9th Honors Literature
Style Analysis: Diction
adapted from material at www4.smsd.org
How do structure and precise word choice affect meaning and tone within a text?
ELACCL9-10RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the
language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone.)
1. The words diction, language, and figurative language are terms that you will use interchangeably when you
analyze an author’s style. These words all refer to the concept of an author’s WORD CHOICE.
Word choice is probably the most powerful element of style for you to understand. If the directions in the prompt
do not give you any specific terms to start your analysis, always begin with diction – you won’t be wrong. Many
words in our language have strong connotations, and authors learn to use them on purpose to elicit certain
responses from the reader.
These three terms are also used when the areas to analyze include many metaphors, similes, and other forms of
figurative language. Watch for these as some common forms of word choice.
2. The word denotation means the literal, dictionary definition of a word.
Example: The words “plump” and “obese” both literally describe a person who is overweight. This is the
dictionary definition of both words. It is the shared meaning of these two synonyms.
3. The word connotation means the implied or suggested meaning attached to a word, or the emotional “tag” that
goes along with a word.
Example: The word “plump” has the connotation of being pleasantly fat, almost cutely overweight. Its
connotation describes women more often than men. It is this extra “emotional” feeling that shows how
we use the word.
The word “obese,” often used by medical personnel, has a more technical connotation. It carries a less
emotional, more scientific emotional tag. Both “plump” and “obese” have the same literal definition, but
the connotations are different.
Connotation is important because it shows differences between synonyms and suggests specific ways in which we
use a word. You must understand connotations of the words you read and write in order to analyze style well.
4. Here is an example of a sentence with strong connotative diction:
The boy surveyed the class, congratulating himself for snatching the highest grade on the test.
Two words are important here: surveyed and snatching. They are the words with the strongest connotations.
5. Once you identify an author’s diction, you must analyze it. This means that you write commentary about the
word or phrase and the effect that the word or phrase had on you. Synonyms for commentary are analysis,
interpretation, and explication.
You must discuss the connotation of the word or phrase to do a good job of diction analysis. You comment on the
reaction you had to the word choice and what emotional response it brought out in you. Here is an example of
diction analysis and commentary on the word “surveyed:”
Commentary #1: conveys the idea of someone looking around as if he were a king looking at lowly
subjects
Commentary #2: the boy sees himself on a kind of Mt. Olympus, sitting with other gods and looking
down on lesser mortals
This last point of commentary is especially good because the writer made an allusion to another bit of information
– a reference to mythology.
6. Now it is your turn to try some commentary for the other strong connotative word in the sample – snatching.
Remember to write phrases of commentary, not full sentences.
Commentary Sentence #1:
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Commentary Sentence #2:
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7. So far, you have covered the general idea behind diction analysis. The next step is to practice spotting diction
samples in an actual passage on the next two pages.
First, read the directions to see what the prompt is asking you to do. Circle or underline the key words in the
directions/prompt.
Then read the passage and circle or underline any examples of diction, language, or figurative language that have
a strong connotative effect on you. As a sample, several words are already underlined.
Prompt: Read the following passage carefully noting how the author communicates two complementary but opposing
attitudes toward nature. Then write an essay in which you analyze the author’s use of diction to convey these attitudes.
Cruelty at Tinker Creek
A couple of summers ago I was walking along the edge of the island to see what I could see in the water, and mainly to
scare frogs. Frogs have an inelegant way of taking off from invisible positions on the bank just ahead of your feet, in dire
panic, emitting a froggy “Yike!” and splashing into the water. Incredibly, this amused me, and incredibly, it amuses me
still. As I walked along the grassy edge of the island, I got better and better at seeing frogs both in and out of the water. I
learned to recognize, slowing down, the difference in texture of the light reflecting from mudbank, water, grass, or frog.
Frogs were flying all around me. At the end of the island I noticed a small green frog. He was exactly half in and half out
of the water, looking like a schematic diagram of an amphibian, and he didn’t jump.
He didn’t jump; I crept closer. At last I knelt on the island’s winter-killed grass, lost, dumbstruck, staring at the frog in
the creek just four feet away. He was a very small frog with wide, dull eyes. And just as I looked at him, he slowly
crumpled and began to sag. The spirit vanished from his eyes as if snuffed. His skin emptied and drooped; his very skull
seemed to collapse and settle like a kicked tent. He was shrinking before my eyes like a deflating football. I watched the
taut, glistening skin on his shoulders ruck, and rumple, and fall. Soon, part of his skin, formless as a pricked balloon, lay
in floating folds like bright scum on top of the water; it was a monstrous and terrifying thing. I gaped bewildered,
appalled. An oval shadow hung in the water behind the drained frog; then the shadow glided away. The frog skin bag
started to sink.
I had read about the giant water bug, but never seen one. “Giant water bug” is really the name of the creature, which is
an enormous, heavy-bodied brown beetle. It eats insects, tadpoles, fish, and frogs. Its grasping forelegs are mighty and
hooked inward. It seizes a victim with these legs, hugs it tight, and paralyzes it with enzymes injected during a vicious
bite. That one bite is the only bite it ever takes. Through the puncture shoot the poisons that dissolve the victim’s
muscles and bones and organs – all but the skin – and through it the giant water bug sucks out the victim’s body, reduced
to a juice. This event is quite common in warm fresh water. The frog I saw was being sucked by a giant water bug. I had
been kneeling on the island grass; when the unrecognizable flap of frog skin settled on the creek bottom, swaying, I stood
up and brushed the knees of my pants. I couldn’t catch my breath.
Of course, many carnivorous animals devour their prey alive. The usual method seems to be to subdue the victim by
drowning it or grasping it so it can’t flee, then eating it whole or in a series of bloody bites. Frogs eat everything whole,
stuffing prey into their mouths with their thumbs. People have seen frogs with their wide jaws so full of live dragonflies
they couldn’t close them. Ants don’t even have to catch their prey; in the spring they swarm over newly hatched,
featherless birds in the nest and eat them tiny bite by bite.
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
8. The next step is to create an introductory paragraph for this essay.
Diction analysis is only a tool to achieve another goal – to identify tone and attitude, concepts you studied earlier.
Now that you are working with an actual passage, you must extend your knowledge about tone and attitude.
Whenever you read a complex passage, look for two different but complementary tones or attitudes. Passages
that you will read to analyze will usually have two.
To practice, look over “Cruelty at Tinker Creek.” Do a quick write on two questions:
1) What feelings does the author have about the frog and nature?
2) What effects does this passage have on you as the reader?
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9. Following are two student sample introductions for “Cruelty at Tinker Creek.” They may seem strange if you are
used to writing funnel introductions that begin generally and narrow down to your thesis. This introduction states
the two tones in the first sentence and then elaborates on them for the rest of the paragraph.
Sample A: Annie Dillard’s techniques used in “Cruelty at Tinker Creek convey not only a feeling of shock and
disgust at nature’s cruelty but also a sense of the author’s acceptance of the horrible as obedience to natural laws.
Dillard ushers the reader through the same sensations she has experienced in the outdoors. The reader
experiences similar feelings and embraces a reluctant agreement with her conclusion about nature’s cruelty.
Sample B: Annie Dillard’s “Cruelty at Tinker Creek” displays the widely contrasting tones of carefree playfulness
broken by the shocked acceptance of the “natural” brutality in nature. In the beginning of the passage, the
author’s fun-loving narrative of “flying frogs” keeps the reader off balance, unprepared for the horrific jolt of
reality in the gruesome death of the frog later on. Finally, the reader stoically embraces the process of natural
selection in Dillard’s Darwinian view of real life.
10. Now it’s time to turn to paragraph #2 of this essay. This will analyze only the diction in “Cruelty.” Other
elements that the question might ask for – detail, point of view, and organization – will come later.
Before you start the diction paragraph, you need a topic sentence for it. This sentence should give a focus for the
paragraph and let your reader know which element of style you will be discussing.
Here is a sample topic sentence we will use for practice as we write this paragraph:
The author’s diction heightens the horror and acceptance in Dillard’s experience.
11. The next part of the paragraph follows a specific pattern: you will write one example sentence with diction
examples you’ve circled or underline, and then two sentences of commentary. The commentary must echo the
idea in the topic sentence (and in the introduction). There is another point to remember in writing example
sentences for diction: you should include three different short quotations from several parts of the passage as you
write your sentence. Here’s an example:
When describing the frog’s death, Dillard’s reaction is to be “dumb-struck” with a “gap[ing],”
“bewildered” response. She calls the death “monstrous” and “terrifying.”
This quotation sentence integrates three or more separate short quotes taken from different parts of the passage.
This shows your reader that you have understood the entire piece and are choosing quotations thoughtfully.
12. Now look over the words or phrases you marked on your own copy of “Cruelty” and write a quotation sentence
of your own. Remember to use three or more different short quotes. (Use single words or two word phrases for
diction quotes.)
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13. The next step is to write commentary (analysis or interpretation) for the three or more quotes you included in
your example sentence. This should echo the tones and attitudes from the introduction.
Here is an example based on the sentence from section 12.
Commentary #1: The words relate a shocking experience, leaving one open-mouthed, yet unable to speak,
confused.
Commentary #2: The death of a frog by “juic[ing]” renders an effect of horrifying and frightening reality that
one bite of poison can cause.
Commentary does not mean paraphrasing the quotation sentence; it means thinking about the feeling behind the
quotations and the reader’s response to these words and phrases. Diction commentary should talk specifically
about the connotations and impact of the words in the quotations.
14. Now look at your own quotation sentence (concrete detail) from section 12. Think of two points of commentary
for your choices and write them below:
Commentary Sentence #1:
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Commentary Sentence #2:
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15. What you have just done is to jot down ideas for the first chunk of this paragraph on diction analysis. Each body
paragraph must have at least two chunks to be fully developed; it may have three chunks if you have time and
more to say. Remember, too, to give a sense of closure to the last sentence in each body paragraph.