Diction
Workshop - Choosing Words Effectively
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Connotation
and Denotation
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The connotation of some words—or the
attitudes we associate with them—can easily be seen when we examine
pairs of words that are essentially similar in meaning, but different in
the favorable or unfavorable attitudes they evoke in most people. Listed
below are ten pairs of words that evoke negative or positive feelings.
For each pair, place a plus sign after the word that conveys a more
favorable attitude and a minus sign after the word that carries a less
favorable attitude.
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refreshing – chilly
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plain – natural
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clever – sly
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cackle – giggle
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snob – cultured
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cop – officer
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skinny – slender
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statesman – politician
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smile – smirk
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domineering –
assertive
Now, come up with some word
pairs of your own:
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Denotation
and Connotation (cont.)
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Practice shifting your viewpoint so that
you can describe the same object both favorably and unfavorably. You can
do this by first using words with a positive connotation and then
switching to words with a negative connotation. For the descriptions
below, write a short description that is favorable and a short
description that is unfavorable (pick 1 of the following 7
descriptions). For example, you might describe a banana as either
sweetly ripe or mushy, depending on the desired connotation.
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Describe a wet street after
the rain.
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Describe a college or
professional football game.
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Characterize a difficult
college course.
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Describe a hamburger made in a
fast-food restaurant.
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Describe a group of three or
four teen-age girls walking down the street together.
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Describe a new regulation for
student parking on campus.
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Describe a recent movie or
television program.
(Share descriptions aloud)
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Using
specific language
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In each of the sentences below, underline
the subject and object words that refer to a general class. In each case
substitute a more specific term and, if possible, also add a descriptive
word or phrase.
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A man went into a building.
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The animal ate its food.
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The parent held the child.
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The store sells candy.
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The car hit an object.
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Jargon
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Ineffective or inappropriately used
jargon merely inflates ideas that can be expressed more clearly. We see
this kind of unnecessary jargon in the five examples below. Read these
and translate them back into clear language (these are all familiar
expressions).
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Nothing is of absolute
certitude but cessation of life and revenue enhancement.
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In the presence of gravity,
that whose Y coordinate increases in a positive sense will, after
the vanishing of its time derivative, have its Y coordinate
decrease.
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Flora of the class Musci
within the division Bryophyta are incapable of adhering to extrusive
igneous spheroids.
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In order to eschew the diurnal
visitation of a physician, it is imperative to ingest the fruit of
the tree Pyrus malus.
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A stipulated event has the
probability of occurrence similar to that of the maintenance of a
spheroid of frozen H20 in the nether regions of the
condemned.
Now, see if you can take
three common expressions and "camouflage" them with jargon (get
out the Thesaurus).
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Clichés
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Probably nothing will deaden your writing
faster than clichés. A cliché cannot communicate because people have
heard the expression or idea so many times they are no longer able to
react to it. When you write, try to avoid trite, overused expressions
and ideas. In this exercise, first finish these similes using clichés:
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Big as _________________
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Hot as _________________
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Work like ______________
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White as _______________
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Hungry as ______________
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Busy as ________________
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Red as _________________
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Sick as _________________
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Light as ________________
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Pretty as ________________
** Now,
go back and try to create vivid similes that are not clichés. Try
out your creations on your group members; if your phrase sounds familiar,
it may be a cliché.
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