TYPES OF DICTION

AP Language

Used when addressing

a highly educated

audience. This includes

sermons, scholarly

journals, etc.

FORMAL

used when addressing a

familiar or specific audience.

This includes personal letters,

emails, and documents with

conversational or entertaining

purposes. This level also includes

"slang" language, which may be

used to create a specific "flavor"

as in sports casting or novels.

INFORMAL

1. Characteristic of or

appropriate to the

spoken language or to

writing that seeks the

effect of speech;

informal.

2. Relating to

conversation;

conversational.

COLLOQUIAL

SLANG

1. A kind of language occurring

chiefly in casual and playful

speech, made up typically of short-

lived coinages and figures of

speech that are deliberately used

in place of standard terms for

added raciness, humor,

irreverence, or other effect.

2. Language peculiar to a group;

argot or jargon: thieves' slang.