Tone

Definition

• Tone: A particular way of expressing feelings or attitudes that will influence how the reader feels about the characters, events, and outcomes. Speakers show tone more easily than writers because they can use voice tone, gesture, and facial expressions. A writer must use words alone.

Sample Passage

• “And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing” (Barthelme).

Sample Passage

"Oh really. You're in love..AGAIN? Trust me, it's not going to work out. It never does.”

• How would you describe this person?

• How does this person feel about the subject of love?

Activity

• Each group will be writing about the same event but with different tones.

Topic: Write a description of a dog walking in a park

• On loose leaf piece of paper, write a short paragraph describing a dog walking in a park that uses the tone provided on your index card. Make sure to put the tone you used up at the top of the piece of paper along with all of the names of the members of your group!

Group Share

• One person from your group will read your paragraph without telling the class what tone you were assigned. Other groups will guess as to what tone you wrote in.

Real-Life Application

• On the piece of paper with a t-shirt on it, write four “tone” words in the box that describe your tone in at least two of the following situations:

• Student

• Friend

• Athlete/Performer/writer, etc.

• Writer

*Include the definition of the four tone words, visuals, and a picture of you attached to the top of the shirt. You will be presenting these on Friday!