Grammar Smart 3rd Edition - Princeton Review 2014

F. Diction
Part 3. Putting It All Together

Diction is the correct choice of words. Once again, our second rule of writing:

The Rule

Say what you mean.

When a writer makes a diction error, he shows himself to be either sloppy or ignorant. Not good. While it’s true that if a word is misused often enough, its meaning may evolve so that the mistake becomes accepted usage, there are some words you need to be careful of. Here are some words that are often confused.

advert: v refer. In her thesis she adverts to Kierkegaard’s theories.

avert: v to turn away. The sight was so horrible I averted my head.

affect: v to influence; to have an effect on. Overeating will affect his health. His policy will not affect economic recovery.

n behavior or mood, usually used in a psychological context. A cold, calm affect—even in the face of disaster—is often the hallmark of a sociopath.

effect: v cause to happen; bring about; result in. His election will effect changes in government policy. His policy will not effect economic recover.

n the result of an action. The effects of his decision will be felt for years.

When used as verbs, these two words have two distinct meanings: affect means to influence and effect means cause to happen. As verbs, you can grammatically use affect/effect in the same sentence, as above, but the meaning will be different. Use affect as a noun only when you are using it as a psychological term meaning mood.

affection: n fondness. She may not be in love, but she has affection for him.

affectation: n artificiality; a phony way of behaving. He picked up several affectations on his trip, including an English accent.

alternate: v succeeding by turns. She alternated eating string beans and oxtails.

alternative: n one of several possibilities. If you don’t like what I made for dinner, suggest an alternative.

Avoid using alternate as a noun, unless you are talking about an alternate juror or an alternate delegate, in the sense of replacement or substitute. If you want to imply choice, use alternative.

allusion: n indirect reference. The new novel is full of allusions to Beckett and Sartre.

illusion: n something that misleads or gives a wrong impression. The young actress said that her job was to create the illusion that she was eighty years old and close to death.

ambiguous: adj uncertain; thought of in two different ways. His letter was ambiguous—I’m not sure if he is arriving tomorrow or next week.

ambivalent: adj contradictory; having opposite feeling about something at the same time. I am ambivalent about my new job; I love it and hate it.

Ambivalent does not mean indifferent. Keep in mind that ambiguous means obscure; ambivalent does not.

can: v to be able. I can leap tall building in a single bound.

may: v to be permitted. The professor said I may skip class if I get the notes from Bob. May I see your etchings?

common: adj shared. The two Democrats had a common purpose.

mutual: adj reciprocal. Necessary to any friendship is mutual respect.

To say: “We have a mutual friend” would be incorrect—better to say “we have a friend in common.”

compliment: n expression of admiration. She complimented me on my shoes.

complement: n counterpart; helpful addition. The limes were a perfect complement to the beer.

contemptible: adj worthy of scorn. Her behavior is contemptible.

contemptuous: adj expressing scorn. I was contemptuous of her behavior.

This pair is like incredible/incredulous: one word (contemptible) describe the act, the other word (contemptuous) describes the way someone feels toward the act.

continuous: adj without interruption. The car alarm’s continuous screeching lasted for three days.

continual: adj recurrent; stopping and starting. The continual bursts of lightning scared the dog.

deduce: v to figure out logically. The inspector deduced that the killer was near.

deduct: v to subtract. Please deduct the price of french fries from my bill.

disinterested: adj unbiased; objective. The man in charge of awarding prizes was disinterested.

dispassionate: adj unbiased; not swayed in judgment by feeling. As a dispassionate observer, I could say that the gymnast’s performance was average.

indifferent: adj uncaring; not interested. She was indifferent to my invitation.

Don’t mistake disinterest for lack of interest. Uninterested is sometimes used to mean lack of interest, but indifferent is better. Dispassionate does not mean passionless or

without erotic feeling.

emigrate: v to move out of a country. My family emigrated from Poland.

immigrate: v to move into a country. My family immigrated to America.

It follows to say that my family emigrated from Poland and immigrated to America.

eminent: adj standing out; famous. The eminent philosopher has millions of followers.

imminent: adj happening soon. The election is imminent.

immanent: adj inherent; existing only within consciousness. Her immanent faith was revealed in all her actions.

enormity: n wickedness; hugeness. The enormity of Jeffrey Dahmer’s acts became clear as details of his cannibalism were released. Or: Neighbors were dispirited by the enormity of the house being built next to theirs. (The second usage of enormity, to mean immensity, is a hot point of argument among those who argue about these things. The main point of this entry is to make sure you understand the first definition of enormity, to mean a great and terrible crime.)

enormousness: n hugeness. The enormousness of the job ahead made Bob want to get back in bed.

felicitous: adj appropriate. The casting of Michelle Pfeiffer as a beautiful woman is certainly felicitous.

fortuitous: adj happening by chance. What is more fortuitous than finding a winning lottery ticket lying in the gutter?

fortunate: adj lucky. I was fortunate enough to inherit some money.

The trouble with fortuitous and felicitous is that they are used interchangeably to mean lucky. Fortuitous is the luckier of the two; felicitous mean apt.

former: n in a list of two items, the first one.

latter: n in a list of two items, the second one.

I went to Paris and Rome; I bought clothes in the former and shoes in the latter. (That means clothes were bought in Paris and shoes were bought in Rome.)

healthful: adj conducive to health; giving health. The nutritionist recommended I stop eating potato chips and start a healthful diet.

healthy: adj in good health. I quit smoking in order to feel healthy.

Another way to look at this is that people, animals, and plants can be healthy; climates, diets, and exercise programs can be healthful.

implicit: adj implied or hinted at. There was a threat implicit in his request.

explicit: adj directly stated, not ambiguous. She was explicit when she said that if I miss the deadline I will fail the course.

imply: v to hint or express indirectly. Glaring at me, she implied that I was in big trouble.

infer: v to deduce. I inferred from her angry expression that I was in big trouble.

To keep this straight remember that the writer or speaker implies; the reader or listener infers.

incredible: adj unbelievable. His story of seeing an alien was incredible.

incredulous: adj unbelieving. I was incredulous when I heard his story about the alien.

incredulous always applies to people—people are incredulous when they have a hard time believing something. An event is incredible when it is hard to believe.

ingenious: adj clever. He wrote an ingenious piece of software.

ingenuous: adj open; not crafty. We can hardly suspect her of conspiracy; her manner is so ingenuous.

libel: n, v written statement of defamation; to defame. After it printed a story claiming that she was drunk and disorderly, Carol Burnett sued The National Enquirer for libel.

slander: n, v spoken statement of defamation; to defame. When he gave a speech in which he distorted his opponent’s record, the candidate exposed himself to charges of slander.

Both of these have the same effect: to make untrue statements in order to hurt someone’s reputation. The difference is simply that libel is written and slander is spoken.

militate: v to have influence or weight. His shortness militated against his being drafted by the Knicks.

mitigate: v to soften; mollify. His soft voice mitigated the harshness of his words.

nauseated: adj feeling sick to one’s stomach. The smell of rotten meat makes me nauseated.

nauseous: adj causing nausea. The smell of rotten meat is nauseous.

Use nauseated to describe how you feel; use nauseous to describe what is making you feel nauseated.

practical: adj useful; not theoretical. Wanda is anything but dreamy; she is the most practical person I know.

practicable: adj possible; feasible. The plan to revive the economy sounds good, but is it practicable?

Generally, people are practical, plans are practical or practicable.

principal: adj most important. His principal objective is to revive the economy. n the person in charge of a public school, university, or college” The principal ordered me to stay after school.

principle: n a doctrine; a moral. His actions show he has high principles.

What people do wrong is to try to use principle as an adjective: My principle goal is to make a heap of money, is incorrect. It should be: My principal goal is to make a heap of money. Principal as a noun is the person you had to talk to if you got in trouble at school.

respectfully: adv showing respect. The girl behaved respectfully toward her grandmother.

respectively: adv in the given order. Bob and Harry were an accountant and a lawyer, respectively.

sensory: adj relating to sensation. Swimming in cold water and lying on hot sand are different sensory experiences.

sensuous: adj relating to the senses. He is a sensuous writer. Listening to opera is a sensuous experience.

sensual: adj relating to the gratification of the senses; lewd. She was so consumed with sensual pleasures she could hardly get her work done.

Use sensory to mean clinical sensation. Use sensual to mean sexual and excessive. Use sensuous to mean sensitive to sensation in the broadest way, not particularly the sexual way—you could be a sensuous writer and a monk.

tortuous: adj winding; twisting. The road to the castle was tortuous.

torturous: adj excruciatingly painful. The deep sea diver had a torturous ascent to the surface.

It’s easy to mix up these two, because of the similarity in spelling, and in fact, they derive from the same root, tortus, which is Latin for twist. But currently the second word, torturous, relates specifically to torture and not necessarily twisting.

Things Never To Say, Words Never To Use

Certain diction problems aren’t a matter of confusing two words, but a matter of out-and- out non-English. Often these problems come up when someone is trying to sound fancy and official. In language, as in life, simpler is better.

irregardless: no such word. Use regardless.

being that, being as: vulgar and pretentious. Use because. Not: Being that I am the only one with a driver’s license, I think I should drive. Instead say: Because I am the only one with a driver’s license, I think I should drive.

where at: Forget the at! Where is the party? Not: Where is the party at?

as to: also pretentious. We wondered about his health. Not: We wondered as to his health.

could of, would of: Say could have, would have. This problem may have gotten started by the similar sound of could’ve and would’ve—but on paper, the of in place of the verb is ridiculous.

had ought: had and ought don’t quite mean the same thing. She had to go. She ought to go. Not: She had ought to go.

in regards to: Use regarding or in regard to.

double negatives: She didn’t come. Not: She didn’t never come. He wanted none. Not: He didn’t want none.

owing to the fact that: wordy. Use because.

in the event that: wordy. Use if.

Words We Find Irritating

There are certainly better choices than the following. These words aren’t wrong per se, but they will give your writing a tired and bureaucratic quality.

maximize     utilize

finalize     prioritize

impact (as a verb)    value-added

probabilistic    basically

doable     facilitate

Quick Quiz #32

Diction

Correct the diction in the following passage:

Jasper’s family emigrated to Brazil because they found the superficiality of American culture to be truly incredulous. Jasper’s father was an immanent plastic surgeon, so one could say that his very career was marked by attention to superficiality, since he only performed cosmetic surgery.

The principle reason they moved to Brazil was that the beaches were terrific. The sea had a calming affect on Jasper, who unfortunately did not usually behave respectively towards his parents, and whose life was characterized by an obsession for sensory experience. Jasper’s family could have moved away from their former home, but they were disinterested in any other country but Brazil, and considered no other alternates.

Click here for the answers.

Click here to download a PDF of Quick Quiz 32.