Diction
Consider: Close by the fire sat an old man whose countenance was furrowed with distress. -James Boswell, Boswell's London Journal
Discuss:
1. What does the word furrowed connote about the man's distress?
2. How would the impact of the sentence be changed if furrowed were changed to lined or wrinkled?
Apply: Write a sentence using a verb to describe a facial expression. Imply through your verb choice that the expression is intense. Use Boswell's sentence as a model. Circle the intense verb.
Detail
Consider: I rounded the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant had come suddenly upon him round the corner of the hut, caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and ground him into the earth. This was the rainy season and the ground was soft, and his face had scored a trench a foot deep and a couple of yards long. He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony. -- George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"
Discuss:
1. What is the author's attitude toward the coolie's death? What details in the passage reveal this attitude?
2. Examine the last sentence of this paragraph. How would it have affected the overall impact had Orwell written, his eyes wide open, his teeth bared and grinning...?
Apply: Think of an event that you have personally witnessed which horrified you. Your job is to describe that event and evoke the horror. Do not state or explain that you were horrified. Instead, use detail to describe the event and reveal your attitude. Share your description with the class.
Imagery
Consider: A ripe guava is yellow, although some varieties have a pink tinge. the skin is thick, firm, and sweet. Its heart is bright pink and almost solid with seeds. the most delicious part of the guava surrounds the tiny seeds. If you don't know how to eat a guava, the seeds end up in the crevices between your teeth.
When you bite into a ripe guava, your teeth must grip the bumpy surface and sink in to the thick edible skin without hitting the center....
A green guava is sour and hard. You bite into it at its widest point, because it's easier to grasp with your teeth. You hear the skin, meat,and seeds crunching inside your hear, while the inside of your mouth explodes in little spurts of sour. --Esmerelda Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican
Discuss:
1. The imagery in the second sentence is simple and direct. What effects do such simplicity and directness have on the reader?
2. Santiago uses an adjective (sour) as a noun in her final image. What effect does this have on the meaning of the image?
Apply: Write a sentence which contains an image that captures the taste of something you hate. Your image should contain an adjective used as a noun. Share your image with a partner.
Syntax
Consider: When the moment is ripe, only the fanatic can hatch a genuine mass movement. Without him the disaffection engendered by militant men of words remains undirected and can vent itself only in pointless and easily suppressed disorders. Without him the initiated reforms, even when drastic, leave the old way of life unchanged, and any change in government usually amounts to no more than a transfer of power from one set of men of action to another. Without him there can perhaps be no new beginning. -- Eric Hoffer, "The Fanatics"
Discuss:
1. This passage uses the phrase "without him" three times. What effect dose this have on the overall impact of the passage?
2. How does the length of the last sentence affect the meaning of the passage?
Apply: Start with the following sentence.
Of all the instruments of modern technology, only the computer brings people closer together.
Now add two sentences which amplify the first sentence. Each of these sentences should begin with a prepositional phrase.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Voice Lessons #2
Diction-
consider: Wind rocks the car.
We sit parked by the river,
silence between our teeth.
Birds scatter across islands
of broken ice....
-Adrienne Rich, "Like This Together, for A.H.C."
discuss:
1. What are the feelings produced by the word rocks? Are the feelings gentle, violent, or both?
2. How would the meaning change if we changed the first line to Wind shakes the car?
apply: List different meanings for the verb rock. How many of these meanings would make sense in this poem? Remember that the poet often strives to capture complexity rather than a single view or meaning.
Imagery:
consider: The rainy night had ushered in a misty morning - half frost, half drizzle - and temporary brooks crossed our path, gurgling from the uplands.
- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
discuss:
1. Bronte uses both visual and auditory imagery in this passage. Which words create visual images? Which words create auditory images? Which words create both?
2. What feelings are traditionally associated with rain, mist, and frost? How would the feeling of this passage be different if the rainy night had ushered in a brilliant, sunny morning?
apply: Write two sentences that create a mood of terror. Use visual and auditory imagery to describe the weather, thereby setting and reinforcing the mood. Share your sentences with the class. Draw a box around your auditory images.
Syntax:
consider: He had been prepared to lie, to bluster, to remain sullenly unresponsive; but, reassured by the good-humored intelligence of the Controller's face, he decided to tell the truth, straightforwardly. - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
discuss:
1. What effect does the repetition of infinitives (to lie, to bluster, to remain) in the first clause have on the meaning of the sentence? How do these infinitives prepare you for the infinitive phrase (to tell the truth) in the second clause?
2. What is the function of the semicolon in Huxley's sentence?
apply: Write a sentence with two independent clauses connected by a semicolon. In the first clause use a series of infinitives (as in Huxley's sentence). In the second clause, use an infinitive to contradict your first clause. Your topic is a movie you have recently seen. Underline all of your infinitives.
Tone:
consider: But that is Cooper's way; frequently he will explain and justify little things that do not need it and then make up for this by as frequently failing to explain important ones that do need it. For instance he allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile Indians would presently be sure to find it - a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth - and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn't bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it. Cooper couldn't think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn't do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all. - Mark Twain, "Cooper's Prose Style," Letters from the Earth
discuss:
1. What is Twain's tone in this passage? What is central to the tone of this passage: the attitude toward the speaker, the subject, or the reader?
2. How does Twain create the tone?
apply: Write a paragraph about a movie you have recently seen. Create a critical, disparaging tone through your choice of details. Use Twain's paragraph as a model. Underline tone words.
consider: Wind rocks the car.
We sit parked by the river,
silence between our teeth.
Birds scatter across islands
of broken ice....
-Adrienne Rich, "Like This Together, for A.H.C."
discuss:
1. What are the feelings produced by the word rocks? Are the feelings gentle, violent, or both?
2. How would the meaning change if we changed the first line to Wind shakes the car?
apply: List different meanings for the verb rock. How many of these meanings would make sense in this poem? Remember that the poet often strives to capture complexity rather than a single view or meaning.
Imagery:
consider: The rainy night had ushered in a misty morning - half frost, half drizzle - and temporary brooks crossed our path, gurgling from the uplands.
- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
discuss:
1. Bronte uses both visual and auditory imagery in this passage. Which words create visual images? Which words create auditory images? Which words create both?
2. What feelings are traditionally associated with rain, mist, and frost? How would the feeling of this passage be different if the rainy night had ushered in a brilliant, sunny morning?
apply: Write two sentences that create a mood of terror. Use visual and auditory imagery to describe the weather, thereby setting and reinforcing the mood. Share your sentences with the class. Draw a box around your auditory images.
Syntax:
consider: He had been prepared to lie, to bluster, to remain sullenly unresponsive; but, reassured by the good-humored intelligence of the Controller's face, he decided to tell the truth, straightforwardly. - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
discuss:
1. What effect does the repetition of infinitives (to lie, to bluster, to remain) in the first clause have on the meaning of the sentence? How do these infinitives prepare you for the infinitive phrase (to tell the truth) in the second clause?
2. What is the function of the semicolon in Huxley's sentence?
apply: Write a sentence with two independent clauses connected by a semicolon. In the first clause use a series of infinitives (as in Huxley's sentence). In the second clause, use an infinitive to contradict your first clause. Your topic is a movie you have recently seen. Underline all of your infinitives.
Tone:
consider: But that is Cooper's way; frequently he will explain and justify little things that do not need it and then make up for this by as frequently failing to explain important ones that do need it. For instance he allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile Indians would presently be sure to find it - a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth - and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn't bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it. Cooper couldn't think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn't do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all. - Mark Twain, "Cooper's Prose Style," Letters from the Earth
discuss:
1. What is Twain's tone in this passage? What is central to the tone of this passage: the attitude toward the speaker, the subject, or the reader?
2. How does Twain create the tone?
apply: Write a paragraph about a movie you have recently seen. Create a critical, disparaging tone through your choice of details. Use Twain's paragraph as a model. Underline tone words.
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