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.
