Glossary
word choice
Word choice is the writer's selection of words, which carries tone and shades meaning beyond a word's plain dictionary sense.
Word choice, or diction, is the writer's selection of one word where another would have done, and in a reading passage it is the main carrier of tone. Two words can share a dictionary sense and differ in what they imply — thin and gaunt, confident and smug, inexpensive and cheap — and that shading is the part a question asks about. Three things are worth separating. A word's literal dictionary meaning is its denotation; the associations it drags along are its connotation; and a word deliberately chosen to slant the reader is loaded language. In a question, the words that matter are usually adjectives and verbs rather than the nouns or numbers, since the nouns and numbers carry the facts. Compare the candidate word with the neutral one you would have written and ask what the difference is doing to the reader.
Taught in
Related terms
- tone — Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject, carried by word choice and sentence shape rather than stated outright.
- author purpose — Author purpose is the reason a passage was written — to inform, to explain, to persuade, to entertain or to describe.
- fact and opinion — A fact can be checked and shown true or false; an opinion is a judgment, preference or prediction that a reader could reasonably dispute.
- euphemism — A euphemism is a mild or indirect word used in place of one that is harsh or unwelcome, such as "passed away" for "died".
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)