Loaded Words Worksheet

Sharon Haigler

Overview

 

  • This worksheet enables students to hone their ability to assess tone, connotation, and denotation through word choice.

Worksheet

Some words may not cause a particular emotional reaction whereas other words with similar meanings may fire up anger, joy, fear, or other emotions. Authors may choose to use more emotional words to convey a particular tone in their writing, and critical readers need to be aware of this literary device to maintain an objective view of the topic and not be subtly swayed by the author’s attitude.

Consider each of the following groups of words. Underline, circle, or mark the word that suggests a more emotional response.

Group Number Word #1 Word #2 Word #3 Word #4
1 witty clever sneaky astute
2 famous notorious prominent renowned
3 gigantic big large sizable
4 scary frightening creepy bloodcurdling
5 attentive careful observant guarded
6 pretty gorgeous lovely nice-looking
7 exhausted tired drowsy sleepy
8 corrupt false untruthful dishonest
9 honest truthful good blameless
10 immaculate clean unsoiled sanitary
11 funny hilarious humorous amusing
12 upset terrify scare startle
13 dull boring mind-numbing dreary
14 genius intelligent bright smart
15 vicious mean hateful unkind

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Click here to download a Word Doc version of the “Loaded Words” worksheet:

Loaded Words Worksheet

 

 

Attribution:

Haigler, Sharon. “Loaded Words Worksheet.” Strategies, Skills and Models for Student Success in Writing and Reading Comprehension. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. This work is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

 

License

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Loaded Words Worksheet Copyright © by Sharon Haigler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.