Diction tone and syntax quiz essay sample

1. What is diction? (5 points) an author’s word choice words that are inverted connotation in dialect formal language in poetry

2. Which of the following lines from John Muir’s “ The Calypso Borealis” shows an example of dialect? (10 points)

“ I wish you would write me, say once a year,”

I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy.

How long I sat beside Calypso I don’t know.

“ What were ye doin’ there?”

3.  Read the following paragraph from John Muir’s “ The Calypso Borealis” and pay close attention to the words in bold. In one paragraph of three to five sentences, explain Muir’s use of diction and the mood his choice of words creates. Use proper spelling and grammar in your response. But when the sun was getting low and everything seemed most bewildering and discouraging, I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of a stream, growing not in the ground but on a bed of yellow mosses in which its small white bulb had found asoft nest and from which its one leaf and one flower sprung. The flower was white and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snowflower. No other bloom was near it, for the bog a short distance below the surface was still frozen, and the water was ice cold. It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower people I had ever met. I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy. (25 points)

In John Muir’s The Calypso Boreals, he paints a picture of beauty in both the complexity and simplicity in a garden in which a calypso grows. By using words like “ simple purity” and “ softness”, Muir is able convey how beautiful the garden is to him. By utilizing such diction, the author gains the ability to add imagery and emotions into his work.

4. Which of the following words has a positive connotation? (5 points)

lonely

excursions

freedom

discouraging

5. Which of the following words has a negative connotation? (5 points)

discouraging

freedom

exhilarated

bulb