Nicole T. answered • 01/31/23
Knowledgeable Tutor with Broad Subject Base
Diction just refers to the choices an author makes to convey a particular tone or message, so this is a bit of an abstract question without having the article in question to review. However, here are some things to look out for:
Scientific writing often uses a more formal diction that may even cross into pedantic (using a lot of unnecessarily big/academic) words and focuses on fact and clarity more than casual language. Things like "I hypothesized that..." "The results showed", or listed procedures for an experiment are all very commonly included in scientific papers. "I did x and y was the result". There's little or no room for interpretation, it's a simple statement of fact.
Comparatively, informal writing generally uses less "big" words and is much more similar to the way most people converse in real life. This could be a more playful tone, include some wordplay or jokes, and in general just comes across as a more familiar tone.
Hope that helps you figure out what to look for! I'm happy to have a deeper conversation with you where we go over the actual article to find more specific choices in diction!
