Mood Tone

What is the tone of a story?

• The feeling the passage evokes from the reader

• The time and place of a story

• The author, narrator, or speakers attitude toward a subject

• The summary of events in the story

What is the tone of the dialogue?

• Informal

• Optimistic

• Joyous

• Serious

Which words build suspense in the following passage? Jessica walked slowly through the hallway. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” she yelled. Since the room was dark, she had to feel around for the doorknob to the dining room. As her hand closed around the cool brass knob, she gave it a firm twist to the right, opening the door to the dining hall with a satisfying bang. The long table was illuminated by a stream of moonlight from a large bay window to her right, allowing her to see enough to enter the room. She giggled with nervousness as she took a few steps forward, stopping short at the sight of something shadowy moving in the corner.

• room, doorknob, corner

• bang, shadowy, nervousness

• walked, feel steps

• walked, hallway

What mood is evoked from this passage?

• Calm

• Passion

• Fear

• Sorrow

The tone of a passage, poem, or song is...

• how you feel after you read or listen to the piece

• the author's attitude toward their work

The mood of a passage, book, or song is...

• the author's attitude

• how you feel after reading or listening 

The projects the class just finished are amazing and beautiful! I could not be more proud!
The tone is...

• sad

• depressing

• excited

To remember what tone is, some good tricks are:

• AA-author's attitude

• parent saying: "don't give me that tone"

• imagining the author's facial expression as he writes

• all of these are true

The tone and mood of a text can be very different

• true

• false

if an author has no emotion regarding the story he is telling, his tone can be described as

• playful

• objective

• ironic

• mysterious