Diction Defined
• Diction refers to the author's choice of
words.
• Words are the writer's basic tools:
– they create the color and texture of the
written work;
– they both reflect and determine the level
of formality;
– they shape the reader's perceptions.
Diction, Continued
• Diction reflects the writer's vision and steers
the reader's thought.
• To understand a writer’s voice, readers must
both "hear" the words and "feel" their effects.
• This is why, in studying serious literature, you
should rarely skip words you do not know.
Shaping Voice with Diction
• Effective voice is shaped by words that
are clear, concrete, and exact.
• Good writers avoid words like "pretty,"
"nice," and "bad."
• Instead they utilize words that invoke a
specific effect.
Freshness & Originality
• Diction can impart freshness and
originality to writing.
• Words used in surprising or unusual
ways make us rethink what is known
and re-examine meaning.
Topic
• Diction depends on topic, purpose,
and occasion.
• The topic often determines the
specificity and sophistication of diction.
– Articles on computers are filled with
specialized language: e-mail, e-shopping,
web, interface. Many topics generate
special vocabularies as a nexus to
meaning.
Purpose
• The writer's purpose - whether to convince,
entertain, amuse, inform, or plead - partly
determines diction.
• Words chosen to impart a particular effect on
the reader reflect and sustain the writer's
purpose.
– For example, if an author's purpose is to inform,
the reader should expect straightforward diction.
– On the other hand, if the author's purpose is to
entertain, the reader will likely encounter words
used in ironic, playful, or unexpected ways.
Audience
• Diction also depends on the intended
audience. As with clothes (what you
wear), level of formality influences
appropriate choices.
Levels of Diction
• High or Formal Diction usually contains
language that creates an elevated tone. It is
free of slang, idioms, colloquialisms, and
contractions. It often contains polysyllabic
words, sophisticated syntax, and elegant word
choice.
• Neutral Diction uses standard language and
vocabulary without elaborate words and may
include contractions.
• Informal or Low Diction is the language of
everyday use. It is relaxed and conversational.
It often includes common and simple words,
idioms, slang, jargon, and contractions.
High or Formal Diction
• Language that creates an elevated tone
(proper)
• Free of slang, idioms (expressions familiar with its own
language: it’s raining cats and dogs), colloquialisms (informal
spoken words: wanna, aint, y’all), and contractions
• It is more sophisticated, elegant vocabulary
Discerning the impracticable state of the poor
culprit's mind, the elder clergyman, who had
carefully prepared himself for the occasion,
addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all
its branches, but with continual reference to the
ignominious letter. (The Scarlet Letter)
Neutral Diction
• Some language doesn’t fall in either formal or
informal...
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Simple vocabulary
Standard English
No slang
Idioms
Colloquial
(The majority of writing)
The shark swung over and the old man saw his eye
was not alive and then he swung over once again,
wrapping himself in two loops of the rope. The old
man knew that he was dead but the shark would
not accept it. (The Old Man and the Sea)
Informal or Low Diction
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Language of everyday use
Relaxed and conversational
Often includes common and simple words
Jargon, slang, idioms, colloquial
Types of Diction
• Slang refers to a group of recently coined words
often used in informal situations. Slang words often
come and go quickly, passing in and out of usage
within months or years.
“That's bad!”
“You just got dissed!”
(We can add text speak today)
• Colloquial expressions are nonstandard, often
regional, ways of using language appropriate to
informal or conversational speech and writing. The
southern word "y'all” is an example of colloquialisms.
More types of Diction
• Jargon consists of words and expressions characteristic of a
particular trade, profession, or pursuit. Some examples of
nautical (sailor) jargon are "cuddy," "taffrail," "mizzen," and
"binnacle." –Think of pirate talk 
• Idiom is a form of speech or expression of a given language
that is peculiar; its meaning is other than the literal meaning of
the words that comprise the idiom: bad egg, back burner, in a
pickle, in hot water, no-brainer.........
• Dialect is a nonstandard subgroup of a language with its own
vocabulary and grammatical features. Writers often use regional
dialects or dialects that reveal a person’s economic or social
class. There are many dialects portrayed in literature:
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to
enjoy.” (To Kill a Mockingbird)
More types of Diction
• Concrete Diction brings the reader into the scene, enabling full
participation in the writer's world.
• A coat isn't "torn"; it is "tattered.”
• The United States Army does not "want" revenge; it is
"thirsting" for revenge.
• A door does not "shut"; it "thuds."
• Abstract Diction refers to language that denotes ideas,
emotions, conditions, or concepts that are intangible. The more
abstract words tend to be used impersonally to convey universal
truths and emotions. For example...
“Ralph and Jane have experienced difficulties in their lives, and
both have developed bad attitudes because of these difficulties.”
More types of Diction
• Denotation is the exact, literal definition of a word
independent of any emotional association or
secondary meaning
• Connotation is the implicit rather than explicit
meaning of a word and consists of the suggestions,
associations, and emotional overtones attached to a
word. For example, home connotes safety, coziness,
and security.
Connotation vs. Denotation
• When studying diction, you must understand
both connotation (the meaning suggested by
the word) and denotation (literal meaning).
• A word's power to produce a strong reaction
in the reader lies mainly in its connotative
meaning.
• When a writer calls a character "slender," the
word evokes a different feeling from calling
the character "gaunt."
More types of Diction
• Indirection is an author misdirecting or omitting information so that the
reader has to predict, infer, or completely fabricate what was said. It is
similar to ambiguity.
• Detail includes facts, observations, and incidents used to develop a
subject and impart voice. Detail shapes the reader’s attitude by
focusing attention: the greater the detail, the greater the focus on the
object described. It can also state by understatement or lack of detail.
For example, the absence of details might be in sharp contrast to the
intensity of a character’s pain. Elaborate detail might shift that pain into
sentimentality.
• Slanted language is language which is clearly biased in some way or
another. It obviously expresses an opinion about something, not by
coming out and stating this opinion directly, but by clearly
communicating the bias through diction. For example, you might
describe someone as thrifty or miserly.