ve use of adjectives and adverbs. Verbs, quite as much as
nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, produce clear, vivid images when
skillfully handled.

Some words carry with them associated ideas and emotions, while others
do not. The feelings and ideas thus associated with words constitute
their emotional and intellectual connotation, as distinct from their
logical meaning, or denotation. The word "home," for example, denotes
simply one's place of residence, but it connotes all the thoughts and
feelings associated with one's own house and family circle. Such a word
is said to have a rich emotional connotation because it arouses strong
feeling. It also has a rich intellectual connotation since it calls up
many associated images. Words and phrases that are peculiar to the Bible
or to the church service carry with them mental images and emotions
connected with religious worship. In a personality sketch of a spiritual
leader, for example, such words and phrases would be particularly
effective to create the atmosphere with which such a man might very
appropriately be invested. Since homely, colloquial expressions have
entirely different associations, they would be entirely out of keeping
with the tone of such a sketch, unless the religious leader were an
unconventional revivalist. A single word with the wrong connotation may
seriously affect the tone of a paragraph. On the other hand, words and
phrases rich in appropriate suggestion heighten immeasurably the
effectiveness of an article.

The value of concrete words is shown in the following paragraphs taken
from a newspaper article describing a gas attack:

There was a faint green vapor, which swayed and hung under the lee
of the raised parapet two hundred yards away. It increased in
volume, and at last rose high enough to be caught by the wind. It
strayed out in tattered yellowish streamers toward the English
lines, half dissipating itself in twenty yards, until the steady
outpour of the green smoke gave it reinforcement and it made
headway. Then, creeping forward from tuft to tuft, and preceded by
an acrid and parching whiff, the curling and tumbling vapor reached
the English lines in a wall twenty feet high.

As the grayish cloud drifted over the parapet, there was a stifled
call from some dozen men who had carelessly let their protectors
drop. The gas was terrible. A breath of it was like a wolf at the
throat, like hot ash