DIDOSS: Elements of Craft Diction Imagery Details Organization Syntax Summary

D: DICTION Diction is the writer’s pattern(s) of word choice. IMPORTANT: words do not get onto the paper by accident. Each word represents a choice. Create a mood (What is the mood? How does the word contribute?) Emphasize a point (What is the point? What part of it is emphasized?) Develop a motif, theme, or subtext (Why would the writer do this?) But diction is never just one word. It is the collection of patterns represented by the whole. Diction draws on words’ connotations, their extra meaning outside the literal. (E.g., Mom, Mama, Mommy, Mother) Ask: “What are the most powerful or important patterns of word choice, and what effect do they have on the piece?” Come up with an adjective to describe the writer’s diction as a whole or in part. NEVER SAY “THE WRITER USES DICTION”!!

I: IMAGERY Imagery is the writer’s use of language that deliberately engages and activates the audience’s five senses. Imagery can affect the tone or mood of the piece and add specificity to a narrative or an argument. Some writers need imagery more than others, especially if they are writing about something difficult for the reader to connect with. Imagery almost always has an emotional effect or intention, so try to identify how the image is supposed to make us feel. Ask: “Why has the writer chosen to use language that appeals to specific sense(s), and what emotional effect does it have on the piece?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3TZGZn5VwA

D: DETAILS Writers select the details they will use very carefully. In narrative, details help create the scene and the mood (characterization, setting, plot). They help tell the story. In arguments, the details are the supports the writer uses to convince the audience of a point. Ask: “What does this detail add to the story or to the message? Why did the writer choose this particular detail or this particular type of details? Are there any details the author seems to be intentionally omitting? Why?”

O: ORGANIZATION Organization is the order in which the writer has put together the essay or the story. Some types of organization: Chronological Compare/contrast Cause/effect Flashback Ask: “Why did the writer put these ideas together in this way? What point is s/he trying to make? What does this organization reveal about the relationship between these ideas?”

S: SYNTAX Syntax refers to the structure of the writer’s sentences or a pattern of sentence types within a work. Sentences can be simple or complex; they can use parallelism; they can be fragments. They can be lots of things! To understand syntax better, you need to understand grammar better! Ask: “Why did the writer choose this type of sentence? What does it contribute to the piece? What does it say about audience and speaker? How does it help or hinder the message?”

S: Summary Summary properly condenses the essential parts of the section. Superfluous details can be left out, but it’s important to grasp the main parts of the section Summaries should be approximately a paragraph

DIDOS Combined Once you have figured out all of DIDOS for a piece, ask: Based on all of this, what is the writer’s overall tone or the overall mood that is created? Are there any motifs or themes that seem to be suggested by all of these elements taken together? In other words, how do the writer’s choices combine to reveal deeper meanings that just what is “on the surface”? Also provide the summary of each chapter.

Good readers use these tools for every book, story, poem, and essay they read. Good writers make conscious choices about these tools in every piece they write. Practice Makes Permanent!