DIDST Chart
DIDST is an acronym standing for Details, Imagery, Diction, Syntax, and Tone. (See definitions below.)
Topic
D
I
D
Author
(Details)
(Images)
(Diction)
S
(Syntax)
T
(Tone)
Note examples here or highlight each
device in a different color on the essay.
List facts or the sequence of events from the
passage. Focus on picture created by the
details.
Note the effect that rhetorical device
has on the reader.
Effect of those details (or the ones
excluded) on the reader.
Cite examples of imagery (appeal to the five
senses) from the passage. Identify the sense
appealed to, and interpret the meaning. Include
figurative language here.
Choose unusual and/or effective words from the
passage. Evaluate the connotations of the
words and write synonyms for each. Then,
decide what the word choice suggests about the
character’s or narrator’s demeanor.
How does sentence structure (order of words,
phrases, or sentences) reveal the character’s
attitude? Consider also sentence types and
punctuation.
Effect of that imagery on the reader; why
the author wants readers to have those
sensual experiences.
Determine the type of language used (formal,
informal, clinical, jargon, literal, vulgar,
artificial, sensuous, concrete, precise, pedantic,
etc.). Note the chart below and choose
sophisticated vocabulary when discussing tone.
Go beyond describing the words as being
positive or negative. Are they harsh?
Sympathizing? Sentimental? Ironic?
(See Language Words-Used chart in the
attachments.)
On what words is the author focusing?
What effect does sentence length or
choices in punctuation have on the
passage? Read it out loud. Does it sound
staccato? Smooth? Stumbling? Do you
become out of breath?
Diction and syntax contribute to tone.
Again, move away from choosing words
such as positive/negative, happy/sad.
See Tone Vocabulary in the attachments.
SAMPLE – Based on a letter from Samuel Johnson to Lord Chesterfield (see letter next page)
Letter
D
Samuel
Johnson
(Details)
Note examples here or highlight each
device in a different color on the essay.
Note the effect that rhetorical device
has on the reader.
While somewhat precise, Johnson does include
description how he had tried to approach
Chesterfield more than once. At his home, “the
enchantment of your address” and in public “had
The reader of Johnson’s letter would have
been Lord Chesterfield. Johnson was telling
Chesterfield that he has done just fine
without Chesterfield’s assistance. From the
content of the letter, one can tell that
Chesterfield is quite smug, so the letter
probably had little effect on him.
Modern day readers would be able to
visualize what the author saw; using a
metaphor places the author in control of
now being able to criticize Chesterfield
intellectually – touché!
Creates a sense of distance, intellectual
sophistication; verb tenses indicate the
ongoing nature of the situation or
conditions that have happened
Slows the pace; balance and equality of
each phrase, building in intensity
exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and
uncourtly scholar can possess.”
I
(Images)
Images of the house, entrance, outward rooms,
door; metaphor of a patron being a person who
will not help a drowning person
(Diction)
Formal words (“proprietor,” “forbear”); present
perfect tense verbs (“have now passes”) and
past perfect tense (“had been kind”)
S
(Syntax)
T
(Tone)
Many commas; parallelism (“one act of
assistance, one work of encouragement, or one
smile of favor”)
Contributed mostly to the diction(“so little
D
obligation,” “shall not be disappointed”)and syntax
One of distain, control, sophistication
Letter to Lord Chesterfield by Samuel Johnson – (used for DIDST chart sample)
The great English literary personality Samuel Johnson (1709-84) wrote the following letter in 1755, when he was 45 years old. Johnson
had just completed his great dictionary of the English language, which he had been toiling away at for eight years. A coalition of seven
London booksellers had commissioned the project eight years previously, at a fixed price of £1,575. At that time Johnson had issued a
plan for the work, in the hope of bringing in more funds from patrons. He had dedicated the plan to Philip Dormer, the Earl of
Chesterfield, whom Boswell describes as "a nobleman who was very ambitious of literary distinction." This dedication had actually
been suggested by one of the booksellers; it was not Johnson's idea. However, Johnson must have paid a call on the Earl at some point,
and been disappointed with the results. He did apparently get a few guineas out of the noble Lord, but it was much less than he had
hoped for, and Chesterfield seems to have taken no further interest in the project...
...Until, all those years later, when the dictionary was at last ready for publication (it was actually five years late), Lord Chesterfield
published an advance review of it in a magazine named The World, presenting himself as principal patron of the work. This excited
Johnson's indignation, and he wrote the following letter to his Lordship. It is one of the great letters of all time. It is also pure Johnson:
learned, elegant, crushing, and bitterly proud.
(Listen to the reading)
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield
February 1755.
My Lord.
I have been lately informed by the Proprietor of the World that two Papers in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
Public were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours
from the Great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
When upon some slight encouragement I first visited your Lordship I was overpowered like the rest of Mankind by the
enchantment of your adress, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le Vainqueur du Vainqueur de la
Terre, that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the World contending, but I found my attendance so little incouraged,
that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once adressed your Lordship in public, I had
exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly Scholar can possess. I had done all that I could, and no Man
is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Seven years, My lord have now past since I waited in your outward Rooms or was repulsed from your Door, during
which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at
last to the verge of Publication without one Act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such
treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.
The Shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a Native of the Rocks.
Is not a Patron, My Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a Man struggling for Life in the Water and when he has
reached ground encumbers him with help. The notice which you have been pleased to take of my Labours, had it been
early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it, till I am solitary and cannot impart it,
till I am known and do not want it.
I hope it is no very cinical asperity not to confess obligation where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that
the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.
Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any Favourer of Learning I shall not be disappointed
though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less, for I have been long wakened from that Dream of hope, in which I
once boasted myself with so much exultation.
My Lord,
Your Lordship's Most humble
Most Obedient Servant
S.J.