1. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS Diction

2.  The words diction, language, figurative language, and figures of speech are terms you could use interchangeably when you analyze an author’s style. These words all refer to the author’s word choice.  Word choice is the most powerful element of style for you to understand. Many words in our language have strong connotations, and authors use them on purpose to elicit specific responses from the reader.

3. Denotation  The word denotation means the literal, dictionary definition of a word.  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.

4. Connotation  The word connotation means the implied or suggested meaning attached to a word, the emotional “tag” that goes along with a word.  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 tag.

5. Using SOAPStone to Introduce a Rhetorical Analysis  The introductory paragraph to an analysis essay is usually brief. However, it must contain some essential information. Put SOAPS in your introduction and follow this format:  1. Speaker, Occasion, and Subject (Writer’s credentials), (writer’s first and last name), in his/her (type of text), (title of text), (strong verb) (writer’s subject).  2. Purpose (Writer’s last name)’s purpose is to (what the writer does in the text).  3. Audience He/she adopts a[n] (adjective describing the attitude/feeling conveyed by the writer) tone in order to (verb phrase describing what the writer wants readers to do/think) in his/her (intended audience)

6. Example:  Novelist, Amy Tan, in her narrative essay, “Fish Cheeks,” recounts an embarrassing Christmas Eve dinner when she was 14 years old. Tan’s purpose is to convey the idea that, at fourteen, she wasn’t able to recognize the love her mother had for her or the sacrifices she made. She adopts a sentimental tone in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in her adult readers.

7. No So Great Examples  What not to do:  The author uses diction to....  Words like “virtuosity, reverence, and sighed” show how characters change when they are away from telescreens and government oppression.

8. Remember this passage?  A thrush had alighted on a bough not five metres away, almost at the level of their faces. Perhaps it had not seen them. It was in the sun, they in the shade. It spread out its wings, fitted them carefully into place again, ducked its head for a moment, as though making a sort of obeisance to the sun, and then began to pour forth a torrent of song. In the afternoon hush the volume of sound was startling. Winston and Julia clung together, fascinated. The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity. Sometimes it stopped for a few seconds, spread out and resettled its wings, then swelled its speckled breast and again burst into song. Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence. For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness? He wondered whether after all there was a microphone hidden somewhere near. He and Julia had spoken only in low whispers, and it would not pick up what they had said, but it would pick up the thrush. Perhaps at the other end of the instrument some small, beetle-like man was listening intently — listening to that. But by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind. It was as though it were a kind of liquid stuff that poured all over him and got mixed up with the sunlight that filtered through the leaves. He stopped thinking and merely felt. The girl’s waist in the bend of his arm was soft and warm. He pulled her round so that they were breast to breast; her body seemed to melt into his. Wherever his hands moved it was all as yielding as water. Their mouths clung together; it was quite different from the hard kisses they had exchanged earlier. When they moved their faces apart again both of them sighed deeply. The bird took fright and fled with a clatter of wings.

9. Rhetorical Analysis: Diction  Once you identify an author’s diction, you must analyze it given the SOAPStone we discussed.  To do so identify the emotional impact words and phrases have on the passage as a whole:  SAMPLE DICTION:  “obeisance” – conveys the idea of someone showing respect and gratitude; this relates to other words such as “virtuosity” & “reverence”  Vs.  “Annihilation”, “blow”, “rot” “weaken” “undermine” which all appear after Julia’s and Winston’s encounter with the thrush.

10. Tips continued:  When analyzing diction, look for specific words or short phrases that seem stronger than the others (ex. Orwell’s use of secular words such as reverent and virtuous is a reminder of the sacredness of nature and our implicit need to celebrate it). Diction is NEVER the entire sentence!  Look for a pattern (or similarity) in the words the writer chooses (ex. Do the words imply sadness, happiness, etc?). This pattern helps to create a particular kind of diction. This pattern can also include repetition of the same words or phrases. Repeating the same word or phrase helps the reader emphasize a point, feeling, etc.  Effective diction is shaped by words that are clear, concrete, and exact. They rely on words that invoke a specific effect in order to bring the reader into the event being described.

11. Body Analysis  This is the analysis part! This is where you include a detailed explanation of strategies used by the writer. When writing an analysis, it is crucial that you work chronologically through the text.  Start at the beginning of the text and work your way through it by discussing what the writer is saying and the effectiveness of the strategies he/she is using at the beginning, middle, and end of the text.  Sometimes this means that you will discuss each paragraph (one at a time), and sometimes this means that you will divide the text into sections. Whether you discuss each paragraph or each section depends on the length and organization of the text itself.

12. Try it!  Focusing solely on pages 103-105, compose a rhetorical analysis that examines the significance of the scene and how diction establishes that effect.

13. Sources:  http://cherokeetrail.cherrycreekschools.org/Depart ments/english/Documents http://cherokeetrail.cherrycreekschools.org/Depart ments/english/Documents