GKT102: General Knowledge for Teachers – Reading

What are word choices?

When writing, authors make specific decisions about the words they use. These words may convey information, provide entertainment, or make connections.

As readers, it is important that we understand why words were chosen to better comprehend the purpose of a text.

Word choices also influence tone, or the attitude or emotion of the author. Tone may be professional, academic, humorous, sad, etc.

What kinds of choices do authors have?

Authors can be:

• Precise or Unclear
• General or Specific
• Literal or Figurative

We'll review each of these in this presentation

Precise vs. Unclear

Precision means a writer's words convey to "7 Cs" of writing:

1. Clear
2. Coherent
3. Concise
4. Concrete
5. Correct
6. Complete
7. Courteous

If a writer chooses to adhere to these seven points, they are being precise in their writing.

A writer can choose to intentionally avoid these, however, and make a text unclear on purpose. Sometimes a writer is misleading and may provide unclear or hard-to-follow (incoherent) wording to confuse a reader. This may also be done if the writer is aiming for a humorous tone and trying to make the reader laugh.

General vs. Specific

In most writing, authors will aim for specificity in a text. This means that use their words to convey narrower meaning. Typically, more specific wording will make it easier for the reader to understand the text's purpose.

Take this example:

• General: He said, "I like that car".
• Specific: He yelled with glee, "I like that car!"
• More specific: He yelled with glee, "I like that blue Porsche!"

Depending on the tone the writer is trying to achieve, they may aim for varying level of specificity throughout a text. Keep an eye on how specific the words are in a reading to better understand the purpose, or why the author wrote it.

Literal vs. Figurative

It's not uncommon to hear the word "literal" used incorrectly in conversation. Literal means the exact meaning of a word or phrase. Figurative, on the other hand, means an expressed meaning that move away from literal.

If someone says, "That ride was amazing! My heart was literally beating out of my chest!" If this was literally true, that person would need a doctor immediately!

Here are two examples of literal and figurative language:

• Literal: I'm so tired, I could fall asleep right now.
• Figurative: I'm so tired, I could sleep for the next week.

We see a lot of literal language in non-fiction writing when an author has a professional tone. 

Figurative language often appears when the author is trying to convey an emotional  tone.

Looking for word choices

As you read, annotate the word choices you see. This will help you determine the author's purpose (to inform, to entertain, etc.) and tone (professional, humorous, angry, etc.).
Keeping this list handy as you answer test questions will allow you to better comprehend both the text and what you're being asked.

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Source: Saylor Academy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.