Creative writing, a form of

artistic expression, draws on

the imagination to convey
meaning through the use of
imagery, narrative, and drama.
 Creativity is at the
forefront of its purpose
through using
imagination, creativity,
and innovation in order to
tell a story through
strong written visuals
with an emotional
impact.
 Creative writing uses senses
and emotions in order to
create a strong visual in the
reader’s mind whereas other
forms of writing typically only
leave the reader with facts
and information instead of
emotional intrigue.
 This genre includes poetry,
fiction (novels, short stories),
scripts, screenplays, and
creative non-fiction.
 QUARTER 1
MODULE 1
Most Essential Learning Competency:
• Use imagery, diction, figures of speech
and specific experiences to evoke
meaningful responses from readers
(HUMSS_CW/MP11/12-Ia-b-4)
 You are expected here to produce short
paragraphs or vignettes using imagery, diction,
figures of speech, and variations of language.
Specifically, this module will help you to:
• use imagery, diction, figures of speech, and
specific experiences, and;
• write a brief literary description or a short
paragraph through making sense of pictures and
songs.
 Lesson 1
Imagery, Diction and
Figures of Speech
IMAGER
Ycovers
Imagery as
the use
a general term
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.
Example:
(1984 by George Orwell)
Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the world
looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were
whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the
sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to
be no colour in anything, except the posters that were
plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed
down from every commanding corner. There was one on the
house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes
looked deep into Winston’s own. Down at street level
another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the
wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word
INGSOC. In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down
between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle,
Example:
"The barn was very large. It was very old. It
smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It
smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and
the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It
often had a sort of peaceful smell­as though nothing
bad could happen ever again in the world. It smelled
of grain and of harness dressing and of axle
grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. And
whenever the cat was given a fish head to eat, the
barn would smell of fish. But mostly it smelled of
hay, for there was always hay in the great loft up
overhead. And there was always hay being pitched
down to the cows and the horses and the sheep.“
 DICTION
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”

• 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.
Example:
Then you must tell ’em dat love ain’t somethin’ lak uh
grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de
same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea.
It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape
from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every
shore.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)

•  In this passage, Janie’s diction reveals much about her

rural background and limited education in terms of her
manner of expression.
 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
 Other Examples:
Simile Metaphor
1. as dark as the 1. the world’s a stage –
night (life is full of drama)
2. as cool as a 2. heart of gold – (having
cucumber a loving and kind
personality)
3. fought like cats 3. a walking encyclopedia
and dogs – (a person with so much
knowledge)
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”
 Other Examples:
Onomatopoeia Personification
1. boom 1. The flowers nodded
their head cheerfully.
2. ding dong 2. There’s a lot of
opportunities knocking at
her door.
3. beep 3. I was terrified of the
howling wind last night.
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”
 Other Examples:
Apostrophe Hyperbole
1. Grim death, how foul 1. I have told you a million
and loathsome is thine times not to get your shoes
image! dirty.
2. Welcome, O life! I go to 2. Jake’s mom always cooks
encounter for the enough food to feed an
millionth time the reality army.
of experience and to forge
in the smithy of my soul
the uncreated conscience
of my race.
3. O wild West Wind, thou 3. I am so hungry I could
breath of Autumn's being! eat a horse.
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
 Other Examples:
Synecdoche Metonymy
1. He took us for a spin in his 1. The team needs some new
new wheels.  blood if it aims to win next
(wheels = car) season.
(New blood = new people or new
ideas)
2. I love to tickle the ivories. 2. I wish he would keep
(ivories = piano) his nose out of the plans.
(Nose = interest or attention)
3. There was no comment 3. When I came to visit, my friend
from The White House. offered me a cup.
(The White House
'Synecdoche' = The
is when (Cup = beverage
a part of something is used tosuch
referas
to tea
the or
President)
whole. coffee
'Metonymy' is when something is used to represent something
related to it.
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”
 Other Examples:
Oxymoron Paradox
1. alone together 1. I must be cruel, only
to be kind—Hamlet by
Shakespeare.
2. bittersweet 2. Youth is wasted on
the young.
3. living dead 3. Nobody goes to the
seaside at the weekend,
because it’s too
crowded.
1. Imagery is used to signify all the objects and
qualities of sense perception referred to in
works of literature.
2. Diction refers to the kinds of words, phrases,
and sentence structures, and sometimes also
figurative language, that constitute any work of
literature.
3. Figure of speech is an expression that
departs from the accepted literal sense or from
the normal order of words, or in which an
emphasis is produced by patterns of sound.