Writers choose their words carefully to communicate a certain message. They can use technical words to seem qualified, colloquial words to seem casual, and dramatic words to create powerful imagery. Paying special attention to a writer's vocabulary will help you understand the writer's intended message.
Meaning of Vocabulary Assessment
Vocabulary assessment means analyzing an author's vocabulary to discover the author's intent.
Fig. 1 Different kinds of vocabulary convey different tones.
Vocabulary in this sense refers to diction.
Diction is a writer's word choice. It conveys a message or establishes a certain writing style.
Diction also sets the tone of a piece of writing.
The tone is the writer's style of written delivery.
Different choices of vocabulary can set very different tones. Writers know how to take advantage of these choices to control the message of their writing.
Importance of Vocabulary Assessment
Vocabulary evaluation is an important part of textual analysis. It helps you understand the background and motivations of the text, including:
- Place: what is the context of this text?
- Time: when was the text written?
- Category: what kind of text is this? Is it a newspaper article, poem, novel, essay, etc.?
- Author: who wrote this text?
- Audience: who is the text intended for?
- Purpose: why did the author write this text? What was the author's motivation?
Understanding these factors will help you judge the text as a whole. This is especially helpful for textual analysis essays.
Examples of Vocabulary Assessment
Vocabulary can carry lots of different meanings and set lots of different tones. Even though the types of vocabulary are nuanced, they can generally fit into the categories of formal and informal vocabulary.
Formal Vocabulary
Formal vocabulary includes words that don't usually appear in everyday conversation. This can mean long words, technical words, or words that have fallen out of use over time. A passage with a lot of these words has a formal tone.
Formal vocabulary is more common in writing than speaking. Most essays, academic papers, and public speeches use formal vocabulary. Writers use formal vocabulary to seem:
- knowledgeable
- authoritative
- professional
- serious
Despite the more prominent significance of phonemic and morphological comparisons, suprasegmental features provide valuable evidence to the interaction of speech communities.
This example uses lots of formal and technical words and therefore comes across as academic. Here are some examples of the formal words and phrases used, along with less formal versions of the same message.
| More Formal | Less Formal |
| despite | even with |
| more prominent | bigger |
| provide | give |
| valuable | good |
| communities | groups |
The technical words (like phonemic, morphological, and suprasegmental) also set a professional tone for the sentence. It limits the audience to only people who have experience with these terms. The vocabulary in this sentence can lead you to these conclusions:
- This sentence was written by someone with experience in this field.
- This sentence was intended for people who also have experience in this field.
- This piece of writing is probably from an essay or academic article.
- The context of this sentence probably has to do with research.
- The writer's motivation is probably to present their research to other researchers.
Technical words that only apply to a certain professional field are also called jargon.
Informal Vocabulary
Informal vocabulary includes words that are common in everyday speech. This can mean shorter words, slang, and informal word combinations like contractions (isn't, we're, etc.).
Fun fact: the word "slang" is itself slang! It is a condensed version of the words "short language."
Informal vocabulary is common in conversation, but it also has its place in writing. It establishes a casual and relaxed tone. Writers use informal vocabulary to seem:
- casual
- relatable
- easy to understand
Comparing the sounds and words in different people's speech gives us a lot of information. Often forgotten, though, the "melody" of speech also tells us a lot about how those speech groups interact.
This example carries the same general meaning as the last one, but with informal vocabulary. The formal and technical words have been replaced with simpler terms. For example, phonemic, morphological, and suprasegmental have been replaced with sounds, words, and melody. More formal phrases like provide valuable evidence have been replaced with tells us a lot.
This version of the text seems more casual than the first. The informal vocabulary in this text can lead you to these conclusions:
- This text was written by someone with some knowledge of the subject.
- The text is intended for people without experience in the field.
- The text is probably a news or magazine article, not an academic journal article.
- The context of this text probably has to do with explaining an interesting topic.
- The writer's motivation is probably to discuss the topic with anyone who might be interested.
When a technical text is written without jargon, it's said to be written in "layman's (or layperson's) terms." Texts written in layperson's terms are intended for a wider audience than texts with lots of jargon.
Formal Vocabulary Assessment
This is an excerpt from the essay "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau.1 Thoreau wrote this essay to criticize the U.S. government for allowing slavery and for its role in the Mexican-American War.
Fig. 2 Henry David Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" and other political commentary papers.
This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.
This passage uses lots of formal vocabulary. Notice the difference this formal vocabulary makes:
Formal (original): endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity
Informal (modified): trying to pass itself on to the next generation without changing
Both versions of this phrase carry the same message, but the formal vocabulary comes across as more profound and educated than the informal vocabulary. You can draw these conclusions from this vocabulary:
- Thoreau wanted his criticism of the government to be taken seriously.
- Thoreau wrote this essay for an audience that he considered educated and knowledgeable.
- Thoreau was a college-educated writer during the time of the Mexican-American War.
- Thoreau wrote this essay to speak out about his disapproval of the U.S. government in a profound way.
Overall, the vocabulary of "Civil Disobedience" sets a formal, authoritative, and passionate tone.
Informal Vocabulary Assessment
Not all essays are as serious as Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience." Some essays are meant to be witty, sarcastic, and satirical. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (known by his pen name Mark Twain) wrote several of these essays in his lifetime. This example is from his essay "The Awful German Language."2 Twain complains about the difficulty of learning German—and uses informal vocabulary to do it.
Fig. 3 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or Mark Twain, wrote witty essays and novels.
Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, "REGEN (rain) is masculine--or maybe it is feminine--or possibly neuter--it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either DER (the) Regen, or DIE (the) Regen, or DAS (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look.
This text is written in a conversational style using fairly simple vocabulary. This example shows the difference that informal vocabulary makes:
Informal (original): I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea.
Formal (modified): I scrutinize the sentence in the inverse orientation, necessarily, for that is the proper German procedure.
Twain's informal vocabulary sets a dryly sarcastic and frustrated tone compared to the formal vocabulary's more analytical tone.
Mark Twain's informal vocabulary includes a special word category: modifiers that qualify. These words, also known as qualifiers, make Twain sound unsure of himself. You can see this in this sentence:
I say to myself, "REGEN (rain) is masculine--or maybe it is feminine--or possibly neuter--it is too much trouble to look now.
The words maybe and possibly set a tone that is less authoritative and more indifferent. You can almost hear Mark Twain saying, "whatever."
The vocabulary sets the witty and sarcastic tone that's maintained throughout this essay. You can draw these conclusions from Twain's informal vocabulary:
- This essay is intended for anyone who struggles to learn a second language—or just wants to laugh.
- Twain wrote this essay to entertain the audience and complain about the difficulties of language learning.
- The context of this essay is probably a personal story.
- Mark Twain was a college-educated American writer in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Overall, the informal vocabulary gives this essay a casual, sarcastic, and witty tone.
Try this in your own writing! Write out the same paragraph twice, once with formal vocabulary and once with informal vocabulary. How does this change the tone of your writing? How can you use this to your advantage on an assignment or an exam?
Vocabulary Evaluation - Key Takeaways
- Vocabulary evaluation means analyzing an author's vocabulary to discover the author's intent.
- A writer's word choice, or diction, sets the tone of their writing.
- Vocabulary evaluation helps you understand the background and motivations of the text.
- The types of vocabulary can generally fit into the categories of formal and informal vocabulary.
- Writers use formal vocabulary to seem knowledgeable, authoritative, professional, and serious; they use informal vocabulary to seem casual, relatable, and easy to understand.
References
- Henry David Thoreau. "Civil Disobedience." 1849.
- Mark Twain. "The Awful German Language." 1880.
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