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Diction Essay: Assignment: Choose A Passage From A Piece of Literature (Poem, Novel, Short Story, Drama) and Write

The document provides instructions for writing a diction essay analyzing the word choices in a literary passage. It includes: 1) An example diction essay analyzing a passage from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The essay explains how Mark Twain's folksy word choices like "warn't", "victuals", and "grumble" characterize Huck and give insight into his upbringing. 2) A definition and explanation of diction as the words an author chooses and how word choice can vary based on subject, purpose, audience, and occasion. 3) Guidance on how to analyze diction by identifying strong words, patterns, and repetition that create a particular effect. The document emphasizes analyzing the effect

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Aaron Lumeran
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80 views3 pages

Diction Essay: Assignment: Choose A Passage From A Piece of Literature (Poem, Novel, Short Story, Drama) and Write

The document provides instructions for writing a diction essay analyzing the word choices in a literary passage. It includes: 1) An example diction essay analyzing a passage from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The essay explains how Mark Twain's folksy word choices like "warn't", "victuals", and "grumble" characterize Huck and give insight into his upbringing. 2) A definition and explanation of diction as the words an author chooses and how word choice can vary based on subject, purpose, audience, and occasion. 3) Guidance on how to analyze diction by identifying strong words, patterns, and repetition that create a particular effect. The document emphasizes analyzing the effect

Uploaded by

Aaron Lumeran
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DICTION ESSAY

Assignment: Choose a passage from a piece of literature (poem, novel, short story, drama) and write
a brief essay (150 - 200 words or more—the passage isn’t included) explaining the diction of the
passage.
1. Title your essay and center it on the page
2. Give the title of the text, the author, and include a passage (at least 3 – 4 lines) from the text.
3. Write a claim using the formula listed below (see “Let’s try it”).
4. What are the connotation/denotation of the example words?
5. Explain the subject, purpose, occasion, and audience of the author (see below).
6. As needed, use the following to explain the diction: “The writer creates ___________ diction
through the use of …” OR “The language of the text is _______________.”

Example:
Diction Essay

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain:


“The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go
right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals,
though there warn't really anything the matter with them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by
itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and
the things go better.”

Mark Twain’s folksy diction in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn creates the characterization of

Huck with word choices like “warn’t”, “victuals”, and “grumble”. The denotation of these words are as follows:

was not, food or provisions, and to complain or protest. The connotation is significant for grumble because it

changes the meaning from the denotation: what the widow is actually doing is praying over their dinner. The

language of the text enforces the upbringing of Huck and gives us more insight into his character. The subject

of the novel is Huckleberry Finn an orphan boy abandoned by his deadbeat father and is set in the antebellum

South. The purpose of the piece is to satirize the culture of the time. The subject and purpose of the novel

encourage the informal diction; because Huck Finn is the narrator we get a colloquial version of the events as

they happen. Although Twain writes informally, he depends on an intelligent audience to understand the deeper

issues told in his story. (167 Words)

1
Diction: The words the writer chooses to convey a particular meaning. “Word Choice”.

Effective diction is shaped by words that are clear, concrete, and exact. Good writers avoid
words like pretty, nice, and bad because the words are not specific enough. Instead, good
writers rely on words that invoke a specific effect in order to bring the reader into the event
being described.
Examples:
A coat isn’t torn; it is tattered.
The United States Army does not want revenge; it is thirsting for revenge.
A door does not shut; it thuds.

Diction goes from “high to low” on the following levels:


Formal: “I am not sanguine about the decision of the Woodlake Union High School
Board.”
Informal: “I am not optimistic about the school board’s decision.”
Conversational: “I’m not comfortable about the board’s decision.”
Colloquial: “I’m not cool with what the brass decided.”
Slang-y: “I’m ticked off at what the suits did.”
Vulgar: “I’m royally p-----.”

An author’s diction depends on subject, purpose, occasion, and audience – IT IS


CONTROLLED BY PURPOSE!
SUBJECT: The subject often determines how specific or sophisticated the diction
needs to be. For example, articles on computers are filled with specialized language: e-
mail, e-shopping, web, interface. Many topics generate special vocabularies to convey
meaning.
PURPOSE: The writer’s purpose – whether to persuade, entertain, inform –
determines diction. Words chosen to impart a particular effect on the reader
reflect the writer’s purpose. For example, if an author’s purpose is to inform, the reader
should expect straightforward diction. On the other hand, if the author’s purpose is to
entertain, the readers will likely encounter words or phrases that are ironic, whimsical, or
unexpected.
OCCASION: In what style of writing will your words be read? Formal diction is
reserved for scholarly writing and serious texts. Informal diction is often used in
narrative essays and newspaper editorials. Colloquial diction and slang are typically used
to capture the language of a particular time frame or culture. Vulgar diction – “save it for
the streets”.
AUDIENCE: The type of diction a writer uses depends on the audience (readers;
listeners). An author who uses sophisticated diction knows he is writing for an
intelligent audience. An author who uses more informal diction knows he is writing for an
audience of varied intelligence.

2
How does one analyze diction?
1. Look for specific words or short phrases that seem stronger than the others.
Diction is NEVER the entire sentence.
2. Look for a pattern (or similarity) in the words the writer chooses (Do the words
imply sadness, happiness, etc.?). This pattern helps to create a particular kind of
diction.
3. Look for repetition of the same words or phrases. Repeating the same word or
phrase enables the reader to emphasize a point, feeling, etc.
4. When writing an essay in which you analyze the diction of a writer, avoid stating,
“The writer used diction …” Think about it: This is obvious, since diction IS the
words on the page; without them, the page would be blank!

INSTEAD, say: “The writer creates ___________ diction through the use of …” OR “The
language of the text is _______________.”

Let’s Try It
(revised from Carol Elsen, AP Summer Institute)

Claim formula:

 The author's name


 plus an adjective (such as sophisticated, varied, inventive, sparkling, effective,
carefully crafted, flashy, colloquial, folksy). See the list of words used to describe tone
and diction.
 plus the term "diction"
 plus the title of the text (italicized)
 plus a strong verb (such as: demonstrates, creates, emphasizes, generates, fulfills)
 plus the function of the word choices (what those choices do for the piece)
 plus at least two example words from the text

Example: Andrist's snazzy diction recreates the dynamic personality of General Custer with
choices such as "flamboyant" and "teetotaler."

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