Teaching Tone

​Introduction to Tone

​Tone

Refers to the author's attitude towards the subject.

​

Tone directly affects the mood.

Mood is how a text is trying to make the READER feel.

They are not the same!

1. What the author describes to the reader

2. The author’s word choice.

​

​How do authors create tone?

​You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

​What's the tone?

​Is the tone:

A. Confident C. Unhappy

B. Angry​ D. Respectful

Multiple Choice

True or False:

Tone and Mood are the same thing

• True!

• False!

Multiple Choice

What is the tone of the following passage?

Often you feel you’ve done nothing when you’ve actually done a lot. That’s

because what you did do seemed beneath notice—it was so small that it

didn’t “count.” But it did—just as each stitch counts toward a finished dress,

each brick or nail toward a house you can live in, each mistake toward

knowing how to do things right.

• Hesitant

• Encouraging

• Amused

Multiple Choice

What is the tone of the following passage?

A vaccine is a preparation of killed or weakened germs that is injected under

the skin and causes the blood to produce antibodies against the disease.

Effective vaccines, for instance, have been developed for small pox, rabies,

and polio.

• Objective

• Arrogant

• Regretful

Multiple Choice

What is the tone of the following passage?

We have come together this afternoon to mourn the deaths of sixteen

miners—our friends and neighbors—who were trapped by fire yesterday,

deep below the earth. They lived bravely and they died too soon, leaving

behind grieving wives and bewildered children. We bid them a final farewell.

• Forgiving

• Sorrowful

• Angry

Multiple Choice

What is the tone of the following passage?

What’s the matter with those idiots in the city council? First they pass new

parking regulations saying we can’t park our cars in front of our own houses

without a special permit. Now they’ve gone and slapped another tax on gas

purchase—just to widen a road that’s already wide enough. Anyway, nobody

enjoys the traffic delays resulting from road construction. The sooner we

vote those incompetents out, the better off we’ll all be.

• Objective

• Angry

• Surprised

​To Summarize

​Tone is the author's attitude toward a subject

Tone and mood are NOT the same thing

Tone is determined through the author's word choice or ​what they describe for the reader.