Tone / Style / Diction Review 3/23/2015 Mr. Pettine George Washington Carver Freshman Campus

Question This is the author’s use of words. Some writer’s use a simple, informal version of this; whereas others use an official, ornate version of this

Answer Diction

Question This is the particular way an author uses language. This is create through diction, use of figurative language, and sentence patterns. May be described as plain, ornate, formal, ironic, conversational.

answer Style

Question The author’s attitude toward a subject, character, or audience.

answer Tone

Question These are all the meanings, associations, or emotions that have come to be attached to some words. These meanings are in addition to their literal dictionary definitions. Husky or overweight Petite or Short

Answer Connotation

Question The literal dictionary definition of a word

Answer Connotation

Question This is a writer’s or speaker’s distinctive use of language in a text. This is created by a writer’s tone and choice of words. Skilled writers can develop such a distinctive version of this that they can be recognized by it alone.

Answer Voice

Question This uses an ornate, flowery, literary vocabulary – or is straight forward and matter of fact, disdaining slang. It is appropriate for school papers and literary works.

Answer Formal Writing

Question This is the atmosphere or overall feeling a story evokes.

Answer Mood

Question What is this review referring to: “The writer makes frequent use of similes and personification. He writes in an ornate way which recalls Victorian novelists of the 19th century.”

answer Diction

Question What is the tone of this selection: “I observed that he had not such a thing as a smile about him, and that he could only widen his mouth and make two hard creases down his cheeks, one on each side, to stand for one.” – Charles Dickens a.) admiring b.) comic c.) forgiving d.) disapproving e.) sarcastic  

Answer Disapproving

Question What is the mood of this selection: “During the whole of a dark, dull, soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at a length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.   a.) peaceful b.) mysterious c.) suspenseful d.) bleak / dreary

Answer Bleak / Dreary

Question Pick the selection which best matches the author’s style: “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain,” – Ernest Hemingway.   a.) spare and literal descriptive style b.) ornate and flowery style c.) archaic (old- sounding) and vivid style

Answer Spare and literal descriptive style

Question “Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish…” – Ray Bradbury   a.) Descriptive, non-subjective style b.) stream-of-consciousness style c.) objective, formal style

Answer Stream of consciousness style