SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Learning Module
in
creative NONFICTION
by: JEPTE C. DAGUM

(week 4)
(Week No.4)
LESSON 4
LITERARY CONVENTIONS OF GENRE
Learning competency/ies: Write a draft of a short piece (Fiction, Poetry, Drama,
etc.) 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

Objectives
This lesson aims to:

a. discover the meaning of genre through movie posters;

b. critique a poem using the conventions of genre; and
c. express emotions and feelings in composing nonfictional pieces.

Review
FOSTER THAT POSTERS
Directions: Discover the differences of the six movies presented below. Notice
how they differ with each other in terms of story line, characters and character
developments, plot, and plot structure.

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 Pre-assessment
1. This refers to the category you choose to write, or the sort of material
you will be able to write.
a. genre b. theme c. literati d. scansion
2. Which category of genre do Arrival, Alien and Terminator, and
Martian belong with?
a. action b. thriller c. horror d. sci-fi
3. What is the other name of action as genre?
a. biopic b. adventure c. animated d. western
4. Stories with magic, monsters, superpowers and other things that do
not exist in reality.
a. fantasy b. cult c. realistic d. drama
5. Fictional stories based on or around important people or events from
the past.
a. realistic b. fantasy c. historical d. crime
6. A story that involves a detective or some kind of puzzle/scenario that
needs to be solved.
a. mystery b. gangster c. film noir d. horror
7. A type of text that provides facts about many different topics. It
meant to inform the reader.
a. narrative b. informational c. persuasive d. discourse
8. A type of writing written to encourage feeling and create thoughtful
response. This type of writing often uses rhyme and rhythm to
convey a message.
a. traditional b. poetry c. fantasy d. mystery
9. Fairytales, folktales, myths, legends, and tell-tales that come from
different cultures are part of this genre.
a. poetry b. traditional c. fantasy d. mystery
10. Cleopatra in Space #1: Target Practice
When a mysterious tablet zaps her into the future, Cleo learns it's
her destiny to save the galaxy. What genre is this?
a. realistic b. sci-fi c. traditional d. historical

Introduction
On this lesson, you will be informed with the functionality of genres in
literature. The lists of kinds and types of genres will be enumerated here
which were taken from the wide spectrum of books and films. Genres can be
classified as action-adventure, animation, art, biopic or biographical, comedy,
crime, cult, disaster, documentary, docudrama, drama, epics, film noir,
gangster, historical, horror, love story or romance, martial arts, melodrama,
mocumentary, musical, propaganda, science fiction, fantasy, satire, serial,

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series, sports, teen, thriller, tragedy, tragicomedy, western, war, and
underground.
The different genres will help us to be more specific about what type of
literature we want to read or talk about. Just like eating foods. We don’t
simply say, we want food. Instead, people would often tell you that they want
to eat – spaghetti, pizza, cake, Spanish paella, or Chinese sushi and noodles.
Genres could also be categorized as fiction and nonfiction. Examples of
fiction are stories, fairy tales, myths, legends, and fables. While biographies,
blogs, reports, and articles are all examples of nonfiction.
Some samples of literary texts, both fiction and nonfiction, will also be
tackled and scrutinized here as frame of references in understanding the wide
array of genres in literature.
Lastly, to look deeper into the context of genre, you will be devising and
composing pieces of nonfiction using your emotions and feelings. This will test
the extensiveness of your prior knowledge, since most of the genres were all
present since time immemorial.

Content
Literary Conventions of Genre
Genre is a word that often creeps into writing and can be easily
misunderstood or misread. Genre is simply the category you choose to write,
or the sort of material you will be able to write. It can exemplify the content,
the form, and the style of authors or writers.

Genre is a type of story that has a visceral appeal to its audience. It is

important in the telling of your story. This narrative decision determines how
we experience the story.

Genre is important in order to be able to organize writings based on

their form, content, and style. For example, this allows readers to discern
whether or not the events being written about in a piece are factual or
imaginative. Genre also distinguishes the purpose of the piece and the way in
which it is to be delivered. In other words, plays are meant to be performed
and speeches are meant to be delivered orally whereas novels and memoirs
are meant to be read (Writing Explained, 2020).

Common Features of Genres

The nature of the protagonist
The main character and the character’s goal are the primary
focus of the story in any genre. The qualities of the main character

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within a particular genre tend to be consistent, which makes the
shorthand dimensions of that character readily available to the writer.

The nature of the antagonist

The importance of the antagonist is constant throughout genres,
but the nature of the antagonist depends on the level of realism
associated within particular genres.

The shape of the dramatic action

All genre films have a very particular dramatic shape. And all
begin with the expected opening and the fate of the character will differ
in accordance with genre conventions, and in each case, the characters’
attempts to fulfil their goals will dictate the shape of the dramatic
action.

Examples:

 a soldier is inducted into the army to fight in a foreign war . . . we

will find out if the soldier survives
 a cowboy dreams of acquiring land and a cattle herd . . . what
personal sacrifices is necessary for the cowboy to improve himself
 a poor boy from the Midwest wants to improve his life in the
industrial Northeast. . . and what transgressions are necessary
for the young Midwesterner to get ahead.
 Gangster stories tend to be shaped around the rise and fall of a
gangster
 Crime and police stories are shaped around the perpetration of a
crime, its investigation, and its successful resolution.

Catalytic event
Every genre has its own kind of catalytic event. The catalytic
event should occur quickly or the dramatic vitality of the genre is
dissipated. The audience expects a quick start. Examples of which are
stolen cattle, a friend’s death, the end of the Civil War, and/or Indian
raid; a crime; or a young family moves into a reputedly haunted house.

The Resolution
Dramatic action leads to the resolution. But not every genre leads
us to the same kind of resolution. Whatever the reason, resolution does
not come from the individual action of the main character.

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 Narrative Style
Every genre has a particular narrative style that the audience
expects and enjoys. Violence and violent resolution to conflict
characterize the genre.

Narrative shape
Different genres exhibit different shapes. The primary
consideration here is the level of intensity the genre requires to be in
tune with the goals of the main character.

Examples:

 Adventure and Thriller Films - time is critical in action; the level

of threat to the main character has to be constant so that the
audience stays interested in the plot.
 Situation Comedy and War Film – far less important
 Film noir – the main character is desperate, trying to survive his
tragic fate.
 Western and Situation Comedy - the relationship with the main
character is relatively more relaxed; thus, the narrative shape is
also more relaxed.

Tone
Tone can range from the fantastic in the adventure film and the
musical, to the realistic in the war film and the melodrama. Tone also
ranges from the ironic in the screwball comedy and the satire, to the
engrossing in the thriller and the horror film.

Common Genres

Fiction texts – realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science

fiction, horror, mystery, adventure or survival, traditional literature, poetry,
western, underground, cult, documentary, mocumentary, and drama
(historical, social), chick lit, hyperpoetry, flash or speculative fiction, mobile
phone texttula, manga, comics, and doodle fiction

Nonfictional texts – newspaper articles, encyclopedias, dictionary,

biography, autobiography, memoir (micromemoir), testimonio, essays
(personal, lyric, reflective), speeches (persuasive, informative, entertaining,
procedural), open-letters, blog/vlog, newsletters, letters, diaries, journals,
oratory, true narratives, food writing, sports writing, feature writing, literary
journalism or reportage, and/or op-eds.

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 Self-Check Activities
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ON FLICKS
Directions: Listed below are titles of movies, stories, tv series, and nonfictional
works. Your task is to determine the genre of this piece of literature. Note that
there might be more one than genre per literary piece.

1. Schindler’s List ____________________________

2. Everything, Everything ____________________________
3. What Happened to Monday ____________________________
4. Extraction ____________________________
5. The Diary of Anne Frank ____________________________
6. Perfume: Story of a Murderer ____________________________
7. Mama Mia: Here We Go Again ____________________________
8. Letters to Juliet ____________________________
9. The Five People You Meet in Heaven ____________________________
10. Midsommar ____________________________
11. Victoria and Abdul ____________________________
12. Far from the Madding Crowd ____________________________
13. Sacagawea ____________________________
14. Birds of Prey ____________________________
15. Star Wars Solo ____________________________
16. The Grudge ____________________________
17. Jack and the Beanstalk ____________________________
18. The Huckleberry Finn ____________________________
19. 13 Reasons Why ____________________________
20. Game of Thrones ____________________________

Key Concepts
 Genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined
by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction)
length.
 The common features of genre are: the nature of the protagonist, the
nature of the antagonist, the shape of the dramatic action, the catalytic
event, the Resolution, the narrative Style, the narrative shape, the tone.
 Genres are present in both fictional and nonfictional works.
 Some common examples of genres in literature are dramas, stories,
essays, biographies, poems, traditional literature, memoirs,
autobiographies, biographies, news articles, etc.

Evaluation

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 Critique the poem taken from the Mindanao Poetry: Thematic Concerns
compiled by Ricardo M. De Ungria. Discuss also the emotions and feelings
present in it.

from the Diary of Hadidja Hasim Musa

by: Melito Baclay

Clad in the red malong

Ling Saiya the youngest
daughter of Intan
comes at the dawn to inform me about
the arrival of
Hadji Datu Abdul Karim Sijki

She says that he

is one of our next kinsman
from Dulawan

It was foggy when I met him

this morning
He with a hat full of lilies
on his way home
from the swampy fields

while I was just starting

my slippery climb
down hill

Lulled to sleep
At the water’s edge
by the lingering breath of the lake
I wake to
the velvety touch of wool
as he bends down to cover me
face and over from
the melt of dying stars

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 Enrichment Activities
THE POWER OF SPEECH
Directions: Read the speech of Greta Thunberg about climate change. Notice
the strong emotions and feelings present in the speech.

Speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summer

by: Greta Thunberg, Time Person of the Year 2019
My message is that we'll be watching you.
"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you
all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones.
People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass
extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come
here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not
want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you
would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
"The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below
1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.
"Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback
loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also
rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that
barely exist.
"So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.
"To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the
[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] – the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan.
1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.
"How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions?
With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.
"There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these
numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future
generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking
up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
"Thank you."

If you are going to message Greta Thunberg right now, what could be the
contents of your letter? Write down your emotions on the box below.

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 Bibliography
Books

Solmerano, E.T., et. al (2017). Creative Nonfiction. Fastbooks Educational

Supply. Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines.

Websites

De Ungria, R. (2015). Mindanao Poetry: Thematic Concerns. Davao Writers

Association.

Thunberg, G. (2019). Speech at the U.N. Climate Change. Retrieved from:

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-
speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit. Retrieval Date: June 19, 2020.

Writing Explained (2019). What is Genre? Definition, Examples of Genre in Literature.

Retrieved from: https://writingexplained.org/grammar- dictionary/genre. Retrieval
Date: July 19, 2020

Movie Posters

The Grudge (2020). Retrieved from:

https://allthingsmovieposters.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/modern-horror-
movie- posters/. Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

Toy Story 4 (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.joblo.com/movie-

posters/2018/toy-story-4/image-35115. Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

Beauty and the Beast (2017). Retrieved from:

https://www.amazon.com/BEAUTY-BEAST-Original-Authentic-
Poster/dp/B07BTFJCTW. Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

Inception (2010). Retrieved from:

https://thefilmprof.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/inception-and-genre/.
Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

Fault in Our Stars (2012). Retrieved from:

https://www.pinterest.ph/thefaultmovie/the-fault-in-our-stars-posters/.
Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). Retrieved from:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/STAR-WARS-Movie-Poster-
Episode/dp/B076BX7WQ7. Retrieval Date: July 19, 2020

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