Tone

How did they do that?

What is Tone?

• In a simple way, tone is how the author feels about the characters, the plot and the elements of fiction that he or she is writing about. It is the author’s attitude.

• Tone can be expressed by the author using words, phrases, and sentences.

• It is not how you feel about what you are reading, but how the author feels.

Remember when….

Maybe when you were young, your mom or dad told you, “Young man (lady), do not take that tone with me!”

They picked up on your negative attitude and tried to correct it right away!

Purpose

• The author’s purpose also comes into play when finding the tone of a piece of writing.

• There are several purposes for writing:

• To entertain

• To provide information

• To persuade

• To explain their ideas

Audience

• When the author writes, he/she must consider his or her audience. In this case, it is a certain age group.

• What do you believe William Golding’s purpose was in writing The Lord of the Flies?

Words….

• Sticks & stones may break my bones…but words can hurt!

• The author conveys their attitude by using certain words. Let’s look at a list of tone words and see if we can find some of these in the passage in chapter seven.

Tone words:

• Look at the tone map and try to determine what tone the author is conveying.

• After you do that, tell your teacher if he/she is successful at conveying tone and what word choices he/she uses to do this.

Tone Exercise

• Your teacher has a tone exercise for you in the content page. Make sure you complete that while the information is still fresh in your mind!