138 ❯ STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
That personal note out of the way, a writer searches for the most appropriate, evocative,
or precise word or phrase to convey his or her intent. The author is sensitive to denotation,
connotation, and symbolic aspects of language choices.
Diction is placing the right word in the right place. It is a deliberate technique to fur-
ther the author’s purpose or intent. Diction builds throughout a piece so that ideas, tone,
or attitude are continually re inforced. You should be able to identify and link examples of
specific diction to the ideas, purpose, tone, or intent of the passage.Let’s Try Another
Here is the bare-bones outline of a paragraph.
Jonathan I. was a thin guy. He seemed to be smart when he spoke. He didn’t smile, and
he looked like he was really feeling down.
Here’s how Oliver Sachs actually wrote his paragraph in The Case of the Colorblind Painter
about one of his patients.
When we first saw him, on April 13, 1986, Jonathan I. was a tall, gaunt man, show-
ing obvious recent weight loss. He spoke intelligently and well, both analytically and
vividly, but in a soft and rather lifeless voice. He rarely smiled; he was manifestly
depressed. We got a sense of inner pain, fear, and tension, held in with difficulty
beneath his civilized discourse.
Now you highlight those changes in words/phrases that transform the tone and effect of
the passage.
In this brief paragraph that describes Oliver Sachs’s first meeting with his subject, we
can easily see the effect of diction. Jonathan is not just thin. He is a series: tall and gaunt
and, most importantly, showing obvious signs of recent weight loss. This begins to set the
reader up for the possibility that Mr. I. is not well. Using soft and rather lifeless to describe
his voice further strengthens the impression of a man who is ill. Sachs calmly lists what
he sees and draws conclusions from these details which allow him to state that Jonathan is
manifestly depressed.
See how the diction enriches the paragraph. Here, the reader begins to get a feeling for
Sachs’s patient.When writing your essay write, “Diction IS... ” or “An example of Salinger’s diction
IS... .” Avoid saying, “Salinger uses diction.” It is a little point, but it is one that indi-
cates a mature writer is at work.Figurative Language and Imagery
Imagery is the written creation of sensory experience achieved through the use of figurative
language. Figurative language includes the following:- Analogy
- Sensory description
- Poetic devices, which include:
— metaphor
— simile
— hyperbole
— onomatopoeia
TIP