Transcript document

April 4th, 2012
Today you need:
1. Diction Packet
2. Highlighter
3. Turn in your Detail Packet if you did not
yesterday
Announcements
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No school Friday or Monday….
Algebra testing on Tuesday
Vocabulary homework due tomorrow.
Vocabulary Quiz tomorrow
Bring your SSR book everyday!
Girls VS. Boys Volleyball Thursday
during 6th period – Tickets $1 @ lunch
Diction
What I want you to highlight:
• Diction refers to the author’s choice of words.
• In order to write well, you have to find the
perfect word.
• The perfect word is clear, concrete, and
exact. In other words, it says exactly what you
want it to say, is specific, and creates just the
picture you see in your mind.
Diction
What I want you to highlight:
Forbidden Words
good
nice
pretty
beautiful
fine
bad
thing
really
very
terrible
wonderful
a lot
Brainstorm words we could use instead!
Diction
What I want you to highlight:
• Denotation is the LITERAL meaning of the word and
connotation is the meaning suggested by a word, the
FEELING evoked by a word.
• Words can be formal or informal.
• Writers choose different words depending on whom
they’re writing for and why.
• A writer’s words should always suit the audience and
purpose of the piece.
“When you use words in surprising and unusual
ways, you have the power to make people think,
laugh, or examine new ideas.”
“A redheaded woman was there with
Trout. Kate could see her rummaging
through the cabin, dumping drawers and
knocking things off the shelves and
cabinets.”
1.
What picture do you get in your mind when you
read the second sentence?
2.
How would the meaning of the sentence change if
we changed some of the words? For example:
“Kate could see her searching through the cabin,
emptying drawers and taking things off the shelves
and cabinets.”
Now you try it:
Write a sentence describing a small boy
making a mess in a restaurant. Choose
words that are clear, concrete and
exact. Add these words to the chart on
the next page.
Example
The small mess-of-a-boy spewed
spaghetti sauce in every direction as he
giggled over the airplane motion his sister
was doing with his fork, she was
desperately trying to entice him to eat his
pasta.
“M.C. heard him scramble and strain his
way up the slope of Sarah’s mountain.”
1.
1.
What does it mean to scramble and strain up a
mountain?
- Scramble:
- Strain:
How would it change your mental picture if we
rewrote the sentence like this?
“M.C. heard him walk up the slope of Sarah’s mountain.”
Now you try it:
Write a sentence describing someone
slowly climbing up a flight of stairs. Use
Hamilton’s sentence as a model. Add
any “perfect” words to your list.
Example
Jane sluggishly made her way up the
checker print stairs, taking each step with
such precision it was as if she was trying
to avoid stepping on the darker squares.
“For nearly a year, I sopped around the house,
the Store, the school, and the church. Like an old
biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather
got to know, the lady who threw me my first
lifeline.
1.
What is the dictionary version of the word sop? This
word is not usually used to describe a person’s
actions. What effect does this have on the reader?
- Sop: To take up by absorption
- Effect:
2. A lifeline is _______
Angelou’s use of the word is different from it’s usual use
because _______
This diction affects my understanding of the sentence
because its shows me _______
Now you try it:
Write a sentence using the verb ring
(to encircle or to form a ring) in a fresh
and new way to capture your behavior
around your house. Use Angelou’s
first sentence as a model.
Example
My sister and I ringed the mop around the
hardwood floor, trying to put as much
water on the floor as possible so that
when Mom came in, she would see the
floors looked darker and therefore were
clean.
“He spent hours in front of the mirror trying
to herd his teeth into place with his thumb.
He asked his mother if he could have braces,
like Frank Molina, her godson, but he asked
at the wrong time.”
1.
What is Gary Soto implying (not directly stated) about
the narrator’s teeth when he uses the word herd in the
first sentence?
2.
How would the meaning change if the sentence were
written like this?
“He spend hours in front of the mirror trying to push his
teeth into place with his thumb.”
Now you try it:
Fill in the blank below with a strong verb
that creates a clear picture in the
reader’s mind like Soto does. Avoid
obvious verbs like brush, comb and fix.
She spent hours in front of the mirror
trying to _________ her hair in place for
the party.
“They scuttled for days and days and days till they
came to a great forest, ‘sculsively full of trees and
bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows,
and there they hid: and after another long time, what
with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and
what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees
falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the
zebra grew stripy and Eland the Koodoo grew
darker…”
1.
What is the dictionary definition of scuttled? How would your
mental picture change if the passage said, “They trudged for
days and days…”
2.
Consider the hyphenated adjectives Kipling uses in the passage:
patchy-blatchy and slippery-slidy. How do these adjectives help
the reader understand the scene?
Now you try it:
Write two sentences about going on a long
car trip. Your first sentence should contain a
strong verb that creates a vivid picture for the
reader, Your second sentence should use a
hyphenated adjective the either rhymes (like
patchy-blatchy) or has alliteration (like
slippery-slidy). It’s OKAY to make up part of
the hyphenated adjective, but it must be
understandable to the reader. Remember that
the purpose of this kind of diction is to make
an experience come alive for the reader.
“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince,
“far away across the city I see a young man in a
garret (attic room). He is leaning over a desk covered
with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a
bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and
crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he
has large and dreamy eyes.”
1. Look carefully at the diction in this passage. Is
the man rich or poor? How do you know?
2. What does it mean to have crisp hair? Sketch
a picture of someone with crisp hair.
Now you try it:
Write a short description of a dog. First,
decide whether you want to describe a
fancy, pedigreed dog or a scruffy mutt.
Then capture the dog by using strong
diction. Don’t explain why the dog is
fancy or scruffy, instead, use perfect
words to create a picture of the dog for
the reader.
Example