read better remember more_part6

WORD CHOICE AND PONT OF VIEW 171 Point of View 1st person 2nd person 3rd person Pronouns I, me, mine, we, our, us You He, him, his; she, her, hers; it, its; they, them, theirs. Effects Intimacy between the writer and reader. Suggests objectivity; based on the experience of the speaker or writer Puts the reader in the writer’s shoes. Creates distance between the writer and reader. Suggests objectivity; not influenced by the thoughts and feelings of the writer. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS BASED ON POINT OF VIEW The point of view writers use can help you to make inferences about how they feel about their subjects. For example, look again at the two sentences referring directly to the reader: A. We wish you well in your retirement, Joe. B. The company wishes you well in your retirement. If you were Joe,which message would you rather receive? Most people would probably prefer to receive memo A. Why? What’s the difference between these two messages? They both say the same thing, don’t they? Point of view,like word choice,helps create the meaning of a message. The writers of both memo A and memo B address the reader as “you.” But you probably also noticed that the writers chose two different points of view to refer to themselves. Memo A uses the first person “we” (and addresses the reader directly as “Joe”) whereas memo B uses the third person (“the company”) to refer to the sender.As a result,memo A seems more sincere; it comes from a person to a person, rather than from “the company”(a thing) to a person. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com 172 READ BETTER, REMEMBER MORE What does this tell you? From the point of view, what can you tell about the attitude of these memo writers toward their subject (Joe)? Writer B,by using the third person point of view,suggests that there is— and that he’d like to keep—a distance between the reader and the writer. Writer A, on the other hand, doesn’t mind the person-to-person “contact”created by the first person point of view. Memo B sends the unwritten message, “Let’s not get too close or personal—let’s keep our distance.” Memo A, on the other hand, uses the first person to say,“We’re real people here at the head office.We acknowl-edge you as a person and you can acknowledge us as people, too.” Thus, point of view reflects the way the senders wish to be perceived (as a distant thing or a friendly person). Word choice also shows you how the senders perceive their subjects.Memo A acknowledges the reader as a real person with a name whereas in Memo B, the reader is an employee who remains nameless. PRACTICE 3 Read the sentences below and answer the questions that follow. Sentence A: Sentence B: I think our new office policy is a failure. The new office policy appears to be a failure. 1. Which point of view does Sentence A use? a. first person b. second person c. third person 2. Which point of view does Sentence B use? a. first person b. second person c. third person 3. Which sentence do you think is more effective in the following situa-tions? Why? a. Submitting a complaint to office management. b. Informally complaining to a co-worker. Answers 1. Sentence A uses a, the first person point of view. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com WORD CHOICE AND PONT OF VIEW 173 2. Sentence B uses c, the third person point of view. 3. a. In this situation, Sentence B would be more effective because someone from the outside (a third person,not the reader or writer) is judging the policy. The third person point of view is almost always considered to be more objective because the third person is not directly involved in the action. The first person I, however, is directly involved in the action (the policy) and therefore cannot have a truly objective opinion about the policy’s success or failure. That doesn’t mean, however, that a first-person opinion is neces-sarily less valid or that a third person point of view is always objec-tive.It just appears that way.You’ll have to think critically about the specific situation to decide how much weight the opinion carries. b. In such an informal situation, Sentence A would certainly be appropriate and more effective. HOW WORD CHOICE AND POINT OF VIEW HELP YOU REMEMBER By being more aware of the words and point of view writers choose to convey their ideas, you’ll be able to understand much more of what you read. And when you understand more, you can remember more. As you build your observation skills and your understanding of the way words work on different levels,you’ll be more aware of language.Then you’ll be able to remember ideas more easily and accurately. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com 174 READ BETTER, REMEMBER MORE IN SHORT Looking carefully at a writer’s word choice can help you determine how the writer feels about her subject. Because words have both a denotation and a connotation, they can suggest meaning indirectly. Point of view is the perspective the writer uses to refer both to herself and to the reader. The first person point of view creates intimacy between the reader and writer, the second person point of view addresses the reader directly, and the third person point of view suggests objectivity and distance. Skill Building Until Next Time 1. Think about the words you choose when you speak to people. Do you use different types of words for different people? Do you think carefully about what you say and which words you will use? How aware are you of your own diction? 2. Notice how much the meaning of a sentence can change when a single word is altered. Form a simple sentence, like: “Eating junk food will make you sick.” Now, replace sick with synonyms that have slightly different meanings and connotations, like unhealthy, feeble, ill, dying, and under the weather. Each word will express a slightly different attitude about your subject to the reader. Insert synonyms into your sentence and see how much the meaning is altered. Choose words like rich, happy, or sad that have many synonyms with a wide range of connotations. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com CHAPTER Your ability to determine tone can determine whether or not you understand what a writer is trying to say. This chapter shows you how to analyze word choice and point of view to “hear” the tone of a written text. 17 DETERMINING TONE S ay this word out loud:“Sure.” How did you say it? Did you say it with a smile, as in “Sure, any time”? Or did you say it flatly, as if responding to a command? Or did you stretch the word out,“Suuuure,” as if you didn’t believe what someone just said to you? Or did you ask it, as in,“Are you sure this is okay?” Perhaps you didn’t realize there were so many ways to say this one word, “sure.” But there are. Why? The word itself doesn’t change, so there can’t be any change in denotation or connotation. So how can the same word express so many different things? This is trial version 175 www.adultpdf.com ... - tailieumienphi.vn