Understanding Tone and Mood

Tone is the author’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the piece.

You must first identify the SUBJECT before you can determine the TONE.

What is TONE?

What is the Tone?

What is the Tone?

Mood is how the author’s/speaker’s tone affects us as a reader/audience.

You need to identify TONE before you understand the MOOD.

What is MOOD?

What is the MOOD?

What is the MOOD?

1. “Hey, lay off, you don’t have to nag me. I was going to do it anyway!”

2. “When are you going to take the garbage out? Sometime this year, maybe?

3. “Please note in your checkbook how much money you spent using your ATM card today.”

4. “I know it’s been hard. I appreciate all you are going through right now. If you will just put the receipts on the counter, I will take care of the paperwork for you.

Let’s practice with text!A. Sympathetic C. Sad E. IrritatedB. Straightforward D. Sarcastic F. Threatening

Each group will choose a tone word. Your job, as a group, is to rewrite the following

sentence (adding words if needed) to effectively convey the chosen tone word.

Be prepared to share your new sentence!

I walked the dog in the park.

Now you try!

1. Looking at your previous essay and identify the TONE.

2. Write the TONE word at the top of a piece of notebook paper.

3. Now list words from your essay that support your tone.

4. If you do not have an identifiable TONE, what TONE should you have? What words could you use to establish that tone?

Now look at your writing for TONE: