Blog #4- Satina Chen - Period 1- 2/10/20

February 10th,2020

Satina Chen

Period 1

Aim: How does a writer create effects through the connotations of words and images?

Do Now: With a partner, try to create a sentence using diction/syntax/imagery describing:

• Tech
• the approach of spring and summer and/or the current winter
• high school in general

A wonderful example of life at Tech is the bustling hallways, constantly overcrowded with students trying to rush to class.

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It is important to know the denotation, or precise meaning of a word,

but often the connotations, or associations & emotional overtones attached, 

help the reader make important inferences about meaning.

Writers choose words both for their literal meanings (their dictionary definitions or denotations)

and for their implied meanings (their emotional associations, or connotations). 

Writers create their intended effects through particular connotations—the associations or images readers connect with certain words. 

Some words provoke strong positive or negative associations. 

These reactions are central to how we, as readers, draw inferences about 

the tone, the characters, & the meaning of a text.

• A denotation unlike a connotation wouldn’t have any other meanings than the literal definition. For example, the denotation “The boy is sad” compared to “The sad lake on a stormy day”.

Example: The Ocean                                                                      

Denotation: A large body of salt water that covers approximately 70% of the earth’s surface. Appears different shades of blue, often with waves and currents. Contains various types of plant and marine animal life.

Connotation: Peace, tranquility, expansiveness, the unknown, the power of nature, etc.

Some words have basically the same denotative meaning, but different connotations. For example, “Youthful” and “Childish” both describe the state of being similar to a child, but Youthful has a positive connotation (vibrant, lively, energetic) and Childish has a negative connotation (immature, juvenile, having the emotional maturity of a child)

• This means that there can be positive and negative connotations depending on the scenario the word is present in. For example, in this example the tone is formal, so “childish” wouldn’t be an insult even though it means the same as “youthful”, which is a compliment.

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The following questions are examples of connotations we worked on with our partners, and then shared with the rest of the class:

Consider the following sentence from Speak:

“I dive into the stream of fourth-period lunch students and swim down the hall to the cafeteria.” 

What connotations do the images of diving into and swimming through other students have here?

• Diving and swimming has a negative connotation. It sounds like the school is too overcrowded.

Now rewrite the sentence, trying to keep the same denotative meaning but changing the connotations to make them neutral.

• I joined the stream of fourth-period lunch students and headed down the hall to the cafeteria.

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Now consider what is conveyed by Anderson’s diction (particularly the verbs) in this sentence.

“I ditch my tray and bolt for the door.”

Based on the verbs, what inferences might you draw about the speaker’s feelings at this moment?

• He feels uncomfortable and wants to leave the setting as soon as possible.

Now revise Anderson’s sentence to be more neutral.

• I placed my tray down and headed for the door.

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Then, based on “Marigolds”, we had to :

In “Marigolds,” the narrator describes a key incident that had an impact on her “coming of age.”

As you read, highlight/underline the text for examples of diction, syntax, and imagery that create the narrator’s voice. Be sure to annotate the connotative effect of word choices, and explain the inferences they lead you to make regarding the tone, character, or significance of the event.

“When I think of the home town of my youth, all that I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of bare brown feet. I don’t know why I should remember only the dust. Surely there must have been lush green lawns and paved streets under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but memory is an abstract painting—it does not present things as they are, but rather as they feel. And so, when I think of that time and that place, I remember only the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless yards of the shantytown where I lived. And one other thing I remember, another incongruency of memory—a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust—Miss Lottie’s marigolds.”

• I chose to highlight these descriptive images because they help me picture the scene. 
• The metaphor “The memory is an abstract painting” gives a suspenseful tone as it builds the climax. It makes you wonder for why the memory is so deeply engraved into the narrator’s memory.

After we finished annotating and analyzing the examples of diction, imagery, syntax, and connotative effects, we had a class discussion on why certain words created an effect that brought the story to life.

  Reflection:

Today I learned about how connotations and denotations can play a big effect in your context. For example, if you were a restaurant critic writing a positive review about a restaurant you wouldn’t use negative connotations such as “rotten” or “cheap”. These words provoke an emotion like disgust that will make this misunderstand the intention of your review. If you were to be vague, instead of using positive or negative connotations, you can use neutral connotations. However, the neutral connotation must have the same denotative meaning and the same description and details as the positive or negative connotation. This is very important to learn because this will assist you in the style development of your writings. Through correct usage of connotations, your denotation would be conveyed and not misunderstood. Similarly, in my writings or essays, I will keep in mind that if I had a positive stand on a topic, I wouldn’t use negative connotations and syntax.