You are on page 1of 3

3 Creative Writing Tip

Connotation Denotation Synergy


Great Diction Tips for Persuasive Writing
Welcome! The creative writing tips on this page show you how to harness the synergy in
"connotation denotation" interplays of words, and how to improve writing skills by
choosing apt words for every occasion.
Creative Writing Tip #1 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: Proper Word Choices
Effective writing depends on apt choice of words. To choose the right word for each
context, you need to understand the "connotation denotation" synergy of words. Every
word has a denotation, its explicit meaning. It also has connotations: the emotional
overtones the word carries or (to put it another way) the emotions it evokes in readers.
Good writers strive to find the right words, the words that best fit their meaning and, at the
same time, evoke strong emotions in readers.

Creative Writing Tip #2 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: Examples of Denotation
According to Dictionary Definitions
The denotation of a word is its meaning or definition as listed in a dictionary. Using words
according to their established denotations is important if you expect readers to grasp your
meaning accurately.
Some words may seem to be interchangeable because they have the same general
definitions, but in fact they are differentiated by subtle shades of meaning. Take, for
example, the word famous; compare the different kinds and degrees of fame in the
words noted, well-known, distinguished, celebrated, talked-of, marked and notorious.
Confusion may also arise because of similar-sounding words
like appositeand opposite; overlook and oversee; elusive and illusive; affect and effect; or
homonyms like born and borne; discreet and discrete; stationary andstationery.
Wrong choice of words distorts a writer's message, often with (unintended) hilarious
results. Look up a good dictionary if you're unsure about the exact meaning of a word.

Creative Writing Tip #3 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: What is Denotation that
Delights Readers?
Choose words that precisely fit your meaning. Words do not work in isolation; they
complement one another. When all the words fit and flow together in a harmonious whole,
the result is a delightful experience for the reader - as in the following:
In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the
stir of society. A perfect misanthropist's heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to
divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards
him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when
his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I
announced my name.
(From Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte)

Creative Writing Tip #4 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: What is Connotation?
Some words also have connotations: ideas, associations and emotional overtones that go
beyond the word's explicit definition. Such words pulsate with life, awaking emotions in
readers.
Words with approximately similar meanings may have subtly or even entirely different
connotations. For example, what images and feelings do the following phrases trigger in
you: lean, hungry look; haggard, starved look; gaunt, wolfish look?
If you are unsure of the connotations of words, consult a good dictionary of synonyms.

Creative Writing Tip #5 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: Examples of
Connotations that Enrich One Another
Sentences are especially potent when constructed with emotionally-charged words because
of the rich interactions among their connotations; each word enriches the others, so that the
whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As in this extract:
The kettle, growing mellow and musical, began to have irrepressible gurglings in its throat, and to
indulge in short vocal snorts, which it checked in the bud, as if it hadn't quite made up its mind yet,
to be good company. Now it was, that after two or three such vain attempts to stifle its convivial
sentiments, it threw off all moroseness, all reserve, and burst into a stream of song so cosy and
hilarious... With its warm breath gushing forth in a light cloud which merrily and gracefully
ascended a few feet, then hung about the chimney-corner as its own domestic Heaven, it trolled its
song with that strong energy of cheerfulness, that its iron body hummed and stirred upon the fire.
(From The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens)
Explore the emotional overtones in different words, and the overall effect when putting the
words together in sentences.

Creative Writing Tip #6 on "Connotation Denotation" Synergy: How Denotation and
Connotation Affect Tone and Mood
Word choice determines tone and mood. The combinations and arrangements of words,
together with the interplay of their emotional overtones, give a unique flavor to a piece of
writing, a distinct tone and mood.
These 3 examples (on an almost-similar subject) are different in tone and mood, one from
another; but all reveal the touch of a master's hand in the unerring choice of words:
(I)t is certainly the most unexcitable and sluggish stream that ever loitered, imperceptibly, towards
its eternity, the sea... It slumbers between broad prairies, kissing the long meadow-grass, and bathes
the overhanging boughs of elder-bushes and willows, or the roots of elms and ash-trees, and clumps
of maples.
(From Mosses from an Old Manse, by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles...
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Among my sandy shallows.
(From The Brook, by Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Dank and foul, dank and foul,
By the smoky town in its murky cowl.
Foul and dank, foul and dank,
By wharf and sewer, and slimy bank...
Strong and free, strong and free,
The floodgates are open away to the sea.
Free and strong, free and strong,
Cleansing my streams as I hurry along
To the golden sands and the leaping bar
And the taintless tide that awaits me afar.
(From The River, by Charles Kingsley)

You might also like