• Avoid writing: “The author uses diction…”
• Accompany the word diction with an adjective describing the kind of diction being used: “The author uses objective diction…”
• Do not just “list and label” diction; must provide examples of type of diction from text and analyze the function of that type of diction.

• Euphonious (pleasant-sounding) vs.
Cacophonous (harsh-sounding)
• Literal (straightforward, w/o embellishment) vs. Figurative (comparative)
• Denotative (exact meaning) vs. Connotative
(emotional meaning)
• Objective (impersonal, unemotional, unbiased) vs. Subjective (personal, emotional, bias)

• Active (The students made progress) vs.
Passive (Progress was made by the students;
Passive is more vague)
• Concrete (specific, tangible – things, facts) vs.
Abstract (conceptual, philosophical – ideas)
• Hyperbolic (misrepresenting as more) vs.
Understated (misrepresenting as less)
• Pedestrian (common language) vs. Pedantic
(inflated to display importance)

• Alliterative: repetition of initial sound (“pitiful privilege”).
• Onomatopoeic: pronunciation suggests meaning (“…however one much strains to hear sounds of motors and sloshing boots and the mumbled throbbing of the distant places..”)

• You can also characterize the overall language of the piece: “The author uses political jargon…”
• Non-standard language: slang, jargon, colloquialism, cliché, vulgarity
• Standard language:
– Informal language (grammatically correct but conversational)
– Formal language (appropriate for more formal occasions; abstract)

• Tone is “feeling”; author’s attitude toward subject.
• Diction contributes to tone.
• DIDLS: Diction, Imagery, Details, Language,
Syntax also contribute to tone.
• Tone will shift throughout a piece.

• Images differ from detail in the degree to which they appeal to the senses.
• Images: look for concrete language that appeals to the senses; help create the tone (“…in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton…”).
• Details: Facts that are included or excluded; Don’t have strong sensory appeal; facts support writer’s attitude or tone (“The children make our shoes in shoe factories; they knit our stockings…”).

• Parallel syntax: interconnected emotions, feelings, ideas.
• Short sentences: emphatic, passionate, intense, flippant.
• Long sentences: reflective, abstract, suggestive of greater thought.
• Inverted order (verb before noun): Down the
street lived the man and the woman; cues reader to pay attention.

• Length
• Number of sentences
• Rhythm of sentences
• Sentence beginnings: variety or pattern
• Voice: active or passive
• Arrangement of ideas: parallel, periodic, loose, natural order, inverted order
• Sentence types: declarative, interrogative
• Sentence structure: simple, compound, complex
• Rhetorical questions