Summary: DIDLS

            This acronym is one of the first things we learned in AP Lit, and has an essential purpose in any essay written for this class. It stands for Diction, Imagery, Detail, Language, and Syntax – all criteria that are necessary to take into consideration when analyzing a piece of literature, the primary goal of an AP Literature essay.

            Diction categorizes the words in a piece and their denotations as well as connotations. This is necessary to take into account when analyzing a piece because of the importance of word variance on reader emotion. Authors choose words very carefully, often taking advantage of pejorative or complimentary connotations to invoke a certain feeling amongst the audience.

            Imagery is fairly straightforward, but can be dismissed or overlooked because of its prevalence in modern text. “Show, don’t tell” is often indoctrinated in school, and its importance increases as authors become more serious in their work. An author’s imagery can often include detailed similes and metaphors, and recognizing and analyzing their purpose is important in an AP Lit essay.

            Detail includes all the aspects of a piece that the writer chooses to include, most likely things that the reader would not have assumed or known otherwise. A writer’s inclusion of certain details can greatly impact an audience’s understanding of a story, and thus appropriate analysis of detail is important in an essay about a piece.

            Language is somewhat of a broader category than diction, and the latter greatly influences the former. The language of a piece has a profound effect on reader interpretation of the author’s motives and emotions, and can greatly change characters’ perceived personalities in the case of fictional works. Regional dialect is often employed to give characters a more original, realistic impression (e.g. in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

            Syntax is perhaps the most difficult characteristic to analyze, and carries much more weight in shorter works where individual sentences can have a great impact, such as in plays or in poetry. Analyzing this attribute in literature requires a close observation of punctuation and sentence formation in an attempt to find an author’s intended meaning in the use of certain syntax.