What is the effect of a fast pace?
To create the sense that time is going quickly and to make our hearts race, an author might use:
- short sentences or long sentences with many short phrases
- fragments
- many short phrases connected by commas
- repetition of words
- repetition of punctuation marks
What is the effect of a slow pace?
To create the sense that time is going slowly and to build suspense, an author might use:
- punctuation like commas or semicolons to make the reader pause
- long sentences full of descriptive phrases
- words or phrases that slow a sentence
Diction
Diction is word choice.
Effective writers carefully choose the most accurate words in order to convey their meaning precisely and produce the intended effect on readers—whether it is to persuade, amuse, inform, excite, demystify, motivate, etc. To analyze diction, you must evaluate the denotative and connotative meanings of the word, as well as the context. See how the simple word “weasel” can have significant impact.
Denotation
Denotation is the specific and literal meaning of a word, as found in the dictionary. For example, a weasel is defined as a small, slender, carnivorous mammal.
Connotation
Connotation is the emotional association a word implies. Its suggested meaning is based on the social, cultural, and personal experiences of individuals. As a result, a word can elicit a positive, negative, or neutral feeling. For example, in addition to the neutral denotative meaning of the word “weasel,” it can connotatively refer to deceit, cheating, and trickery. The connotation of “weasel” is pretty unflattering.
Context
In order to understand a word’s meaning, you must take the context—or situation—into consideration. For example, let’s say your sister calls you a weasel. The connotation is different depending on whether it’s Halloween and you’re actually wearing a weasel costume, or if you just tricked your sister into doing your chores for a month.
Anaphora
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences.
- Example: I told you to clean your room. I told you to put away your dishes. I told you to take out the garbage.
- Effect: Anaphora creates rhythm, adds emphasis, and builds tension or emotion.
Chiasmus
Chiasmus uses two clauses that are parallel but contain a reversal of similar words.
- Example: “Never let a Fool kiss you—or a kiss fool you.”
- Effect: Chiasmus makes an idea memorable and creates emphasis.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is a device in which two seemingly opposite ideas are placed side by side in order to draw attention to important ideas.
- Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
- Effect: Juxtaposition draws attention to the contrasting elements of an idea or issue; it can impact the tone and the message by conveying an idea in comparison to another idea.
What is parallelism?
Parallelism is the repetition of the same or similar grammatical structures in successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
- Example: “Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things…They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction…”—Barack Obama, Inaugural Address
- Effect: Parallelism creates rhythm, affects the pace, builds tension or emotion, and creates emphasis on ideas.
Inversion
Inversion occurs when the normal order of words is reversed.
- Example: “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines…”—William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18”
- Effect: Inversion draws attention to the idea or subject.
Periodic
Periodic sentences place the main idea or most important information at the end of the sentence.
- Example: “Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved—to write a book.” —Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life
- Effect: Periodic sentences build curiosity and create emphasis by delaying revelation of the main idea of the sentence.
Balanced
Balanced sentences feature two parts that are roughly equal in length, structure, and importance.
- Example: “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” —Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
- Effect: Balanced sentences create rhythm and emphasis on ideas.
Loose
Loose sentences reveal the independent clause right away and unfold loosely after that through the use of subordinate phrases and clauses.
- Example: I came home in the wee hours of morning when the sun and the moon trade places.
- Effect: Loose sentences can create emphasis by piling phrases upon phrases after the main clause of the sentence.
