Tone and diction

Part 1. Theory •What is tone?

•What is diction? •Why do students need to understand the author’s tone?

•How does diction influence tone?

• How to identify tone?

Part 2. Practice

1. What is tone?

Tone is:

The attitude that an author takes toward the audience, the subject, or the character

Conveyed through the author’s words and detail

What is Diction?• Diction refers to the author’s choice of words.

Tone is the attitude or feeling that the writer’s words express.The author’s choice of words express the tone of a story.

• What to ask you yourself when discussing tone:

• What seems to be the speaker’s attitude in the passage?• Is more than one attitude or point of view expressed?• Does the passage have a noticeable emotional mood or

atmosphere?• Can anything in the passage be described as irony?

Words that describe tone POSITIVE NEGATIVE NEUTRAL

- Optimistic- Formal -Humorous , witty- Amused, Cheerful - Joyful, jubilant, jocular , -Complimentary- Compassionate: - Reverent; respectful

- Pessimistic - Informal- Sarcastic, Ironic : Critical- Threatening, Horror - Foreboding, Ominous -Nonchalant, Indifferent: -- disgruntled:

- Detached, objective :

- Authoritative:- straightforward: - matter-of-fact:- Candid, imparcial : - Disinterested:

“Bouncing into the room, she lit up the vicinity with a joyous glow on her face as she told about her fiancé and their wedding plans.”

What are the specific words that create the feeling of the sentence? What words did the author use to create the feeling of the sentence?

Let’s try together!

Bouncing into the room, she lit up the vicinity with a joyous glow on her face as she told about her fiancé and their wedding plans.

Bouncing – lit – joyous – glow – fiancé - wedding

What kind of words are these?

Bouncing into the room, she lit up the vicinity with a joyous glow on her face as she told about her fiancé and their wedding plans.

____ diction contributes to the ____ tone.

Cheerful diction contributes to the euphoric tone.

Or uplifting diction contributes to the joyful tone.

Example 1.

“This is one of the best essays I've ever seen. It's clear, concise, and convincing”

The writer specifies three things that make the reader's essay exceptional: It's "clear, concise and convincing." The use of more specific adjectives makes this writer's praise seem sincere.

=> Complimentary

Example 2

“Did you see what he just did? My goodness!”

=> surprised

The exclamation mark (!) that follows the question is a clue revealing that the observer is surprised

Exclamation points are often used to denote surprise

2. The purpose of understanding tone

Fully understand the writer’s intention

Have an objective view on the reading

3. How to identify the TONE?

Tone must be inferred through the use of descriptive words

You can recognize the tone/ attitude by the language/ word choices the author uses

His language will reveal his perspective/ opinion

GAME RULES- Class is divided into 7 teams.

- Look into the screen: there are 2 clues which relating to one subject

- Say “ Bingo” if you can guess the name of subject.

WHICH ISLAND IS THIS ???

USA

A FAMOUS FILM …

PEARL HARBOR

AN EXECTING DANCE

HAWAII ISLAND

1.A teacher talks to her student: “Mr. Jones, since you obviously appear to know everything, would you like to come up here and teach this class for me?”

sarcastic

WHO IS HE ???

THE KING OF POP

BE FAMOUS FOR ….

HEAL THE WORLD

BLACK AND WHITE

1.The girls were playing in the pond, splashing each other and trying to catch fish with their hands. They were having fun, but kept looking over their shoulders at the looming forest. The long grass of the field kept moving and they sort of felt like they were being watched… About a half hour passed and still the girls kept checking the field for movements. It seemed like a pair of dark eyes was on them. They even considered going back inside, but that would mean homework time. So they continued splashing, but with caution now. Their eyes hardly left the field.

Ominous

WHAT IS THIS ???

A FAMOUS ARTCHITECTURE IN NEW YORK

SYMBOL OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

3. Donovan and Larry were early for baseball practice. They decided to run up and down the bleachers to exercise before the rest of the team arrived. Larry was first to the top. He whispered to Donovan, “Look over there.” He pointed to a man sleeping on the highest, narrow bench of the bleachers. His pants and shirt were faded, worn, and too large for his thin frame. One big toe stuck out of a huge hole in his sock. His scraped-up shoes sat a few feet away. Donovan whispered, “We should help him out. Let’s hide something good in his shoes. Then, when he wakes up, he will have a nice surprise.”

Sympathetic

WHO IS SHE???

- A POP Singer

-Known for “strange” outfits

LADY GAGA!

4. About three million people have to look for a place to sleep at night. Some homeless people have jobs but do not earn nearly enough money for both food and shelter. Some become homeless because they have an unfortunate accident or lose their job. They do not have any back-up resources to make it through the hard times.

The homeless face terrible problems. Many become victims of violence. Serious health problems may begin because they are exposed to bad weather and unclean conditions. Homeless children may miss the chance to go to school. Worst of all, some cities pass laws that make it even harder on the homeless.

Matter of factly

ROSE

- THE SYMBOL OF LOVE

- NATIONAL FLOWER OF ENGLAND

Which flower is this?

5. Bill had stayed up all night preparing for this presentation. He had everything ready: charts, graphs, lists, statistics. This was the biggest meeting of his career. He was ready. He smiled as the cab pulled up to 505 Park Avenue, and he gave the taxi driver an extra large tip. He entered the building confidently and pushed #11 on the elevator. Suddenly, as the doors of the elevator closed, he realized that he had left his briefcase in the cab.

ironic

SummaryAn ability to determine tone is an essential

component of reading comprehension. Often, writers will let their diction convey tone and thus their meaning, so you need to look carefully for clues in their language and style to determine

how writers want their words to sound.