Diction Your Choice of Words

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Diction Your Choice of Words

• Your words mean everything!

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Diction Your Choice of Words

•  
• There is no single, correct diction in the
  English language instead, you choose different
  words or phrases to convey different meanings.
• To a friend - "a screw-up"
• To a child - "a mistake"
• To the police - "an accident"
• To an employer - "an oversight"
• All of these expressions mean the same thing, but
  you would not likely switch one for the other in
  any of these three situations a police officer
  or employer would take "screw-up" as an insult,
  while your friends at the bar after a hockey game
  would take "oversight" as an affectation.

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Levels of Diction

• Low or Informal Diction-the language of everyday
  use. It is relaxed and conversational.
• Elevated or High Diction- language that creates a
  formal tone (i.e. language that is free of slang,
  contractions).
• Neutral Diction- uses standard language and
  vocabulary without elaborate words and may
  include contractions

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Literary Terms

• Denotation-the exact, dictionary definition of a
  word.
• Connotation-the emotional baggage that a word
  creates.
• For example, the word house has a different
  emotional effect on the reader than does the word
  home, with its connotation of safety, coziness,
  and security.

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L.E.D. (Use when analyzing literature)

• Low or informal diction (dialect, jargon, slang)
• Elevated language or formal diction
• Denotation and connotation