Diction

Diction: Examples

Authors primarily think about the connotations behind words to craft appealing sentences. Let's transform the simple sentence "Michael read the book" using different words to see how words with different connotations can affect a sentence's meaning. The meaning of the words are similar, but their emotional impact is different.

• "Michael perused the classic novel."

• "Michael studied the textbook."

• "Michael raced through the bestselling novel."

• "Michael devoured the latest installment of his favorite series."

Types of Diction

Thinking about a word’s dictionary and emotional meaning is one-way writers use diction. There are multiple types of diction that writers incorporate into their writing, including formal, informal, concrete, abstract, and poetic diction.

Formal Diction

Formal diction is word choice used within academic, business, or legal writing. This form of writing does not contain informal word choices, such as contractions, slang, or words from local dialects. Using formal diction gives your writing a scholarly and informed tone. One way to include more formal diction in your writing is to use words with less emotional connotations. This type of writing often focuses on making persuasive or logical arguments. By using more measured words, your writing centers more on your ideas. Formal diction will also contain jargon or technical words specific to a discipline. For example, on your English exams, you will see and use jargon related to literary analysis in rhetorical analysis by using terms like "logos," "polysyndeton," or "anaphora."

Informal Diction

Informal diction is word choice often found in less formal contexts, such as speech. Writers include informal diction, especially in fiction or in dialogue, to capture the personality and traits of a character. There are several ways to incorporate less formal diction. You can include contractions such as "won’t" or "didn’t" in your writing. People often use contractions in speech and less formal writing, like text messages.

In your writing, you can also include slang or informal words or phrases found in everyday conversation. Slang is often used by a particular group, and writers incorporate slang to more authentically capture how a character or population speaks or spoke during a specific time. If you wanted to include examples of modern slang teenagers use, you could include words like sus,” “drip,” and “stan.” However, if you were writing about the 1960s, you could include slang words such as "groovy" or "far out."

You can also include colloquialisms within your writing if you are using informal diction. Colloquialisms are words unique to a location. Word choice varies based on a person's location, and writers incorporate colloquialisms to reveal a character's geography and personality. Examples of colloquialisms include the Southern term “y’all” or the Northeastern term “schlep."

Concrete Diction

Concrete diction is word choice that refers to real and specific objects. When writing, you should strive to use concrete diction, especially specific words over general words. Specific words refer to words that can appeal to the senses or add more detail, while general words are vague. Word choice that refers to specific ideas or detail will help your reader imagine your details and the main point of your writing.

For example, take the sentence "Jessica walked down the street." This phrase is concrete but general. "Jessica," "walking," and "street" are concrete actions or objects. However, you could be more specific—what type of walking? What kind of street? You could update this sentence to be more specific by including details: "Jessica scuttled down the crowded city sidewalk to get out of the sprinkling rain."

Abstract Diction

Abstract diction refers to a word choice that relates to ideas or feelings. These words do not refer to tangible objects. For example, you cannot touch or point to “love,” "happy," "democracy," or "conservatism." However, these words point out important ideas which influence people and their culture. While you want to use concrete diction, you will need to use abstract diction when writing for school.

Consider how students often have to write about ideas like "democracy" in history classes, which is an important concept to describe governments around the world. It can be challenging to write about democracy since it is an abstract concept. You would need to describe this concept with concrete, specific word choices and examples. In an essay about democracy, you would write about the details of a particular democratic system, such as the American presidential system, to define this abstract concept.

Poetic Diction

Poetic diction is the word choice often used in literary writing. In the novels and poems you have studied for school, you have read books that incorporate poetic diction. This diction includes poetic techniques such as figurative language, rhyme schemes, and scansion. For example, examine the poetic diction in Langston Hughes' poem "Suicide’s Note."¹

In this short poem, Hughes’ employs poetic diction alongside poetic devices like personification. He incorporates alliteration with the use of “calm” and “cool” and assonance with the repeating "a" sound in "calm," "face," and "asked." These words' sounds create a soothing effect on the reader, revealing the speaker's mindset while considering suicide. This word choice and other poetic devices elevate the language to be more poetic than typical prose.

Analyzing Diction

When thinking critically about a piece of writing, part of what you will analyze will be the author's word choice. You will want to consider how a writer's words create the tone of a piece of writing. There are several questions to ask yourself to analyze diction:

• What is the overall tone of the passage?

• Are there any words with strong connotations? How does that affect the tone of the piece?

• Does the author use formal or informal diction? How does this choice relate to the tone of the piece?

• Is the diction more concrete or abstract? If the author uses concrete diction, what senses are engaged with specific word choices, and how did this choice impact the tone?

• Does the author use poetic diction? If so, what techniques do they use? Why might the author use poetic diction?

Analyzing Diction Example

Consider these two different newspaper headlines about the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Each conveys a different message about the earthquake's aftermath in the city.

Take a look at the first headline from The Washington Times and use the questions above to analyze the diction within the article.²

1. Langston Hughes, "Suicide's Note," 1926.

2. The Washington Times, "Thousands Dead at San Francisco: Millions Gone in Fires Still Raging," 1906.

3. The Call, "Swirl of Fire Ends and Hope Runs High," 1906.