Augustinian Writing Style Research
Augustinian Writing Style Research
Augustinian Writing Style Research
JANETTE O. PIELAGO,
Masters of Arts in Cultural Education
English Teacher
MIKE E. DAMASO
Masters of Arts in Cultural Education
English Teacher
EMMANUEL D. DUMASIG
Masters Of Arts in Cultural Education
Filipino Teacher
Introduction
Many findings reveal that creative writing develops student’s imagination,
creativity, thinking skills, their ability to express themselves freely, and their written
expression skills while also helping them to realize a certain level of self-confidence.”
With the creative writing that was on our everyday on the list for development for our
number one client, the Learners, the researchers are finding means to give best
development for our learners. We, the researchers as Special Program in the Arts
Teachers, aside from Theater Arts skills, Visual Arts, Skills, Musical Skills, Dance and
Creative writings tends to give values on the various works and diversity of creativity
among our students. The researchers always love the cultures and traditions of our native
country, thus, nationalism and portrayal of unity and God fearing society are amongst our
aim to provide life long learning for our students in our stations at Zambales and
Olongapo City.
Saint Augustine once uttered the love of beauty and arts as” Since love grows
within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul” speaks the love and
appreciation for one’e self. We really have to love and appreciate our self in order for the
other s to bring back the best in us. If one doesn’t appreciate self, do they think it would
be easy or difficult to appreciate someone else? It is like appreacting the word of our God
in aesthetics of creativity, arts and Culture. We really have to appreciate what is in our
hands, skills, beauty and the totality of us and that’s the greatest gift for ones self. We
could find things in our past, or even in our present, which we might think would make
us unable to be appreciated or for which we find to be repulsive within ourselves. If we
focus on that, yes, we will feel repulsed. But most of us have a broader base than that,
and can draw on many other things for which we can have self-appreciation, and for
which we could believe that others would appreciate us.
Augustine is remarkable for what he did and extraordinary for what he wrote. If
none of his written works had survived, he would still have been a figure to be reckoned
with, but his stature would have been more nearly that of some of his contemporaries.
However, more than five million words of his writings survive, virtually all displaying
the strength and sharpness of his mind (and some limitations of range and learning) and
some possessing the rare power to attract and hold the attention of readers in both his day
and ours. In the record of history, his distinctive theological style shaped Latin
Christianity in a way surpassed only by Scripture itself. His work continues to hold
contemporary relevance, in part because of his membership in a religious group that was
dominant in the West in his time and remains so today.
In this perspective, we adapted his style of writing to help us appreciate the
development of our students and thus see to it that we are giving and providing leanings
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from the views of Augustinian regarding development of love of culture, arts and
religion.
There are new trends in academic writing scenario because international education is
undergoing rapid change, apart from traditional mode of teaching-learning. Nowadays,
time and place are not problematic in education because digital literacy did transform
education as a whole. Earlier, teacher centered mode of education limited the scope of
child-centered instruction, but advanced levels of modern education totally discards the
same. Still, those who are with less mastery over language and creativity face several
problems. But daily interaction with teachers, peers and writing exercises can help to
improve one's writing skills. Students are expected to have a bird's eye view on the global
trends in writing with creativity. To be specific, students are expected to have deeper
understanding on the changes happing within education in global context because they
are the future workforce of their nations. Innovative ideas must be adopted to improve
one's writing owing to the new trends because innovativeness is the key towards success.
Issues.
Creative writing skill is defined as the ability to originate with free imagination in regard
to a particular topic on any form of writing. It involves going beyond without deviating
from normal values. It is further defined as specific abilities which help the students put
their thoughts into words in a meaningful and logical form based on four creative writing
skills dimensions namely; authenticity (the ability to produce unusual, unique ideas or
idea that is infrequent), proficiency (the ability to create a sizeable number of ideas),
flexibility (ability to have a variety of ideas) and elaboration (ability to develop or
embellish ideas and produce many details).
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Creative writing can be both incredibly funny and incredibly terrifying for high
school students. It is incredibly funny because it gives students a break from formal essay
writing and vocabulary tests. It can be incredibly terrifying if the students are uncertain of
their writing ability, creativity or imagination. As language education in the high school
level gives due emphasis to writing skill; creative writing and expository writing
activities are normally provided in Language classrooms. In fact the line between creative
writing and expository writing is not carved in stone. In general creative writing texts
draw more heavily on intuition, close observation, imagination and personal memories
than expository writing texts which are purely informative and instrumental.
Language curriculum prescribed for high school students provides opportunities for
expression of free thoughts, but the fact is that the real nature and purpose of
creative writing is not met in Junior High School Language Classrooms. Lack of
emphasis on the major creative faculty can lead to dissonance and low motivational
levels, as the student’s multiple needs are not being met. Focusing extensively on
form can leave little room for the cultivation of views, opinions and ideas. Students
often feel nervous about writing or expressing ideas, and they wonder if the way
that they are expressing themselves is the correct way or not, and whether they are
meeting teaching expectations. Teachers can open students’ minds and inspire them
to imagine worlds other than their own through setting up creative processes in the
classroom that release the imagination. Allowing the ‘inner voice’ to be heard and
for personal visions to be shared is an important part of establishing a positive
working environment that can encourage students to write.
Studies conducted by ahour (2009), Weiss,et al (1997), Green (2000), Alan Maley
(2009), Bartscher, et al (2001) reveal that there are certain factors like insufficient
practice in writing skill, insufficient time allocation, language barriers, cultural
barriers, emotional barriers, improper language learning environment affecting the
creative writing ability.
The present language classroom transaction gives more emphasis to the creative
domain. Hence learners are expected to meet these demands through creative,
critical, reflective, lateral thinking techniques in ELT classroom. While they come
across these types of classroom activities it is felt that they encounter difficulties in
producing creative output. By this study an attempt is made to find out the
difficulties experienced by high school students in creative writing in a language.
The present paper illustrates the aspects inhibiting creative writing in of Junior
school students. The findings of the study must be brought to the notice of teachers
so that they can adopt measures to overcome the difficulties of the learners in the
area of creative writing and get the best creative output from them.
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To understand a text, therefore, one had to know the objects of which the words
within the text were the signs ; when an author writes about his own thoughts, it
is necessary to know the intent of the author. Augustine does allow for authors who
deliberately introduce complexity into their writing ; primarily, however, texts
become difficult to interpret when their subject matter brings out the inherent
weaknesses of discursive speech. Since the qualities of language as a system of
signification directly affect the ability of an author to express, and the reader to grasp,
any particular idea, Augustine had to address two different issues in his work on
language. He could largely abandon such time-worn issues as the relationship between
name and object— whether names exist by nature or convention, although he does
comment on it. Instead, he needed to explain the particular qualities of speech which
made it such an imperfect tool for describing abstract ideas and the divine. This
effort led Augustine to consider the mechanics whereby man transforms ideas in the mind
into perceptible utterances, and whereby that utterance is received by another’s senses,
yet impacts his mind. By his way of thinking, then, in order to explain the use of
signs he needed to outline the relationship between the senses and the mind truly adapts
this style to help learners cope with the different difficulties.
discussions made by the researchers during their sharing to the learners about the
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life, learnings and creative writing style of Augustion at Special Program in the
Arts students of Subic National High School as well as the knowledge affecting
creativity in writing and thinking like the concept making, originality and
philosophical view like Augustine had. The methods and strategies, facilities and
administration and supervision roles will be looked into to determine the degree
said school.
1. Paradigm
2.
3. 1. What is the 1. Conduct
social- survey and
4. demography of
interview
5. the respondents
covering the
6. following:
7.
1.1 Age
8.
1.2 Gender Improve the
9.
1.3 Residence creativity in Writing
1.4 Number
10. of years in the 2. Tabulation of by the application of
Curriculum result Augustinian Styles
1.5 Parents’
11. Educational of students.
Attainment
12.
1.6 Parents’ Average
Monthly Income 13.
14.
2. How do the
respondents 15.
3. Interpretation
perceive Creative 16.
of results
writing in
17.
application with
the Augustinian 18.
Styles in terms 19.
of:
20.
2.1 Creativity;
2.2 Learning
Skills;
2.3 Concept
Making
Zambales. As, study skill is a large domain by itself future researches may fill in the gap
between creativity and concept making and styles.
This may have an effect on the generalizability of the study and its findings. However, its
findings, at least some portion and extent of it may still hold true to other schools
possessing the same characteristics or adhering to the same educational vision, mission,
objectives, and curricula of the studies of the Philippines.
Using the variables studied in this research, the mentors can identify the gap between the
creativity process and lifting the spirit of value of Love with society and religion. And as
accordance to SHMOOP(2019) and in relation to saint Augustine Confessions the styles
in writing that may help the students are:
• Personal, probably more than most first person narratives;
Faith, makes strong relationship with God
• Analytical; Augustinian talks about Philosophical Ideas, Loves to ask questions
that slowly build toward a conclusion
This research would give an opportunity for Students and Teachers of learning institutes
in Subic, to have more accurate planning of ensuring additional ways on creativity with
the help of building up with values and faith. The results from this study may also be
used for future researchers in other educational field in the Philippines specifically in the
Arts program. It is also an opportunity for researchers to use the findings from this
research to explore the creativie writing style of SPA students.
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Method
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research design used in the study; including the selection
Research Design
The study made use of descriptive survey in gathering of data. The descriptive
method will be used to assess the leanings in Augustinian style of writing of Junior High
School students in the Subic National High School- Special Program in the arts with
providing facts in which scientific judgments may be based. They provide essential
knowledge about the nature of the objects and persons. It is an organized attempt to
analyze, interpret, and report the present status of an institution, group or area and this
Research Locale
The study was conducted in Special Program in the Arts of Subic National High
School, Subic Zambales. This study is on Subic National High School which is located
Subic,
Zambales
Sampling Technique
sampling technique.
To determine the size of the sample, the researcher used the Slovin’s formula
(Pagoso, et al)
n = N/(1+Ne²)
where
e = margin of error
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e = 5%
N = 250
Based on the result of the computation using the 5% margin of error, the sample
This study involved randomly selected SPA Students who are currently employed
during the school year 2019-2020 from Subic National High School
Table 1
Students
Grade 8 4 16%
Grade 9 9 36%
Grade 10 12 48%
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Research Instrument
constructed and developed based from the readings of different theses and on-line
researches.
by the students which includes the age, sex, time management, parents’ educational
Part II-A of the instrument focused on their learnings about the disucssions they
experienced about Augustinian way of writing. Each column contains a descriptive rating
such as (5) Very Important, (4) Important, (3) Somewhat Important, (2) Less Important,
and (1) Not Important. The gathering instrument will be supported by unstructured
where: P - percentage
N- total number of
respondents
2. Weighted Mean. It is a mean where there are some variations in the relative
contribution of individual data values to the mean. Each data value has a weight assigned
to it. Data values with larger weights contribute more to the weighted mean and data
values with smaller weights contribute less to the weighted mean. Weighted mean will be
used in this study because each individual data value might actually represent a value that
is used by multiple people in the sample. The weight, then, is the number of people
P= f - frequency
x
100
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3. t – test. This will be used in the study to determine the significant difference
between variables.
where: t = t – test
t=
t= √ N ∑D2 - (∑ D) 2/ N-
1
D = difference between mean
NNNN NnN - 1
difference on the level of perceptions when grouped according to the profile of the
respondents. Whenever the t-test is not the appropriate tool to use, as in cases where there
are three (3) or more groups of variables to be tested, the ANOVA or F will be resorted
to. This tool is considered appropriate because Downie and Heath as mentioned by
Ballares (1999), stressed that the Analysis of Variance or F is one of the most widely
4. To complete the ANOVA table, calculate the mean of sum of squares. MSS =
SS / df
Df = degrees of freedom
F = MSSb / MSSW
6. Decision Criteria: The computed value was compared against the tabular value
at 0.05 level of significance and the decision on whether to accept of reject the
b. Accept the null hypothesis (Ho) if computed value is less than the
√ = Square root
∑ = Summation of variables
computation.
6. Likert Scale. In interpreting the averages of the rating for the questions, the
Procedure:
writing Style to 25 selected participants of the research paper. They are told to
measure their creative thinking through the application of Likert Scale in the
different categories:
Do you believe after aligning Augustinian writing style, this exist on your creative
writing process ?
Pedagogies Very Important Somewhat Less Not
Important importantl Important Important
1.As per learnings from
our Augustinian wrting
style discussions, at a
deeper level I think
Augustine is also saying
that it’s important for your
words to be grounded in
truth, so I might be
applying this concept to
my works
2. as writers, love of
language and form, even if
that’s the place you start
(and that’s where many of
the best writers start),
should nonetheless
generate a search for the
meaning your form wants
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to say.
3. Augustine believed that
it was often better to be
humble and enter through
the low doors and “narrow
openings” of biblical
realism so that the reader
could enter into a more
spacious realm
4. Even though Augustine
became a Christian and
felt a strong impulse to
criticize the tidal force of
paganism and
“worldliness” in his time,
he did not retreat into a
religious subculture or
ignore the cultural and
literary legacies that
shaped the society in
which he lived. This ideas
got me into thinking.
5, I have learned from
Augustine that I’ve said
before that we don’t judge
great books, they judge us.
Maybe a truer way to put it
is that while we read those
books, they read us. Write
in such a way that your
books or workd will read
your readers’ lives.
6, Being a writer demands
a high level of cleverness,
but you will never move
your readers if you turn
your writing into self-
justification or mere
virtuosity. Unless you are
willing to play the fool,
caper about and be honest
about your woundedness,
you’ll leave your reader
out in the cold.
7. What if everything you
wrote was a prayer to God
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DISCUSSIONS
The results of the study show that the application of Augustinian writing style is effective
in increasing creativity of the writers of Special Program in the Arts of Subic National
High School even if differences are always visible among them as we see in their
profiling. On the other hand, it is also found that using Augustinian Writing Style has a
positive effect on writing dispositions of Special Program in the Arts students. Based on
these results, it can be suggested that Augutinian writing style in creative writing
skill and let them to write more and make strong connection on their faith and inner
teacher guided by teachings of good decision making, as our attempt to discuss in the
class about Augustinian. But the mean score obtained from fast thinking scale of the SPA
students who are attending creative writing course has decreased after the experiment.
But this change isn’t statistically significant. However, it can be said that studying only
writing skill may not affect attitude to a course so easily. On the other hand when it is
considered that the study has continued only for 2 weeks, it can also be said that this
amount of time is not enough to change an attitude for creativity. This could perhaps stem
from the fact that the time allocated for the study was not sufficient to change an attitude
positively in creativity as this gives them ideas, learning and valuable experiences they
will use in the future. Colantone, Cunnigham-Wetmore and Dreznes (1998) in their study
which was used writing creative programme while applying different styles in 3 different
schools for 8 weeks time and within the pre and post test design, analysis strategies and
creative writing Augustinian style was used in the study. According to post test results,
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creative writing skills and the writing fluency of the students have increased. This study’s
result aligns well with the present study’s writing test results. Dai (2010) in the study
university of China suggested that the creative writing course allowed students the
freedom to explore different aspects of their lives; their language proficiency improved. It
has not only changed students’ attitudes towards writing, but also helped them grow and
know each other better. Erdoğan (2012) in the study to find out the effects of creative
writing using different styles in creativity, collaborative creative writing and writing
attitude towards writing and opinions of teachers’ and students’ regarding to the course
has found that as a result between the gain scores of experimental and control groups in
supporting the experimental group. Between the gain scores of 1st and 2nd experimental
differences were found supporting the 1st experimental group. Duran (2010), in the
research the effect of creative writing styles on the development of written expression
skills of students in the first stage of primary education was analyzed conceptually. It was
found out that the development of writing skills of students in the first stage of primary
education was affected positively by the activity and styles which was prepared in
accordance with the creative writing techniques. Duran’s study also aligns well with the
present study findings. Both studies claim that writing skill of students are positively
affected by creative writing activities. Kuvanç (2008) indicated that using creative
writing activities was effective on the increase of vocabulary of the students; Mollaoğlu
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(2002) highlights that after implementing the creative writing skill and styles, there was
a study to show the effectiveness of creative writing techniques and style on the
students’ attitudes and creativity in Turkish Course has done and the experimental group
were divided into two creative writing lessons and information provided about
techniques. Experiment group, 8 weeks, were conducted in two hours in a week writing
analysis of data gathered in research it is revealed that the exercises related to creative
writing affected the attitudes of the students towards writing positively. But in the present
study, it is found that attitude to English course are not changed positively. Tütüniş and
Küçükali (2014) have conducted their study to find an answer to the question ‘Can we
improve our students’ writing skills in English if we apply creative writing techniques
and styles as a classroom process?’. As a result they have claimed that the creative
writing training had a positive effect on students’ writing skills. There is a significant
difference between the experimental and the control groups. The results reveal that the
experimental group benefited highly from the study. This study also claims that creative
writing activitie and discussions had a positive effect on student’s writing skill so that
both studies support each other’s findings. Tüfekçioğlu (2010), in the study named
“examination of writing skill in terms of some variables” found that composition writing
success of participants which is related with gender, profile and noting conditions is also
related with their writing disposition. Tüfekçioğlu’s findings and this present study’s
findings go well with each other because this study claims that writing disposition is also
greatly had a better impact. Aktaş (2009) indicated the study which aiming at evaluating
Portfolio in Common European Framework in Italian Language it has been found that the
writing processes and the competence perception of learners became effective. Aktaş’s
study also goes well with the present study in terms of writing process. Similar researches
can be done in the native language of students. And also in this study attitude and writing
disposition variables are taken into account only and measured the effect on them but for
further research some other variables such as writing fluency, attitude to writing can also
be studied. Consequently, some suggestions can be done for the language teachers;
II. Conclusion
We therefore conclude that after some questions and answers surveys and through
discussion creative writing activities and styles are suggested to be integrated in writing
classes in language classes. And writing skill should be valued as much as other skills
and be carefully studied on this skill. It is also suggested that in our study about this ,the
syllabus of language course may be revised and implemented some creative writing
activities, in addition styles are helpful, otherwise the Application of Augustinian Styles
thus, a significant idea in creating their output with orirginality, better concept, while
maintain culture and making strong connection with our love of God..
III. Recommendation
Teach students to adapt their Augustinian writing style depending on the audience and
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purpose. For example, when students use a planning strategy to write a persuasive essay,
they should keep in mind that the appropriate supporting evidence will depend upon the
audience and thus, they should carry out the planning strategy differently based on the
audience.
For a writing assignment in a social studies class, the strongest supporting evidence may
be quotes from historical figures and events, while the strongest supporting evidence for
an assignment in a science class may be results and statistics from a science experiment
Example 1.6 challenges students to use the same strategy to evaluate an informative
Example 1.7 illustrates an assignment that challenges students to write two persuasive
essays using Augustinian Style on the same topic for two different audiences
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