Exactness and Vividness Section 29 Before We Begin

Exactness and Vividness Section 29

Before We Begin • I want you to get an appreciation for what words can actually do to your brain • Read the following to yourself

The Don’ts • Avoid improprieties when writing or speaking • Improprieties are standard words used incorrectly • For example: • They were mighty proud of their trophy. • Mighty is an adj used as an adv—the word should be especially • The blockers defensed well on that last play. • Defensed is a noun used as a verb—the word should be defended • The mayor met with some members of the city counsel. • Counsel is the wrong word—it should be council • Improprieties often occur when a word is confused with another word similar to it

The List (which in no way is all inclusive) • Here are some words often confused for each other: • • • Advice, advise Altar, alter Alumnus, alumna Alumni, alumnae Capital, capitol Cite, site Compliment, complement Dyeing, dying Emigrate, immigrate Hoard, horde • • • Illusion, allusion Imminent, eminent Loose, lose Principal, principle Role, roll

Denotation vs Connotation • The denotation of a word is its strict dictionary definition • The connotation of a word goes beyond its strict meaning to the feelings and images the word suggests • For example: • Think of the word democracy, socialism, communism, Christian, Pentecostal, etc. • Properly using the connotations of a word can have a powerful effect on your audience • However, be careful that you don’t used words with undesirable connotations • Mr. Parks is a timid man. • Mr. Parks is a pusillanimous man.

Exact and Vivid Verbs • Choose exact and vivid verbs and nouns to make your writing interesting and forceful • Choose verbs with action and color to create mental pictures in the reader’s mind • For example: • The stream flowed. • The verb flowed doesn’t show specific action. Observe how the mental images change with different, more exact verbs • • • The stream gushed. The stream swirled. The stream splashed. The stream gurgled. The stream meandered. The stream trickled.

Exact and Vivid Verbs • Whenever possible, use exact and vivid verbs instead of verb-adverb combinations • For example: • The dog lay carelessly on the floor. (v-adv combo) • The dog sprawled on the floor. (exact and vivid verb) • How about these: • He ran quickly from the room. • It’s a verb-adverb combination • He dashed from the room. • It now contains an exact and vivid verb

Exact and Vivid Nouns • Learn how to select specific nouns rather than general nouns • Notice the progression from general to specific in the following: • Food, meat, beef, sirloin • Lumber, hardwood, tropical hardwood, mahogany • School, private school, Lighthouse Christian Academy • The thesaurus is your friend • Learn to look up synonyms for nouns • Make sure the synonym expresses your meaning exactly • Don’t write haze if you mean smog, dream if you mean nightmare, etc.

Exact and Vivid Modifiers (Adjectives) • Use exact and vivid modifiers to enhance the nouns and verbs you have chosen • Carefully select the exact adjective needed to express your idea • Synonyms generally have slightly differing meanings • Make good use of participles…they make colorful adjectives • Ex: the sound of the crackling fire and the smell of the bubbling stew lifted the spirits of the cold and weary hunters. • But, be sparing in the use of adjectives because too many makes for poor sentences • We listened with delight to the sweet, pleasant, agreeable tones of the harp. (poor) • We listened with delight to the dulcet tones of the harp. (better)

Exact and Vivid Modifiers (Adverbs) • Use the most vivid adverbs you can find • Adverbs that end in –ly are usually the most vivid • Foolishly, benignly, menacingly, agilely, fastidiously, jealously, etc. • Carefully select the exfact adverb needed to express your idea • For example: Slowly is a general word. Notice the following synonyms that express the idea more exactly: • Leisurely, deliberately, gradually, reluctantly, hesitantly, sluggishly • The adverbs very and really are greatly overused • As often as possible, substitute such with the following: • Decidedly, extremely, exceedingly, incomparably, indeed, actually, especially, actually, particularly, notably, strikingly…