Diction

Diction refers to the author’s choice of words.
Words are the writer’s basic tools: they create the color and texture of the written work; they both reflect and determine the level of formality; they shape the reader’s perceptions.
To understand voice, you must both “hear” the words and “feel” their effects. Ex. Solitude vs. Isolation
Diction depends on topic, purpose, and occasion.
The writer’s purpose—whether to convince, entertain, amuse, inform, or plead—partly determines diction.
Diction also depends on the occasion. Formal diction is largely reserved for scholarly writing and serious prose or poetry. Informal diction is the norm in expository essays, newspaper editorials, and works of fiction. Colloquial diction and slang borrow from informal speech and are typically used to create a mood or capture a particular historic or regional dialect.
When studying diction, you must understand both connotation (the meaning suggested by the word) and denotation (literal meaning). When a writer calls a character slender, the word evokes a different feeling from calling the character skinny.

The Fable of the Old Blind Man & The Young Ad WriterOnce an old blind man was sitting at a busy street corner in the middle of rush-hour and begging for money. He had a cardboard sign and an empty tin cup. On the sign, he’d written: “Blind – Please help.” But no one was giving him any money. That is until someone special came by. You see, a young ad writer walked past the blind man and saw him with his sign and empty cup. He also saw all the people passing by without giving any money. And that gave the young man an idea. The ad writer took a thick marker from his pocket. He turned the cardboard sheet over and re-wrote the sign. He put it back next to the tin cup and then he was gone. Immediately, things changed. People began putting money into the tin cup. After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man couldn’t understand what had happened. He finally asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said. The stranger told him, “Your sign says, ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’”

Would you rather be CHEAP or FRUGAL?

Would you rather buy the CHEAP dress or the INEXPENSIVE dress?

What is the difference between Cat Woman and Cat Lady?

Which would you rather be?

Consider: As I watched, the sun broke weakly through, brightened the rich red of the fawns, and kindled their spots.

— E. B. White, “Twins” Poems and Sketches oF E. B. White

Discuss:

1. What kind of flame does kindled imply? How does this verb suit the purpose of the sentence?

2. Would the sentence be strengthened or weakened by changing the sun broke weakly through to the sun burst through, Explain the effect this change would have on the use of the verb kindled.

Apply:

Brainstorm a list of action verbs that demonstrate the effects of sunlight.

Consider: "An aged man is a paltry thing

A tattered coat upon a stick..."

— W. B Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”

Discuss:

1. What picture is created by the use of the word tattered?

2. By understanding the connotations of the word tattered, what do we understand about the persona's attitude towards an aged man?

Apply:

List three adjectives that can be used to describe a pair of shoes. Each adjective should connote a different feeling about the shoes. Be prepared to share your response.

Consider: "The man sighed hugely."

— E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News

Discuss:

1. What does it mean to sigh hugely?

2. How would the meaning of the sentence change if we rewrote it as: The man sighed loudly.

Apply:

Fill in the blank with an adverb.

The man coughed ____________.

Your adverb should make the cough express attitude. For example, the cough could express contempt, desperation, or propriety. Do not state the attitude. Instead, let the adverb imply it.

Consider: Art is the antidote that can call us back from the edge of numbness restoring the ability to feel for another.

— Barbra Kingsolver, “3/Lesson 1: DictionLesson 1: Diction/ 3,” High Tide in Tucson

Discuss:

1. By using the word antidote, what does the author imply about the inability to feel for another?

2. If we changed the word antidote to gift, what effect would it have on the meaning of the sentence?

Apply:

Brainstorm and develop a list of medical terms; then write a sentence to characterize art using one of those medical terms. Explain the effect this term has on the sentence.

Consider: A rowan* like a lipsticked girl.

*a rowan is a small deciduous tree native to Europe, having white flower clusters and orange berries.

— Seamus Heaney, “Song,” field work

Discuss:

1. Other than the color, what comes to mind when you think about a lipsticked girl?

2. How would it change the meaning and feeling of the line if, instead of lipsticked girl, the author wrote girl with lipstick on?

Apply:

Write a simile comparing a tree with a domesticated animal. In your simile, use a word that is normally used as a noun (like lipstick) as an adjective (like lipsticked). Be prepared to share.

Consider: Abuelito under a bald light bulb, under a ceiling dusty with flies, puffs his cigar and counts money soft and wrinkled as old Kleenex.

— Sandra Cisneros, “Tepeyac,” Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

Discuss:

1. How can a ceiling be dusty with flies? Are the flies plentiful or sparse? Active or still? Clustered or evenly distributed?

2. What does Cisneros mean by a bald light bulb? What does this reveal about Abuelito’s room?

Apply:

Take Cisneros’s phrase, under a ceiling dusty with flies, and write a new phrase by substituting the word dusty with a different adjective. Explain to a partner the impact of your new adjective on the sentence.

Consider: Meanwhile, the United States Army, thirsting for revenge, was prowling the country north and west of the Black Hills, killing Indians wherever they could be found.

— Dee Brown, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee

Discuss:

1. What are the connotations of thirsting? What feelings are evoked by this diction?

2. What are the connotations of prowling? What kind of animals prowl? What attitude toward the U.S. army does this diction convey?

Apply:

Use an eating or drinking verb in a sentence which expresses anger about a parking ticket. Do not use the verb to literally express eating or drinking. Instead, express your anger through the verb. Use Brown’s sentence as a model. Share your sentence with a partner.

Consider: Most men wear their belts low here, there being so many outstanding bellies, some big enough to have names of their own and be formally introduced. Those men don’t suck them in or hide them in loose shirts; they let them hang free, they pat them, they stroke them as they stand around and talk.

— Garrison Keillor, “Home,” Lake Wobegon Days

Discuss:

1. What is the usual meaning of outstanding? What is its meaning here? What does this pun reveal about the attitude of the author toward his subject?

2. Read the second sentence again. How would the level of formality change if we changed suck to pull and let them hang free to accept them?

Apply:

Write a sentence or two describing an unattractive but beloved relative. In your description, use words that describe the unattractive features honestly yet reveal that you care about this person, that you accept and even admire him/her, complete with defects. Use Keillor’s description as a model. Throw in a pun if you can think of one. Share your description with the class.

Consider: Doc awakened very slowly and clumsily like a fat man getting out of a swimming pool. His mind broke the surface and fell back several times.

— John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Discuss:

1. What is the subject of the verb broke? What does this tell you about Doc’s ability to control his thinking at this point in the story?

2. To what does surface refer? Remember that good writers often strive for complexity rather than simplicity.

Apply:

List three active verbs that could be used to complete the sentence below. Act out one of these verbs for the class, demonstrating the verb’s connotation.

He _________________ into the crowded auditorium.

Consider: Pots rattled in the kitchen where Momma was frying corn cakes to go with vegetable soup for supper, and the homey sounds and scents cushioned me as I read of Jane Eyre in the cold English mansion of a colder English gentleman.

— Maya Angelou, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Discuss:

1. By using the word cushioned, what does Angelou imply about her life and Jane Eyre’s life?

2. What is the difference between the cold of the English mansion and the cold of the English gentleman? What does Angelou’s diction convey about her attitude toward Jane’s life?

Apply:

Write a sentence using a strong verb to connect one part of your life with another. For example, you could connect a book you are reading and your mother’s dinner preparations, as Maya Angelou does; or you could connect a classroom lecture with sounds outside. Be creative. Use an exact verb (like cushioned), one which connotes the attitude you want to convey. Share your sentence with the class.

Ms. Greene's Attempt: The warmth of the herbal tea fortified the girl towards the chilling tone of chiding reprimand from the icy coach.

Consider: Once I am sure there’s nothing going on

I step inside, letting the door thud shut.

— Philip Larkin, “Church Going”

Discuss:

1. What feelings are evoked by the word thud?

2. How would the meaning change if the speaker let the door slam shut?

Apply:

Fill in the following chart. In the first column, record five different verbs which express the closing of a door; in the second column, record the feelings these verbs evoke.

Consider: We have been making policy on the basis of myths, the first of them that trade with China will dulcify Peking policy. That won’t work; there was plenty of trade between North and South when our Civil War came on.

— William F. Buckley, Jr., “Like It or Not, Pat Buchanan’s Political Rhetoric Has True Grit”

Discuss:

1. What does dulcify mean? What attitude toward his readers does his diction convey?

2. What attitude does Buckley communicate by writing our Civil War instead of the Civil War?

Apply:

Fill in the following chart, substituting uncommon words for the common, boldface word in the sentence below. Your new words should change the connotative meaning of the sentence. Use your thesaurus to find unusual words. Share your chart with a partner

Consider:

Wind rocks the car.

We sit parked by the river,

silence between our teeth. Birds scatter across islands

of broken ice . . .

— Adrienne Rich, “Like This Together, for A.H.C.”

Discuss:

1. What are the feelings produced by the word rocks? Are the feelings gentle, violent, or both?

2. How would the meaning change if we changed the first line to Wind shakes the car?

Apply:

List with the class different meanings for the verb rock. How many of these meanings would make sense in this poem? Remember that the poet often strives to capture complexity rather than a single view or meaning.

Consider: Close by the fire sat an old man whose countenance was furrowed with distress.

— James Boswell, Boswell's London Journal

Discuss:

1. What does the word furrowed connote about the man's distress?

2. How would the impact of the sentence be changed if furrowed were changed to lined?

Apply:

Write a sentence using a verb to describe a facial expression. Imply through your verb choice that the expression is intense. Use Boswell's sentence as a model/ mentor. Be prepared to share.

Consider: Her face was white and sharp and slightly gleaming in the candlelight, like bone. No hint of pink. And the hair. So fine, so pale, so much, crimped by its plaiting into springy zigzag tresses, clouding neck and shoulders, shining metallic in the candlelight, catching a hint, there it was, of green again, from the reflection of a large glazed cache-pot containing a vigorous sword-leafed fern.

— A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance

Discuss:

1. When the author describes a face "like bone," what feelings are suggested?

2. How can hair be "clouding neck and shoulders? What picture does this word create for the reader?

Apply:

Substitute another noun for bone in sentence one. Your substitution should change the meaning and feeling of the sentence. Share your sentence with the class and explain how your noun changes the sentence's connotation and impact.

Consider: “Ahh,” the crowd went, “Ahhh,” as the most beautiful fireworks, for the sky was alive now, one instant a pond and the next a womb of new turns: “Ahh,” went the crowd, “Ahh!”

— Norman Mailer, "Of a Fire on the Moon"

Discuss:

1. This quote is from a description of the Apollo-Saturn launching. The Saturn was a huge rocket that launched the Apollo space capsule, a three-man ship headed for the moon. Why is the sky described as a pond then a womb? Contrast the two words. What happens that changes the sky from a pond to a womb?

2. What does Mailer's use of the word womb tell the reader about his attitude towards the launch?

Apply:

Think of a concert you have attended. Write one sentence which expresses a transformation of the concert stage. Using Mailer's description as a model/ mentor call the stage first a ________ then a _______. Do not explain the transformation or your attitude towards it. Instead let your choice of diction alone communicate both the transformation and your attitude. Be prepared to share.

Consider:

...then Satan first knew pain,

And writh'd him to and fro convolv'd; so sore

The grinding sword with discontinuous wound

Passed through him.

— John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, lines 3278-330

Discuss:

1. By using the word grinding, what does Milton imply about the pain inflicted by the sword?

2. What does discontinuous mean? How does the use of discontinuous reinforce the idea of a grinding sword?

Apply:

Pantomime for the class the motion of a grinding sword, a slashing sword, and a piercing sword. Discuss the context in which a writer might use the three different kinds of swords.

Consider: Newts are the most common of salamanders. Their skin is a lighted green, like water in a sunlit pond, and rows of very bright red dots line their backs. They have gills as larvae; as they grow they turn a luminescent red, lose their gills, and walk out of the water to spend a few years padding around in damp places on the forest floor. Their feet look like fingered baby hands, and they walk in the same leg patters as all four-footed creatures—dogs, mules, and, for that matter, lesser pandas.

— Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Discuss:

1. What is the difference between lighted green and light green? Which one do you think creates a more vivid picture?

2. What is the effect of saying fingered baby hands instead of simply baby hands?

Apply:

Compare the neck of each of the animals below to something familiar. Use Dillard's comparison (Their feet look like fingered baby hands) as a model/ mentor. Be prepared to share your responses.

The elephant's neck looks like ________________.

The gazelle's neck looks like _________________.

The flamingo's neck looks like _______________.

Consider:

This is earthquake

Weather!

Honor and Hunger

Walk lean

Together.

— Langston Hughes, "Today"

Discuss:

1. What does lean mean in this context?

2. Is lean a verb, an adjective, or both? How does this uncertainty and complexity contribute to the impact of the lines?

Apply:

With a partner read the poem several times changing the tone of voice to help change the meaning of the word lean. Discuss how you controlled your voice to create meaning.

Consider: Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a field in Poland.

— Elie Wiesel, "Night

Discuss:

1. This scene describes the transporting of Jews from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, both concentration camps in World War II. In this section, Wiesel never refers to the men who die on the journey as men. Instead he refers to them as bodies or simply dead. How does his diction shape the readers understanding of the horror?

2. How would the meaning change if we substituted dead people for bodies?

Apply:

Change the italicized word below to a word that disassociates the reader from the true action of the sentence.

Fifteen chickens were slaughtered for the feast.

Be prepared to share the sentence and explain its effect.

Consider: “‘And who,’ he bellows, without breaking breath/‘is governor of this gaggle? I’ll be glad to know./ It's with him and on one else that I'll hold/ a pact.’/ He held them with his eyes,/ and looked from right to left,/ not knowing, of those knights,/ which person to respect.”

— Fitt I, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Simon Armitage Translation

Discuss:

1. What are effect of using the word governor and gaggle?

2. What words could replace governor and gaggle? How would changing the two words to something else change the effect.

3. How does the indirect characterization towards the end of the passage relate to the word choice towards the beginning?

Page updated

Report abuse