The Elements of Style and Tone by Katy Gladden Many people enjoy reading and analyzing selections of...

The Elements of Style and Tone by Katy Gladden

• Many people enjoy reading and analyzing selections

of fiction.

• Why is this?

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• Studying the writing style and tone used by an author helps us to interpret the story.

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Writing Style• In the class text, A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature by Rebecca J.

Lukens, the author defines the literary element of writing style as:

“…how an author says something as opposed to what he says.” (Page 189).

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-critical-handbook-of-childrens-literature-rebecca-j-lukens/1002298562?ean=9780205492183&itm=1&usri=a%2bcritical%2bhandbook%2bof%2bchildren%2bs%2bliterature

Style and Story

• The author mentions that the type of style is selected to best suit the needs of the story.

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Writing Style

• In the following presentation, the story, No, David! is discussed to show how the writing style functions to support the story line.

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Story Summary

• No, David! is the story of a mischievous little five year old boy who is constantly pushing behavior limits with his mother.

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Story Summary

• In the opening page of the book, David is precariously reaching for the cookie jar on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet while standing on top of a chair. He has a determined look on his face and his mother admonishes, “No, David!” (Page 4).

• The rest of the story is a series of similar challenging incidents until finally David finds his limits and seeks refuge into his mother’s loving arms.

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Characteristics of Writing Style

• As an example, Mr. Shannon uses child like vocabulary to accentuate the young age of main character called David.

• In this story, David is approximately five years old.

• The vocabulary is simple, limited in content, and easily understood by a young child.

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Writing Style• The words of the story are printed in a

juvenile style font as if to appear written by a young child.

• Limited text is written on each page.

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Tone

• Most of the sentences are spoken by the mother in a didactic style (command form) of tone to show how the mother is instructing her son about proper behavior.

• Further, the mother uses a type of condescending tone with her young troublesome child.

• “Go to your room!” (Page 14 ).

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Tone Through Illustrations

• The tone is further reinforced by the illustrations.

• The author draws David looking mischievous, determined, and with expressive body language.

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Tone Through Illustrations

• The illustrations also include vivid colors, simple lines, and humorous facial expressions.

• The text is large and usually portrays a single scene for every one or two pages.

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Book Award

• No, David! also received the Caldecott Honor Award in 1999.

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Summary• One can see how the author cleverly uses the style and the

tone of the story to create empathy between the reader and the main character in this story.

• For this reason, this book is very popular with young elementary school aged children everywhere.

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/104729

Works Cited• Bolle, Sonia. "David Shannon: A Merry Prankster." Publishers Weekly 246.29 (1999):

168. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July 2011.

• Carpenter, Susan. "At 51, David Shannon stays in touch with his inner child - latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - latimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 July 2011. <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-david-shannon-20101209,0,3717243.story>.

• Lukens, Rebecca J. A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon, 2007. Print.

• Shannon, David. No, David! . New York: Blue Sky Press, 1998. Print.

• Smith, Robin. "David Gets in Trouble." Horn Book Magazine 79.1 (2003): 61-62. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July 2011.