1. Diction in Poe and Kelley

2. Word Choice What is the difference between the words HOUSE and HOME?
What are the feelings or images that come to mind with each word?

3. Word Choice What do all of these words have in common?
mommy, mom, ma, birth mother, mama, maternal parent
What are the feelings or images that come to mind with each word?

4. Word Choice Words have both a denotative and a connotative meaning.
Denotation means the explicit or direct meaning of a word; the dictionary definition.
Connotation means the associated meaning of a word; the feelings or images that the word evokes.

5. Word Choice For example, let’s look at the words “cool” and “chilly”
The words have similar denotations
Cool: “moderately cold; neither warm nor cold”
Chilly: “mildly cold or producing a sensation of cold”

6. Word Choice Now let’s look at the connotations of those two words.
The cool night air set the tone for the evening’s concert.
The chilly night air set the tone for the evening’s concert.
Which concert do you think will be more fun?

7. Word Choice
Pay attention to the different shadings that a word may have. One word can alter a sentence dramatically.
When we look at the word choice of an author, we are looking at the author’s diction.

8. Your Turn! Everyone get out your textbook.
If you are on my left side of the room, open to page 242.
If you are on my right side of the room, open to page 372.

9. Your Turn!
Individually, find one example of specific diction your author used to create a feeling or mood in his story.
You have five minutes before we share our examples – GO!