Diction Tone Diction refers to the authors choice

Diction & Tone

Diction refers to the author’s choice of words. Tone is the attitude or feeling that the writer’s words express.

When analyzing diction, consider such questions as: Is the language concrete or abstract? • Abstract Diction Abstract diction refers to words that do not appeal imaginatively to the reader's senses. Abstract words create no "mental picture" or any other imagined sensations for readers. • Abstract words include. . . Love, Hate, Feelings, Emotions, Temptation, Peace, Seclusion, Alienation, Politics, Rights, Freedom, Intelligence, Attitudes, Progress, Guilt, etc.

When analyzing diction, consider such questions as: Is the language concrete or abstract? • Concrete Diction Concrete diction refers to words that stimulate some kind of sensory response in the reader: as we read the words, we can imaginatively use our senses to experience what the words represent. • Concrete words include. . . Dog, Cat, Computer, Classroom, Tree, Candy Bar, Chair, Department Store, Radio, Pencil, Hat, Clock, Rain, Ice Cube, Beer, etc.

When analyzing diction, consider such questions as: • Are the words monosyllabic or polysyllabic? – Words can be monosyllabic (one syllable in length) – Words can be polysyllabic (more than one syllable in length). • The higher the ratio of polysyllabic words, the more difficult the content.

Do the words have interesting connotations? • Denotation means the literal, dictionary definition of the word – plump and obese both mean calorically challenged, but one word has a negative connotation. • Connotation means the implied or suggested meaning attached to a word, or the emotional “tag” or “baggage” that goes along with the word.

Connotation Practice • Which word has a negative connotation? Shack Home Explain your answer. You must use the definition of connotation in your response.

Connotation Practice house, shanty, home, slum, dwelling, mansion, dump, tent, Which words do we use to insult someone? ________________ Which words do we use to describe a place we like? _____________ Which words do we use to describe a wealthy person? ______________ cottage, trailer, plantation

Now --- let’s try it

In the morning they came up out of the ravine and took to the road again. He'd carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and he took it from his coat and gave it to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while he fell back and after a while the man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin. The man turned and looked back at him. He was lost in concentration. The man thought he seemed some sad and solitary changeling child announcing the arrival of a traveling spectacle in shire and village who does not know that behind him the players have all been carried off by wolves. ____ diction contributes to the ____ tone. What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

Everything smelled of damp and rot. In the first bedroom a dried corpse with the covers about its neck. Remnants of rotted hair on the pillow. He took hold of the lower hem of the blanket and towed it off the bed and shook it out and folded it under his arm. He went through the bureaus and the closets. A summer dress on a wire hanger. Nothing. He went back down the stairs. It was getting dark. He took the boy by the hand they went out the front door to the street. ____ diction contributes to the ____ tone. What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

An army in tennis shoes, tramping. Carrying three-foot lengths of pipe with leather wrappings. Lanyards at the wrist. Some of the pipes were threaded through with lengths of chain fitted at their ends with every manner of bludgeon. They clanked past, marching with a swaying gait like wind-up toys. Bearded, their breath smoking through their masks. Shh, he said. Shh. The phalanx following carried spears or lances tasseled with ribbons, the long blades hammered out of trucksprings in some crude forge up-country. The boy lay with his face in his arms, terrified. They passed two hundred feet away, the ground shuddering lightly. Tramping. Behind them came wagons drawn by slaves in harness and piled with goods of war and after that the women, perhaps a dozen in number, some of them pregnant, and lastly a supplementary consort of catamites illclothed against the cold and fitted in dogcollars and yoked each to each. ____ diction contributes to the ____ tone. What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

Bursting through the door, the flustered mother hollered uncontrollably at the innocent teacher who gave her child an F. ____ diction contributes to the ____ tone. What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

Gently smiling, her mother tenderly tucked the covers up around the child’s neck, and carefully, quietly, left the room, making sure to leave a comforting ray of light shining through the opened door should the child awake. ____ diction contributes to the ____ tone. What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

Remember…………… What kind of words are there? And how do they make you feel?

Abhorrent abrupt accusing accusatory admonitory bantering bitter boring brash bucolic calm cautious childish coarse cold colloquial concerned despairing desperate disdainful disgusted ecstatic effusive elated elegiac eloquent embittered erudite exuberant foreboding gloomy harsh haughty hopeful humble indignant inflammatory irreverent irritated ironic joking joyful light loving miserable melancholic nervous nostalgic optimistic outraged paranoid passionate patronizing pedantic peaceful pessimistic pitiful pleasant playful proud pompous pretentious questioning reflective reminiscent resigned romantic sad sanctimonious sarcastic sardonic scornful sentimental serene serious sharp shocked silly solemn somber soothing snobbish snooty sympathetic taunting turgid vexed vibrant whimsical angry anxious appreciative apologetic arrogant audacious condemning dark condescending contemptuous dreamy mocking moralistic mournful persuasive piquant cynical compassionate confidant

See………… The more words you know to describe passages, the more sophisticated your descriptions will be when you analyze authors’ writing

And one last tip………. . Never, never, never say: “the author uses diction” do you mean – the author chooses words? Well, duh!!!!!! Always say: the author uses ______(what kind of) diction indignant? dark? euphoric? Describe it!!!!!!