3. DICTION: DEFINED
• The choice and use of words and
phrases in speech or in writing.
Word choice is the most powerful
element
of style for you to understand.

6. DICTION: WHAT DOES IT DO?
• affects the clarity and impact of
your message

7. WHAT MAKES THIS PASSAGE FROM THE
BOOK THIEF SO EFFECTIVE?
“You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness
attempting to be cheerful about this whole
topic, thought most people find
themselves hindered in believing me, no
matter what my protestations. Please,
trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful.
I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And
that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be
nice. Nice has nothing to do with me”
(Zusak 3).

8. THE WORD CHOICE
“You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness
attempting to be cheerful about this whole
topic, thought most people find
themselves hindered in believing me, no
matter what my protestations. Please,
trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful.
I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And
that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be
nice. Nice has nothing to do with me”
(Zusak 3).

9. ZUSAK’S GENIUS:
• He follows “die” with “cheerful”.
• Contrast that makes sense.
• He contrasts cheerful, amiable, affable,
and agreeable with nice.
• Contrast that doesn’t initially make
sense.
• Makes readers consider the denotations
& connotations of each word.

10. WHAT MAKES THIS PASSAGE FROM
CUTTING FOR STONE BY ABRAHAM
VERGESE EFFECTIVE?
“According to Shiva, life is in the end
about fixing holes. Shiva didn't speak in
metaphors. fixing holes is precisely what
he did. Still, it's an apt metaphor for our
profession. But there's another kind of
hole, and that is the wound that divides
family. Sometimes this wound occurs at
the moment of birth, sometimes it happens
later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is
the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much
unfinished for the next generation.”

11. VERGHESE’S GENIUS:
• Poetic
• Rich vocabulary
• Multiple layers of meaning

12. HOW DO WE DESCRIBE DICTION?
High  low
Formal  informal

13. HIGH/FORMAL DICTION
• Dignified, elevated, and often
impersonal.
• Elaborate, or sophisticated
vocabulary.
• Polysyllabic.

14. LOW/INFORMAL DICTION
• Plain language of everyday
• slang, jargon, vulgarity, and dialect.
• Monosyllabic.

15. MIDDLE/NEUTRAL DICTION
• Follows rules of grammar and uses
common, unexceptional
vocabulary.
• Grammar and vocabulary is meant
to be transparent, easily
understood.

16. DON’T PASS JUDGMENT!
No type of diction is “bad.”
Each is appropriate in different
writing situations.

17. DESCRIBE THE DICTION
“'Guys like us, that work on ranches,
are the loneliest guys in the world.
They got no family. They don't belong
no place. They come to a ranch an'
work up a stake, and the first thing
you know they're poundin' their tail on
some other ranch. They ain't got
nothing to look ahead to.’”

18. DESCRIBE THE DICTION

19. DESCRIBE THE DICTION
“You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness
attempting to be cheerful about this whole
topic, thought most people find
themselves hindered in believing me, no
matter what my protestations. Please,
trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful.
I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And
that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be
nice. Nice has nothing to do with me”
(Zusak 3).

20. DESCRIBE THE DICTION
“According to Shiva, life is in the end
about fixing holes. Shiva didn't speak in
metaphors. fixing holes is precisely what
he did. Still, it's an apt metaphor for our
profession. But there's another kind of
hole, and that is the wound that divides
family. Sometimes this wound occurs at
the moment of birth, sometimes it happens
later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is
the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much
unfinished for the next generation.”

21. WORDS
See the excerpt from The Practice of
Creative Writing by Heather Sellers.

23. DENOTATIO
N
The dictionary
definition
CONNOTATI
ON
The emotional
overtones of a word
Typically described
using “positive”,
“negative”, and
“neutral”.

24. WHY DO THESE MATTER?
• Understanding both the
connotations and denotations of a
word is essential for clear, effective
writing.
• Avoid unintentional insults or
results.
• These meanings create responses
in your readers.

25. CONNOTATIONS
• Context matters:
•aggressive vs. hostile
•hard-hitting vs. aggressive
•aggressive man vs. aggressive
woman

26. LET’S PLAY WITH WORDS…

27. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS W/ STYLE
Style: a series of choices –words,
sentence length and structure, figures of
speech, tone, voice, diction, and overall
structure.
• It changes from piece to piece.
• Depends on purpose, audience, and
appropriateness.

28. CHOOSE LEAN SENTENCES OVER
FLABBY ONES
• Eliminate unneeded words
• Wordy writing annoys readers
because they have to wade through
the verbiage to find your meaning

30. DON’T BE A BROKEN RECORD.
• Don’t say the same thing twice.
• Redundant:
•The editor was looking forward to the
book’s final completion.
• Better:
•The editor was looking forward to the
book’s completion.

31. BE ACTIVE.
• Make passive sentences active.
• Your subject should perform the
action, instead of being acted upon.
• Passive:
•Ten pages were completed in one day by
the writer.
•The writer completed ten pages in one
day.

32. YOUR TASK: LE MOT JUSTE
Gustave Flaubert, a 19th-century
novelist, coined this French phrase
meaning “the right word”. Flaubert is
said to have spent weeks looking for
“le mot juste”.
See handout.