Skill Spotlight: Tone

Skill Spotlight: Tone

Defined

The tone of a text expresses the attitude of an author toward a subject, a character or person, or an audience. An author’s tone might convey a variety of attitudes, such as sympathy, rage, irony, sadness, bitterness, humor, or seriousness.
 
You’re probably already accustomed to listening for tone in your everyday conversations. When a speaker stresses certain words or phrases, we commonly refer to it as a speaker’s “tone of voice.”
 
In poetry, fiction, and informational texts, authors convey tone through elements such as word choice, sentence structure, and figures of speech. In an informational text, for example, authors often use an objective tone to prove they are unbiased, credible sources of facts and information.
 
Authors may also express tone through connotation, or the emotion associated with certain words. The sentence “Jan cowered in a corner” suggests fear better than “Jan hid in the corner” because “cowered” is more closely associated with fear than “hid.” Punctuation is another tool through which authors can express tone. This is evident when, to stress a point, a writer uses one or more exclamation marks to grab readers’ attention.

Identification and Application: 
When determining the tone of a play:

• Consider the work’s subgenre, or dramatic type. Is the play a comedy, tragedy, drama, fantasy, or mystery?
• Analyze the dialogue of the characters, as well as how the stage directions instruct actors to deliver their lines. Their tone, conveyed through speech, might be described as formal, casual, serious, playful, bitter, humorous, or sarcastic. Analyze dialogue and stage directions for the following:
  • Word Choice: Academic or technical words can produce a formal tone and indicate that a writer is trying to establish authority with an audience. Complex sentences, especially with many dependent clauses, make for more difficult reading and may show the writer’s assumption that the audience is capable of understanding complicated ideas. Such sentences also create a more formal tone. Slang words, on the other hand, can create an informal tone. In addition, dialogue written in dialect or with a specialized vocabulary can help to evoke particular cultural associations, which in turn may convey a particular tone.
  • Connotation: The emotional associations of words used by characters affect the play’s tone.
  • Repetition: A repeated word might reinforce an important point, or its repetition might become comical, depending on the author’s intention.
  • Point of View: How is the story of the play presented, and who tells it? Is there a narrator? If so, the narrator’s use of language also affects the play’s tone.
• Remember that a drama is meant to be performed. The author’s stage directions—which include advice on lighting, sound, action, dialogue, and setting—are intended to set the tone of specific scenes and the play as a whole.