Analyze the features by answering the questions that follow:

Quarantine has changed us — and it’s not all

bad Here are 8 new habits people want to keep post-lockdown.

By Sigal Samuel Jun 9, 2020,

Cities are reopening. Lockdowns are lifting. And some people are starting to feel they
can glimpse a return, however slow and partial, to “normal.”

But the pandemic has changed us. Although being on lockdown has been pretty
grueling on balance, the surprise is that many of us have realized there are some
things about quarantine life that are worth preserving. We’re questioning the very
fundamentals of the “normal” we’d all come to unthinkingly accept — and realizing
we don’t want to go back, not to that.

For some, going back isn’t even an option. Those who are grieving the loss of loved
ones, for example, have suffered a tragic and irrevocable loss. Millions who’ve lost
their jobs don’t have any work to go back to, and many essential workers have been
working through the pandemic without much choice. Older and immunocompromised
people are still advised to stay home.
At the same time, living in quarantine for months has offered some — mostly the
privileged among us — a rare opportunity to reflect on our lives and, potentially, to
reset them.

Workers whose jobs defined their lives are now asking what all that productivity was
for, and whether we really want to measure our self-worth by the yardstick of
hypercompetitive capitalism. Many are finding that the things that made them look
“successful” actually also made them feel miserable, or precarious, or physically
unwell.

Quarantine has allowed them to experiment with new habits and new lifestyles. And
they want to keep some of these things going, even in a post-lockdown world.

I asked Vox readers to tell me which specific changes they want to maintain as they
emerge from quarantine and stumble their way to a new normal. More than 100
people responded across the globe, from the United States to the United Arab
Emirates and from Portugal to Pakistan. Some broad trends leaped out in the
responses. Below are the eight most common.

1) Reducing consumerism
This was by far the most popular response. Many told me they want to spend less
money shopping for new material goods like gadgets and clothes. A long period of
being shut in and not spending as much has led to the realization that so much of our
consumer behavior is about instant gratification, not lasting happiness.

Several people also noted that they plan to eat out less often at restaurants. Eating in
during the lockdown has enabled them to save money, and some have discovered a
taste for home-cooked meals.

A few said they’ll look to “mend and make do” more often. In situations where that’s
not possible and they’ll have to buy something new, respondents told me they want to
be more mindful of where they spend their money.

“I think I will be more inclined to direct my consumption toward small local

businesses,” said Nora Zeid, a 23-year-old illustrator and designer in the United Arab
Emirates. “It breaks my heart how much they have suffered lately and how, unlike big
corporations, they are less likely to survive.”

2) Slowing down and putting less pressure on ourselves

Being stuck in our houses has made many of us realize that we’ve spent years rushing
through life, pressuring ourselves to get the “right” jobs and attend the “right” events,
even if all that status-chasing was making us miserable.
“Quarantine has forced me to slow down in ways I haven’t since I was a kid. From
high school and college, through my 20s and a master’s program, I have been on the
go constantly for half my life. I always said I was one who liked to be busy, but the last
two months of forced slowdown has really called on me to think about what I want
my life to look like moving forward,” said one Vox reader in the US who preferred to
remain anonymous. “I’m trying to figure out what it would look like to intentionally
build in space in my life to breathe, reflect, and focus on the most important aspects
of life — the people around you who make it all worth it.”

Some younger respondents told me they want to put less career pressure on
themselves because they now realize work is not what matters most in life. A couple
of older adults told me they’d been considering retiring before Covid-19 came around;
the pandemic pushed them to finally do it. And even for some who were already
retired, the slower pace of life created by the lockdown has come as a relief.

Post-pandemic, the goal will be to “not fill every waking moment with a commitment
of some kind,” said Patricia Murray, who lives in Savannah, Georgia. “Even retired
persons, like myself, need leisure time. I seem to work as much as a volunteer as I did
in paid jobs; slowing down is the biggest change I’ve made and it feels good.”

Again, it’s worth noting that the ability to slow down entails a great deal of privilege.
Millions who’ve been pushed out of the workforce wish they could be working more,
not less. And some older and immunocompromised people have had to go back to
work, even if they don’t feel safe doing so yet, because they need the income and the
employer-provided health insurance.

3) Prioritizing family and friends

When the chips are down, you see who really shows up for you. Several people told
me they’ve come to appreciate the family members and friends who’ve been there
for them during this tough time, and that long after the coronavirus dies down, it’s
this group that they want to re-up their investment in.

“Quarantine has reinforced the necessity of telling people how you feel about them,”
said Andrew Goldberg, a recent graduate from Syracuse University. “With social
distancing and stay-at-home orders in place, it is easier than ever to feel isolated from
the world. But as the days stretch into weeks, I’ve decided that the only way I’ll be
able to keep my spirits up is by making sure the people I care about know exactly how
I feel about them.”

Others emphasized that the bizarre, unprecedented nature of this global pandemic
has allowed them to reach out to people they haven’t spoken to in ages. Suddenly
they’ve found themselves on Zoom with estranged family members or old college
roommates halfway around the world.
“I’ve talked with my older nephews more in the last few weeks than I’ve talked with
them in years,” said Nancy Skinner Ringier, a retired speech-language pathologist,
adding that they now share recipes and jokes.

4) Ethical action and activism in our highly interconnected world

This was perhaps the most encouraging set of responses: People told me that the
global health crisis has shown them how interconnected we all are, and that they
want to keep doing more for others after the pandemic ends. They’re donating more
to charitable causes, trying harder to reduce their carbon footprint, and engaging in
more political activism.

“I’d like to keep my home a headquarters for the three different county mutual aid
coalitions I’m affiliated with,” said Erin Brown of Tazewell County, Illinois. “I currently
have donations stored here that delivery volunteers and folks in need come to collect.
My landline, which is part of my internet package, was never used before but is now a
mutual aid contact number. I’m in a good location, near all three of those counties,
and I suspect mutual aid will be vital for some time to come.”

The protests against police brutality have also galvanized millions to fight for racial
justice.

“For the longest time, I did not keep up with current news. It’s not hard to see why —
our world is a shitshow, and my mental health is bad enough as is,” said Adrian DeRoy,
a 27-year-old reader in the US. “But the black community rising up yet again to face
their challenges made me look, and seeing the world slowly but surely start to fall in
step with the protests here, the voices crying out as one ... it gives me some small
semblance of hope. Hope that maybe we will get through all this, and come out better
than we were before.”

5) Exercising daily
This was another very common response. Many people who weren’t previously into
fitness have been getting into running, yoga, and other activities as a way to cope
with lockdown. And they’ve been astounded at how much daily exercise can improve
life.

“Desperate for any excuse to leave the house, I’ve finally been able to keep up a daily
exercise routine. It’s incredible how much difference even a short jog every morning
makes!” Katie Reynolds, a Vox reader in the US, told me. “My sleep is better, my brain
feels clearer, my mood is improved, and it feels easier to keep up other good habits.
Definitely will be keeping this habit, at least until there’s ice on the ground again.”
6) Baking, vegetarian cooking, and growing herbs
Yes, the sourdough obsession is real. Several people wrote to me in glowing terms
about their starters.

“I believe I’ll be keeping my sourdough starter. It’s like another family pet at this
point,” said Matthew Schreiber, who lives in New Orleans.

In addition to baking bread, people also mentioned that they plan to keep fermenting
things like sauerkraut and generally cooking more of their own meals so they can eat
less processed food.

Specifically, people want to cook more vegetarian meals and lean away from meat
eating. The impulse seems to be coming not only from the fact that there are meat
shortages in some US grocery stores, but also from the knowledge that a live-animal
market in China may have given rise to the coronavirus and that the giant factory
farms that supply 99 percent of America’s meat are a pandemic risk, too.

Many also told me they’re enjoying growing herbs like mint and cilantro on their
patios, or growing vegetables like celery and scallions in little glasses on their
windowsills.

It’s not really surprising that the coronavirus crisis has prompted this reaction. It’s
reminiscent of World War I and II, when Americans grew their own fruits and
vegetables in “victory gardens.” The back-to-nature impulse offers psychological
comfort at a time of great uncertainty, as well as a practical safeguard against supply
chain problems: If the stores run out of food, at least we’ll have our vegetables!

7) Spending more time in nature

Getting outdoors has been, for many of us, a crucial way to maintain our sanity during
lockdown. In particular, parents have wanted to give their cooped-up kids a chance to
run around and release some energy (which, frankly, is probably as crucial for the
parents’ mental health as for the children’s).

“I have developed a morning routine that involves ‘quiet listening’ on the porch with
the kids. It’s a great way to start out calm with my wild little ones,” said Sharon Lapin,
a painter in Atlanta.

Others are simply enjoying the chance to reconnect to the natural world. Its rhythms
and resilience can help to calm our anxious minds.
“I want to stay in this less distracted zone and enjoy the time I have with my husband
by taking advantage of the natural world (hiking, kayaking) and taking trips in our
camper,” said Camille Costa Nerney of upstate New York.
8) Working from home, if possible
Lockdowns across the globe led to millions of people suddenly working from home —
and guess what? It turns out we can do many jobs just as well in the comfort of our
own homes (and sweatpants) as in our offices.

Of course, for many people, this is not an option. It’s a privilege to be able to work
from home. That said, the myth that remote work isn’t as practical as a 9-to-5 office
job has been proven to be just that: a myth. Some are finding that working from
home actually offers unique benefits.

“I’m a counseling psychologist, and I have been doing client work remotely. I think I
will keep doing it remotely! It’s quite convenient,” said Raphael Doval-Santos. “My
practice also gets to be more global, and my new clients are not just within my city
anymore.”

Several respondents said they love no longer having to commute to work. It means no
pollution, more sleep, and less stress.

“I actually like this now; it’s better this way,” said Hermee Sorneo, a 36-year-old
customer service team leader for a data management company in the Philippines.
“There’s so much benefit in working from home, and I think the world should do this
voluntarily, with or without pandemic, at least once every 10 years for at least three
months.”

The “with or without pandemic” point brings up a key question. Lots of us say we
want to maintain our new habits in a post-pandemic world, but will we, really?

As anyone who’s ever tried a New Year’s resolution knows, maintaining new habits is
hard. But psychologists who specialize in behavior change say there are things you
can do now to make it more likely that you’ll succeed down the line. For instance, you
can prime your environment, whether by setting up an automatically recurring
monthly donation or putting running shoes by your bed to nudge you to go for that
morning
run. It’s also good to reward yourself each time you engage in the target behavior —
but make it an intrinsic reward, not an extrinsic one. So instead of reaching for a
smoothie after every run, pause to savor the extra energy and strength you feel.

Finally, it’s important to note that if you don’t emerge from this pandemic with any
great new habits, that is absolutely all right. Sometimes surviving is an
accomplishment in itself.

“With my quarantine, good habits came of it. But I want others to know it’s okay if
good, bad, or nothing came out of this quarantine,” said Farishta Saifi, a 23-year-old
home health aide. “The world is a scary place right now, and just you living another
day is excellent enough.”

TEXT 2

An Apology for Idlers

by Robert Louis Stevenson

BOSWELL: We grow weary when idle.

JOHNSON: That is, sir, because others being busy, we want company; but if we were
idle, there would be no growing weary; we should all entertain one another."

1
Just now, when every one is bound, under pain of a decree in absence convicting
them of lèse-respectability, to enter on some lucrative profession, and labour therein
with something not far short of enthusiasm, a cry from the opposite party, who are
content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile,
savours a little of bravado and gasconade. And yet this should not be. Idleness so
called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not
recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to
state its position as industry itself. It is admitted that the presence of people who
refuse to enter in the great handicap race for sixpenny pieces, is at once an insult and
a disenchantment for those who do. A fine fellow (as we see so many) takes his
determination, votes for sixpences, and in the emphatic Americanism, it "goes for"
them. And while such an one is plowing distressfully up the road, it is not hard to
understand his resentment, when he perceives cool persons in the meadows by the
wayside, lying with a handkerchief over their ears and a glass at their elbow.
Alexander is touched in a very delicate place by the disregard to Diogenes. Where
was the glory of having taken Rome for these tumultuous barbarians, who poured
into the Senate-house, and found the Fathers sitting silent and unmoved by their
success? It is a sore thing to have labored along and scaled the arduous hilltops, and
when all is done, find humanity indifferent to your achievement. Hence physicists
condemn the unphysical; financiers have only a superficial toleration for those who
know little of stocks; literary persons despise the unlettered, and people of all
pursuits combine to disparage those who have none.

2
But though this is one difficulty of the subject, it is not the greatest. You could not
be put in prison for speaking against industry, but you can be sent to Coventry for
speaking like a fool. The greatest difficulty with most subjects is to do them well;
therefore, please to remember this is an apology. It is certain that much may be
judiciously argued in favor of diligence; only there is something to be said against it,
and that is what, on the present occasion, I have to say. To state one argument is not
necessarily to be deaf to all others, and that a man has written a book of travels in
Montenegro, is no reason why he should never have been to Richmond.

3
It is surely beyond a doubt that people should be a good deal idle in youth. For
though here and there a Lord Macaulay may escape from school honors with all his
wits about him, most boys pay so dear for their medals that they never afterwards
have a shot in their locker, and begin the world bankrupt. And the same holds true
during all the time a lad is educating himself or suffering others to educate him. It
must have been a very foolish old gentleman who addressed Johnson at Oxford in
these words: "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of
knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will
be but an irksome task." The old gentleman seems to have been unaware that many
other things besides reading grow irksome, and not a few become impossible, by the
time a man has to use spectacles and cannot walk without a stick. Books are good
enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. It seems
a pity to sit, like the Lady of Shalott, peering into a mirror, with your back turned on
all the bustle and glamor of reality. And if a man reads very hard, as the old
anecdote reminds us, he will have little time for thought.

4
If you look back on your own education, I am sure it will not be the full, vivid,
instructive hours of truancy that you regret; you would rather cancel some lacklustre
periods between sleep and waking in the class. For my own part, I have attended a
good many lectures in my time. I still remember that the spinning of a top is a case of
Kinetic Stability. I still remember that Emphyteusis is not a disease, nor Stillicide a
crime. But though I would not willingly part with such scraps of science, I do not set
the same store by them as by certain other odds and ends that I came by in the open
street while I was playing truant.

5
This is not the moment to dilate on that mighty place of education, which was the
favorite school of Dickens and of Balzac, and turns out yearly many inglorious
masters in the Science of the Aspects of Life. Suffice it to say this: if a lad does not
learn in the streets, it is because he has no faculty of learning. Nor is the truant
always in the streets, for if he prefers, he may go out by the gardened suburbs into
the country. He may pitch on some tuft of lilacs over a burn, and smoke innumerable
pipes to the tune of the water on the stones. A bird will sing in the thicket. And there
he may fall into a vein of kindly thought, and see things in a new perspective. Why, if
this be not education, what is? We may conceive Mr. Worldly Wiseman accosting
such an one, and the conversation that should thereupon ensue:
"How now, young fellow, what dost thou here?"
"Truly, sir, I take mine ease."
"Is not this the hour of the class? and should'st thou not be plying thy Book
with diligence, to the end thou mayest obtain knowledge?"
"Nay, but thus also I follow after Learning, by your leave."
"Learning, quotha!
After what fashion, I pray thee? Is it mathematics?"
"No, to be sure."
"Is it metaphysics?"
"Nor that."
"Is it some language?"
"Nay, it is no language."
"Is it a trade?"
"Nor a trade neither."
"Why, then, what is't?"
"Indeed, sir, as a time may soon come for me to go upon Pilgrimage, I am desirous to
note what is commonly done by persons in my case, and where are the ugliest
Sloughs and Thickets on the Road; as also, what manner of Staff is of the best service.
Moreover, I lie here, by this water, to learn by root-of-heart a lesson which my master
teaches me to call Peace, or Contentment."

6
Hereupon Mr. Worldly Wiseman was much commoved with passion, and shaking
his cane with a very threatful countenance, broke forth upon this wise: "Learning,
quotha!" said he; "I would have all such rogues scourged by the Hangman!"

7
And so he would go his way, ruffling out his cravat with a crackle of starch, like a
turkey when it spread its feathers.

8
Now this, of Mr. Wiseman's, is the common opinion. A fact is not called a fact, but a
piece of gossip, if it does not fall into one of your scholastic categories. An inquiry
must be in some acknowledged direction, with a name to go by; or else you are not
inquiring at all, only lounging; and the work-house is too good for you. It is supposed
that all knowledge is at the bottom of a well, or the far end of a telescope. Sainte
Beuve, as he grew older, came to regard all experience as a single great book, in
which to study for a few years ere we go hence; and it seemed all one to him whether
you should read in Chapter xx., which is the differential calculus, or in Chapter xxxix.,
which is hearing the band play in the gardens. As a matter of fact, an intelligent
person, looking out of his eyes and hearkening in his ears, with a smile on his face all
the time, will get more true education than many another in a life of heroic vigils.
There is certainly some chill and arid knowledge to be found upon the summits of
formal and laborious science; but it is all round about you, and for the trouble of
looking, that you will acquire the warm and palpitating facts of life. While others are
filling their memory with a lumber of words, one-half of which they will forget before
the week be out, your truant may learn some really useful art: to play the fiddle, to
know a good cigar, or to speak with ease and opportunity to all varieties of men.
Many who have "plied their book diligently," and know all about some one branch or
another of accepted lore, come out of the study with an ancient and owl-like
demeanour, and prove dry, stockish, and dyspeptic in all the better and brighter parts
of life. Many make a large fortune, who remain underbred and pathetically stupid to
the last. And meantime there goes the idler, who began life along with them--by your
leave, a different picture. He has had time to take care of his health and his spirits; he
has been a great deal in the open air, which is the most salutary of all things for both
body and mind; and if he has never read the great Book in very recondite places, he
has dipped into it and skimmed it over to excellent purpose. Might not the student
afford some Hebrew roots, and the business man some of his half-crowns, for a share
of the idler's knowledge of life at large, and Art of Living? Nay, and the idler has
another and more important quality than these. I mean his wisdom. He who has
much looked on at the childish satisfaction of other people in their hobbies, will
regard his own with only a very ironical indulgence. He will not be heard among the
dogmatists. He will have a great and cool allowance for all sorts of people and
opinions. If he finds no out-of-the-way truths, he will identify himself with no very
burning falsehood. His way takes him along a by-road, not much frequented, but very
even and pleasant, which is called Commonplace Lane, and leads to the Belvedere of
Common-sense. Thence he shall command an agreeable, if not very noble prospect;
and while others behold the East and West, the Devil and the Sunrise, he will be
contentedly aware of a sort of morning hour upon all sublunary things, with an army
of shadows running speedily and in many different directions into the great daylight
of Eternity. The shadows and the generations, the shrill doctors and the plangent
wars, go by into ultimate silence and emptiness; but underneath all this, a man may
see, out of the Belvedere windows, much green and peaceful landscape; many firelit
parlours; good people laughing, drinking, and making love as they did before the
Flood or the French Revolution; and the old shepherd telling his tale under the
hawthorn.

9
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of
deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong
sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who
are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional
occupation. Bring these fellows into the country, or set them aboard ship, and you will
see how they pine for their desk or their study. They have no curiosity; they cannot
give themselves over to random provocations; they do not take pleasure in the
exercise of their faculties for its own sake; and unless Necessity lays about them with
a stick, they will even stand still. It is no good speaking to such folk: they cannot be
idle, their nature is not generous enough; and they pass those hours in a sort of
coma, which are not dedicated to furious moiling in the gold-mill. When they do not
require to go to the office, when they are not hungry and have no mind to drink, the
whole breathing world is a blank to them. If they have to wait an hour or
so for a train, they fall into a stupid trance with their eyes open. To see them, you
would suppose there was nothing to look at and no one to speak with; you would
imagine they were paralysed or alienated: and yet very possibly they are hard
workers in their own way, and have good eyesight for a flaw in a deed or a turn of the
market. They have been to school and college, but all the time they had their eye on
the medal; they have gone about in the world and mixed with clever people, but all
the time they were thinking of their own affairs. As if a man's soul were not too small
to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no
play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all
material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait
for the train. Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes; when
he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the
snuff-box empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable
eyes. This does not appeal to me as being Success in Life.

10
But it is not only the person himself who suffers from his busy habits, but his wife
and children, his friends and relations, and down to the very people he sits with in a
railway carriage or an omnibus. Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business,
is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. And it is not by any
means certain that a man's business is the most important thing he has to do. To an
impartial estimate it will seem clear that many of the wisest, most virtuous, and most
beneficent parts that are to be played upon the Theatre of Life are filled by gratuitous
performers, and pass, among the world at large, as phases of idleness. For in that
Theatre, not only the walking gentlemen, singing chambermaids, and diligent fiddlers
in the orchestra, but those who look on and clap their hands from the benches, do
really play a part and fulfill important offices towards the general result.

11
You are no doubt very dependent on the care of your lawyer and stockbroker, of the
guards and signalmen who convey you rapidly from place to place, and the policemen
who walk the streets for your protection; but is there not a thought of gratitude in
your heart for certain other benefactors who set you smiling when they fall in your
way, or season your dinner with good company? Colonel Newcome helped to lose his
friend's money; Fred Bayham had an ugly trick of borrowing shirts; and yet they were
better people to fall among than Mr. Barnes. And though Falstaff was neither sober
nor very honest, I think I could name one or two long-faced Barabbases whom the
world could better have done without. Hazlitt mentions that he was more sensible of
obligation to Northcote, who had never done him anything he could call a service,
than to his whole circle of ostentatious friends; for he thought a good companion
emphatically the greatest benefactor. I know there are people in the world who
cannot feel grateful unless the favour has been done them at the cost of pain and
difficulty. But this is a churlish disposition. A man may send you six sheets of
letter-paper covered with the most entertaining gossip, or you may pass half an hour
pleasantly, perhaps profitably, over an article of his; do you think the service would be
greater, if he had made the manuscript in his heart's blood, like a compact with the
devil? Do you really fancy you should be more beholden to your correspondent, if he
had been damning you all the while for your importunity? Pleasures are more
beneficial than duties because, like the quality of mercy, they are not strained, and
they are twice blest. There must always be two to a kiss, and there may be a score in
a jest; but wherever there is an element of sacrifice, the favour is conferred with pain,
and, among generous people, received with confusion.

12
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy,
we sow anonymous benefits upon the world, which remain unknown even to
ourselves, or when they are disclosed, surprise nobody so much as the benefactor. The
other day, a ragged, barefoot boy ran down the street after a marble, with so jolly an
air that he set every one he passed into a good humour; one of these persons, who
had been delivered from more than usually black thoughts, stopped the little fellow
and gave him some money with this remark: "You see what sometimes comes of
looking pleased." If he had looked pleased before, he had now to look both pleased
and mystified. For my part, I justify this encouragement of smiling rather than tearful
children; I do not wish to pay for tears anywhere but upon the stage; but I am
prepared to deal largely in the opposite commodity. A happy man or woman is a
better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of goodwill;
and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted. We
need not care whether they could prove the forty-seventh proposition; they do a
better thing than that, they practically demonstrate the great Theorem of the
Liveableness of Life. Consequently, if a person cannot be happy without remaining
idle, idle he should remain. It is a revolutionary precept; but thanks to hunger and the
workhouse, one not easily to be abused; and within practical limits, it is one of the
most incontestable truths in the whole Body of Morality. Look at one of your
industrious fellows for a moment, I beseech you. He sows hurry and reaps indigestion;
he puts a vast deal of activity out to interest, and receives a large measure of nervous
derangement in return. Either he absents himself entirely from all fellowship, and
lives a recluse in a garret, with carpet slippers and a leaden inkpot; or he comes
among people swiftly and bitterly, in a contraction of his whole nervous system, to
discharge some temper before he returns to work. I do not care how much or how
well he works, this fellow is an evil feature in other people's lives. They would be
happier if he were dead. They could easier do without his services in the
Circumlocution Office, than they can tolerate his fractious spirits. He poisons life at
the well-head. It is better to be beggared out of hand by a scapegrace nephew, than
daily hag-ridden by a peevish uncle.

13
And what, in God's name, is all this pother about? For what cause do they embitter
their own and other people's lives? That a man should publish three or thirty articles
a year, that he should finish or not finish his great allegorical picture, are questions of
little interest to the world. The ranks of life are full; and although a thousand fall,
there are always some to go into the breach. When they told Joan of Arc she should
be at home minding women's work, she answered there were plenty to spin and
wash. And so, even with your own rare gifts! When nature is "so careless of the single
 life," why should we coddle ourselves into the fancy that our own is of exceptional
importance? Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in
Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the
pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no
one been any the wiser of the loss. There are not many works extant, if you look the
alternative all over, which are worth the price of a pound of tobacco to a man of
limited means. This is a sobering reflection for the proudest of our earthly vanities.
Even a tobacconist may, upon consideration, find no great cause for personal
vainglory in the phrase; for although tobacco is an admirable sedative, the qualities
necessary for retailing it are neither rare nor precious in themselves. Alas and alas!
you may take it how you will, but the services of no single individual are
indispensable. Atlas was just a gentleman with a protracted nightmare! And yet you
see merchants who go and labour themselves into a great fortune and thence into
the bankruptcy court; scribblers who keep scribbling at little articles until their
temper is a cross to all who come about them, as though Pharaoh should set the
Israelites to make a pin instead of a pyramid; and fine young men who work
themselves into a decline, and are driven off in a hearse with white plumes upon
it. Would you not suppose these persons had been whispered, by the Master of the
Ceremonies, the promise of some momentous destiny? and that this lukewarm bullet
on which they play their farces was the bull's eye and centre-point of all the universe?
And yet it is not so. The ends for which they give away their priceless youth, for all
they know, may be chimerical or hurtful; the glory and riches they expect may never
come, or may find them indifferent; and they and the world they inhabit are so
inconsiderable that the mind freezes at the thought.

* "An Apology for Idlers," by Robert Louis Stevenson, first appeared in the July 1877
issue of the Cornhill Magazine and was later published in Stevenson's essay
collection Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers (1881).

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

Questions for Analysis Text 1 (Quarantine has changed Text 2 (An Apology for Idlers)
us…)

1. What is the thesis statement?

1. How is the thesis statement

or main idea developed?

2. What is the pervading tone in

the essay?

3. How did the author conclude

his/her essay?
4. What method/s of paragraph
development were utilized?

5. Why is this essay classified

as creative non-fiction?

6. Based from the two

examples given, what are
the steps in
writing a creative non fiction,
specifically a personal essay
or literary journalistic essay?

Discussion

What is a personal essay?

What is a literary journalistic essay?
How do they differ?
Text A is a literary journalistic essay. A literary journalistic essay is based on another
person's life, or events, or experiences external to the writer's own life.The writer's goal is to
dramatize the story or events by using dramatic scenes. Reporters are generally expected to
remain objective, taking a birds-eye view of breaking stories as they unfold. But literary
journalists are allowed to make room in their writing for their own perspectives: they immerse
themselves in the very action they recount. Think of them as both characters and narrators —
but every word they write is true.

How to write a Literary Journalistic Essay?

The subject must be well-researched. The essay must include a lead that grabs the readers
attention and tells the reader what the essay is about. The content of the essay must include
interesting and informative facts, information that enlightens the reader about the topic. The
content of the essay must also support the writer’s point of view. And in writing the essay, the
writer must use the literary devices. To close, the writer makes a final point. He/she leaves the
reader with one final point about the subject. The following guide in writing a literary journalistic
essay were taken from blogger Blogger davehood59’s site:
https://davehood59.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/how-to-write-a-literary-journalistic-essay/
Briefly, to write the literary journalistic essay, do the following:

1. Select a topic.
2. Conduct Research.
3. Write a dramatic story.
4. Include a lead, facts/content, and ending.

Choosing a Topic
You can write about anything. Popular topics include:

▪ Adventure
▪ Biography
▪ Business
▪ Crime story
▪ Family saga
▪ History
▪ Popular culture
▪ Science and technology
▪ Sports
▪ Travel

Choose a topic that allows you to write intimately and to dramatize the story.
Before writing, ask yourself the following:

▪ What type of lead do I wish to use?

▪ What is the story about?
▪ What are the themes?
▪ What major points do I wish to make?
▪ What facts do I have? What facts do I still need?
▪ Are my facts verifiable?
▪ Who have I interviewed? Who must I still interview?
▪ How do I want to organize the essay? By topic? Chronological order? Logical order? ▪
What are my own views on the topic? How do I wish to incorporate my views into the
essay?

Research Your Topic

A literary journalist is based on fact. Therefore you will need to collect the facts for your story.
The best approach is to use personal reportage. Here is how:

1. Observe the person, event, or experience. Afterwards, make notes. 2. Interview

subject matter experts. Make notes as you ask questions, or use a tape recorder.
3. Immerse yourself in the story. In other words, live the experience. For instance, writer
 George Plimpton lived as a football player for a while to write Paper Lion. 4. Use the library.
Read relevant books, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings, and take notes as you
read.
5. Conduct a search of your topic using Google. Start by conducting a search on the Web
to see what has been written on the subject.
6. Complete primary research. A primary source is a record created as part of, or during an
event, crisis, or time period. For instance a letter, diary, personal journal, and
government records and governmental report.

Observe Your Subject

A good way to learn about the person or topic is often by observation. Find out the following:

1. What is your subject wearing?

2. What is your subject saying?
3. How is your subject behaving?

You can also immerse yourself in the story by becoming a participant.

Conducting an Interview
An interesting quotation from a subject matter expert or witness to the events can turn a dull
story into one that captures the interest of the reader. If you are going to write good creative
nonfiction, you must know how to interview. Here are a few tips:

1. Make a list of questions to ask.

2. Take a pen and paper, or tape record.
3. Interview the subject matter experts.
4. Ask the person you are interviewing to stop talking while you are attempting to take
notes.
5. After the interview, type out your notes.
6. Save the toughest questions for last.
7. Don’t quote a subject matter expert out of context.
8. Don’t fabricate quotations.

Use Dramatic Scenes

To write the essay, incorporate the technique of “scene building” into the essay. To do this,
show the reader, don’t tell them, what happened. Scene building isn’t a narrative summary,
which includes generalizes time, collapses events, provides a brief descriptions and mentions
people. Scene building isn’t an exposition, which explains and analyzes. Scene building isn’t a
voice over, which interprets the experience. What, then, is scene building?
The writer recreates the event or experience in the mind of the reader. Scene building creates
a dream in the mind of the reader. It is like a scene from a film. A scene takes place in a
specific place at a particular time. It includes action and dialogue. It includes concrete and
specific details, not abstract language and generalizations. It also includes details that appeal
to the senses, such as the sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. It creates a sense of
movement.
To summarize, a scene includes the following elements:

▪ Time. A scene takes place at a particular time.

▪ Place. A scene takes place in a particular place. It provides context and creates a mood.
▪ Details. A scene always includes important details. These details are concrete and
specific, not general or abstract. A scene also includes scensory details, which appeal to
the readers sensese, the sense of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch.
▪ Action. A scene includes action, such as a confrontation, crisis, or the action and reaction of
people.
▪ Dialogue. Not always, but often a scene include important comments and conversations. ▪
Details and Descriptions. Use sensory images. The details reveal the underlying story or the
universal truth.

This doesn’t mean that the writer excludes expositions or a summary from a literary journalistic
essay. These elements have a function. It is just that the writer keeps each of these elements
separate.

Include a Lead, Content, and Ending

Whether you write about a person, place, event, idea, your story needs a lead that tells the
readers the purpose of your essay and why they should read the essay. The lead also needs to
persuade the reader to read the essay. So, you must write a hook. It can be a quotation,
interesting fact, important point, question, anecdote.
In the body of your essay, you can write about the important facts. In addition, you can include
personal opinion, thoughts, and feelings. You can also use literary devices, such as imagery,
metaphor, and simile. The key point is to remember to inform and enlighten your readers.
In a short essay, you can organize your points in chronological or logical order. In a longer
essay, you can organize your ideas by topic. In this case, you can use headings and
subheadings.
In closing, you need to leave the reader with an important point. Otherwise, the reader will
think: “So what? What was the point of writing the essay”
Your goal is not to preach or sermonize. Your goals are to entertain, inform and enlighten your
reader.
For more information on how to write a lead and ending, read my earlier post. You can also
learn how by reading William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well.

Tips on How to Write a Literary Journalistic Essay

There is no single method of writing a literary journalistic essay. That being said, a literary
journalistic essay requires a lead, content that is based on factual information, and an ending.
Here are a few tips on how to write the literary journalistic essay:

1. Learn about your subject through personal reportage. Interview others, conduct research
in the library and on the Web. Immerse yourself in the story.
2. Outline your story before writing it. What is your lead? What important points do you wish
 to make? What facts do you have? How do you intend to end your essay? 3. Include a lead
and ending. The lead tells the reader what your essay is about; The ending leaves your
reader with a final message. What final point do you want to make? 4. Use your distinctive
voice. You reveal your voice by your choice of diction, choice of sentence patterns, choice
literary devices, such as alliteration, imagery, metaphor, simile, and so forth.
5. Write a true story about a person, place, event,or idea. Make sure that the story is
interesting and informative. If it isn’t, write about something else.
6. Write dramatic scenes—action, dialogue, details, setting.
7. Consider narrowing your topic to a brief period of time.
8. Use literary devices. Popular devices include metaphor, simile, alliteration, and imagery.
9. Tell your story using the third-person point of view. (he/she)
10. Make use your writing reveals a universal truth or message. Otherwise your reader’s will
say: “So what? What was the point?”
11. Be sure your writing informs and enlightens. Before writing, use Google to check what
has been written on the topic.
12. Conduct extensive research on your topic. Often you will use only a partial amount of the
information that you collect. Your goal is to become a subject matter expert, so that you
can write as an expert.

Another type of Creative Non Fiction is the personal essay. Text B is an example. A
personal essay is a short work of autobiographical nonfiction characterized by a sense of
intimacy and a conversational manner. A type of creative nonfiction, the personal essay is "all
over the map," according to Annie Dillard. "There's nothing you can't do with it. No subject
matter is forbidden, no structure is prescribed. You get to make up your own form every time."
("To Fashion a Text," 1998).

The personal essay is one of the most common types of writing assignment--and not only in
freshman composition courses. Many employers, as well as graduate and professional schools,
will ask you to submit a personal essay (sometimes called a personal statement) before even
considering you for an interview. Being able to compose a coherent version of yourself in words
is clearly an important skill. Personal essays relate the author’s intimate thoughts and
experiences to universal truths. They aren’t simply a retelling of events, though—that falls more
in the realm of memoir or autobiography. They conclude with the author having learned,
changed, or grown in some way and often present some truth or insight that challenges the
reader to draw their own conclusions.

How to write a personal essay?

Here are some tips on how to write a personal essay from

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/personal
essay/#:~:text=A%20personal%20essay%20is%20a,%2C'%20according%20to%20Annie%20
Dillard:

1 Find a compelling topic.

The best essay topics are often deeply relatable. Although the story itself is unique to the
author’s experience, there’s some universal truth that speaks to us from just below the surface.
Topics like facing a fear, falling in love, overcoming an obstacle, discovering something new, or
making a difficult choice tackle feelings and events that happen in everyone’s life.

2 Start with a strong hook.

As with any type of writing, it’s essential to draw the reader in from the very first paragraph, or
even the first sentence. Here are a few examples.

Aside from Peter, who supposedly guards the gates of heaven and is a pivotal figure in any

number of jokes, the only saint who’s ever remotely interested me is Francis of Assisi, who was

friends with the animals.

—David Sedaris, “Untamed”

When I was young, my family didn’t go on outings to the circus or trips to Disneyland. We
couldn’t afford them. Instead, we stayed in our small rural West Texas town, and my parents
took us to

cemeteries.
—Jenny Lawson, “Amelia and Me”

I underwent, during the summer that I became fourteen, a prolonged religious

crisis. —James Baldwin, “Letter from a Region in My Mind”

Alone, we are doomed. By the same token, we’ve learned that people are impossible, even the

ones we love most—especially the ones we love most.

—Anne Lamott, “Blessings: After Catastrophe, A Community Unites”
Your hook and opening paragraph should establish the topic of your essay (or at least allude to
it) and set the scene and tone.

3 Create an outline.
All it takes to understand the importance of an outline is listening to someone who struggled to
tell a personal story. Often, the story will seem to have no real point. The switchbacks where the
teller says “But wait, I have to tell you about this part, first!” are maddening and disruptive. An
outline will help you organize your thoughts before committing them to text.

Consider your opening hook and the statement it makes, then map out the sequence of events

or main points that support it. Just like a good fictional story, your essay should have rising
action. Raise the stakes with each paragraph until you reach a climax or turning point. Plan to
add a conclusion that will evoke an emotional response in your reader.

4 Narrow your focus.

Don’t try to write to a general topic. Your essay may well be about sexism, but you need to
illustrate it through the lens of a defining incident that’s deeply personal to you. What did your
experiences teach you about sexism? What does it mean to you as an individual?

5 Show, don’t tell.

Close your eyes. Think of the scene you’re about to write down. What were you experiencing
with your five senses? How did you feel?

Your challenge is to evoke those senses and feelings without flatly stating them. Don’t say “I felt

cold.” Say “I exhaled and my breath turned to vapor that hung in the air. I shivered and pulled
the blanket tight around my shoulders in a vain attempt to trap my body heat.” Your description
should help the reader experience the cold with you. Stephen King describes it as making the
reader “prickle with recognition.”

6 Craft a thought-provoking conclusion.

Your essay should end with your own reflection and analysis. What did you learn? How have the
events and thoughts you described changed your life or your understanding of life? It’s not
enough to say “And that’s what happened.” You have to describe how whatever happened
shaped you.

Just as a good lead hooks readers and draws them along for the ride, a good conclusion

releases them from your essay’s thrall with a frisson of pleasure, agreement, passion or some
other sense of completion. Circling back to your lead in your conclusion is one way to give
readers that full

circle sense. Try to restate your thesis in a way that reflects the journey the essay has
taken. —Tom Bentley for Writer’s Digest

There is so much outside the false cloister of private experience; and when you write, you do the

work of connecting that terrible privacy to everything beyond it.

—Leslie Jamison for Publishers Weekly

Now, what am I to do?

With the knowledge you gained about the structure and content of a creative non-fiction,
specifically the personal narrative and literary journalistic essay, you can now try a hand in
writing one. You can write either a personal narrative OR literary journalistic essay.
.

What do I do with my draft?

After writing a draft, check your work by looking at this guide:
Does my essay have:

A strong introduction that engages my reader?

Several interesting facts (in my own words) that stay on topic?
Revisions that help make the essay better?
A bibliography?
Sentences that are complete and proofread for spelling, punctuation, and
capitalization? A strong conclusion that ties to my introduction?

If your answers to these questions are mostly YES, then you are ready to have it published
or posted in your blog to have others and yes, me, read and comment on it.
Create your own personal blog and post your work there. Send the link to me via fb
messenger.
Here is an introduction to blogging to get you started:
Blogging
https://wordpress.org/support/article/introduction-to-blogging/

Congratulations for your growth in

writing creative non fiction! Enjoy learning!

References:

Literary Journalistic essay: https://davehood59.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/how-to-write-a-literary-journalistic

essay/#:~:text=Literary%20journalistic%20essays%20are%20a%20popular%20form%20of%20creative%20nonfict
ion.&text=The%20writer%20uses%20literary%20devices,a%20big%20idea%2C%20like%20counterterrorism.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/personal
essay/#:~:text=A%20personal%20essay%20is%20a,%2C'%20according%20to%20Annie%20Dillard.

Check this site for tips on how to write a creative non-fiction: https://blog.reedsy.com/creative
nonfiction/#:~:text=Also%20known%20as%20narrative%20journalism,writing%2C%20and%20even%20true%20cr
ime