Publication History
Submitted: July 15, 2024
Accepted: July 25, 2024
Published: July 31, 2024
Identification
D-0331
DOI
https://doi.org/10.71017/djsi.3.7.d-0331
Citation
Melbert C.Suplaag (2024). Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing For Grade 12 Students. Dinkum Journal of Social Innovations, 3(07):400-416.
Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s).
400-416
Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing For Grade 12 StudentsOriginal Article
Melbert C.Suplaag 1*
- Department of Education-Cebu Province-Liloan National High School, Philippines.
* Correspondence: suplaagmelbert@gmail.com
Abstract: Communication has been an integral part in the lives of human beings all over the world. Humans engage in communication in order to express feelings and thoughts as well as arrive at a certain understanding. Writing, as a form of communication, has been used in different international transactions and offers a wide opportunity to people for educational, business, employment and personal development. This study assessed the status of the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing for Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students at Liloan National High School as basis for enhancements. The study utilized the descriptive correlative method to describe the respondents’ personal essay writing performance level and their perceived acceptability level of creative nonfiction material – personal essay, and to examine the relationship between the writing performance and the level of acceptability. Interviews with the respondents are conducted to supplement written instructions and clarify some questions and items. The study took place at Liloan National High School in Poblacion, Liloan, Cebu, formerly known as Arcelo Memorial National High School Extension. It has Junior High School and Senior High School programs. The respondents of this study were the Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students of Liloan National High School during the academic year. There were four grade 12 HUMSS sections, the section HUMSS A (64 students); the section HUMSS B (66 students); the section HUMSS C (64 students); and the section HUMSS D (62 students) which is a total of 256 students. All the four sections were considered heterogeneous which means no comparison was made among sections. After using the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing, the students’ performance when writing a personal essay in terms of content, organization, style and theme are all proficient. Besides, the acceptability level of the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing as perceived by the student respondents as to content and usefulness received highly acceptable response, and as to comprehensibility and ease of use received acceptable response. With the given results of the findings and conclusion, it is recommended that the enhanced prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing be used in Liloan National High School in the teaching of creative nonfiction, specifically personal essay writing for the students to acquire writing competence.
Keywords: creative nonfiction, material, personal, essay, Liloan National High School
- INTRODUCTION
Communication has been an integral part in the lives of human beings all over the world. Humans engage in communication in order to express feelings and thoughts as well as arrive at a certain understanding [1]. Writing, as a form of communication, has been used in different international transactions and offers a wide opportunity to people for educational, business, employment and personal development. Thus, the need to possess proficient skill in writing is deemed essential since it is one of the means to engage in communication in this globally competitive world [2]. In the Philippines, educators regard writing as one of the most fundamental skills that every student should master [3]. Every classroom teacher ensures that this skill is emphasized in the instruction. The teaching methodologies employed by a classroom facilitator have a crucial role in making the learners create meaning of their learning. Different activities are given to learners to fortify the competence alongside other skills [4]. However, in the public school scenario, the teaching of writing has been a tough undertaking of teachers most especially that students have a negative attitude towards writing as reflected in their personal assessment which teachers usually do before teaching the skill. They have difficulty realizing the worth of writing in their aspects of life [5]. To illustrate, they view writing as a very laborious activity, and just a hobby of those who are aloof and innately gifted in writing. These conditions hinder the teaching and learning process. The learners’ inability to appreciate the worth of writing, limits them to explore more of themselves and engage in scholarly endeavors in the future. Another point to consider is the COVID-19 phenomenon that affects the educational operation wherein schools deliver distance learning modalities to students. Even with the face to face encounter, students still have difficulty mastering the writing skill. In relation, it is projected that the problem will worsen if there is no teacher interaction with the students [6]. Another thing to point out is the unavailability of the learning materials that will aid the teachers and students in the teaching and learning process. Teachers have difficulty looking for resources most especially in the teaching of Creative Nonfiction (specialized subject for HUMSS students) in which the main highlight of this subject is writing [7]. The writing process has stage models as proposed by Flower and Hayes. Flower and Hayes said that writing generally involves three processes; the prewriting, the writing, and the post writing stages. “Prewriting” refers to the stage before words appear on paper; “Writing” refers to the stage of creating a product; and “Rewriting” refers to the final reworking of that product [8]. Setting goals, generating content, and arranging that content in terms of the emerging text are all part of the planning or prewriting process. Plans can be broad or specific, and they can be made ahead of time or as the writing progresses [9]. Expert writers can be fairly vocal about the intellectual components of their planning even when not prompted. They set objectives for their writings (e.g., to reach a specific audience or to portray a specific persona) and then devise strategies to attain those objectives. Most writers, including young children, plan ahead in some way. Drawings can be used by children to generate ideas and plot their stories [10]. Children are not the only ones that have trouble gauging readers’ knowledge and inference abilities. Even college students sometimes overestimate their audience’s familiarity with specific words, resulting in less communication clarity in their work. Even if children recognize faulty text, they may have difficulties developing alternative language, and younger children have more difficulty diagnosing and repairing text problems than older children, even when the errors are pointed out to them [11]. The genre of writing that combines empirical data and fiction has been dubbed “creative nonfiction”. Creative nonfiction is a type of writing that combines elements of fiction and nonfiction to tell a true tale. It came out of what was known as “new journalism” in the 1960s and 1970s [12]. Dialogue, scene-setting, and narrative arcs are examples of literary methods that are normally designated for writing fiction but can be applied in creative nonfiction. However, a work can only be classified as creative nonfiction if the creator can vouch for the accuracy of the information [13]. The term “creative nonfiction” is used to describe a variety of nonfiction forms, including biographical and autobiographical narratives, literary and personal essays, and emerging forms such as blog, testimonial and Facebook status report [14]. To have an effective content, thoughts are clearly articulated in creative nonfiction, and a strong sense of an essential experience is created. This true experience is manifested with the use of dialogues and the basic elements such as the scene, plot, characters, and point of view [15]. Writing dialogue is an important way to show, not tell the readers what happened. It helps to dramatize the story. It helps to recreate what happened. It is part of recreating the scene. In addition, since creative nonfiction presents a topic, the writer reveals a new understanding of the events around him or her [16]. Organization helps an entire piece to have a strong sense of direction and balance as a reader reads it. It is crucial that the details appear to belong where they are put. The relevance of time and place is established with an enticing introduction [17]. A gratifying finale brings the story to a close. It is easier for the writer to put the essay together and for the reader to understand the key concepts provided in the essay when all of the components are in some form of order using an identifiable structure [18]. The research assessed the status of the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing for Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students at Liloan National High School as basis for enhancements.
- MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study utilized the descriptive correlative method to describe the respondents’ personal essay writing performance level and their perceived acceptability level of creative nonfiction material – personal essay, and to examine the relationship between the writing performance and the level of acceptability. Interviews with the respondents are conducted to supplement written instructions and clarify some questions and items. The study took place at Liloan National High School in Poblacion, Liloan, Cebu, formerly known as Arcelo Memorial National High School Extension. It has Junior High School and Senior High School programs. The Senior High School Department offers Academic Track and Technology, Vocational, and Livelihood Track. The Academic Track offers Accountancy, Business and Management Strand, Humanities and Social Sciences Strand, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Strand. The TVL Track offers Information and Communication Technology Strand, Home Economics Strand and Industrial Arts Strand. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school practices the modular distance learning platforms which are the printed modular and digital modular. For the Humanities and Social Sciences strand, all students are undertaking the printed and digital modular platform. The school is training students who good writing skills through the school organization have called “The Parola.” It is being handled by competent teachers. This gives an outlet for the potential writers to hone their skills in news, editorial, feature and literary writing. For many years, the school has bagged several awards in different writing press conferences. The respondents of this study were the Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students of Liloan National High School during the academic year. There were four grade 12 HUMSS sections, the section HUMSS A (64 students); the section HUMSS B (66 students); the section HUMSS C (64 students); and the section HUMSS D (62 students) which is a total of 256 students. All the four sections were considered heterogeneous which means no comparison was made among sections. The students coming from these four (4) sections were undertaking digital modular modality of learning wherein the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing was given to them through their chat group. The study made use of a rubric to assess the students’ personal essay that was adapted and modified from tasokenglish10.blogspot.com. It used a five-point rubric to assess the students’ personal essay writing performance. Selection of statistical methods was carefully done in order to arrive valid results and interpretations. The weighted mean, mean, frequency percentage, and Pearson r were the statistical methods utilized to treat the data as the basis for the study’s analysis and interpretation. Students’ perceived acceptability level and performance level in terms of personal essay writing were determined using the mean and weighted mean. The frequency percentage was used to determine the occurrence of the students’ responses of their acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction writing material. The Pearson r correlation was utilized to test the relationship between respondents’ writing performance level and their acceptability level of the prototype creative nonfiction writing material.
- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In attaining content, the personal essay was also assessed how well the students used scene, narrative or plot, characterization and focalization or point of view. This performance is presented in Table 01.
Table 01: Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Content
Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Content | Students n = 110 | ||||
Checker 1 | Checker 2 | Checker 3 | Mean | Category | |
Scene
(combining setting, character, dialogues and events uniquely) |
3.60 |
3.40 |
3.26 |
3.42 |
Proficient |
Narrative/Plot
(presenting understandable beginning or exposition, middle and conclusion) |
3.89 |
3.30 |
3.28 |
3.49 |
Proficient |
Characterization
(developing characters) |
3.68 | 3.33 | 3.26 | 3.42 | Proficient |
Focalization/Point of View
(using consistent point of view) |
4.64 |
3.58 |
3.46 |
3.89 |
Proficient |
Overall Mean | 3.56 | ||||
Category | Proficient |
Legend: A-Advanced, P-Proficient, AP-Approaching Proficiency, D-Developing, B-Beginning
Table 01 shows the personal essay writing performance of the students as to content with an overall mean of 3.56 which means Proficient. Four sub-criteria under content which are the scene, narrative/plot, characterization and focalization/point of view were also rated Proficient with means of 3.42, 3.49, 3.42 and 3.89 respectively. The table shows that students use scenes (combining setting, characters, conversations, and events) well in their personal essays. To illustrate, pupils 79, 6, and 49 used scenes with a distinct storyline of their new normal education experiences. Characters, settings, dialogues, and situations are well-used. Characters and setting were authentic. The prototype creative nonfiction material has helped students write narrative or plot personal essays well. To demonstrate how to write a good narrative or plot, the source included a sample personal essay. Students also wrote as shown in the third unit, Piaget as saying pupils develop their own knowledge. They don’t passively listen to the teacher, they use what they know to apply it to fresh material [19]. Students also performed well in character development, in their essays, students 42, 79, and 78 developed their characters nicely. Student 42 wrote, “Furthermore, I am an auditory learner, where I learn best when hearing and listening. Reading classes alone doesn’t help me understand.” Clearly describing characters helps creative writers create them. Try describing and narrating the character’s incident like student 79 does in her essay: “The glistening sun and the alarm clock brought me back to my reverie as I awoke my sleepy eyes, “Ugh! I spoke.” Student 88 additionally developed the main character by exposing his thoughts. “When I got home, I opened my modules and saw plenty of bond papers. Students were able to apply their character development knowledge because the prototype creative nonfiction piece included an evaluation.Thus, reading and writing activities in the prototype creative nonfiction material improved students’ characterisation essay writing. Writing processes like prewriting, draughting, revising, editing, and publishing may have helped students perform well. The process-based approach emphasises how the many steps and actions writers must go through will improve their language [20]. Exposure to the information while guiding them to the anticipated writing output helped students learn content skills. Letting them write helped them achieve such writing performance. When taught how to write a good scene, plot, character, and point of view, students can improve their content writing. Thus, writing cognitive processes allow students to develop, organise, and establish goals through cognitive approach instruction in the learning content, which they will utilise in their writing. The metacognitive strategy should be used to improve writing skills in the teaching/learning process because it emphasises text restructure through planning, revising, monitoring, evaluating, and editing rather than having students write compositions with only topics and simple instructions. Students’ proficiency in writing content using scene, narrative or plot, characterisation, and focalisation or point of view may also help them understand and appreciate literature because they will be able to recognise that life also has a scene (comedic or tragic), narrative or plot (life has different stories to tell), characterisation (a person must think that he/she is the main character of his/her life story), and focalisation or point of view. Organization in their personal essay writing was assessed in terms of coherence, cohesiveness, emphasis and variety.
Table 02: Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Organization
Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Organization | Students n = 110 | ||||
Checker 1 | Checker 2 | Checker 3 | Mean | Category | |
Coherence (arranging ideas/thoughts coherently that contribute to the main topic’s agendum) |
3.95 | 3.21 | 3.46 | 3.54 | Proficient |
Cohesiveness
(connecting ideas/thoughts/ sentences cohesively) |
3.70 | 3.21 | 3.41 | 3.44 | Proficient |
Emphasis
(putting emphasis to words or ideas of importance or weight) |
3.55 | 3.43 | 3.30 | 3.43 | Proficient |
Variety
(using of varied types of words and sentence structures) |
3.63 | 3.34 | 3.31 | 3.43 | Proficient |
Overall Mean | 3.46 | ||||
Category | Proficient |
Table 02 displays the personal essay writing performance of the students as to organization with an overall mean of 3.46 which means Proficient. Surprisingly, four sub-criteria which include coherence, cohesiveness, emphasis and diction were also rated Proficient with means of 3.54, 3.44, 3.43 and 3.43 respectively. It can be inferred from the results in the table that the students have proficient performance in terms of coherence (arranging ideas/thoughts coherently that contribute to the main topic’s agendum). For instance, students 6, 10 and 11 have achieved coherence in their personal essay by including only the related information about the topic which was the new normal education. Student 6 specifically tells her experiences about answering the modules during the new normal. From the beginning of her essay, she talked about how students still need to adjust to the new normal education. In the middle part, she narrates her experiences while answering the modules. She concludes that new normal education may change millions of lives in just a blink of an eye but she will always remind herself that she should never let this phenomenon be a hindrance to accomplish her task. Students 10 and 11 also did the same thing. All of the information in their essays were all related to the main topic. Of itself, students’ learning experiences through the activities in the prototype creative nonfiction material contributed to the enhancement of their writing when dealing with coherence. Students undergoing the prewriting, while-writing and post writing activities improve their logical organization and paragraph structure of their composition [21]. To such a degree, students became proficient in their personal essay writing specifically in the use of variety. The activities that the students underwent in the prototype creative nonfiction material assisted them to acquire such performance. Its implication tells that the students were proficient in personal essay writing as to organization using the elements and devices. It is inferred that students’ reading of the material and performing the needed activities before the submission of the complete piece helps in the enhancement of their writing particularly on the organization aspect. Moreover, using a model in the discussion of coherence, cohesiveness, emphasis and variety contributes to the enhancement of their writing performance as to organization. However, this performance can still be improved to advanced if activities would require them to examine different types of structure and let them do drills for the organizational aspect of the essay. One of the difficulties that teachers have been dealing with is students’ paragraph organization. Teachers’ pedagogy and feedback have an impact on students’ writing organization. Thus, the methodologies that a teacher uses in a learning material must contribute to the positive result of students’ writing performance [22]. One way to develop students’ writing performance in the context of organization is that teachers must allow students to write a diary in their learning activity [23]. Diary allows the students to organize their thoughts chronologically. This helps students in the organization aspect of writing. Letting students write their learnings and providing them feedback were considered as a strategy added to the prototype creative nonfiction material to further enhance students’ writing performance. Students’ writing proficiency in terms of organization using the devices of cohesiveness, coherence, variety and emphasis can be means to help them understand literature since organization is inherent in literary pieces and it allows a clear explanation about life. Moreover, the knowledge and skill relative to the organization in writing may impact students’ ability to express his/her thoughts with clear structure so that they may be able to convey their message properly. The students’ personal essay writing performance in terms of style is presented in Table 03. In achieving style in their personal essay writing, the use of figurative language, tone, mood and diction were specifically assessed.
Table 03: Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Style
Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Style | Students n = 110 | ||||
Checker 1 | Checker 2 | Checker 3 | Mean | Category | |
Figurative Language (using figurative languages) |
3.30 | 2.80 | 3.42 | 3.17 | Approaching Proficiency |
Tone
(presenting recognizable attitude of the author) |
3.78 | 3.62 | 3.57 | 3.66 | Proficient |
Mood
(presenting recognizable feeling or atmosphere) |
3.75 | 3.60 | 3.60 | 3.65 | Proficient |
Diction
(using appropriate words) |
3.64 | 3.27 | 3.33 | 3.41 | Proficient |
Overall Mean | 3.47 | ||||
Category | Proficient |
Table 03 shows the students’ personal essay writing style performance, with a mean of 3.47, indicating Proficient. Sub-criteria tone, mood, and diction were also proficient with 3.66, 3.65, and 3.41. Figurative language was 3.17, indicating Approaching Proficiency. Tone-wise, the students were good. Meaning they knew how to use this equipment. Their personal essays were asked to reflect their feelings and opinions regarding the new regular schooling. Students 2, 3, and 4 said in their personal essays that they were tired of answering modules. Internal monologues show they’re bored with self-learning. Student 2 commented, “I am bored with the modules. Until schools open, why open restaurants? Student 3 stated, “Even though I don’t have the energy to browse the modules, I have to perform the activities, or else I would get failing grades.” I was like, “Is staying home without going to school for a lifetime?” wrote Student 4. No control over boredom Despite this, they had to complete module activities as students. With this, readers understood the writer’s disposition. Running through the template creative nonfiction material allowed students to prewrite, draft, revise, edit, and publish, so they could exhibit their recognisable attitude. In mood, kids were proficient. So they were good at using this equipment. In their personal writings, students 49, 50, and 51 were hopeful. When kids said they looked for the positive despite their opponents, it was hopeful. They hoped everyone would recuperate and return to normal. Readers can tell the essay’s mood from this realisation. The book evokes many emotions. Author word choice, tone, setting, and imagery can all affect a work’s mood (litcharts.com). Through the prototype creative nonfiction material, students learnt to present a mood by identifying the mood in the sample personal essay and writing in the third unit. Students also scored well in diction, it suggests pupils wrote well using this instrument. Students 55, 56, and 57 used creative writing words. I wanted to create a personal essay in creative nonfiction. Because creative nonfiction uses conventional language to provide facts and figurative language to present inventiveness, they were able to use both. For instance, “This pandemic stops students’ world from revolving.” Creative essays require this figurative remark. “In answering the modules, I need resources most especially if I do not know the answer.” is regular language. Students might effortlessly use appropriate terms into their personal essays. Well-designed self-learning resources can help kids develop linguistic skills like writing. To further, these tools promote learner autonomy and self-confidence, especially in distant learning scenarios where students need less teacher monitoring. These findings support Flower and Hayes’ Cognitive Process Theory of Writing, which states that writing requires mental processes. It is considered that writers go through several procedures to develop an excellent composition. A writer’s style reflects their identity. Style can help students compose and analyse literature to comprehend and learn from the writer. Table 04 presents the students’ personal essay writing performance in terms of theme. Specifically, grounding in reality, emphasis, relevance and values were assessed.
Table 04: Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Theme
Personal Essay Writing Performance in Terms of Theme | Students n = 110 | ||||
Checker 1 | Checker 2 | Checker 3 | Mean | Category | |
Grounding in Reality (using honest or factual information) |
4.02 | 3.76 | 4.70 | 4.16 | Advanced |
Emphasis
(emphasizing the main idea) |
3.66 | 3.26 | 3.78 | 3.57 | Proficient |
Relevance
(using relevant information to the current situation and time) |
3.93 | 3.43 | 4.17 | 3.84 | Proficient |
Values
(integrating values) |
3.91 | 3.65 | 4.66 | 4.07 | Proficient |
Overall Mean | 3.91 | ||||
Category | Proficient |
Table 04 shows students’ theme-based personal essay writing performance with a mean of 3.91, indicating Proficient. Grounding in reality was considered Advanced with a mean of 4.16, while focus, relevance, and values were considered Proficient with averages of 3.57, 3.84, and 4.07. Student reality-based knowledge was surprisingly high. They understood that creative nonfiction, especially personal essays, uses facts. Their utilisation of authentic speech, persons, settings, and events showed this. Students 11, 13, and 24 demonstrate this. Student 11 wrote, “I love you guys, see you in two weeks.” Hehehhe. Amping! My classmate’s enthusiastic statement before heading home on March 13, 2020, woke me up. Student 13 wrote, “February 3, 2020. I felt our adviser wanted to say something in our classroom. “Class, divide into two groups.” ‘Why, Sir?” Because of the LGU’s arrangement, classes will shift.” That happened before the harsh lockdown.” Student 24 said, “When the DepEd announced that education must continue amid the pandemic, parents, guardians, and students were concerned about health and safety.” These phrases from the students’ writings added realism by mentioning facts. Creative nonfiction writing requires the writer’s true experiences, therefore it was easy for them to write honestly. Thus, students’ engagement in prototype creative nonfiction writing tasks strengthened their reality-based grounding. They carefully studied the example personal essay and assessed its authenticity. They then wrote and were asked if their essay was factual during revision. The students were proficient at emphasising the essential topic, thus they obtained a proficient rating. The checkers identified the primary subject of their writings since they employed relevant experiences and their view on normal schooling. Somehow, these aspects accentuated their writings’ themes. To clarify, student 63 remarked, “Sure, studying is tough especially during pandemic. However, I am optimistic of success.” Student 67 said, “I can really tell that this pandemic is a blessing in disguise. If you’re struggling, find your own recovery.” Student 77 remarked, “Despite the adversaries that we have been through, there are still positive sides that can impact our sense of independence through the new normal education.” Students’ principal concerns were surviving in the new standard education. Students emphasised the primary topic well. Students’ exposure to prototype creative nonfiction content with an emphasis on writing processes helped them write personal essays with intensity. Student proficiency in relevance (applying relevant information to the current circumstance and time) earned them this rating. In their personal essays, students 46, 47, and 48 use relevance well. Their writings discussed their current condition in remote modular learning, the new normal education. These responders shared their struggles in the new normal education. Because they learn better with teachers, they favoured them. Their articles also had a bright viewpoint despite their circumstances. These were useful information for everyone, not just students. This shows that students’ own essays developed relevance. Students’ theme-based writing skills can improve their writing and literature enjoyment. They will learn that literature is about writing creatively and presenting a profound human experience. Table 05 presents the students’ personal essay writing performance summary. The students’ writing performance was assessed in terms of content, organization, style and theme.
Table 05: Writing Performance Summary
Criteria | Mean | Category |
Content | 3.56 | Proficient |
Organization | 3.46 | Proficient |
Style | 3.47 | Proficient |
Theme | 3.91 | Proficient |
Overall Mean | 3.60 | |
Category | Proficient |
Table 05 summarizes student personal essay writing performance, with a mean of 3.60, indicating Proficient. Interestingly, content, organisation, style, and theme were all Proficient at 3.56, 3.46, 3.47, and 3.91. Students were proficient in personal essay writing elements and methods, indicating good writing skills. If the prototype creative nonfiction content includes significant writing tasks, students can still improve. Thus, material upgrades must be considered. Instructional resources should be abundant and well-maintained to improve student learning. Instruction should incorporate skill-building tasks. Designing appropriate pre- and post-assessment activities helps assess learners’ skills and tailor programs for them. Writing development requires pupils to write while going through the cognitive processes of prewriting, writing, and post writing. They can better comprehend and evaluate their work after this. Instructional material encourages student discussion and learning, agree. Thus, writing materials must meet student needs. Additionally, learning tools help pupils learn and master abilities. These implications also support Flower and Hayes’ Cognitive Process Theory of Writing, which states that students’ prewriting, writing, and postwriting activities help them reach their writing potential. The acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction material according to content is presented in Table 05 through the students’ perceived acceptability as to improving personal essay writing competence, adequacy of information, terminologies used, organization and clarity of presentation.
Table 06: Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Content
Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Content |
Frequency N = 110 |
Weighted Mean |
Category |
|||
HA (4) |
A (3) |
LSSA (2) |
LSTA (1) |
|||
1. The creative nonfiction writing material contains information and activities that can improve my personal essay writing competence. |
64 | 44 | 2 | 0 | 3.56 | Highly Acceptable |
2. There is adequate information provided in the creative nonfiction writing material particularly in writing a personal essay that has good content, organization, style, and theme. | 51 | 54 | 5 | 0 | 3.42 | Highly Acceptable |
3. The terminologies or the words used in the creative nonfiction writing material are clear and precise. |
42 | 65 | 3 | 0 | 3.35 | Highly Acceptable |
4. The organization of the creative nonfiction material is clear. |
41 | 61 | 8 | 0 | 3.30 | Highly Acceptable |
5. There is clear presentation of the information in the creative nonfiction writing material. |
50 | 56 | 4 | 0 | 3.42 | Highly Acceptable |
Average Weighted Mean | 3.41 | |||||
Category | Highly Acceptable |
Legend: HA-Highly Acceptable, A-Acceptable, LSSA-Less Acceptable, LSTA-Least Acceptable
Table 06 shows a Highly Acceptable interpretation of prototype creative nonfiction content with a weighted mean of 3.41. Interestingly, all five content items rated Highly Acceptable, including item 1: “The creative nonfiction writing material contains information and activities that can improve my personal essay writing competence.” item 2 “Creative nonfiction writing material provides adequate information, especially in writing a personal essay with good content, organisation, style, and theme;” Item 3: Clear and accurate terminology in creative nonfiction writing. 4 “The creative nonfiction material is well-organized;” 5. “There is clear presentation of the information in creative nonfiction material.” This implies that content acceptability is high because the prototype creative nonfiction material contains information that can improve students’ personal essay writing, such as good content, organisation, style, and theme, clear and precise terminology, clear organisation, and clear presentation. Learning materials should connect learner needs, objectives, learning outcomes, resources, learning and teaching methods, assessment criteria, and evaluation. Therefore, while working independently to produce quality results, the content of the material—adequacy of information, use of relevant phrases, clear organisation, and presentation—must be present. Pupils may use clear-content modules without much teacher assistance. The modules explain what students must do and how to do it. Thus, the instructional material must allow students to study independently when distance learning or without teachers. The acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction material according to comprehensibility is presented in Table 07 through the students’ perceived acceptability as to the comprehensibility of the terms in the lesson, sample creative nonfiction texts, instructions in the activities, expected goal and grading of output.
Table 07: Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Comprehensibility
Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Comprehensibility |
Frequency N = 110 |
Weighted Mean |
Category |
|||
HA (4) |
A (3) |
LSSA (2) |
LSTA (1) |
|||
1. The terms in the lesson presented in the creative nonfiction writing material can be clearly understood. | 42 | 59 | 9 | 0 | 3.30 | Highly Acceptable |
2. The sample creative nonfiction texts in the creative nonfiction writing material can be quickly comprehended. | 30 | 62 | 18 | 0 | 3.11 | Acceptable |
3. The instructions in the activities of the creative nonfiction writing material are understandable. | 39 | 63 | 8 | 0 | 3.28 | Highly Acceptable |
4. What is expected of me through the objectives of each unit can be easily understood. | 27 | 71 | 12 | 0 | 3.14 | Acceptable |
5. How my output will be graded through the rubric presented in the creative nonfiction material can be easily comprehended. | 36 | 61 | 13 | 0 | 3.21 | Acceptable |
Average Weighted Mean | 3.21 | |||||
Category | Acceptable |
Table 07 shows an Acceptable interpretation of the prototype creative nonfiction material’s comprehensibility with a weighted mean of 3.21. Three more signs were Acceptable. This was signal 2, “The sample creative nonfiction texts in the creative nonfiction writing material can be quickly comprehended;” indication 4, “I can easily understand what each unit’s objectives require;” and indicator 5, “How my output will be graded through the rubric presented in the creative nonfiction material can be easily comprehended.” Two signs were Highly Acceptable. Indicator 1: “Students can understand the creative nonfiction material’s lesson terms.” Indicator 3, “All creative nonfiction activities are easy to follow.” This means the sample creative nonfiction material is intelligible, which is important for learning. However, the prototype creative nonfiction material can be changed: the sample personal essay used to discuss elements and devices can be contextualised so students can relate to it; the objectives’ terms must be simplified so all students can understand them; and the rubric must be expanded and explained so students can understand the checking criteria. Students who understand instructional materials perform better. Simple language in instructions, tasks, and assessment can improve concept understanding [24]. Children need reading comprehension to meet classroom goals and expectations. Poor comprehension can prevent students from learning, remembering, and graduating from high school, which will negatively effect their lives [25]. The acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction material according to usefulness is presented in Table 08 through the students’ perceived acceptability as to the improvement of the personal essay writing competence, enhancement of the effectiveness to perform real – life based tasks, improvement of the academic performance, acquiring new information about writing and building confidence in any writing undertaking.
Table 08: Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative, Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Usefulness
Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Usefulness |
Frequency N = 110 |
Weighted Mean |
Category |
|||
HA (4) |
A (3) |
LSSA (2) |
LSTA (1) |
|||
1. Creative nonfiction writing material improves my personal essay writing performance. | 66 | 40 | 4 | 0 | 3.56 | Highly Acceptable |
2. Creative nonfiction writing material enhances my effectiveness in performing real life – based tasks. | 43 | 61 | 6 | 0 | 3.34 | Highly Acceptable |
3. Creative nonfiction writing material helps improve my academic performance. | 51 | 51 | 8 | 0 | 3.39 | Highly Acceptable |
4. Creative nonfiction material is useful in
acquiring new information about writing with effective content, organization, style, and theme. |
60 | 47 | 3 | 0 | 3.52 | Highly Acceptable |
5. Creative nonfiction material makes me build
confidence in any writing undertaking. |
46 | 56 | 8 | 0 | 3.35 | Highly Acceptable |
Average Weighted Mean | 3.43 | |||||
Category | Highly Acceptable |
Table 08 shows a Highly Acceptable weighted mean of 3.43 for prototype creative nonfiction material. Significantly, all five utility statements are Highly Acceptable for statement 1, “Creative nonfiction material improves my personal essay writing performance;” assertion 2: “Creative nonfiction writing improves my real-life performance;” 3. “Creative nonfiction improves my academic performance;” statements 4, “Creative nonfiction material is useful in acquiring new information about writing with effective content, organisation, style, and theme;” and 5, “Creative nonfiction material makes me build confidence in any writing undertaking.” The prototype creative nonfiction material is highly acceptable because it improved their personal essay writing performance, enhanced their effectiveness to do real-life tasks, improved their academic performance, helped them learn about writing with effective content, organisation, style, and theme, and built confidence in any writing endeavour. A prospective user’s subjective likelihood that a given information system will increase his or her job, skill, and life performance supports this assumption. The prototype creative nonfiction content may also improve their essay writing. Teacher are uploading multimedia and interactive e-learning materials to an online system so students can access them outside of class as support. As COVID-19 peaked in 2020, schools suffered. They devised alternatives to protect education. Student health and safety were the top priority, thus alternate methods were the solution. Schools offered educational materials online since the Internet is so popular. Including internet platforms in instructional materials can help students learn well, especially for self-learning. In emergencies, student-accessible internet platforms are helpful. These implications support Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model that perceived utility increases performance. The acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction material according to ease of use is presented in Table 09 through the students’ perceived acceptability as to the ease of accessing the material from the digital chat group, reading the content because of the visible font style and size, becoming equipped with the knowledge of personal essay writing, producing the expected output and using the material because there are no missing pages.
Table 09: Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative, Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Ease of Use
Acceptability Level of the Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing in Terms of Ease of Use |
Frequency N = 110 |
Weighted Mean |
Category |
|||
HA (4) |
A (3) |
LSSA (2) |
LSTA (1) |
|||
1. Creative nonfiction material is easy to access from the class digital chat group. | 25 | 68 | 17 | 0 | 3.07 | Acceptable |
2. It is easy to read the content of the creative nonfiction material because the font size and style are visible. | 27 | 68 | 15 | 0 | 3.11 | Acceptable |
3. It is easy for me to become equipped with the knowledge of personal essay writing with the use of creative nonfiction material. | 17 | 75 | 17 | 1 | 2.98 | Acceptable |
4. It is easy for me to produce the expected output through the strategies in presenting the lessons and activities in the creative nonfiction material. | 18 | 67 | 24 | 1 | 2.93 | Acceptable |
5. It is easy for me to use the creative nonfiction writing material because there are no missing pages. | 35 | 62 | 13 | 0 | 3.20 | Acceptable |
Average Weighted Mean | 3.06 | |||||
Category | Acceptable |
Table 09 shows an Acceptable interpretation of the prototype creative nonfiction material’s ease of use with a weighted mean of 3.06. Amazingly, all five utility elements are Acceptable for statement 1, “Creative nonfiction material is easy to access from the digital class group;” assertion 2, “The font size and style make creative nonfiction content easy to read;” assertion 3, “I gain personal essay writing knowledge easily with creative nonfiction material;” statement 4, “It is easy for me to produce the expected output through the strategies in presenting the lessons and activities in the creative nonfiction material;” and statement 5, “There are no missing pages.” Since they wrote personal essays, the prototype creative nonfiction material is easy to employ. We must improve the ease of learning personal essay. Establishing a personal essay definition is necessary. Additionally, a model (example personal essay) must be localised and the phrases must be clear so students understand what is expected of them. Students will struggle to complete the work if they cannot understand the model. Presenting the prototype creative nonfiction material’s lessons and activities needs some tweaking. In addition to changing the model, they will be given another model (another personal essay) to analyse how the elements and devices were used in the said model, since the unenhanced prototype material did not allow them to do so. They read and analysed the sample personal essay writer’s analysis. Perceived ease of use positively affects e-learning intention. Thus, pupils’ performance will improve if they employ digital material [26]. Enjoyment and simplicity of use boost task performance and can lead to optimum performance. Thus, pupils perform best when they can easily use digital learning materials.These implications also corroborate Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model, which argues that perceived usefulness improves performance [27]. Table 10 presents the students’ acceptability of the writing material summary. The students’ acceptability of the writing material was assessed in terms of content, comprehensibility, usefulness and ease of use.
Table 10: Acceptability of the Writing Material Summary
Criteria | Mean | Category |
Content | 3.41 | Highly Acceptable |
Comprehensibility | 3.21 | Acceptable |
Usefulness | 3.43 | Highly Acceptable |
Ease of Use | 3.06 | Acceptable |
Overall Mean | 3.28 | |
Category | Highly Acceptable |
Table 10 reveals that students found the prototype creative nonfiction material—personal essay writing—highly acceptable with a mean of 3.28. With scores of 3.41 and 3.43, content and usefulness were highly acceptable, while comprehensibility and simplicity of use were Acceptable with scores of 3.21 and 3.06. This suggests students liked the prototype creative nonfiction material. Conciseness and usability can still make it extremely acceptable. Thus, material improvements must be considered. Professors should spend time creating teaching tools to help students succeed in English lessons. The material must offer activities to improve the identified skill [28]. Teachers should use current teaching resources whenever possible to make classes more engaging. Ensuring that the skills learnt are targeted requires adequate upgrades. These implications complement Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which claims that perceived usefulness and ease of use increase the likelihood of using a technology, such as digitised learning material. This part shows the significant relationship between students’ writing performance and perceived acceptability level in Table 11 below. As shown in Table 11 about the test of significant relationship between respondents’ performance and perceived acceptability level is .40 is its coefficient correlation. It suggests a positive moderate correlation between the students’ writing performance and perceived acceptability level. It is implied that as the acceptability increases, the writing performance tends to increase as well.
Table 11: Significant Relationship between Students’ Writing Performance and Acceptability Level
Coefficient (r) | p value | Decision | Verbal Description |
0.40 | < 0.05 | Reject Ho | Significant Relationship |
** Correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2 – tailed)
Table 11 shows a significant association (p < 0.05), rejecting the null hypothesis. There is a strong correlation between student writing performance and perceived acceptability. There is evidence that pupils who like the content write well. The prototype creative nonfiction material also improved pupils’ essay writing. Student feedback on learning material affects English performance. Acceptability and opinions influenced pupils’ academic achievement since they perform differently based on the type of teaching they get. If they dislike the education, they may do poorly in school [29]. E-learning activities and materials affect student motivation and academic performance, supporting this claim. Digital assets are advantageous in the new normal school, where students learn modularly. It reduces paper and waste. Teachers must first provide material that meets students’ needs. The modules give teachers tools to make distance learning lively and student-motivating. Learning materials must provide logic, an overview of the topic, and an explanation of why the learner should study it. Present objectives, or desired results. In terms of behavior or performance. Assessing learners’ capacity to test their knowledge is also crucial.
- CONCLUSION
After using the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing, the students’ performance when writing a personal essay in terms of content, organization, style and theme are all proficient. Besides, the acceptability level of the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing as perceived by the student respondents as to content and usefulness received highly acceptable response, and as to comprehensibility and ease of use received acceptable response. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between students’ personal essay writing performance and their acceptability of the prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing. Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that the prototype creative nonfiction material is accepted and enhances the personal essay writing performance of the grade 12 students of Liloan National High School. Thus, the said material is a potential learning resource in teaching Creative Nonfiction subject to Humanities and Social Sciences students. On this note, Flower and Hayes’ Cognitive Process Theory of Writing and Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model Theory prove that when students undergo the processes of writing with the aid of suitable and effective learning resources, they will develop their writing performance. With the given results of the findings and conclusion, it is recommended that the enhanced prototype creative nonfiction material – personal essay writing be used in Liloan National High School in the teaching of creative nonfiction, specifically personal essay writing for the students to acquire writing competence.
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Publication History
Submitted: July 15, 2024
Accepted: July 25, 2024
Published: July 31, 2024
Identification
D-0331
DOI
https://doi.org/10.71017/djsi.3.7.d-0331
Citation
Melbert C.Suplaag (2024). Prototype Creative Nonfiction Material – Personal Essay Writing For Grade 12 Students. Dinkum Journal of Social Innovations, 3(07):400-416.
Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s).