Analyzing Author’s Tonein

Walk Two Moons

Diction- Word choice; specifically chosen wordsPrecise, exactColloquial – slang, dialectConnotation- positive or negative

Imagery- Appeal to five sensesSight, smell, taste, hearing, touch

Syntax- Sentence structureShort, simple sentencesLong, flowing sentences- brushstrokesInterruptionsRun-onsIsolated sentencesParallelism

Review: Author’s Tone

I eased the car back onto the road. At the first curve, my heart started thumping. My palms were sweating and slippery on the wheel. I crept along with my foot on the brake, but the road doubled back so sharply and plunged so steeply that even with my foot on the brake, the car was going faster than I wanted it to. When I came out of that curve, I was in the outside lane, the one nearest to the side of the cliff. It was a sharp drop down, with only a thin cable strung between occasional posts to mark the edge of the road.

Example: WTM Ch. 41

I eased the car back onto the road. At the first curve, my heart started thumping. My palms were sweating and slippery on the wheel. I crept along with my foot on the brake, but the road doubled back so sharply and plunged so steeply that even with my foot on the brake, the car was going faster than I wanted it to. When I came out of that curve, I was in the outside lane, the one nearest to the side of the cliff. It was a sharp drop down, with only a thin cable strung between occasional posts to mark the edge of the road.

Example: WTM Ch. 41- Diction

I eased the car back onto the road. At the first curve, my heart started thumping. My palms were sweating and slippery on the wheel. I crept along with my foot on the brake, but the road doubled back so sharply and plunged so steeply that even with my foot on the brake, the car was going faster than I wanted it to. When I came out of that curve, I was in the outside lane, the one nearest to the side of the cliff. It was a sharp drop down, with only a thin cable strung between occasional posts to mark the edge of the road.

Example: WTM Ch. 41- Imagery

I eased the car back onto the road. At the first curve, my heart started thumping. My palms were sweating and slippery on the wheel. I crept along with my foot on the brake, but the road doubled back so sharply and plunged so steeply that even with my foot on the brake, the car was going faster than I wanted it to. When I came out of that curve, I was in the outside lane, the one nearest to the side of the cliff. It was a sharp drop down, with only a thin cable strung between occasional posts to mark the edge of the road.

Example: WTM Ch. 41- Syntax

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons , Sharon Creech creates a/an ______________________ and _______________________ tone through her use of ________________________, with _______________ such as “_________________” (Creech #).

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates an intense and cautious tone through her use of diction, with precise verbs such as “eased,” “crept,” and “plunged” (Creech 144).

Write a tone statement:

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates a/an ______________________ and _______________________ tone through her use of ________________________, with _______________ such as “_________________” (Creech #).

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates an intense and cautious tone through her use of imagery, with descriptive phrases such as “heart started thumping,” and “palms sweating and slippery” (Creech 144).

Write a tone statement:

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates a/an ______________________ and _______________________ tone through her use of ________________________, with _______________ such as “_________________” (Creech #).

In Chapter 41 of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates an intense and cautious tone through her use of syntax, with longer sentences and parallelism, such as “the road doubled back so sharply and plunged so steeply…the car was going faster than I wanted it to”(Creech 144).

Write a tone statement:

Read each of the following excerpts from the novel. Highlight & underline for diction, imagery, and

syntax.

Use the sentence frame to write a tone statement for each excerpt in your folder on the “Author’s

Tone” page.

Your Turn

In Chapter ____ of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech creates a/an ______________________ and _______________________ tone through her use of ________________________, with _______________ such as “_________________” (Creech #).

Sentence Frame:

The detour to Pipestone wound through a cool, dark forest and if you closed your eyes and smelled the air, you could smell Bybanks, Kentucky. Pipestone was a small town. Everywhere we went, people were talking to each other: standing there talking, or sitting on a bench talking, or walking along the street talking. When we passed by, they looked up at us, right into our faces and said “Hi” or “Howdy,” and although it sounds corny to say it, we felt right at home there. It was so like Bybanks, where everyone you see stops to say something because they know you and have known you their whole lives.

Ch. 12

I was uneasy because everything that happened at Phoebe’s that morning reminded me of when my mother left. For weeks, my father and I fumbled around like ducks in a fit. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. The house took on a life of its own, hatching piles of dishes and laundry and newspapers and dust. My father must have said “I’ll be jiggered” three thousand times. The chickens were fidgety, the cows were skittish, and the pigs were sullen and glum. Our dog, Moody Blue, whimpered for hours on end.

Ch. 22

At home that night, all I could think about was Mrs. Cadaver. I could see her in her white uniform, working the emergency room. I could see an ambulance pulling up with its blue lights flashing, and her walking briskly to the swinging doors, with her wild hair all around her face. I could see the stretchers being wheeled in, and I could see Mrs. Cadaver looking down at them.

I could feel her heart thumping like mad as she realized it was her own husband and her own mother lying there. I imagined Mrs. Cadaver touching her husband’s face. It was as if I was walking in her moccasins, that’s how much my own heart was pumping and my own hands were sweating.

Ch. 33