ACTIVITY 1
SAY SOMETHING ACTIVITY
Directions: Take a look at this picture and give at least five (5) points that you see in the picture.
Answer the following questions:
1. How did you find the picture?
2. By looking at the picture, are you thinking about the beautiful nature?
3. What about the location?
4. Did it cross to your mind who is responsible of taking care of the nature?
5. What about the feeling of the lady jumping onto the water?
6. Did you ask yourself if you would want to do the same?
7. What about the reasons why God has created this nature for us?
8. Have you not wondered how God created the beautiful world?
All these questions will be answered critically by using different approaches. This activity leads
you to learn how to write criticism.
ACTIVITY 2
Directions: Summarize what you have read by completing the table with what you understood.
Write your answers in your notebook.
APPROACHES IN LITERARY WHAT IT IS HOW IT IS DONE
CRITICISM (DEFINITION) (TECHNIQUE IN WRITING)
Example: A primary goal for formalist
Formalism This approach regards A critics is to determine how
literature as “a unique elements of form (style,
form of human structure, tone, imagery,
knowledge that needs etc.) work together with the
to be examined on its text’s content to shape its
own terms.” effects upon readers.
You have just been given several approaches in literary criticism that you can use when you
make your own review or critique. You can use this in the following activities. Just remember to
apply which is easy for you to do and follow the techniques in using it.
ACTIVITY 3. READ CRITICALLY
Activities 1-3 gave you ideas about the manner and approaches to use in expressing views. Let
us learn more about this skill by reading a text which is an excerpt of the homily of the Catholic
Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin. But before you read it, let us define these words first.
Directions: Get the meaning of these words from any dictionary so that you can understand
what you are reading better: Write your answer in your notebook.
MEANINGS FROM DICTIONARY
WORD
S
Cynic
Demoralize
Destabilize
Anarchic
Unrelentingly
Chronic disease
Callous
Predominant
Transcend
Authentic
Vigorously
Ang Bayan Muna Bago ang Sarili
(Excerpts from the Homily of Jaime Cardinal Sin
at the mass celebrating the 5th death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino)
(1) Five years later, we might ask ourselves; has Ninoy’s dream been fulfilled? Have we
succeeded in building a new nation, by “transcending our petty selves,” by setting aside our
differences by working together in a spirit of true self-giving, loving our country first, above our
own interest? Bayan muna, bago and sarili. It is a question we must ask ourselves, as we
remember Ninoy’s gift.
(2) It has been said that the truest motto of our people is “K.K.K”. No, not Katipunan, shaping
unity out of our diversity. How we wish that were our authentic name! But rather:
Kanya-Kanya’ng Katwiran,
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kagustuhan,
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kabig (or worse)
Kanya-Kanya’ng Kurakot...
or whatever else each one “specializes” in!
(3) Cynics among us say that K.K.K is the definition of our national character, the predominant
strain in our national culture. It’s what we are when we are “most natural”, most ourselves.
“Bayan muna, Bago and Sarili” is an abstract, non-operative ideal, good for speeches, good for
posters, goo for classroom rhetoric but not for real, not for real life. For real is K.K.K.
(4) Kanya-Kanyang Katwiran, Kanya-Kanyang kagustuhan. We all remember the three
monkeys; See no Evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Sometimes one wonders, if it has become a
national pastime, to see and hear and speak nothing, but evil against our fellow-citizens. Talk
can be a great service in a free nation: Talk is space for free discussion, for intelligent debate,
the exchange of information and perception, the clash of views.
(5) Ninoy himself said: “We must criticize in order to be free, because we are free only when we
criticized.” We may not, at our own peril, forget that. But we must remind ourselves that
criticism is not an end in itself; it is not the absolute. It is meant to help us to become free, but if
it becomes the all-encompassing output of our days, a way of life... so it takes up most of our
energy, most of our time, when we begin to take delight in tearing down, demoralizing,
destabilizing; when we are at each other’s throats all day long, then we really are engaged in
self-destruction, and the destruction of hope, the creation of despair, especially among the
poor who continue to suffer in our midst.
(6) There is a Latin saying: “Unicuique suum, non praevalebunt.” “Every man for himself: That’s
the formula for disaster.” When Ninoy spoke of “the quest for that
elusive national unity which is imperative for the nation’s survival”-he said “survival”. He meant
“survival”. How can we survive, as a nation and as a people, if we have made the name of our
national game as anarchic free-for-all in a “basket of crabs?”
(7) K.K.K also means, we are told, Kanya Kanyang Kabig, Kanya- Kanyang Kurakot. Surely I don’t
need to dwell on this theme this morning. For weeks, the papers, radios, TV, have shouted
nothing else. It is the talk of the marketplace. I myself have spoken, often enough, of the 40 big
thieves left behind in our midst, and many many smaller ones which might include . . . even
ourselves? Who among us did not re-echo the sentiments and the work of the beloved Chino
Roces when he asked for a renewed moral order in government and society? It is a problem
which must be addressed, and addressed vigorously and unrelentingly.
Answer the questions given:
1. What critical approach did he use? Explain why you think that is the approach.
2. Do you agree with the author or not? Why or why not?
What you have read is an example of how one expresses opinions using one
