Diction. Vocabulary. Word choice. Call it what you will, but the style and tone and voice of a writer are all created with the most basic unit of writing: words. Find something in the diction that stands out. Maybe it's a word combination, the use of simple words, a word bomb that makes you reach for the dictionary.
A sentence I just had to share. From the NYT and Mark Bittman. This is awesome!!
The food processor replaces the whisk; the pastry cutter; the standing mixer (for which there are still some uses, but only if you’re a dedicated baker); the mandoline (which, to me, remains a fine alternative to the food processor for small quantities); the mortar and pestle, which, no matter how lovely, quaint and authentic, is perhaps the most labor-intensive, primitive and damnable set of tools in the kitchen; and, perhaps most importantly, the grater.
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Article: "Syria, Obama, and Putin" by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times Op-Ed, September 30 2015.
There are two moments in this article that I want to highlight in this article which show the power of Friedman's diction. First, he calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a "wily fox" compared to the "flat-footed Americans." The choice of these words demonstrates the general ideas he is trying to present; he portrays Putin as a rash and decisive leader who has thrown his country into a difficult position in the Middle East without enough thought, while he claims the Americans have been extremely cautious, thoughtful, and conservative about every one of their Middle Eastern actions.
Second, Friedman uses the word "metastasize" to describe ISIS and the Syrian refugee crisis. "Metastasize" has a medical connotation; it means "spread" or "propagate" and often describes diseases and pathogens. By using this word, Friedman both gives his article a sophisticated tone despite the fact that he writes to the masses in general and portrays these two Middle Eastern issues as diseases that will continue to spread and worsen unless deliberate actions are taken to cure them.
Article:Joey Bada$$: ‘Bakare, Lanre. "Joey Bada$$: ‘They Call Me a Marxist and Anti-white Gangster Rapper – They Don’t Know Anything'" The Guardian 29 Jan. 2015, Arts sec. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
Sentence:He is depicted as the opposite of the gauche, materialistic and bellicose artists who rap about designer brands, guns and strippers, instead writing tracks that attack Wall Street.
This sentence stood out immediately when I was reading this article. The combination of the complex sentence structure and the artistic sprinkling of the dictionary-worthy words makes this sentence a star. Bakare self identifies as an “extremely word-filled british man” and one way this aspect of himself shows up in his writing with the lavish use of his expansive vocabulary. Also, the way he contrasts the elegant, complex description of who Joey truly is, with the repugnant adjectives that uses to allude to the stereotypes of other popular rappers.
Article: "NASCAR'S Carl Edward flies, and not just around the track"
Sentences: "Edwards drives a race car. Real fast. So fast that, if you rode along during a race, they'd take you out of the car at the end with a broom"
This sentence stood out to me because of its simplicity. The way the word "fast" is used twice with only one small "so" in between has a large effect on the sentences. All three of the sentences are essentially saying the same thing which pushes the point, he drives very fast cars, into the readers brain. Although there are no big words used in these sentences, they still stand out because of his repetition. What Dwyre writes about is pretty straightforward so the use of more complex words does not always work well with his content.
Article: "Jeb Bush: Crying Out Loud" by Charles M. Blow, New York Times, October 1 2015.
Sentence: "But Mr. Bush, I must say that I appreciate your little quirk. Most of the time your speeches ooze over me like cold gruel. At least now, when I hear you say “for crying out loud,” I know to perk up and pay attention"
This sentence for was the beginning of this whole article. I like How Charles literally paints a mental picture for the reader. When I read the sentence; "most of the time your speeches ooze over me like cold gruel." I got this feeling of something cold and think covering my whole body. I like how he also compares Jeb Bush's speeches to that of cold gruel something that is suppose to be hot and hearty, instead Jeb's words are cold and distasteful.
Article: "Wells Fargo's Master Spin Job" (Rolling Stone)
Line: "If you still don't believe our brethren on Wall Street have planet-sized cojones, check out this story."
Matt Taibbi is a very sarcastic and cynical writer. Sarcastic tones aren't often found in formal pieces, so Taibbi makes his writing seem casual and conversational. In this sentence particularly, I like his use of the Spanish word for balls, because it's a line I could see one of my friends using in a regular conversation. It does a good job of lightening the mood in his piece and setting a casual precedent for the rest of it.
Article: "The Prison Problem" by David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed, 9/29/2015
Sentence: "When I spoke with Pfaff on Monday I found him to be wonderfully objective, nonideological and data-driven."
This article retains a fairly formal and simple tone, so this particular sentence stands out with its descriptive nature. I really enjoyed reading this sentence because it paints a picture of Pfaff's character very clearly and interestingly (especially because it is presented between short, simple sentences). After reading it, I was able to envision Pfaff very distinctly -- even though I was not presented with any information describing his physical composition. The adjectives Brooks uses in this sentence give precise yet broad descriptions that provide clear insight into this particular man's character.
Article: "Why Confine Artisanal Pomposity to Food?"
Sentence: "For example, an earthy Tuscan sourdough with just a demurely otiose soupçon of gregarious anisette clearly whips Wonder Bread any day of the week."
I enjoyed this article overall because it was jam-packed with fancy food vocabulary and made me hungry, but this sentence was one of the best. I appreciated Queenan's technique of going overboard on the comparison to make a point, through his use of pretentious descriptions. I think that this same technique could be applied to the compare and contrast essay.
Article: "The Speaker, the Pope, and the Exorcism" by Maureen Dowd
This article was different from Dowd's usual humorous, but serious and factual columns. This article comedically follows a fictional John Boehner as he goes through his morning routine and talks to Kevin McCarthy on the phone. Dowd focuses on the relief that Boehner feels after quitting and the advice that he is giving to a flailing Kevin McCarthy. One passage that jumped out to me was:
"“Stop hyperventilating, man. Haven’t those mixed martial arts you practice manned you up? As your Mr. Miyagi, here’s my advice: Try yoga. It’s done wonders for unclenching me. And the sphinx pose has fixed my backswing. In fact, you should start acting like a sphinx and shut your big trap. Your colleagues and my soon-to-be-ex colleagues are ripped about you undermining their Benghazi scam."
I liked this passage because it is so ridiculous to imagine John Boehner calling himself Mr. Miyagi or telling Kevin McCarthy to "try yoga" because it has "done wonders for unclenching me." The whole article is a little weird, but an enjoyable read, and Dowd uses her word choice to convey a casual and comedic tone throughout.
Article: "The only clear of the GOP debate? Fox News" by Richard Cohen
This article was written in Cohen's familiar critically sarcastic tone, one that uses relatively simple language and sentence structure to convey a complicated topic in a simple way. One sentence in particular struck me because of the particular word choice. Cohen was describing the American perception of politician Joseph McCarthy saying: "The man was an ugly, giggling lout." The three words at the end of this sentence capture the tone of the piece perfectly. I will admit that I did have to look up lout in the dictionary, but upon learning its meaning I immediately understood the image that Cohen was trying to convey. He manages to fit words with characters, making subtle connections solely with his diction.
Article:I Thought Becoming Jack Kerouac Would Cure My Depression
Sentence: Having been reared on the car, they started commandeering it as an instrument of their restlessness, driving not to any place in particular but just anywhere away from Here.
This sentence is about being a teenager. I like how Nolan calls a car an instrument. This makes the reader see it as something the teenagers of that era used for a purpose other than getting from a to b: they used cars to remove themselves from reality. This is illustrated through Nolan's word choice. He writes that the teens don't want to go "to any place in particular," demonstrating a kind of dreamy, fluid vibe. Nolan's capitalization of "Here" shoes the reader how teenagers in that time period had a huge part of their culture surrounding home vs. others. By describing the teens' "restlessness," Nolan shows a certain understanding for teenagers that most adults do not have.
Article: "Aaron Rodgers next test for 49ers' beleaguered defense"
Most sports articles are not riddled with complicated vocabulary, as they are intended to be more informative. However, this article rebells against the mainstream formate. Beginning in the title, the penultimate word "beleaguered" is one that fully describes the state of the Forty-niner's defense. Upon reading the title, I imagine a medieval siege in which the defending state cannot maintain its defense. My mind then jumps to the countless long bomb touchdown passes that have gotten through the Niner's secondary this season. Such images entice the reader to continue to read past the title.
Article: "Long duration, major coastal flooding event underway at Md., Del., Va. beaches" by Jason Samenow
"Hurricane Joaquin may be headed closer to Bermuda than the Chesapeake Bay, but the Atlantic beaches are still in for quite a beating over the next several days."
Unfortunately, there isn't much room for adding in interesting or intriguing vocabulary in weather articles, as doing would incur bias, something that is not really the best thing to do in something unbiased such as the weather. However, I like how Samenow added in the word "beating" mainly for two reasons: I haven't heard that word in a long time and it adds some imagery to the article. He could have said "quite some damage" and still would have gotten the same message out, but using "beating" instead brought a little life to it, which interested me a little bit. Call me weird, but I liked this. I hope he does this more often in his articles.
Article: Motherhood: What You Need to Know
Words: "Canoeing a skull out of your pelvis; putting a poo in your handbag; getting broccoli into a two-year-old"
I found this wording striking because of the childish language and simplicity used by a middle-aged writer. Being the first sentence, it set a tone for the rest of the article while also immediately hooking me in by shocking me with casual humor oppose to her usual ironic and sarcastic humor. I felt that this use of words was refreshing and effective in capturing the readers interest while setting a clear tone.
Article: We all love Superdrug in my house, and here’s why
Line 1: "The source of much of this body spray is that mecca for teenage girls - Superdrug."
Line 2: "Superdrug is cheap and cheerful and full of delights."
For line 1, I appreciated the metaphor of comparing a drugstore to a religious monument. Sure it may be overkill, but it really drove the point home for me that make up aisles in these stores can be a sort of saving grace for those who love beauty products in mass consumption. As for line 2, I was first struck by the simplicity and effectiveness of the sentence, but upon closer inspection, I wondered why she didn't just use commas. I like to think she chose to use "and" in order to make the sentence a bit bulkier and lengthen each idea. Also the short alliteration of "cheap and cheerful" is extremely aesthetically pleasing; it just roles off the tongue.
Article: The Video Store as Film School by Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 10.2.15
Sentence: “No, they didn’t have videotapes in the forties and fifties, but those young future filmmakers, as teen-agers and young adults in postwar Paris, thought that the way to make films was to go to the movies three times a day for ten years, to become freelance critics for obscure specialized publications, and to use whatever connections they could make, along with their wealth of knowledge about movies, to edge their way into the business and shoot short films, a low-budget feature, or whatever.”
What strikes me about this sentence is the final word: whatever. I absolutely hate that word. If someone texts it to me, I don’t respond; if someone says it to me in conversation, I’m pretty much ready to leave. What I love about it here, though, is the way that Brody uses it to absolutely obliterate the cesspool of pretentiousness that he describes above. It goes from a tone of bougie, hang-on-every-word-type descriptiveness to an absolute dismissal with whatever. What I also love about it is that it seems to suggest a sort of method or mode of watching movies or getting into the film business. It shuts down the obscure, pre-hipster style of film critique that Brody talks about in the beginning of the sentence and encourages maybe a more emotional (or something else; emotional is just a possible option) way of assessing films. His final word is so blunt that it’s almost impossible not to get stuck on it.
Article: “Mexico’s Official Lie”
Line: Unfortunately, this “truth” has proven to be a rigged, incomplete version of events that the Mexican government has peddled to the world.
Ramos’ articles often have a serious and critical tone. He uses his diction to convey those tones when he talks about issues in his posts. In the line above, Ramos choses to use the words rigged and incomplete instead of using simple words like untrue, or wrong to describe the lie Mexico has been telling for the past few months. The use of those two words show both Ramos’ formal style and eloquence. Another way Ramos avoids simplicity is by using the phrase “peddled into the world” instead of using told or lied. The phrase has a stronger affect through its tone and reflects his view on the Mexican government.
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