NOTES and PRACTICE

 Tone: the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character.  Think of it as the AUTHOR’s attitude about the subject.  This can be serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in- cheek, solemn, or objective.

 Accusatory  Apologetic  Apprehensive  Bitter  Candid  Condescending  Critical  Cynical  Earnest  Forthright  Frivolous  Grim  Intimate  Jovial  Judgmental  Melancholy  Nostalgic  Objective  Optimistic  Reflective  Restrained  Sarcastic  Sentimental  Sincere  Solemn  Sympathetic

 After determining the attitude of the author or speaker, you should then consider how the tone makes you feel. This is called the mood.

 Mood: the atmosphere that creates the emotions that you feel while you are reading.  Think of it as how the AUDIENCE feels.  This is often created by the tone of the author and/or the setting. Some literature makes you feel sad, others joyful, still others, angry.

 Fic Fic  Class discussion: 1. Identify the tone of the clip. 2. Identify the mood of the clip. 3. How did the filmmaker's tone affect the mood (how the audience feels)?

Understanding Tone Flavors of a Word

 You will be assigned a specific tone word. Your homework is to fully understand this tone by the next time we come to class.  You will demonstrate your knowledge of the tone word in the following ways: ◦ wear the tone word all day ◦ speak all day using the assigned tone ◦ dress to reflect the assigned tone ◦ use nonverbal gestures to reflect the assigned tone all day  Your teacher must sign the back of your index card to indicate that you participated.

 When choosing tone and mood words, we want to use the BEST word possible to describe the emotion that is being created.  This means we need to work on our vocabulary a little and learn some new words that have more connotations than some of the ‘simple’ emotions. ◦ For example, we don’t want to just use the word sad to describe the mood of a story like Romeo and Juliet. Instead we could say heartbroken, somber, or hopeless. 1. Choose one of the following words: Happy Sad Mad Scared Funny Exciting 2. Place it on the “cone” part of your handout. 3. Now come up with 3 other “flavors” of the word (synonyms)

 In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays the character George by writing: George stared morosely at the water. The rims of his eyes were red with sun glare. He said angrily, “WE could just as well of rode clear to the ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin’ about. ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the highway,’ he says. ‘Jes’ a little stretch.’ God damn near four miles, that’s what it was! Didn’t wanta stop at the ranch gate, that’s what. Too God damn lazy to pull up. Wonder he isn’t too damn good to stop in Soledad at all. Kicks us out and says, ‘Jes’ as little stretch down the road.’ I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot day. (page 4)  How would you describe George’s tone?  What diction seems important to creating this tone?

Rewrite this paragraph using your randomly assigned tone. The choices you make in changing the diction of the passage will help you accomplish the change is tone.  George stared morosely at the water. The rims of his eyes were red with sun glare. He said angrily, “WE could just as well of rode clear to the ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin’ about. ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the highway,’ he says. ‘Jes’ a little stretch.’ God damn near four miles, that’s what it was! Didn’t wanta stop at the ranch gate, that’s what. Too God damn lazy to pull up. Wonder he isn’t too damn good to stop in Soledad at all. Kicks us out and says, ‘Jes’ as little stretch down the road.’ I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot day. (page 4)  How did changing the diction of the passage affect the tone?  How did changing the tone change the meaning of the original paragraph?