Unit 5: Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 5.3
Guidelines in Critiquing a Creative Nonfiction Text
Contents
Introduction 1

Learning Objectives 2

Let’s Begin 2

Discover 3
Form 4
Content 6
Critiquing a Creative Nonfiction Text 8
Parts of the Critique 12

Wrap-Up 14

Try This! 15

Practice Your Writing Skills 16

Bibliography 17
Unit 5: Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 5.3

Guidelines in Critiquing a Creative

Nonfiction Text

Introduction
Chefs are both cooks and food critics. Though their time is dedicated to delivering exquisite
and tasty dishes, they find time to evaluate others’ assiettes. In this way, they can help the
customers decide whether to try a particular dish or not.

Creative nonfiction writers, just like chefs, can be both creators and critics. They are not
just adept at creating essays, feature articles, and biographical narratives. They can also
create a critique paper that highlights the form and content of the nonfiction text they have
chosen to read and analyze. In this case, a creative writer is also a guide that leads other
people to escape the labyrinth of the doubt when they are uncertain about the nature of
the nonfiction text they are planning to read. In this lesson, you are going to learn about
the specific guidelines in critiquing nonfiction texts.

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Learning Objectives DepEd Learning Competency

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to
At the end of this lesson, you should be write a mini critique of a peer’s work based on
able to do the following: coherence and organization of paragraphs,
development of literary elements, use of factual
● Identify the guidelines in
information, and other qualities concerning form
critiquing creative nonfiction. and content (HUMSS_CNF11/12-IId-e-18).

● Critique a creative nonfiction text

according to form and content.

Let’s Begin

Trying Out Critiquing 10 minutes

Maybe without realizing it, you’ve probably read a literary work before and critiqued it. You
decided for yourself whether or not you liked what you just read and thought about its good
and bad points. With a partner, try it out once more with a creative nonfiction text you’ve
both previously read before, either for class or for leisure.

Instructions
1. Partner up with a classmate.
2. Choose a creative nonfiction text you have both read before.
3. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work with your partner.
4. Decide whether you’ll recommend this work to others, recommend with
reservations, or think it needs to improve further.
5. Use the guide questions to help you review the work.
a. In general, what did you like and dislike about the work?
b. What do you think of the plot and elements of your chosen text? Do you think
they are able to work well together?
c. What do you think is the theme of the text? Is it aligned with the moral or
message of the text?

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Guide Questions
1. How did you evaluate the main points of the text?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the basis of your recommendation?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. In your opinion, what is the significance of doing a critique?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Discover
An imaginative writer knows how form and content affect the overall impact of a text. These
textual elements are the major foundations of literature. Sometimes, people think that they
are the same. Nevertheless, they are two different concepts that make up a literary text.
Form either refers to a text’s shape, structure, genre, or the literary devices and techniques
the author employed in the text. On the other hand, content refers explicitly to the theme
that a text holds. To illustrate how they differ, imagine that form is a glass, while content is
the water that it holds. Both glass and water are necessary if someone is thirsty and needs
to drink. Without the glass, the person might not be able to drink the water; without the
water, the person cannot quench his or her thirst. Therefore, form basically holds the
content so that it would be understood and appreciated by the readers, and content gives
the form relevance to them. In critiquing a non-fiction text, questions about the text’s form
and content should be formulated and answered. This way, the critique paper will be
considered a reliable source of information about the text’s overall quality. In the following

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sub-lessons, let us try to answer the question below:

How should we look at a creative nonfiction text’s form

and content when critiquing it?

Form
To critique a creative nonfiction text, we must first be able to identify and analyze the
elements that make up the form of the text. This means you have to be familiar with the
elements and see how they can work together. Let us look back first at these elements
before discussing how to critique them.

What constitutes a text’s form? Actually, anything that helps the writer support or illustrate
his or her view about a specific theme is part of a text’s form. The primary question a critic
should ask about form is, “What formal features in the text contributed to my reading
experience?” To answer this, the first thing that you should identify is the genre of the text
you read. There are five well-known genres of creative nonfiction: historical, biographical,
travel, journalistic, and humorous or commentary. The text’s genre is significantly
connected to its form and content; hence, it suggests its theme.

The form of a text is also determined by the way its elements are organized or arranged.
The organization of the elements in the text can be described by analyzing its plot or the
occurrences that happened in the story. Moreover, a motif, or a recurring element in a text,
is also a determinant of a text’s form. It may be a symbol, an action, or an image that
repeatedly surfaces, leaving a noticeable pattern that supports the theme or the main idea
of the text.

The people involved within the text are also a factor that affects its form. Two major kinds of
presences are featured in nonfiction: the narrator and the character. The type of narrator
determines the story’s point of view or the angle of narration.

When critiquing these and other elements of a text’s form, you must look at how well the

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author was able to make them work together. Since the plot is moved mostly by characters,
examine how effectively the author was able to use the characters to progress the plot. Is
the conflict or problem that is central to the plot an effective one? Is it believable that the
characters will struggle and work hard to resolve this conflict? In terms of the point of view,
look at how the narrations interact with the other elements. Since first-person narration
tends to focus on the thoughts and feelings of the narrator or main character, does it
benefit the plot that this is so? Or would it have worked better if we had a broader look at
the story and give other characters some focus, like in third-person narration? For motifs,
check if the author established these well. Do the motifs enhance or support the plot? Are
these symbols used and emphasized enough to be considered motifs? Or did they seem
rather forced? Other questions that can be asked when critiquing a text; still, the general
rule regarding form and their elements is to check how well they are implemented and how
effectively they work together to contribute to the theme and moral, which will be discussed
further in the content.

Imagery, diction, and figurative language are also considered in analyzing and critiquing
the form of a text. This consideration is the fact that literary techniques and devices can also
affect the structure of the narrative. Therefore, a critic should determine the types of
imagery and figures of speech present in the text he or she analyzes. Here is a list of
questions that a critic should answer concerning these elements:
● What figures of speech are utilized in the text?
● How are they used in the text? Are they effective in establishing symbolism and
motif?
● Does any imagery in the text help establish the theme or any motifs?
● Is the choice of words appropriate for the text? Are they easy to understand?
● Does the diction vary during certain parts of the text? Is it appropriate that the
diction change?

Aside from the questions mentioned above, a critic might also be interested in how the
sentences are being constructed in the narrative. Also, if an illustration, a graph, or a
diagram is present in it, he or she is obliged to ask something about its importance in the
text. Questions, such as the following, may be added to the critique paper.
● How effective are the sentences and paragraphs in pointing out the theme or the

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main idea of the text? Are there any cliches in the text that make it less interesting?
● Are there any grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors in the text?
● Do the illustrations, charts, graphs, etc., support the theme of the text?

Check Your Progress

How would you decide if the combination of point of view and
main character or narrator is appropriate for the text?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Content
The content of a text is primarily shaped by its theme. As we learned from the previous
lessons, the theme pertains to what the literary text is all about. It is the text’s primary
concern. Also, we use terms such as central idea and controlling idea to refer to the theme of
a text. It is different from the moral that it might have. The moral is the lesson that the text
teaches to its readers, while the theme is a general principle that the text contains. It is the
trigger that leads the writer to state the moral. For example, a text might be thematically
connected to the power of love to change someone’s perception and disposition in life. This
can be the catalyst that allows the writer to state that people should not become too
intimate with someone else if they are already married.

A story might possess more than one theme. Also, a critic might focus on a specific theme
that he or she believes is the most important thematic issue that the text presents.
Therefore, the questions that a critic should answer are the following:
● What are the themes that the text I read contains?
● Which of the thematic issues mentioned in the text is the most important issue to
consider?
● What universal truth does the thematic issue possess?
● How well does the text discuss this theme or its thematic issue?
● How well does the use of its story elements further establish this theme?

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When you read and critique a text, it could also be important to analyze it based on its
context and purpose.

Context refers to the factors surrounding the text, like the time period in which it was
written or the circumstances of the author when he or she wrote the text. One could
analyze a work based on how it is affected by these factors. A critic could then judge how
accurately the work portrays the time in which it was written or the issues that were
happening at the time. One could also critique how relevant the themes the text explores
are to its context.

On a related note, the purpose is what we are looking at when we critique a text’s theme
and moral in relation to its context. One could see the purpose of a text as the reason the
text is trying to establish a particular theme or send a particular message based on its
context. However, one can also look at a text’s purpose as simply why the author wrote the
text, whether or not it is related to the context. Sometimes the purpose of the author is
seen in the text itself. The author is writing about losing a parent because he wants readers
who have experienced the same loss that they are not alone. Or the author is writing about
an experience she had with contributing to a community pantry because she wanted to
encourage others to do the same. So, when looking at purpose, critics should ask if the text
is able to portray its purpose well through its elements and if the purpose and theme are
able to support each other.

After identifying the questions that you may ask about the nature of form and content, you
are now ready to use this knowledge in evaluating a nonfiction text.

Check Your Progress

How can the context of a work affect its elements and symbolism?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

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Critiquing a Creative Nonfiction Text

To give you an example of how the form and content are analyzed and then critiqued,
consider Butch Dalisay’s “To fall in love with the world, again.” After reading the text, let us
try to critique the text based on our previous guidelines.

To fall in love with the world, again

Butch Dalisay

The terrible loss of lives and jobs aside, the one thing that
Beng and I will miss the most in whatever “new normal”
emerges out of this COVID crisis is travel, whose contours,
contours
protocols and costs we can only begin to guess at. We are, of
(noun): the
course, deeply grateful and relieved just to be alive and well
general
(so far) and adequately fed (so far), lifting us up far above
characteristic of
the lot of millions of Filipinos who cannot even venture into
something
the next municipality for their livelihood and sustenance.

In this light, travel and everything we associate with it —

dining, entertainment, shopping, sports (even given that for
Beng and me, it’s mostly just museums, flea markets, and
street food) — would seem utterly frivolous. But we frivolous
wouldn’t be human if we didn’t dream of frivolity and (adjective): of little
indulgence, even and especially in the most trying of times, if importance
only to convince ourselves that tomorrow will be better and
worth waking up for.

At about this time last year, Beng and I returned to Manila

from a two-week romp across Scotland, London, and
Norfolk, a sentimental journey that reprised, on a smaller
reprised
scale, a nine-month stay in the UK 20 years earlier. I had just
(verb): repeated
retired that January from 35 years of teaching, and at 65, I

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figured that Beng and I had maybe another 10 good years to

spend together, to poke our noses into the flea markets of
Hell’s Kitchen, Spitalfield, Panjiayuan, Encants and
Clignancourt.

We’re cheap and easy to please; I’d say the highlight of our
traveling life was a one-day tour of Venice on the vaporetto,
vaporetto
because that was all the time and the money we had,
(noun): a
delighting simply in the magic of being together amid such
motorboat that
breathtaking beauty, K-drama-style.
serves as
transportation in
As it happened, 2019 turned out to be the busiest travel year
Venice, Italy
of our lives. Starting the week after I retired, we went off on
a crazy spree that would have collapsed many younger
people: Penang, Tokyo, Scotland, London, Singapore, Turkey spree (noun):
(a grueling 3,000-km overland tour), the US, Singapore again, an uncontrollable
Macau, and Singapore again, not to mention local sorties to outburst of activity
Davao and Dipolog.

We had been debating between doing it all in one year, or

phasing the trips over a couple of years. Our friends and
family began worrying about the strain on our bodies and
budget, despite our assurances that we were managing
ourselves quite well, even if — such as when we spent a day
at New York’s MoMA, redeeming a pledge to see Chagall
together — we had to pause on every floor to catch our
breath.

We know now that if we didn’t do it when we could, we never

would. We had the happiest time together, and if we never
go on another plane, we will have enough memories to last
us to the end. But even as those memories please me, I

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grieve for the fact that we will never travel again the way we
did. Even those extra security measures then, which we used
to complain about — the endless X-rays, the unbuckling of
belts and watches — seem carefree now.

Wearing a mask for a 12-hour trans-Pacific flight? Dousing

dousing
myself in alcohol at the hotel? Mistrusting every door handle
(verb): to plunge
and faucet, every driver and waiter, every open mouth and
into
extended hand? And even if we do get to fly again, it will be a
changed world we will be landing in — forbidding, even
hostile, still desperate for your money but not much else.

Late last year, before anyone had ever heard or minded the
word “coronavirus,” Beng and I planned our travel year —
not much, we said, let’s stay at home and get back to work,
but we did have two destinations on the wish list: St.
Petersburg in Russia, which was offering free e-visas to
Filipinos for eight-day stays, and Alicante in Spain, where a
big conference in Philippine Studies was to take place in
September. They will not happen now, or anytime soon, and
frankly I don’t regret that as much as other kinds of less
tangible but also deeper losses.

I mourn, for example, the loss of intimacy — not the bond

between two people who sleep together, which has to
survive all viruses — but the more casual kind between
friends at table in a restaurant or even strangers on a train,
the kind that says, “I’m OK, you’re OK, I won’t hurt you and
you won’t hurt me” — indeed, the loss of casualness itself.

The younger folks among us can still look forward to

something vaguely resembling 2019 by, say, 2024. They

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might even be laughing then at the memory of “that COVID

thing” as they take their partner’s hand and mingle with the
crowd in Seoul or San Francisco before diving into their
favorite restaurant.

For those of us now close to 70, that will probably not

happen; even if the world forgets and relaxes once again, we
could be too old by then.

In this time of too many “never agains,” I can only thank God
there was a 2019, and that we made as full use of it as we
could. But life’s a long road with many unexpected turns,
and if there’s anything we’ve learned from our journeys, it’s
those turns off the tourist map that have led to the most
wonderful discoveries. If not St. Petersburg, if not Alicante, I
trust something will come up, perhaps in our own backyard,
to make us fall in love with the world again, as we so badly
need to do.

Now, let’s examine how we can critique the form and content of the work and how well its
elements work together. We’ll mention a few key sections of the text and talk about what we
could get from it. Then, think about how well the text was able to support these findings
based on its use of elements, its establishment of the theme and moral, and its context and
purpose. Later on, we will be using the discussion here to help you write an assisted
critique.

The theme of the text appears to be about the effect of the pandemic on traveling.
Specifically, it talks about the inability of everyone to travel normally because of COVID-19,
which is the context the piece is written in. If that is the case, we can say that it is
emphasized in the last few paragraphs when the author mentions that people affected by it
more than anyone else are the old ones who might not experience traveling anymore, for
the pandemic might last long. This thematic issue can be felt by the readers as the writer

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narrates how he and his wife were using their free time to travel across the world and be
happy and what they have felt when traveling behavior became affected by the pandemic.
Based on this information, would you say that the theme is well-supported by the context,
purpose, and elements of the text? Let’s take a closer look at certain aspects of the text and
see if the theme holds up.

How did the writer provide the content of the given nonfiction text? This journalistic text is
written using a plot that contains some flashbacks of the traveling experiences of the
couple. Nevertheless, the plot is not perplexing. Because of time signals, the readers can
easily understand when the writer narrates past events. Why do you think the writer uses
flashbacks to explain the plot? Do you think that it is effective? Does it support the theme
well? Does it help the context and purpose of the text?

The text is delivered to the readers using the first-person point of view. Butch, the narrator
and the primary mover in it, talks about how he and Beng enjoyed their travel experiences
and memories together. The writer did not use a lot of rhetorical devices, making the whole
text simple, exposing a diction that everyone could understand. Do you think the simplicity
of the language helps the text? Or does it hinder it? What does the first-person point of view
do for the text? Is it helpful that we are able to read the thoughts of the narrator?

Parts of the Critique

Those are just some of the aspects of the text that you can choose to focus on when
critiquing it. When you can gather your thoughts on the text, you can begin writing your
critique.

Always start with an outline. Organize your thoughts and comments so that your critique
can be more coherent and logical. A good idea when organizing your critique is to divide it
into four sections.

First, have an introduction that tells the readers of your critique what text you’ll be
critiquing. You may also add your rationale for critiquing the piece or explain why you think
it is important to critique the piece.

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Then, include a summary of the work you are critiquing. It doesn’t have to be a very
thorough summarization. Just explain the text enough that your readers will know its topic,
main idea, and key points. Include important details that you will mention in your critique,
but don’t talk about the text for too long. The point of your whole composition is to critique
the text, not summarize it.

After you have summarized the text, write your critique proper. This is the part where you
answer the questions asked while analyzing the text. State the text’s strengths in terms of its
form and content, but state its weaknesses as well. It is best to focus on one aspect of the
text at a time to keep your work organized.

Finally, have a conclusion for your critique. Here, provide a quick wrap-up of your thoughts
about the piece. You can also write here if you recommend the text for others to read or
not.

Later on, you will be given a chance to write your critique of the sample text. You may use
the discussion in this section to help you, but remember that you won’t always be assisted
like this when you write your critiques, so it pays to practice your analysis skills along with
your critiquing skills so that you can improve in both.

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Writing Tips
To help you more with critiquing a nonfiction text, please remember the
following points:
1. Your objective in creating a critique paper is to provide an upbuilding
and constructive criticism towards the form and content of the text.
The information that you should provide is factual and accurate.
2. Your target audience should be determined before creating a critique
paper.
3. Reading your critique paper before publishing it might help you to see
if there are things that you need to change or clarify in the text. Also,
check if you have committed syntactic and semantic errors in creating
it.
4. Avoid attacking the author. Criticize the author’s work, not his or her
personality and lifestyle.
5. Request for anyone’s feedback on your critique paper to determine if it
is constructive.

Wrap-Up
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
● Form refers to the elements of a text that helps the writer support his or her decided
theme.
● Content refers to the theme, moral, context, and purpose of the text.
● The theme is what the text is mainly about, the moral is its lesson or message, context
is the outside factors surrounding the text, and purpose is the reason for writing the
text.
● When critiquing the text, it is important to see if the form of the text is able to support
the content.
● Your critique should have an introduction, summary, critique proper, and
conclusion.
____________________________________________________________________________________________

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Try This!
A. True or False. Write true if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write false.

________________ 1. You need to look at both form and content for a critique.

________________ 2. The form includes the work’s theme and context.

________________ 3. The content consists of the work’s elements, like the plot.

________________ 4. Your critique should focus on the summary of the work.

________________ 5. The conclusion of your critique should have your

recommendation.

B. Fill in the Blanks. Fill in the blanks with the correct answer.

1. The ___________________ of the text is its main idea.

2. The ___________________ of the text is all of the outside factors surrounding it.

3. The ___________________ of the text is the reason it was written.

4. The main character of the text can also be the ___________________ when in the
first-person point of view.

5. The ___________________ in a text is a recurring symbol or idea.

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Practice Your Writing Skills

Now is the time to write your critique of the text given earlier, “To fall in love with the world,
again.” You may use the discussion after to guide your critique, but be sure to add some
points of your own and analyze and critique additional elements and content. Your work
must also have a clear introduction, summary, critique, and conclusion. Write your critique
on a separate sheet of paper.

Suggested Rubric for Grading

The rubric below is a suggested one. Your teacher may modify the rubric based on your
needs. Consult your teacher for the final rubric.

Performance Levels

1 2 3 Suggested
Criteria Score
Beginning Proficient Advanced Weight
Proficiency Proficiency

Content The text provides a The text provides an The text provides a
vague critique of the adequate critique clear and in-depth
×3
literary work. of the literary work. critique of the literary
work.

Organization Few of the details Most of the details All of the details and
and sentences are and sentences are sentences are clearly
×2
clearly and logically clearly and logically and logically
presented. presented. presented.

Grammar and There are five or There are two to There is one or no
more mistakes in four mistakes in mistake in grammar
Language ×1
grammar and grammar and and spelling.
spelling. spelling.

Total Possible Score 18

Teacher’s Feedback
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

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Bibliography
Benedict, Carol. “Guidelines for Nonfiction Critiques.” The Writing Place. September 28, 2009.
https://thewritingplace.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/guidelines-for-nonfiction
-critiques/.

Masterclass. “Learn About Nonfiction: Definition, Examples, and 9 Essential Nonfiction

Genres.” Masterclass. May 5, 2021. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/
learn-about-nonfiction#quiz-0.

Masterclass. “What Is Creative Nonfiction? Learn How to Write Creative Nonfiction.”

Masterclass. May 5, 2021. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-
creative-nonfiction#quiz-0.

Ready Writers. “Critiquing Non-Fiction: 6 Points to Note.” The Ready Writers Consult. June 26,
2017. https://thereadywriters.com/critiquing-non-fiction-6-points-to-note/.

Venturino, Steven J. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. New York,
NY: Penguin Group, 2013.

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5.3. Guidelines in Critiquing a Creative Nonfiction Text

Let’s Begin
1. How did you evaluate the main points of the text?
Answers may vary. Students may talk about their specific techniques in evaluating,
like making an outline of the text’s contents and features.
2. What is the basis of your recommendation?
Answers may vary. Students may talk about the impact of reading the text.
3. What is the significance of doing a critique?
Answers may vary. Students may talk about the benefits of critical thinking and
reading as the significance of critiquing.

Check Your Progress

1. How would you decide if the combination of point of view and main character or
narrator is appropriate for the text?
Answers may vary. Students may discuss how a character-centric plot should
have a first-person point of view using the main character as the narrator, while a
more story-oriented plot can have a general view using a third-person point of
view.
2. How can the context of a work affect its elements and symbolism?
Answers may vary. Students may discuss how the context may influence a work
in terms of the elements that might appear and the symbolism that might be more
relevant given the context.

Try This!
A. True or False. Write true if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write false.

true 1. You need to look at both form and content for a critique.

false 2. The form includes the work’s theme and context.

false 3. The content consists of the work’s elements, like the plot.

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 Unit 5: Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction
false 4. Your critique should focus on the summary of the work.

true 5. The conclusion of your critique should have your recommendation.

B. Identification. Supply the correct term described in each item.

1. The theme of the text is its main idea.

2. The context of the text is all of the outside factors surrounding it.

3. The purpose of the text is the reason it was written.

4. The main character of the text can also be the narration when in the
first-person point of view.

5. The motif in a text is a recurring symbol or idea.

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