Words That Work by Frank Luntz

As a words man, Frank Luntz states when writing or speaking the goal is to get the message across. Effective communication requires one to say or not say specific words. The words are dependent on the connotations. For instance, the linguistic difference between “alien” and “illegal immigrants”, "alien" has a negative connotation because it implies that someone is different or strange. Whereas, "illegal immigrants" is in regards to security issues of a person who doesn't have the correct paperwork. The word "alien" is aimed at a person, while the word "illegal immigrants" is aimed at the idea. Thus, leading Luntz to his conclusion of why "illegal immigrants" is more appropriate to say than "alien". It is known that these two words have the same denotation but different connotation. The same concept is applied to other words such as “foreign trade” and “international trade”. Similarly, the word "foreign" implies something different and seclusive(I); whereas, the word international has an inclusive(we) connotation. Once again, these two terms have the same meaning but Lunts develops a terminology that some phrases have a negative connotation in comparison to others. Lastly, Luntz does a job that identifies why one should or should not use certain words due to their connotation.