DICTION:

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DICTION

• The Choice of Words

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Who is your audience? What is your purpose?

• Your goal
• To find the exact word that produces
• the exact effect that you intend.

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The 3 Qualities of effective diction

• 1. Appropriate to your audience
• 2. Specific (accurate and precise)
• 3. Creates the right tone / image

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appropriateness

• Good writers write for
• someone other than themselves.
• They care about who will be reading their words
  and how those readers will react.
• This is true of the writers you read, and it is
  true of the writer you are becoming.

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Words about words

• Slang
• Jargon
• Latinate diction
• Archaic language
• Formal / Informal
• Colloquial / Conversational, etc.

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Language formality scale
Intimate
Slang Colloquial Popular learned
solemn
Most formal
Least formal
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Slang

• Least formalits use is determined by the
  audience/occasion
• Satisfies a desire for novelty of expression
• Used by everyone at one time or another
• Shifting the diction to slang may
• create a humorous effect, OR
• the impression of a lack of control over the
  writing (usually the latter)

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colloquialisms

• Writing as friendly conversation
• Highly informal
• What audience is appropriate for using such
  diction?
• Examples
• Any Contractions, any shortened words, kind of,
  like, mad (angry), yeah, Sure
  (certainly), its me

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The basic elements of everyday communication

• popular
• (common to the speech of educated and uneducated
  alike)
• Agree-------------------------------------
• Begin-------------------------------------
• Clear-------------------------------------
• Disagree-------------------------------
• End----------------------------------------
• Help---------------------------------------
• Make easy-----------------------------
• Secret-----------------------------------
• Think------------------------------------
• Wordy----------------------------------

• Learned
• (used more widely by the educated and in more
  formal occasions)
• Concur--------------------------------------
• Commence---------------------------------
• Lucid-------------------------------------------
• Remonstrate----------------------------
• Terminate---------------------------------
• Succor---------------------------------------
• Facilitate----------------------------------
• Esoteric-------------------------------------
• Cogitate------------------------------------
• Verbose--------------------------------------
• Use these words, but avoid sounding pompous! ?

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specificity

• Specific words refer to uniquely individual
  persons, events, or objects
• Concrete specific words attract our senses
• Abstract specific words relate to concepts that
  are mostly inferred

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SCALE OF SPECIFICITY

• Most general animals
• More general pets
• Medium dogs
• More specific golden retrievers
• Most specific my dog, Mac

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TONE

• Be aware of the positive / negative connotation
  of words.
• Be aware of the image of the words. For example
  Were all in the same boat really understand
  the metaphors we use all the time, and use them
  well.

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Revising diction

• What is your purpose?
• Who is your audience?
• Does the diction used consider each of the above?

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Revising diction
vagueness
triteness
Watch for
jargon
Ineffective imagery
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Ineffective imagery

• Test every metaphor, every figure of speech by
  seeing the imageif no image appears in your
  mindwell
• Mixed metaphors confuse the mental image
• The bill is mainly a stew of spending on
  existing programs, whatever their warts may be.
  (New York Times)
• So now what we are dealing with is the
  rubber meeting the road, and instead of biting
  the bullet on these issues, we just want to
  punt. (Chicago Tribune)
• This is awfully weak tea to hang your hat
  on.
• (New York times)
• the moment that you walk into the bowels of
  the armpit of the cesspool of crime, you
  immediately cringe. (Our town, New York)

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jargon

• The specialized language of a particular group or
  profession
• Characteristics of jargon include
• 1. abstract, technical words (learned
  instead of popular)
• 2. excessive use of the passive voice
• 3. wordiness

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Examples of Jargon

• Computer field RAM, backup, lol, gr8, gb
• Military awol, sop, ied
• Law enforcement apb, csi, perp, clean skin
• Common examples poker face, ufo, shrink,
  ballpark figure, on cloud nine

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vagueness

• Similar to ambiguity, a word is vague when, in
  context, it conveys more than one meaning
• Vague words belong to a group called utility
  words
• specify, name, clarify the general

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Triteness

• Once upon a time a metaphor was new, fresh,
  colorful, and apt!
• Used countless times over the years by everyone,
  the sheen is dulled.
• The crack of dawndo your own thingcrystal
  cleargood as goldsly as a foxlost in
  thoughtcommune with natureit remains to be
  seenit is what it isdont go therediamond in
  the roughyou only live onceeveryone is entitled
  to their own opinionin todays society

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How to have effective diction

• Read a lot.
• Difficult words, interesting words use just the
  right word for just the right thing
• Write a lot. Get practice trying out words.
• Converse with people a lot.
• Know your audience, and speak TO them.
• Know yourself your limitations, your powers, how
  you are perceived, how you want to be perceived,
  etc.

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END