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Diction, however, is much more broadly conceived than word choice. Diction includes elements like tone and syntax. Diction influences word choice. (Aristotle, not an internet search, should be your source for understanding diction.)
That is an important point.
"Diction" is used more broadly and thus will cause momentary confusion as a reader works out which meaning is correct in context.
"Word choice" would have only one meaning--less chance of misunderstanding and a smoother comprehension process for the reader.
It's like choosing between "due to" and "because." "Due to" might mean "because"...or it might not. "Because," however, always means "because," so if the intention is "because," then use "because."
And, personally, the minute a student hands a profession a set of dictionary definitions is the minute that student's class grade magically begins to plummet like a paralyzed falcon.
This is forum on relationships. Not how to screw them up.
Yeah, that's kind of the thing. A student and a professor are not peers. The student is paying that instructor, who probably has a PhD and years of experience, to instruct him or her. OP has submitted the paper, it's been critiqued, now she has the choice of accepting that she may be wrong and changing the offending word, or to push and to make a mountain out of a molehill and cement herself as difficult to get along with.
I'm sure everyone in this thread has dealt with a boss or supervisor or teacher who we thought was wrong in some way Part of learning how to be a grown-up in the world is to know when to stick to your guns and when to shut up and do as you're told. In this case, use your beloved thesaurus and find a better word.
Last edited by fleetiebelle; 02-10-2017 at 02:57 PM..
"Diction" is used more broadly and thus will cause momentary confusion as a reader works out which meaning is correct in context.
"Word choice" would have only one meaning--less chance of misunderstanding and a smoother comprehension process for the reader.
It's like choosing between "due to" and "because." "Due to" might mean "because"...or it might not. "Because," however, always means "because," so if the intention is "because," then use "because."
Precisely this. It's about pragmatics and common usage, not dictionary definitions. Especially given that this is a business English class (as opposed a class with a more literary approach to the language, where some artistic obtuseness may fly) she's absolutely correct.
IMO even if she wasn't, it wouldn't be worth making a stink about.
Drop this class and kick the instructor to the curb. Take charge of your own education and don't depend on people who know less than you do, about their subjects. If this class is absolutely required, do a "credit by examination".
don't care about looking smarter to a teacher, esp since i don't know her well or care much about her opinion. I want to be able to continue using the words i fill fits into the context and are correct, instead of choosing other words or avoiding any words the professor falsely believes are incorrect. She also advocates that we be concise in our writing ; "diction" is more concise than "word choice" - it is better DICTION in my opinion.
Perhaps if you were to post the paragraph containing the word in question. If your readers find the word "diction" to be less clear than the instructor's "word choice", would you go along with their view? I would really like to see the context in which you used the word.
The person who is giving me a grade can tell me blue is purple. And that's how it is for the rest of that class.
I learned that lesson the hard way twice. The first time was when I had an ENGLISH teacher who pronounced the word Massachusetts as massytwoches. I paid for correcting her for the rest of that class. She hated me. And since once is never enough I corrected another teacher who pronounced electrolysis as electroLEEsus. My bad again. Took me twice but I finally learned my lesson.
god you people are so dense! i emailed her confronting the situation. Guess what? being an english professor doesn't mean you have the right to butcher the language, much less require others to. It's not what you say; it's how you say it. I sent her a sweet toned email that praised her for teaching me another definition of the word and she said "good for you for looking the word up!" and ended the email with a smiley face. It's not what you say; it's how you say it. i prefer to have my say but without offending the person who has authority over me, and it can be done, unless your professor is a narcissistic ego-maniac, but i think even Trump wouldn't be offended by this situation!
She also said that i should pick another word, since the fact we are discussing the word so much means that it is prone to cause confusion, so i won't use the word "diction", but at least when i accidentally when i forget that she doesn't like the word, she would know that it isn't wrong and mark me against it.
while editing my essay, my business writing professor (emphasis is in business, as writing is not her bread and butter - quantitative analysis is) corrected my use of the word "diction". She said "i think what you mean is 'word choice'. The word 'diction' means style of enunciation in speaking or singing.", which is correct, but "diction" also means " word choice". She wants me to write a second draft, so should i tell her that she was incorrect so i can use the word "diction" in my essays in her class from now on?
In cases like this we need to see the sentence that you wrote and even better, the paragraph that it's in.
Sometimes words have shades of meaning that aren't well expressed in a dictionary. So that although the way you used diction isn't wrong by the dictionary definition, it may still be awkward in that particular usage. Can't say for sure without seeing the way it was used.
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