ANALYZING

NON-FICTIONAL ELEMENTS
(CHARACTER)
 MELC 3
Analyze factual/nonfictional elements
(Plot, Characters, Characterization, Point
of View, Angle, Setting and Atmosphere,
Symbols and Symbolisms, Irony, Figures
of speech, Dialogue, Scene, Other
elements and Devices) in the texts
OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson
the students will be able to:

❖Understand what makes a good

non-fiction character.
❖Analyze character in a non-fiction
text
 CHARACTERS
❖Remember that characters in
non-fiction are ACTUAL
PEOPLE, some living, some have
passed on, but never made up.
 CHARACTERS
What makes a good non-fiction
character?
- Physical Description
- Depth
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
❑Provides general first impression
❑Reveals the personality of character to
some degree
❑Grounds characters in reality
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Physical description may involve the
following aspects of your character:
❑Physical features
❑Clothing accessories
❑Mannerisms or ticks
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
There is a lady on the downward slope, a cane
in her grip, eyes creased into place. She wears
salmon pants and a lilac jacket, and exuberant
lipstick. “Hello,” she says.
- Walking Windows by Beth Kephart
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
When I met my father again as a teenager it
came with a shock of recognition and
confusion. He looked like me – there was my
bumpy nose, red hair, round cheekbones, the
yellow flecked blue eyes--
- The Reincarnation of Absent Father by Keema Waterfield
 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
I looked at the staircase once again, observing
its sharp edges and enormous steps. I already
knew the outcome of this attempt, conquering it
would leave me breathless and sweaty, making
my legs and knees tremble with exhaustion for
all the huge leaps that I have to make.
- “Staircase of Progression,” Amabelle G. Labitag (unpublished)
 DEPTH
FLAT- two-dimensional character that do not
change from beginning to end.

ROUND- layered and complex characters that

undergo changes in the story. Character is
non-fiction should be round.
 DEPTH
Is always revealed in the way the characters deal
with conflict.
- weakness
- personality
- strengths
- beliefs
- wants
- needs
 DEPTH
I am eight years old and lost in my daydreams
outside Kmart. Suddenly I become aware of my
father’s gaze. I meet his eyes and find myself
immobilized by the disgust of his scowl.
- Partido by Hiram Perez
 DEPTH
Lost in the world of words, I felt time slip away, each
page drawing me deeper into its embrace. In that
moment, surrounded by the ghosts of stories past, I
knew I had found my sanctuary. For in the pages of a
book, I had found a home.
 DEPTH
• A character with depth feels
human: someone we can
empathize and care about.
 ANALYZING
NON-FICTIONAL ELEMENTS
(SCENE SETTING)
 SCENE
Scenes are a building blocks of Creative Non-Fiction,
Lee Gutkind
• Scenes should be vivid
that reader will feel as if
they were there
 SCENE
• Dramatization of the events that have happened in
real time
• Scenes focus on action.
Think like a camera man
manipulating the camera
angle in order to capture
the action in real time.
 SCENE
I am wearing a torn leggings, a T-SHIRT, a bathrobe. The dog is
in the living room, curled contently (and wordlessly) on the sofa;
the phone machine blinking with messages, which I dutifully
screened and have no intention of answering until tomorrow.

And a thought comes to me, a simple stamen of fact that arrives

in a fully formed sentence. I hear the words: I am Merry
Recluse.

- Solitude in the Culture of We, Karoline Knapp

 SCENE
Here I am again, with my laptop open in the middle of the night,
wishing that I could turn back the days when I chose to idle instead of
doing tasks that I’m supposed to accomplish. I look like a mad woman
typing on my keyboard nonstop, ideas come and go endlessly, but my
tired eyes and body starting to get numb, seemingly saying that I have
a long week ahead, and I have let my sloppy spirit win over, and here I
am paying for it.

- Mema lang ni Amabelle G. Labitag

SCENE
• Using present tense can help
plunge readers right into the
action. (My eyes adjust, my
phone shrieks, she trails off)

• A scene must have a goal or

purpose that propels the
story forward.
SCENE
• A scene must use specific
details to paint a clearer and
crisper picture in readers'
mind.
DETAILS AND MOOD
• Details can dictate the mood
of the scene.
• Details evoke emotions
depending in their quality
• When writing a description;
what is the dominant view
you are trying to capture?
 DETAILS AND MOOD
I stood shielding my eyes as the cool salty water
washed the grainy sand off my feet. A few streaks of
wispy clouds painted the deep blue sky. The beach is
dotted with red, blue, and yellow umbrellas. A man
snored contently.