Transcript Presentation

Style & Voice
adapted from Voice Lessons, Dean, 2000
• We are beginning a series focusing on
the following areas:
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diction,
detail,
imagery,
syntax,
and tone.
Diction Defined
• Diction refers to the author's choice of
words.
• Words are the writer's basic tools:
• they create the color and texture of the
written work;
• they both reflect and determine the level
of formality;
• they shape the reader's perceptions.
Diction, Continued
• Diction reflects the writer's vision and steers
the reader's thought.
• To understand a writer’s voice, readers must
both "hear" the words and "feel" their effects.
• This is why, in studying serious literature, you
should rarely skip words they do not know.
Shaping Voice with Diction
• Effective voice is shaped by words that
are clear, concrete, and exact.
• Good writers eschew words like "pretty,"
"nice," and "bad."
• Instead they employ words that invoke a
specific effect.
Specific Diction
• Specific diction brings the reader into
the scene, enabling full participation in
the writer's world.
• 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."
Topic
• Diction depends on topic, purpose,
and occasion.
• The topic often determines the
specificity and sophistication of diction.
• Articles on computers are filled with
specialized language: e-mail, e-shopping,
web, interface. Many topics generate
special vocabularies as a nexus to
meaning.
Purpose
• The writer's purpose - whether to convince,
entertain, amuse, inform, or plead - partly
determines diction.
• Words chosen to impart a particular effect on
the reader reflect and sustain 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 reader will likely encounter words
used in ironic, playful, or unexpected ways.
Audience
• Diction also depends on the intended
audience. As with clothes (what you
wear), level of formality influences
appropriate choices.
Types of Diction
• Formal diction is largely reserved for
scholarly writing and serious prose or poetry,
and business writing, and essays.
• Informal diction is the norm in newspaper
editorials, works of fiction, and friendly
writings.
• Colloquial diction and slang borrow from
informal speech and are typically used to
create a mood or capture a particular historic
or regional dialect, found in song lyrics.
Formal Diction
• Language that creates an elevated tone
(proper)
• Free of slang, idioms (expressions familiar with its own
language: a penny saved is a penny earned), colloquialisms
(informal spoken words: wanna, aint, y’all)
• It is more sophisticated, elegant vocabulary
• For example: Discerning the impracticable state of the poor
culprit's mind, the elder clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself
for the occasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its
branches, but with continual reference to the ignominious letter.
Informal Diction
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Language of everyday use
Relaxed and conversational
Often includes common and simple words
Jargon, slang, idioms, colloquial
*Keep in mind some language doesn’t fall in
either formal or informal, so it is neutral
diction (simple vocabulary-standard Englishno slang, idioms, colloquial)-The majority of
writing
Types of Informal Diction
• Neutral Diction: Every day vocabulary: The shark
swung over and the old man saw his eye was not alive
and then he swung over once again, wrapping himself in
two loops of the rope. The old man knew that he was dead
but the shark would not accept it.
• Slang refers to a group of recently coined words
often used in informal situations. Slang words often
come and go quickly, passing in and out of usage
within months or years. “that's bad” “you just got
dissed” (today we can add text language)
More types Informal Diction
• Colloquial expressions are nonstandard, often regional, ways
of using language appropriate to informal or conversational
speech and writing. The characteristic "ayah" of the Maine
resident or the southern word "y'all" are examples of
colloquialisms.
• Jargon consists of words and expressions characteristic of a
particular trade, profession, or pursuit. Some examples of
nautical (sailor) jargon from "cuddy," "taffrail," "mizzen," and
"binnacle." –Think of pirate talk 
• Idiom is a form of speech or expression of a given language
that is peculiar; it's meaning is other than the literal meaning of
the words that comprise the idiom: bad egg, back burner, in a
pickle, in hot water, no-brainer.........
Connotation vs. Denotation
• When studying diction, you must understand
both connotation (the meaning suggested by
the word) and denotation (literal meaning).
• A word's power to produce a strong reaction
in the reader lies mainly in its connotative
meaning.
• When a writer calls a character "slender," the
word evokes a different feeling from calling
the character "gaunt."
Freshness & Originality
• Finally, diction can impart freshness and
originality to writing.
• Words used in surprising or unusual
ways make us rethink what is known
and re-examine meaning.
Freshness & Originality
• Good writers often opt for complexity
rather than simplicity, for multiple
meanings rather than precision.
• Diction, the foundation of voice, shapes
a reader's thinking while guiding reader
insight into the author's idiosyncratic
expression of thought: the writer's voice.
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From Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach
Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone. Maupin House, 2000.