Tone
Introduced| English |
|---|
| tone/təʊn/ |
You can hear an attitude in a sentence that states no opinion
- "The committee met again on Thursday" states a fact and can still sound weary.
- That audible attitude is tone 语调, and it is built from word choice.
- A reader infers it whether or not the writer intended it.
“The committee met again”: just one word, and “again” is already asking for a holiday.
What tone is
- A writer's tone is their attitude or feeling about a subject, conveyed through word choice and writing style.
- Readers infer tone from word choice — especially from positive, negative or otherwise charged associations.
- So tone is not stated; it is deduced from the connotations of Unit 5.
Readers arrive at a writer's tone by...
Tone is inferred, which is why connotation is the evidence for it.
Tone shifts
- A writer's shifts in tone from one part of a text to another may suggest qualification, refinement, or a change in perspective.
- A shift is a visible event: something changed at that point in the argument.
- Finding the shift is often the fastest way into a rhetorical-analysis passage.
What does this tone shift suggest?
Match each shift to what the CED says it may indicate.
Select all that a shift in tone may suggest.
The CED lists three; a change of author is not one of them.
"The tone is negative" is not an analysis. Name it precisely — weary, impatient, guarded, clinical — quote the words that produced it, and say what it does to the reader. A vague label is worth no more than no label.
A tone shift is a visible ____: something changed in the argument at that point.
Locating the shift is often the fastest way into an unseen passage.
Analysing a shift
- Locate where the tone changes, then say what changed in the argument at that point.
- A tone that warms as a concession arrives is doing credibility work.
- A tone that cools before a rebuttal is preparing the reader to withdraw sympathy.
Describing a tone as "negative" is sufficient for an analysis.
Name it precisely, quote what produced it, and say what it does to the reader.
Match each step of a tone analysis to what it delivers.
Claim, evidence, commentary — the same three parts, applied to tone.
Writing about tone
- Name the tone with a precise word — weary, impatient, guarded — not "negative".
- Quote the words that produced it, and say what they carry.
- Then say what the tone does to the audience's disposition. That last step is the analysis.
A writer describes a programme in flat administrative vocabulary for three paragraphs, then switches to the first person and a single short sentence. The shift is the event: the argument has moved from what the record shows to what the writer will vouch for.
Tone is a writer's attitude, inferred by readers from word choice and its charged associations. Shifts in tone suggest qualification, refinement or a change in perspective — find the shift, say what changed in the argument there, and name the tone precisely.