NOTRE DAME OF NEW ILOILO, INC.

A Diocesan School
NEW ILOILO, TANTANGAN, SOUTH COTABATO
Tel. No. (083) 229 – 1113
Email Address: [email protected]

SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING GRADE LEVEL: TWELVE

QUARTER: ONE WEEK: ONE

I. OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. use imagery, diction, figures of speech, and specific experiences, and;
2. write a brief literary description or a short paragraph through making sense of pictures
and songs.

II. PRE-ASSESSMENTS
Directions: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Encircle your answers.

1. Figurative language is a language that:

A. uses words or phrases which is different from the literal meaning
B. deviates from the normal language to convey an unusual meaning
C. makes writing interesting and vivid
D. All of the above
2. “Like as the armed knight appointed to the field” is an example of:
A. Simile B. Metaphor C. Personification D. Hyperbole
3. ______________ is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is described in terms of
another thing associated to it.
A. Simile B. Metaphor C. Metonymy D. Synecdoche
4. A figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent
person, is addressed as if present and capable of understanding is called:
A. Alliteration B. Apostrophe C. Synecdoche D. Metonymy
5. Which of the following is NOT true about diction?
A. It is the prescribed words used by the writers.
B. It is the word choice an author uses to convey a particular tone. \
C. It includes formality of the language, the emotional content, and the sounds of words.
D. It is the combination of denotation, connotation, concrete and abstract words, and sound
devices

III. CONTENT/ DISCUSSION INFORMATION

Lesson 1 – Imagery, Diction, and Figures of Speech

Imagery as a general term covers the use of language to represent objects, actions, feelings,
thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory experience. It is a figurative language used to
appeal to the senses through vivid descriptive language. Imagery creates mental pictures in the
reader as they read the text.
Example:
An excerpt from Peter Redgrove’s Lazarus and the Sea contains imagery:
The tide of my death came whispering like this
Soiling my body with its tireless voice.
I scented the antique moistures when they sharpened
The air of my room, made the rough wood of my bed, (most dear),
Standing out like roots in my tall grave.

Diction refers to the selection of words in a literary work. A work’s diction forms one of its
centrally important literary elements as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply
attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. It includes the formality of the language, the
emotional content, the imagery, the specificity, and the sounds of the words.
Example:
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that East doth hold.”
- Anne Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”

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 NOTRE DAME OF NEW ILOILO, INC.
A Diocesan School
NEW ILOILO, TANTANGAN, SOUTH COTABATO
Tel. No. (083) 229 – 1113
Email Address: [email protected]
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• The use of antiquated words such as “thy” instead of “your” and “doth” instead of “do”
gives the poem a formal diction.
• These antiquated words are considered grand, elevated, and sophisticated language.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech are words or phrases used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid
effect.

The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification,
apostrophe, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy, oxymoron, and paradox.

1. Simile – a stated comparison (formed with “like” or “as” between two fundamentally
dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
Example: “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” – Langston Hughes, “Harlem”
2. Metaphor – an implied comparison between two unlike things that have something in
common.
Example: “Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –”
- Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”
3. Onomatopoeia – uses words that imitate sounds associated with objects or actions.
Example: “The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack by whack.”
- James Joyce, “Ulysses”
4. Personification – endows human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects or abstraction.
Example: “Ah, William, we’re wary of the weather,” said the sunflowers shining with
dew. – William Blake, “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room”
5. Apostrophe – is addressing an absent person or thing that is an abstract, inanimate, or
inexistent character.
Example: “Death be not proud, though some have called thee.”
- John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”
6. Hyperbole – a figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis.
Example: “To make enough noise to wake the dead.”
– R. Davies, “What’s Bred in the Bone”
7. Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole, and thus something
else is understood within the thing mentioned.
Example: “Give us this day out daily bread”
*Bread stands for the meals taken each day.
8. Metonymy – a figure of speech in which the name of an attribute or a thing is substituted for
the thing itself.
Example: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
– William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”
*Lend me your ears = to pay attention; to listen
9. Oxymoron – a figure of speech which combines incongruous and apparently contradictory
words and meanings for a special effect.
Example: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything! of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!”
- William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”
10. Paradox – a statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd yet
turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes sense.
Example: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally.
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
- John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”

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 NOTRE DAME OF NEW ILOILO, INC.
A Diocesan School
NEW ILOILO, TANTANGAN, SOUTH COTABATO
Tel. No. (083) 229 – 1113
Email Address: [email protected]
_____________________________________________________________________________________
IV. ASSESSMENT
I. Outside Looking In.
Directions: Below are excerpts from different literary texts. Identify what figure of speech is
exemplified in each number. Choose your answer from the box.

Simile Apostrophe Metaphor Hyperbole Oxymoron

Onomatopoeia Synecdoche Paradox Personification Metonymy

1. “Ebony and ivory / Live together in perfect harmony” (McCartney & Wonder)
2. “Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!”
(Shakespeare)
3. “Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes Whom envy hath immured within your walls”
(Shakespeare)
4. “He watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls.” (Tennyson)
5. “That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me.” (Donne)
6. “Even at night time, Mama is sunrise.” (Hunt)
7. “The western wave was all a-flame. The day was well nigh done!” (Coleridge)
8. “A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was
nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with…” (Lee)
9. “…the glish of squirting taps plus slush of foam knocked off and a faint piddle of drops...”
(e.e. cummings)
10. “Fall had barely touched the full splendor of trees…” (Knowles)

II. What is it like?

Directions: Take a very careful look at the picture below. Write a brief paragraph of the place
using imagery, diction, and figures of speech. You may incorporate an experience related to the
location to make your literary description more vivid.

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 NOTRE DAME OF NEW ILOILO, INC.
A Diocesan School
NEW ILOILO, TANTANGAN, SOUTH COTABATO
Tel. No. (083) 229 – 1113
Email Address: [email protected]
_____________________________________________________________________________________
III. Bring out the music in me!
Directions: Select one song inside the boxes which piqued your interest. Using your smartphone
or computer, listen to the song in any video or music streaming website you prefer. After listening,
read and accomplish what is described below.

“Imagine” by “Photograph” by Ed “The Scientist” by “Fast Car” by

John Lennon Sheeran Coldplay Tracy Chapman
“Rainbow” by “In the End” by Linkin “You Belong With Me” “Out of My
Southborder Park by Taylor Swift League” by
Stephen Speaks

Write a about a memory triggered by the music you have chosen. Think of where you are when
you last heard the music and what it meant for you. Include any images that come into mind. Be
sure to make your paragraph interesting by using different figures of speech.
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V. FEEDBACK
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