Elements of Nonfiction

1. Elements of Nonfiction Connotation and Denotation

2. Connotation and Denotation • Connotation is the emotional feelings surrounding a word. • Denotation is the strict, literal meaning of a word

3. Connotation and Denotation Words with almost the same dictionary meaning, or denotation, can have very different connotations, or expanded meanings. For example, cheap and thrifty have close to the same dictionary meaning, but do you see the difference between the two? Saying someone is cheap seems more a criticism; thrifty seems like a more natural description of how someone acts and even implies a wise use of what’s available.

4. Connotation and Denotation The words a writer chooses can say a little or a lot. Look at the words Bailey White uses to describe turkeys in the following paragraph

5. Example from “Turkeys” by Bailey White • ...the big concern of ornithologists in our area was the wild turkeys. They were rare, and pure-strain wild turkeys had begun to interbreed with formers’ domestic stock. The species was being degraded. It was extinction by dilution, and to the ornithologists it was just as tragic as the more dramatic demise of the passenger pigeon or the Carolina parkeet.

6. Connotation and Denotation Writers often use certain words because of their emotional meanings. “Extinction by dilution” sounds serious; so does “demise.” Bailey White uses these fancy, formal words for a fairly small thing (the number of pure wild turkeys) that doesn’t have much, if any, effect on the lives of most people. But she makes it sound very serious, and her exaggeration adds a touch of humor.