Transcript: A text's tone
How is tone defined?
Have you ever read something that made you feel a certain way about the subject? That feeling is shaped by something powerful in writing:
This is what we call the tone.
Tone is the author's attitude towards a subject. It reflects their feelings and intention. Moreover, tone conveys the emotion and purpose behind a text.
However, tone is not to be confused with mood. Mood is what the reader feels because of the tone.
The purpose of tone is to express the author’s perspective towards the subject, audience, or both. Tone shapes how the reader perceives the message and influences their emotional response.
How is tone conveyed?
Tone is conveyed through word choice, sentence structure, adjectives, adverbs and stylistic devices such as metaphors or similes. Focus on the specific words the author chooses to identify the tone clearly.
Let us consider examples: A tone can be serious, humorous, ironic, witty, sentimental, sarcastic, aggressive, pessimistic and so on.
To put it in a nutshell, there are endless possibilities depending on the words chosen.
How to identify tone: A method called contextual word grouping
First: Identify themes
Read the text and identify key subjects (e.g., war, peace, nature).
Second: Highlight related words and group those words connected to different themes.
Example 1: For war: words like “battle,” “fight,” “enemy.”
Example 2: For peace: words like “serenity,” “calm,” “harmony.”
Third: Analyze the emotional impact
How do these words make you feel? War-related words may suggest tension or aggression, while peace-related words suggest calm or relaxation.
Fourth: Determine the tone
Based on the words and structure, identify the overall tone: aggressive, calm, joyful, tense, etc.
Please avoid vague definitions!
Saying a tone is “happy” or “sad” is possible but too vague. Instead, be specific: a text could have a tone of peace, contentment, and calmness instead of simply “happy.”
Some key points to remember
- Think of tone like a person’s expression when they speak— it shows their attitude!
- Headlines of a text often hint at the tone.
- Tone can shift within a text. For example, in horror films, the tone isn’t scary all the way through!