5.4  Word Choice

The exact words that you choose affect tone, attitude, imagery, and, voice. Just as with your speaking tone, your written tone can reveal any emotion or attitude a person can feel. Tone can be positive or negative, happy or sad, angry or peaceful, hopeful or desperate, and so on. Here are two ways a father can ask his daughter about a boy he saw her walking with. Try reading them aloud to see the differences in tone and attitude. Key words that show tone and attitude are in italics.

Father 1:   "Who was that fool I saw you sneaking around with on the street?"

Father 2:   "Was that your new Prince Charming I saw you with?"

      Another way to ask the question would reveal a more neutral, matter-of-fact tone:

Father 3:   "Who was that boy you were walking with?"

Word choice also affects imagery, the pictures created by your words in the mind of your reader. Certainly "fool" and "Prince Charming" make different pictures for the reader, but even less obvious words have their effects. The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition, but denotation doesn't tell the whole story. Words' connotations, the personal reactions people have to words, are much more powerful.

Think about whether you are trying to create a positive (Prince Charming) or negative (fool) or neutral (young boy) impression with the words you choose.

Suppose you wanted to say that you are not active. You could choose many different words to express that thought, and their connotations could be wildly different. Let's try a few different word choices, with connotations for each in parentheses.

Ways to Describe "not active": Connotation by the Reader:     I am still maybe the writer is listening for something   I am relaxed the writer has no worries   I am inactive maybe the car battery died   I am unmoving maybe the writer is unconscious   I am frozen in place maybe the writer is terrified

Each of these words creates a different image or picture. You don't need to spend ten minutes choosing every word you write, but it is a good idea to look for key words in your paper and make the best choice you can. Big words aren't always better than small ones, so don't choose on the basis of size.

You might choose on the basis of degree-how strong or extreme a word do you want? The chart below shows related words along a range of meaning, with "values" assigned to each level.

1¢ Words bad big loud kind |         | | | | | 5¢ Words evil large showy giving |         | | | | | 10¢ Words malicious gigantic gaudy generous |         | | | | | 50¢ Words heinous titanic ostentatious philanthropic

You get the idea. A specific word that creates a clear image or picture is better than a vague or general one. "Big" is hard to picture, while "gigantic" is easy.

Write Your Own Progress Report

This activity will help you to remember the importance of word choice and how it affects tone, attitude, imagery, and the audience's response. Here is an imaginary progress report to your parent or parents explaining your work and behavior in a class. (Click here to download and print out the Activity Template - Write your Own Progress Report).

      (your name) is an average student in (name of course). Most of his/her work is done on time and is fairly complete. Test grades are satisfactory. He/She shows some interest in course material and is usually attentive in class. In discussions, he/she sometimes contributes useful ideas to the class. Overall, (your name) seems to like the class and is always polite to me and respectful toward other students.

      This report is pretty neutral, right? Your job is to rewrite it twice: once to make it extremely positive and again to make it extremely negative. The reader of the positive report should want to take you out and buy you a present. The reader of the negative report should want to call the police. You can create these two opposite effects by changing the boldfaced words to very positive or very negative words. You can use more than one word in any blank. Have fun.

On the Positive Side: (your name) is a student in (name of course). Most of his/her work is done                     and is                    . He/She shows                     interest in course material and is usually                     in class. In discussions, he/she                     contributes                     ideas to the class. Overall, (your name) seems to                     the class and is always                     to me and                     toward other students.

On the Negative Side: (your name) is a student in (name of course). Most of his/her work is done                     and is                    . He/She shows                     interest in course material and is usually                     in class. In discussions, he/she                     contributes                     ideas to the class. Overall, (your name) seems to                     the class and is always                     to me and                     toward other students.

Click here for the answers

---

< Previous page    Table of Contents    Next page >