What do you know about tone and mood? Watch the video and read the following text to gain a better understanding of tone and mood and what the two mean for you as a writer!!
Please add these two words to your notebook!!
Please add these two words to your notebook!!
TONE in WRITING
What is tone? It refers to the fiction writer’s attitude toward his/her subject and toward the readers. The writer’s tone creates an atmosphere or mood for the story. A writer’s tone can be humorous, satirical, passionate, zealous, sarcastic, condescending, and so on. The tone can be anything the writer chooses. For instance, humor is an important tone in children’s literature. Types of humor used by writers include surprise, exaggeration, incongruity, absurdity, and parody.
The writer’s choice of diction often reveals his/her tone. Tone is often expressed by the connotation of words. For instance, a certain expression might be interpreted as sarcasm. Another expression can be interpreted as vulgar. Tone is also about the effect the writing has on the reader. What mood does the writer create in the mind of the reader? |
- Tone is a literary compound of composition, which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work.
- Tone may be formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or many other possible attitudes.
The tone in a story can be joyful, serious, humorous, sad, threatening, formal, informal, pessimistic, and optimistic. Your tone in writing will be reflective of your mood as you are writing.
Tone in writing is not really any different than the tone of your voice. You know that sometimes it is not “what” you say, but “how” you say it.
It is the same with writing. Every adjective and adverb you use, your sentence structure, and the imagery you use will show your tone. The definition of “tone” is the way the author expresses his attitude through his writing.
The tone can change very quickly, or may remain the same throughout the story.
In the following excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, notice the insane, nervous, and guilty tones.
It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. O God! What COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder!
The Assignment for YOU
Read through the tone words (off to the right). Choose one word. After you choose your tone word, use www.visuwords.com to find and discover all related words. Those words will serve as your word bank and your inspiration - the words you might use in your writing to create such a tone.
Open your Photobooth! Design a picture that relates to your words (look at the examples below). Let your words inspire your picture. Think SYMBOLISM! Think FIGURATIVE! After your picture is designed, write! And as you write, think about the style of the letters (back to the first unit). Your writing with the picture can be no shorter than 3 lines and NO MORE than 15 words! See my example below! YOU TAKE THE PICTURE! NO FACES. Set this up! You could take a picture of one book on a shelf to show loneliness. It could be a of a sunbeam coming through the window...The picture, the word choice, and the synonyms must FIT together. https://writerswrite.co.za/155-words-to-describe-an-authors-tone/ |
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NOW - - - SEEK TONE IN YOUR OWN WRITING!!