CREATIVE NONFICTON – GRADE 12

Name: ______________________________________ Date: ____________________

Grade: ______________________________________ Section: ___________________

Quarter: 3 Week: 1 SSLM No. 1 MELC(s): Analyzing the Themes and Techniques
Used in a Text

 Objectives:
1. contrast creative writing to creative nonfiction; and
2. identify the themes and techniques used in the texts

Let Us Discover

There are techniques used in creative nonfiction that can also be used also in fiction.
However, the techniques listed below are features mainly used for creative nonfiction. 
Literary techniques are definite and intentional use of words that the authors use to
convey the message of the text. These usually occur within a word or phrase, or phrases,
at one single point in a text. However, literary techniques are not really required to be
always in the text unlike the literary elements.

1. Creative license. It is a technique in creative nonfiction wherein the author

exaggerates or alters the objective realities for the purpose of enhancing and clarifying
the meaning in the context of fiction.  It is the author’s freedom to go away with the
conventions or rules in writing. For example, the phrase “you and I” is used instead of
“you and me” in order to create and effect. Another is applying small distortions as a way
of handling factual materials. 

2. Figures of Speech. These techniques are also related to figurative language wherein
the intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. Examples are
simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, and lot more.  
 
3. Symbolism. The use of objects or images to represent ideas not only in fiction but
also in nonfiction is called symbolism. A symbol is something that is tangible and visible
and the idea that it symbolizes is abstract although the meaning sometimes may vary.
For example in the statement “I was born when the locusts came,” the word locust
signifies problem as it is associated with pests. The word “rock” may signify strength;
“couch” implies for comfort; and “dove” symbolizes peace. 
 
3. Exposition. It is in this part that the author interrupts the story to explain something
or to give important background information.  Look at the excerpt from a memoir entitled
“A Virtuous Woman” below. Notice that the second paragraph provides additional
knowledge about the writer’s mother. 

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 And it happened. When I received the news that she refused to eat and take medicines,
I said, “this is it.” as I was sitting at her bedside, the night before she left, I was holding her
hand. I kept caressing those calloused hands, the hands that nurtured me when I was young,
the hands that comforted me when I was hurt, and the hands that molded me to what I am now.
As I was sitting that night I cannot help but recall memories of my sweet mother. 
She was very meek, a very submissive wife. She never answered back nor reasoned
out to my father.  I admired her (and pitied her) for that. She surrendered even her faith, and
followed my father’s religion. We are very thankful for her doing that, I still cling to that faith. It
is one thing that I owe to my father. 

-Sally Ardaniel Palomo

5. Dialogue. It is a technique where characters speak to one another and is used to

substitute for exposition. It is through dialogue that many of the characters thoughts
and actions are being revealed. Notice the exchange of dialogue in the text below between
the writer and her Mom in the essay below.

“But Mom,” I protested after she showed me another pair of pants. 

“That is very uncomfortable. This one makes me more comfortable. This is what I need.”
“Nonsense,” my mother snapped back. 
“Don’t you think it is much appropriate for young girls like you to wear such popular brand of
clothes?”
That statement always bounces back to me whenever my family and I go shopping not only for
my clothes but also for food, school supplies, shoes, and even the tiniest of things like hair
clips.
You Do Not Want It, You Need It

6. Imagery. This refers to the language that describes in detail appealing to the senses
like visual imagery and sound imagery. The images are those that can be seen, touched,
heard, smelled, and tasted. For example, the phrases “she had extreme difficulty of
breathing” and “cursing in a loud voice” create an auditory imagery because of the word
“breathing” and “cursing” that appeal to the hearing. Another example is “he shortened
his grip on the arm…” makes a tactile imagery because of the word “grip” that the reader
can imagine the act of holding or touching the arm. 

7. Irony. There are three types of irony: verbal, dramatic, and situational. Verbal irony is
about the disparity between the words of the characters and what they meant;
situational irony is the opposite of what the characters or readers’ expectation and what
actually happens; while the dramatic irony is the contrast of what the character knows
and what the reader knows. The statement “The cop was caught parking on a wrong side”
is an example of situational irony. 

Moreover, theme is another element needed in analyzing the text. It means the central
idea, the thesis, or the overall message that the text is communicating to the readers. It
should be expressed also in complete sentence and should not be mistaken as the topic.
It should be the topic plus the idea about the topic. Below are the examples of themes.

“Problems come to make people become strong and

mature.”
“Making decisions in life is not an easy thing to do.”
“Love makes people smile behind the struggles.”
“Failures are part of making one successful.”

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 Let Us Try

A. As a student of public school, what struggles have you faced and conquered before? What
motivated you to study and keep going? In the text that you are about to read, you will discover
that indeed, whatever hindrances in life, if there is the will to succeed, a person will surely rise
above his or her circumstances.
The Man Who Dares to Fail

He has a lot of qualities not to excel, but like a small stone thrown into the water that creates
ripples, he dared to fail and made a difference.

As a son of illiterate parents, who came from the poorest of the poor families, he suffered a hand-
to-mouth struggle in order to survive. His father had not gone to school, while his mother had only
reached Grade III. None of his elder sister and brother graduated in elementary. He, the youngest
of the three children, barely finished Grade V when his right eardrum was perforated and infected,
because of muro-ami-like fishing. He and his friends used to swim deep into the seabed to hammer
layers of rocks, so fishes would move out for them to hit with their self-made arrow. Financially
and educationally incapacitated, he was left in the healing ritual of the albularyo and became
hearing impaired.

Walking and crossing a river to go to school with cooked corn grains and bulad (dried fish),
ginamos/bagoong (salted fish) or salt, wrapped in banana leaf as baon was bearable, but being
bullied due to his handicap drained his self-esteem. He had to quit schooling.

“I remember during my elementary, I used to climb a Mabolo tree in school and (food) took my
lunch there, because I was ashamed to let my schoolmates see my baon, but it was the bullying of
my schoolmates of my defect that hurt me more” he said.

He helped his landless parents in the farm or worked as a child laborer in sugarcane plantations to
augment their family income. But then, he realized later that the only way to haul his family from
the quagmire of poverty was through education. At the age of 15, he went back to school as
working student, matured and tough enough to endure the bullying that went with his hearing
impairment. This time he vowed to himself that no amount of bullying and poverty could bar him
from succeeding.

He was not an elementary graduate when he enrolled in high school, but he consistently ranked
first of his class since his first year and graduated valedictorian at Surallah National Agricultural
School in South Cotabato. He gained and maintained his academic scholarship with his highly
satisfactory grades and finished his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Accounting
and Bachelor of Science in Education - History as cum laude at Mindanao State of University-
General Santos City. He was also a consistent academic excellence, journalism and college
leadership awardee.

Not resting from his laurels, he obtained his Master of Arts in Education –Educational Management
at Notre Dame of Marbel University, Koronadal City in1997 and his Doctor of Philosophy in
Educational Management in MSU-General Santos City in 2018.

“My student life was a constant struggle. When the degree of the intensity of my hearing is too
low, I resorted to lip-reading. I had to borrow notebooks from my classmates or spend almost
sleepless nights to reading books during my high school and college, and researching online during

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 In 2006, he won the Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teacher of the Philippines award, the
first awardee from SoCSarGen (South Cotabato-Sarangani- General Santos). He was also the first
recipient of the joint Metrobank Foundation and Japan Foundation Secondary School Educators
Group Tour award to Japan for half month on the same year.

As school paper adviser, he accumulated medals as the Best School Paper Adviser of the
Philippines for eight times (NSPC 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008). In 2004,
he was awarded as the Most Outstanding School Paper Adviser of the Philippines at the National
Schools Press Conference - Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Last June 1, 2019, Asia-Pacific Global Citation and
Center for the Promotion of Campus Journalism bestowed on him the Gawad Dyornalismo
Lifetime Achievement Award in Campus Journalism in Tagaytay City.

An author of campus journalism books, an award-winning short film actorand stage play
writer/director, division, regional, and national trainer and resource person on campus
journalism and theatre arts, these are but a few of the achievements that this very loving
husband and supportive father of four children has accumulated.

Needless to say, he has proven to the whole world that there is life beyond handicap and
wallowing in the quagmire of poverty is but a lame excuse not to succeed in life.

This man whom I admire so much, started from the rock-bottom and sky-rocketed to the peak of
success. I am so immensely lucky and proud that he is my best friend, my teacher, my idol and
my father.

DR. GELLY ELEGIO ALKUINO

After reading the above text, try analyzing the themes and techniques in the text using the
creative nonfiction analysis framework. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.

Creative Nonfiction Analysis Framework

Guide Questions Answers
A. Themes 1. What are the underlying
themes
in the text?
2. Can you quote lines from the
text to support your answer?
B. Techniques 1. Does the author show creative
Creative license license in the text? Support
your answer if it is evident.
Figure of speech 2. What figures of speech are
being used by the writer? Cite
them.
Symbolism 3. Does the text use symbols to
represent something? If there is,
briefly explain your answer.
Exposition 4. Is there an exposition part in
the text? If yes, support your
answer.
Dialogue 5. Does the character/s have the
throwing of dialogues? Provide
an example.
Imagery 6. Are there images in the text?
What kinds of imagery are
they?
Irony 7. Is there a statement of irony
from the text? If yes, support

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 your answer.

Let Us Do

In your own words, how do you describe the functions of the techniques and themes in analyzing
creative non-fiction?
The techniques in
The themes in analyzing analyzing creative
creative nonfiction nonfiction are…
are…

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Let Us Apply

Read the text below and identify the theme and techniques used in the text using
the creative writing analysis framework.

Illustration on watermelon peperomia, and anthurium magnificum and queen of the night plants.

Plantdemic Chronicles
“Why will I buy plants this pandemic time? They’re not basic needs! They cannot be
eaten.” These were the words I reciprocated to Jane who was so obsessed                                     
of looking for plants with her Aunt Sol. They even went to the market as early as 4:00
a.m. just to catch up with the cheaper plants. 
“You see, you have eaten your words, Ading.” Jane added who used to call me Ading.
She graduated two degrees in doctoral but look at her, she loves to collect plants. 
“When I retire, these plants will be my leisure,” she added. Those were her words as
she told me, gardening is the thing for the oldies. I wondered her notion about
gardening that it is for the oldies because even I was young, all of my family members
loved to garden, sweeping the ground, planting ornamentals, watering the plants,
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 But these pandemic times, everybody becomes the plantita and plantito. These
are coined terms from the words plant and tita or tito referring to the men and women
in all ages and even the celebrities became such. Some of the very popular of these
celebrities presenting their expensive plant collections in the social media are Jinky
Pacquiao, Aubrey Miles, and Gretchen Fulido. These people love to post their plants or
collections in their Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms. They
actually call their new collection as “babies” referring to the different floras and foliage
they newly bought, planted, and collected. Even Ethel Booba had a spoof of her pricey
indoor plant collection from other countries which are eggplant and banana in a pot
and placed inside the house. 
There are other plants which were sensationalized just like the Mimosa pudica
(sensitive plant) or commonly known as makahiya that I thought only as a grass in
the fields but is being sold in the gardens. It is called sensitive plant because when
one touches it, the leaves fold. But be careful, you will be pricked because of its
thorns. It is like shy person that can retaliate when being hurt or touched.  
Another is the Queen of the Night (Epiphyllum oxypetalum), a special kind of
orchid cactus with white flower resembling water lily and grows from leaf cuttings. It
is very expensive flower in other countries like India, and Sri Lanka because this
nocturnal plant shows its petals late at night for two hours only. Not only that, it
blooms only once every three to five years and the petals’ extract can be used as
perfume. Sometimes it is called “wishing flower” as people say, you can wish if the
petals are open. There was even a belief that fairies are attracted because of its
fragrance.  Sometime in 2012, I was able to take picture of its petals. It was beauty in
the dark, majestic yet exclusive and the scent was so strong and irresistible. I even
went back inside the house right away after taking a picture thinking that there were
bad spirits around. That was almost 12 midnight when I witnessed it. 
“Here’s your soil, Ate.” Mike, my cousin called me from inside the house
because I started planting during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) time. I
have already different collections before the pandemic because every festival at the
oval plaza, I always buy plants for my collections. Other plants came from my parents
which they bought from Makilala, North Cotabato wherein there are both vast and
small gardens just along the National Highway. In other words, I was already plantita
even before the plants became sensationalized. It means that the prices of the plants
puffed up even the pots, the pumice, and other garden supplies. 
“I should have tried what you taught Mike to this giganteum variegata. I was so
excited and I cut and planted it,” I told Mike regretting of what I’ve done. He told me
some techniques how to plant that is to half cut the stem, let it stay for a week or
month before totally removing from the mother plant. You will see the cutting is
already dry and consequently will not rot and die. I did this way of propagating to my
other philodendron large foliage just like Jose Buono, dark lord, black majesty, and
melalonii and it worked. The plant did not adjust so much and the leaves did not
wither. 
After finishing my job related tasks, I go directly to my backyard garden and
check my plants. I talk to them when they look sad, and appreciate them when I see
them lively and vibrant. After the rain, they look revived, taken a bath, and refreshed.
Looking at these plants, I can see the wonders of God’s creation. Just imagine the
different genus of plant with different species, and each has its own beauty, design,
and characteristics. For instance, I was so amazed by the peperomia genus that it can
be propagated through its leaves. It has 1,000 species but what I have collected are
only peperomia scadens, watermelon peperomia, peperomia obtusifolia, and
pepperomia obtusifolia variegata. That means I still do not have the 996 kinds of
peperomia varieties. (Variegata is a botanical term being used to indicate that the
leaves or the stems have variegation, patches or spots in different colours because of
mutation or genetics.)
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 One time I bought an army and pink rose caladiums from an online seller
together with the anthurium magnificum but the leaves were torn. “If not because of
my daughter’s medicine, I would not sell my plants,” he said. Well, I said, at least I
was an instrument by God that this man can buy medicine for his ailing child. His
not so pretty and small anthurium magnificum now flaunts its magnificence and
thanking me for the care that I gave.  
However, I had also bad experience when I was really attracted at the pictures of
hosta plants available in seeds posted in the one of the ornamental groups in
Facebook in South Cotabato. The pictures posted were very colourful and vibrant in
different colors of pink, yellow, and yellow green with variegations. I let my husband
picked the seeds in Digos City. After a week or two, it grew but very, very far from
what I expected. It was a zinnia flower (resembling sunflower tribe.) It is sad to know
that there are people who would fool others even during crisis just to make money.
Looking at the plants would mean inspiration. It rejuvenates me, it makes me busy
taking care of them that I am already satisfied staying at home. There percussion is
so strong that it gives me inner peace, joy, and contentment. It means hope, that
when I see a budding leaf, a shoot, or another flower, it implies that’s God’s grace is
there. If God blesses them with beauty and let them grow, how much more we, His
people who are very precious in His eyes.

Creative Nonfiction Analysis Framework

Guide Questions Answers
A. Themes 1. What are the underlying
themes
in the text?
2. Can you quote line/s from the
text to support your answer?
B. Techniques 1. Does the author show creative
Creative license license in the text? Support
your answer if it is evident.
Figure of speech 2. What figures of speech are
being used by the writer? Cite
them.
Symbolism 3. Does the text use symbols to
represent something? If there is,
briefly explain your answer.
Exposition 4. Is there an exposition part in
the text? If yes, support your
answer.
Dialogue 5. Does the character/s have the
throwing of dialogues? Provide
an example.
Imagery 6. Are there images in the text?
What kinds of imagery are
they?
Irony 7. Is there a statement of irony
from the text? If yes, support
your answer.

Referencerences

Creative Writing Curriculum Guide. (2016). K to 12 Senior High School Humanities

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 and Social Sciences Strand

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Answer Key

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