Tone
- Read the following quotations about tone.
- Choose one.
- Restate the meaning of that quote in one sentence, referencing the author.
- Agree or disagree with the idea and provide evidence (an example, a detail, or a reason) for your opinion. Limit yourself to four sentences.
- This response will be your ticket in the door tomorrow.
According to Robert Frost, “Only when we are making sentences so shaped [by spoken sentence tones] are we truly writing. A sentence must convey a meaning by tone of voice and it must be the particular meaning the writer intended. The reader must have no choice in the matter. The tone of voice and its meaning must be in black and white on the page.”
Dona Hickey compares tone to body language in her book, Developing a Written Voice: "In writing, we can't indicate body language, but we can control how sentences are heard. And it is through our arrangement of words into sentences, one after another, that we can approximate some of the intonation in speech that tells our readers not only information about the world but also how we feel about it, who we are in relationship to it, and who we think our readers are in relationship to us and the message we want to deliver."
Truman Capote quipped, "The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply."
"We are not won by arguments that we can analyze but by the tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself,” wrote Samuel Butler.
Maya Angelou hints that tone may be more important than even the words themselves: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Example Reply: Robert Frost argues that good writing must include a carefully crafted tone so that the reader has no choice but to recognize the author's attitude. However, not even the best author can make a tone completely “black and white.” It is impossible to know exactly what the author intended, though it is certainly possible to infer his or her general attitude. Great writing conveys tone through word choice and sentence structure, which is how readers can tell that anything published in The Onion is ironic and not meant to be taken seriously. However, readers will still debate the differences between naming a tone nostalgic or wistful, fuming or defiant.