INDONESIA
out were less dramatic: she pinched, hit
Mrs. Geni in December – Arswendo
Atmowiloto
Things to Remember:
A. Tone refers to the methods by which writers
and speakers reveal attitude or feelings –
toward the material, toward their readers, and
toward the general situation that they are
describing or analyzing.
B. The authors’ attitude or attitude toward the
subject matter and toward the readers may be
deduced by reading the selection carefully.
Only in Poetry – Ajip Rosidi
-Theme and genre
The birth of a poem – Subagio Sastrowardojo
-Personification
SINGAPORE
-Lion city
Grandfather’s Story – Catherine Lim
-Characterization
Things to Remember:
A. Authors present their character either
directly or indirectly.
a. Direct presentation. The author tells us
straight out, by exposition or analysis, what a
character is like, or has someone in the story
tell us what he is like. (e.g. The change was
marked, for grandfather was by nature
garrulous and, on occasion, even jovial. He liked
to tell stories – especially irreverently obscene
tales of monks.)
b. Indirect presentation. The author shows us
the character in action; we infer what he is like
from what he thinks or says or does. (e.g. The
punishment that grandmother regularly meted
knuckles with a wooden rod, slapped and
occasionally rubbed chili paste against the lips
of a child bondmaid who had been caught
telling a lie.)
B. How Character is Disclosed in Fiction?
a. Actions. What the characters do is our best
clue to understand what they are.
b. Descriptions, both personal and
environmental. Appearance and environment
reveal much about a character’s social and
economic status, of course, but also they us
about character traits.
c. Dramatic statements and thoughts. Although
the speeches of most characters are functional,
essential to keep the action moving along, they
provide material by which you may draw
conclusion.
d. Statements by other characters. By studying
what characters say about each other, you may
enhance your understanding of the character
being discussed.
e. Statements by the author speaking as story
teller or observer. What the author speaking
with the authorial voice, says about a character
is usually accurate and the authorial voice can
be accepted factually
The exile – Edwin Thumboo
Sunflowers for a friend – Lee Yzu Pheng
MALAYSIA
Friends- Anwar Ridhwan
In the distance – Kemala
The frying pan – Zurinah Hassan
THAILAND
- Land of smiles/freedom
- Second tourist spot
- Venice of the East - Bangkok
Remember: In Thailand, if you are male, you
end sentences with the word(khrup/krap)
similarly if you are female, you end your
sentences with the word (ka/kap) This is used to
make your sentence or question polite
Boatman’s love song?
Film Review is a critical judgment of a motion
picture. It focuses on the art of the film maker
and evaluates the techniques employed by the
director. As part of the introduction, it is a must
that you mention and give credits to the
screenwriter, director, cinematographer, actors,
production designers and executive producers.
In order to provide the readers with the needed
information and for you to analyze the
movie/film review very well, the following
elements are of great help. Try to expand your
review or critic by answering the following
questions for each element:
GENRE- is the kind or type of film. Is it comedy?
Tragedy? Musical? Action? Thriller? Horror? Sci-
Fi? Romance? Historical? Melodrama?
Animation?
SYNOPSIS- is the gist or summary of the film.
What is the film all about? What are the
objectives of the film? How were the elements
of the story interrelated with one another
CHARACTERIZATION- is the development or
portrayal of the characters. How will you
describe the characters in the film? What are
their deprivations and motivations? Are their
acting skills convincing and powerful for the
viewers? SOUND- is the essential aspect of the
film and it consists
SPEECH as the voice of the actors, the MUSIC, as
the soundtrack or song laid in the film, and the
SOUND EFFECT or embedded sound in the film.
CINEMATOGRAPHY- is the manipulation of the
filmstrip and photographic image by the
camera. How was the coordination of one shot
with the succeeding shot? Does the speed,
motion, and transformation of each
photographic image help in the quality of the
film?
PRODUCTION DESIGN- refers to the costumes
and make-ups matched to the characters’ role?
Do the props stimulate the ambiance for the
scene? Does the production design depict the
setting of the story?
Three Line Poem- Uten Mahamid
Paraphrase is a restatement of an original text
or passage.
Original passage Only those you love most can
hurt you the most. Non-verbalized feelings are
unhealthy in any relationship.
Paraphrased Passage Those people you love
most are capable to hurt you. Feelings not
expressed are dangerous in any
Smile of the rice goddess – Chiranan
Pitpreecha
Champoon – Dhep Mahapaorayais
Maum - Kukrit Pramoj
The barbs- Phaitoon Thanya
What is such forging – Ujjenji
A poet’s pledge - Angkram Kalayanapong
E-san – Nai Pee
Mere movement – Naowarat Pongpaiboon
Arrival of nirvana at egg – noodle shop –
Montri Sriyong
PHILIPPINES
Si mabuti – genoveva edroza- matute
an author uses narrative conventions in writing
fictions. They are the techniques used by the
author in making meaning in the fiction. These
may be particular to characters, development of
plot, settings, point-of-view, or style.
With regard to plot convention, it has a number
of techniques. These are backstory, tells the
events of the story that happen before the
present story; Chekhov’s gun, tells of an
inherent object inserted in the narrative;in
medias res, narration that starts at the middle
of the story; narrative hook, tells a catchy story
opening to hook the attention of the readers;
story within a story or hypodiegesis, tells a story
within a story; deus-ex- Machina,tells a good
character in a bad situation ensures character
wins with an unexpected or implausible used to
resolve the situation; plot twist, tells a surprise
ending; poetic justice, tells a reward to the good
characters and punishes the bad characters;
cliffhanger, tells and abrupt ending which places
the main characters in a perilous situation with
no resolution; flashback, tells an interjected
scene of the story that takes it back in time
from the current point in the story and often
used to tell the events that happened before
another important event; flash forward tells a
scene that takes the narrative to a future time
from the current point of the story ;
foreshadowing, indicates or hints something is
coming in the latter part of the story
Point-of-view is a narrative convention which
tells from whose perspective is the story told. It
may be a character, first person point-of view;
third person narrator, telling the story by an
impersonal narrator not affected by story
situations; and unreliable narrator, telling the
story by an insincere narrator, misleading the
readers; stream of consciousness, exposing the
character’s mind to the readers through his
monologue; audience surrogate, character who
expresses queries or agitations which are the
same questions that readers would ask.
Another convention is style. There are also a
number of techniques under this convention.
Figures of speech like hyperbole, metonymy,
euphemism, oxymoron, and many more are
style techniques. Pathos or emotional appeal is
another style technique used to inspire or pity a
character.
In addition to these techniques for style are
sensory detail, which forms mental images of
scenes using descriptive words; Leitwortstil,
which repeats on purpose the words that
usually express a motif or theme important to
the story; dramatic visualization, which presents
an object or character with much description or
gestures and dialogues making scenes vivid for
the audience.
The theme of the story is the underlying
message or the central idea. It is about life that
the author is conveying in the story which is
universal in nature.it is about human
experience.
Short stories often have one theme. The theme
is entwined in the story which is reflected in the
characters’ words and actions, events, and
other elements. The reader can ask himself the
following to get the theme: What is the author
trying to convey in the characters and events of
the fiction? What are the key phrases or
sentences? Repeating symbols or motifs is a
writer’s way of revealing the theme. What’s the
big idea - love, hate, war, passion, peace,
friendship, crime ? Does the title suggest the
theme? What does the story tell about
Emotional appeal moves the emotion of the
reader or audience. It is a way or method used
by the author to create emotional response
among his reader or audience.
Persuasive writing is used. The language should
sway the emotion to convince the readers. The
author fills more emotional content with
descriptive details to make the readers feel the
scene. Metaphor or simile is often used to
create comparison to feel the connection in the
story. Authors show emotional scenes rather
than telling, making characters sympathetic or
unsympathetic, using words which can greatly
affect reader emotions, turning the story in an
unexpected direction, and using details to mire
readers in the reality of the scene.
Formalists focus is on rhetorical and logical
connections within the writing. Moreover,
formalists look into the sound and syntax of
poetic language, rhyme, repetitions and word
pictures. This criticism favors medium over
content. Also, this criticism philosophically
questions the method of communicating ideas
and value expression. It looks into the
manipulation of language by the artist to
achieve the aesthetic effect.

Feminism uplifts women goals by defining and Morning in Nagrebcan – Manuel E. Arguilla
establishing equality in the family,civil, social,
Symbol in literature is anything that stands for
political, and economic arena. Feminist
something else. Authors use symbols to give
literature is often associated with literary pieces
deeper and significant meaning to their content
written by women that deal with women in the
or story.
society.It also involves characters or ides which
chide the common gender norms dominated Symbolism makes the author convey ideas to
with masculinity. This approach gives an impact readers/ audience in a poetic matter instead of
to the voice of women its outright expression.
New Historicism deals with the cultural context
during the writing of the piece of literature. This
approach interprets literature for its meaning or
idea in a particular socio-historical
atmosphere.it needs an understanding of the
author’s milieu and the cultural context during
its production

Tata Selo- Rogelio Sikat

Another approach that shapes the mind of

literary enthusiasts is formalism which is also
called new criticism. This uses close reading of a
piece of literature. This means that the
formalists’ interpretation of a work of art is
formulated by the information and details of
the piece itself. Formalists do not interpret a
work based on matters that are outside the
confines of the work like history, politics,
society, time or even the author. They see it
autonomously and can be gauged through
internal structure and language. Considered are
form, structure, technical features as more
important than the content and context.