Diction:: The Choice of Words

DICTION:
The Choice of
Words
What are you
trying to do?
What is your
purpose?
finding the exact word that produces

the exact effect that a writer intends.
The Three
Qualities of
effective diction
• Appropriateness
• Specificity
• imagery
appropriateness
When writers care about Who
will be reading their words
and how the reader may
react
(when writers write for

someone other than
themselves)
Language formality
scale
Learned popular colloquial slang
Most formal Least formal

The basic elements of
everyday communication
popular Learned
(common to the speech of the (used more widely by the
educated and the educated and in more formal
uneducated alike) occasions)
• Agree------------------------------------- Concur--------------------------------------
• Begin-------------------------------------- Commence---------------------------------
• Clear------------------------------------- Lucid-------------------------------------------
• Disagree-------------------------------- Remonstrate----------------------------
• End---------------------------------------- Terminate---------------------------------
• Help--------------------------------------- Succor---------------------------------------
• Make easy----------------------------- Facilitate----------------------------------
• Secret----------------------------------- Esoteric-------------------------------------
• Think------------------------------------ Cogitate------------------------------------
• Wordy---------------------------------- Verbose--------------------------------------
colloquialisms
• Writing as friendly
conversation
• Highly informal
• What audience is appropriate
for using such diction?
Examples:
Any Contractions, any shortened words,
“kind of”, “like”, “mad” (angry), “yeah”,
“Sure” (certainly), “it’s me”
Slang
• Least formal—its use is determined by
the audience/occasion
• Satisfies a desire for novelty of

expression
• Used by everyone at one time or

another
• Shifting the diction to slang may

create a humorous effect or the
impression of a lack of control over
the writing (usually the latter)
specificity
• Specific words refer to uniquely
individual persons, events, or
objects
• Concrete specific words attract
our senses
• Abstract specific words relate to
concepts that are mostly
inferred
imagery
• One meaning of this term
suggests the pictures (images)
that occur in our minds
when specific diction is
employed
• In another sense, imagery
refers to tropes.
Revising diction
• What is your purpose?
• Who is your audience?
• Does the diction used

consider each of the above?
Revising diction
vagueness
triteness
jargon
Ineffective
imagery
Ineffective imagery
• Test every metaphor, every figure
of speech by seeing the image—if
no image appears in your mind—
well…
• Mixed metaphors confuse the
mental image:
“The bill is mainly a stew of spending on existing programs,
whatever their warts may be.” (New York Times)
“So now what we are dealing with is the rubber meeting the
road, and instead of biting the bullet on these issues, we
just want to punt.” (Chicago Tribune)
“This is awfully weak tea to hang your hat on.”
(New York times)
“the moment that you walk into the bowels of the armpit
of the cesspool of crime, you immediately cringe.” (Our
town, New York)
jargon
• The specialized language of
a particular group or
profession
• Characteristics of jargon
include:
1. abstract, technical words (learned
instead of popular)
2. excessive use of the passive voice
3. wordiness
Examples of
Jargon
• Computer field: RAM, backup,
lol, gr8, gb
• Military: awol, sop, ied
• Law enforcement: apb, csi,
perp, clean skin
• Common examples: poker face,
ufo, shrink, ballpark figure,
on cloud nine
vagueness
• Similar to ambiguity, a word
is vague when, in context, it
conveys more than one
meaning
• Vague words belong to a
group called “utility words”
• specify, name, clarify the
general
Triteness
• Once upon a time a metaphor was
new, fresh, colorful, and apt!
• Used countless times over the
years by everyone, the sheen is
dulled.
The crack of dawn—do your own thing—
crystal clear—good as gold—sly as a fox—lost
in thought—commune with nature—it remains
to be seen—it is what it is—don’t go there—
diamond in the rough
END

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DICTION:

finding the exact word that produces

(when writers write for

Learned popular colloquial slang

Most formal Least formal

• Satisfies a desire for novelty of

• Used by everyone at one time or

• Shifting the diction to slang may

• What is your purpose?

• Who is your audience?

• Does the diction used

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