1). Popular Mechanics:
Midterm Writing Assignment Sammi Surnitsky
In “Popular Mechanics”, a story written by Raymond Carver, we as a reader find out about the pain of separation and the breakage of family. Carver uses two stylistic elements, diction and syntax, to further develop a tone within “Popular Mechanics”. Diction is the word choice and use of words in speech or writing. The syntax of a story is the arrangement of words and phrases used in order to create strong sentences in a language. These two elements together can help develop tone, which is the general character or attitude of a piece of writing.
Raymond Carver uses words that make the diction very simple, and easy to understand. Although the piece itself is easy to understand, the lack of strong diction in the dialogue makes it difficult to understand the character’s emotions and thoughts throughout the breakage of the family. The story seems to avoid using complex vocabulary, but instead uses a combination of words in which a reader can infer hidden meanings. One place that a reader can pull a meaning out of is “the snow was melting” (Carver 1) as well as “where it was getting dark” (Carver 1). The diction in these segments is simple, but one can look at the contrast between the snow, which is white and pure, and dark, which is mysterious and possibly painful. The word choice in this piece help to achieve an aggressive, but still protective tone.
The sentence structure is also simple and not well-formed, and