understanding tone
Tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject. Every written piece comprises a central theme or subject matter. The manner in which a writer approaches this theme and subject is the tone. The tone can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, and cheerful or it may be any other existing attitude. (http://literarydevices.net/tone/) |
Tone IS NOT how YOU feel about the subject. Tone IS how the AUTHOR/SPEAKER feels about the subject.
It's easier to determine tone in spoken language because we can literally hear the tone through the pauses and intonations of the person speaking. Determining tone in writing is a bit more difficult, but it's not impossible if you can teach yourself to "hear" the tone of the author as you're reading silently. Here are three tips to make this easier:
1) Pay attention to the punctuation. Authors determine their syntactical structure very deliberately, so the reader can follow the signs in order to gain understanding and meaning which includes tone. For example, did you just pause a bit at that comma after example? Did the voice in your head rise slightly in pitch at the end of the sentence because of that question mark? Punctuation is part of how we hear the tone as we read. (See what I did there by placing hear in italics!)
2) Pay attention to the dialogue tags. These are the 'he said,' 'she said' that precede or follow direct quotes or dialogue. Often, instead of 'said' an author will use a word like 'screeched' or 'slurred' in order to give you more information about the tone. These are clues as to the voice you should be using in your head while you read whatever is in the quotation marks.
3) Pay attention to the diction. Just as with syntax, authors choose their words very carefully. These words are often clues as to the tone of the passage. For example, if an author goes through the trouble to tell you it's a 'dreary dull gray winter morning' on the day of the event in question, chances are the tone, or attitude toward the event being written about, is a negative one at best.
It's easier to determine tone in spoken language because we can literally hear the tone through the pauses and intonations of the person speaking. Determining tone in writing is a bit more difficult, but it's not impossible if you can teach yourself to "hear" the tone of the author as you're reading silently. Here are three tips to make this easier:
1) Pay attention to the punctuation. Authors determine their syntactical structure very deliberately, so the reader can follow the signs in order to gain understanding and meaning which includes tone. For example, did you just pause a bit at that comma after example? Did the voice in your head rise slightly in pitch at the end of the sentence because of that question mark? Punctuation is part of how we hear the tone as we read. (See what I did there by placing hear in italics!)
2) Pay attention to the dialogue tags. These are the 'he said,' 'she said' that precede or follow direct quotes or dialogue. Often, instead of 'said' an author will use a word like 'screeched' or 'slurred' in order to give you more information about the tone. These are clues as to the voice you should be using in your head while you read whatever is in the quotation marks.
3) Pay attention to the diction. Just as with syntax, authors choose their words very carefully. These words are often clues as to the tone of the passage. For example, if an author goes through the trouble to tell you it's a 'dreary dull gray winter morning' on the day of the event in question, chances are the tone, or attitude toward the event being written about, is a negative one at best.
In order to help you better understand tone, we will be working in groups to identify various tone words.
Part 1 - Understanding Words Used to Describe Tone
Each group will be assigned a set of adjectives that are used to describe a particular tone. Your group will be responsible for providing a definition and a sample. EXAMPLE: Jealous - feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages; feeling or showing suspicion of someone's unfaithfulness in a relationship. (Mary glared at the girl who was touching her boyfriend’s arm across the lunchroom.) ****You will receive your group and the Google Doc with the tone word sets through Google Classroom. |
Part 2 - Categorizing Tone Words by Intensity
For this activity you will need to group the words by level of intensity - 1) most intense, 2) moderately intense, and 3) least intense. Think of this as a continuum of emotion. For example 1) morose, 2) melancholy, and 3) sad may all be negative tone words, but they all convey very different levels of a negative emotion. While you will need to categorize all of your words, you will choose two from each intensity category that you believe are the most important for your classmates to know. In class, on three pieces of colored paper that correspond with gradients of your word set color - 1) dark, 2) medium, and 3) light - you will write the two words with their definitions and samples that correspond with each level of intensity on each of your three colored pieces of paper. ****Neutral tone word group - you will have a slightly different task that will be explained to you in class separately. |