Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region IV- A CALABARZON
Schools Division of Cavite Province
Emiliano Tria Tirona Memorial National Integrated High School
Gahak, Kawit, Cavite

SUPPLEMENTARY LEARNING MATERIAL

GRADE 12 CREATIVE WRITING: NON-FICTION
WEEK 1

Lesson: Analyzing the theme and the techniques used in a particular text.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wished that you could capture a vivid memory or experience in words? Do you dream of writing
about a historical or cultural figure who fascinated you? Is there a family history you have always wanted to share, or
one of your life’s adventures that you have always said to yourself would make a wonderful story? Have you ever
wanted to launch a new career as a writer or wanted to explore writing as a private passion?
Writing well is not only useful, but it helps us preserve our life experiences as they truly occurred or as we felt
them. It lets us share stories in ways that others find compelling. Creative nonfiction can open whole new windows
on the way you and your readers experience history— maybe your history.
This course will help you write effectively about the things that matter to you, and it will introduce you to the
exciting and quickly growing field of creative nonfiction—the art of bringing all the traditional strategies of fictional
storytelling to narrating real-life events.
In this course, you will learn how to craft powerful memoirs and family histories, how to write a biography of
fascinating figure, the history of an inspiring moment, or a work of riveting travel writing.
This course takes you from the beginning to the end of the process of writing creative nonfiction: from finding your
story and crafting great beginnings to finding an audience for your book and working through the revision process. It
offers first-hand advice from a bestselling author on breaking into the world of publishing and plenty of hands-on
exercises for anyone simply interested in learning how to write more powerfully about his or her personal
experiences.
Along the way, you will also learn about how to write chapters that are page-turners, how to develop gripping
characters, and how to find the right structure for your story. You will learn how to develop the research skills to
support your writing and how to write about the lives of people Scope: Scope 2 you know in ways that will not make
them uncomfortable. You will learn how to use cliff-hanger endings that keep your readers on the edge of their seats,
how to keep your reader imaginatively engaged in factual history, and how to avoid common pitfalls like mixed
metaphors, purple prose, and stock characters. You will also learn about the ethics of writing about true experiences,
biographies, and autobiographies and how to avoid—unlike some recent controversial authors—breaking what
writers and editors call the nonfiction contract.

DEVELOPMENT

Task 1 – Let’s See Your Creativity

Directions: Challenge yourself by thinking creatively how the given words or phrases can be represented by logical
analyses. Use your notebook for your answers.
Given: SEE FOR YOURSELF
Answer:
Yourself
C Yourself
Yourself
Yourself

1. STAY OVERNIGHT or OVERNIGHT STAY

2. CROSS BREED
3. BANANA SPLIT
4. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST
5. WHAT COMES UP, MUST COME DOWN

1
Welcome to Creative Nonfiction
To write great creative nonfiction, a writer must tell a fact-based story in an imaginative way—not as easy a task as
it sounds! Nonfiction writers must be dedicated to preserving the truth of their stories—the who, what, why, where,
when, and how. The creativity enters through the use of perspective, which, like a camera lens, allows the writer to
focus the reader’s attention and engage his or her imagination.
The Elements of a Great (True) Story
 You have always wanted to write: Perhaps you have bought a book completing your novel in 90 days or
breaking into publishing. Perhaps you have taken a creative writing class. Maybe you have a half-completed
project in a desk drawer. Maybe you have started a family history, a biography, or a memoir.
 If you have ever wanted to write about a true event or your personal experience but wanted to do it with
panache, then you have been thinking about writing creative nonfiction. To write creative nonfiction, you
need to learn great storytelling.
 Great storytelling requires a strong central character, gripping dialogue, and a fabulous beginning. It needs
paragraph after paragraph that keeps a reader wanting more, leading to a satisfying ending.
 There are tricks of the trade—things that published writers learn from struggling with the same challenges all
writers face over and over, as well as from talking to each other about their struggles. And it is important to
note, what works for a great nonfiction story works just as well for a great fictional story, too.
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
 Imagine you are trying to tell a story. That story will be about a main character, and it will take place in a
setting, just as a play consists of an actor who performs on a stage.
 Because this story is nonfiction, it will consist primarily of facts. You will have facts about the setting—the
“where” and “when” of the story. You will have facts about the main character—usually a “who,” but possibly
a “what.”
 Based on just those few facts, you can write an opening paragraph. That paragraph should show the reader
the who, where, and when, but in a way that raises as many questions as it answers to engage the reader’s
imagination.
 Opening paragraphs tease the reader by using the facts as they exist in the real world but delivering them
from a certain perspective, or point of view, to make the reader start wondering about the character.
 The wonderful thing about creative nonfiction is that from the same facts, we can tell hundreds of different
stories. Everyone has a different perspective; simply changing the focus on the imaginary lens changes the
story.
 Learning to write creative nonfiction well is all about learning how to ¿ nd your voice and your perspective on
any story you want to writer.
One Story—Two Perspectives
 Here is an example of how two versions of a single nonfiction story can be simultaneously true to the facts
and yet completely different. In the first version, Professor Mazzeo enters The Great Courses studio, told with
an air of mystery.
The room was silent. As she walked to the oak podium, the carpet muffled the sound of her footsteps. Beyond the
windows, there was only blue, and she remembered her own days as an undergraduate, days when she sat, pen in
hand, far at the back of a room, filled with excitement. Now, she cleared her mind of the other things occupying her
mind, things she couldn’t tell anyone in this room about, things that shaped her own unwritten story. The problem
that obsessed her receded to the end of a long and distant tunnel, and what she needed to do now was the only thing
that came into focus. “Welcome to Writing Creative Nonfiction,” she said. “I’m Tilar Mazzeo, and together we’ll be
exploring what it means to write a great story.”
 Here is that same scene again, only this time, we consider the experience with a tone of tension and worry, as
Professor Mazzeo lets us know what problem so obsesses her.
The studio was oddly silent. She could see only the legs of the cameramen, hunched over the cameras, with their
empty glass camera eyes staring back at her like space aliens. As she walked across the stage to the oak podium, the
carpet muffled the sound of her footsteps, and the spotlight blinded her for a moment. Beyond the false windows,
there was only a blue panel, meant to suggest the sky, and she remembered her own days as an undergraduate. Her
shoes hurt, and she wished she had chosen another pair this morning. But of course she couldn’t say that. She put
that to the back of her mind. “Welcome to Writing Creative Nonfiction,” she said. “I’m Tilar Mazzeo, and together
we’ll be exploring what it means to write a great story.”
 By shifting what facts you know, you see the character in a different context, and by changing that context,
the way the story develops in the reader’s mind changes. Notice, however, that in both cases, every piece of
information was a fact.

ENGAGEMENT

The Importance of Facts

2
  Fiction, by definition, is a written work that is based on the writer’s imagination. Fiction does not have to be
true. Nonfiction, therefore, is the opposite. It is writing that is true to facts and history.
 On any given day, you might encounter many types of nonfiction: You might read the news in the morning;
read a popular autobiography on your lunch break; and review e-mails, memos, and meeting minutes
throughout your day at work.
 These are very different kinds of writing, but all of them are what we used to call, in a general way, good
journalism—a “who, what, why, where, when, and how,” fact-based approach to writing.
 Traditionally, university creative writing departments have been the place to learn fiction and poetry writing.
Today, many schools are offering programs in creative nonfiction as well. It is the fastest growing part of the
creative writing world—and the fastest growing part of the market for books too.
 Creative nonfiction gets a bit tricky because the “creative” part means the writer is using the techniques of
fictional storytelling. Unless the writer has warned you, the reader, that he or she is indulging in some
creativity, you have the right to assume everything in the story is true—and the right to get angry if it is not.
 Nonfiction writers have a sort of contract with readers: We are not allowed to make anything up. We must be
rigorous reporters of lived experience. Our impulses must be documentary.
 Despite this, the opportunities for creativity in nonfiction writing are immense. When writing is done at the
highest level of craftsmanship—when the way of telling the story is just as important as the story itself—we
often call that literature.
 All the strategies for telling a great story are the same, whether you are writing a novel or a work of
nonfiction: You must set a vivid scene that lets your reader see every detail. The difference is that details are
historically accurate.
Task 2 - Mr. A and Ms. B—A Writing Exercise
Directions: A. Here is your first writing exercise in creative nonfiction. First, read the following minutes of a
conversation between two people—Mr. A and Ms. B:

Mr. A expressed the desire to be given the envelope on the table immediately. “This is my history,” he stated. Ms.
B denied the request. Ms. B stated that his past actions were the source of her reluctance. Mr. A argued that his past
actions had been misunderstood. Ms. B responded: “You are a big jerk!”

 The setting is an office. The characters sit on opposite sides of a long table, and there is another woman sitting
at the end of the table, along with lots of empty chairs. There are fluorescent lights flickering.
 With so few facts, the real meaning of this scene is still up for debate, so here are some more: Mr. A and Ms.
B are a couple. The other woman is a mediator. The envelope contains photos of their lives together. And
once, years ago, Mr. A used their wedding photos as kindling for the fireplace by accident.

B. Your task is this: Using these and the other facts about the couple given in the lecture, write a paragraph describing
what you see in that room. Tell a good story, but only using the facts. No making things up! Use one whole sheet of
an Intermediate Pad (Grade 6) and submit your answer.
Criteria/Rubrics:
Criteria 5 4 3
Paragraphs The manuscript is free of The manuscript is The manuscript is a little
grammatical, spelling and somehow free of free of grammatical,
punctuation errors. grammatical, spelling and spelling and punctuation
punctuation errors. errors.
Descriptions The reader draws into the The reader can somehow The reader can
work from the beginning. draw into the work from draw a little into the work
the beginning. from the beginning.
Techniques There is a proper balance There is somehow a There is a little proper
between showing and proper balance between balance between showing
telling. Transitions are showing and telling. and telling. Transitions are
smooth. Tone is Transitions are smooth. smooth. Tone is
appropriate to subject Tone is appropriate to appropriate to subject
matter. subject matter. matter.
Dialogue, Narrative The dialogue do sound The dialogue somehow The dialogue
Exposition of a Good Story natural to the people and sounds natural to the sounds a little natural to
the situation. There is a people and the situation. the people and the
proper balance between There is somehow a situation.
dialogue and narrative. proper balance between There is a little proper
The exposition used is dialogue and narrative. balance between dialogue
balanced by other The exposition used is and narrative. The
forms of telling, and it Somehow balanced by exposition used is a little
3
 helps the work explore Other forms of telling, and balanced by other forms of
and develop ideas It somehow helps the telling, and it helps a little
thematic to the piece. work explore and develop the work explore and
ideas thematic to the develop ideas thematic to
piece. the piece.
ASSIMILATION

Important Terms

creative nonfiction: The art of bringing all the strategies of storytelling to the narration of factual events.
point of view: The perspective from which a story is told; may be first (I/ we), second (you), or third person
(he/she/it/they).

Questions for your own Assimilation

Use one whole sheet of an Intermediate Pad (Grade 6) and submit your answers.
1. What are your goals as a writer? What projects are you interested in exploring?
2. What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?
REFLECTION

Directions: Please complete the following statements below to express your thoughts regarding these lessons. Use
your notebook for your answers.

I understand that ___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________
I realize that _______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________