Monday, March 5, 2012

Synthesis I

        DIDLS has acted as the backbone of our approach to analyzing literature this year. Here is a breakdown of the parts:
  1. diction: single words
    • colloquial (ordinary language) v. elevated: shows level of education/sophistocation
    • connotation (meanings that culture brings to the word) v. denotation (dictionary meaning)
    • pejorative (negative) v. honorific (positive)
    • vagueness: favorite with unreliable narrators
  2. imagery: language that appeals vividly to the senses
    • sight, touch, taste, smell, sound
    • 'gut'/visceral senses
  3. details: taken from text to support arguments
  4. language
    • metaphor v. simile
    • personification: object/animal given human characteristics
    • analogy: explains something by comparing it to something simple
    • hyperbole v. understatement
    • paradox: statement that seems contradictory but reveals the truth
    • verbal irony: speaker says something but means something else, noticeable incongruity
  5. syntax: sentence length/construction
    • impacts pace, tone, emphasis
    • dependent clause: depends on something else for meaning (requires subordinating conjunction)
    • independent clause: can stand by itself (performs marriage between equal ideas)
      • SVC (subject,verb,compliment) v. SVO (subject,verb,object)
    • punctuation SPEAKS!

3 comments:

  1. Syntax is the most challenging technique in my opinion and the easiest is definitely imagery. I don't use language that much, because I usually can't distinguish different connotations derived from the same words, and I get language mixed up with diction. Which one do you use most often?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I definitely think that DIDLS is the most important thing we have learned this year and I can see why we started the year off with it before anything else. After learning the techniques I find myself paying more attention to the piece's diction, but looking for syntax is still difficult. What about yourself?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful work on this assignment!

    ReplyDelete