Tone and Tone Shifts

Identify a writer's tone precisely and explain how shifts in tone serve the purpose.

Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through diction, syntax, and detail. At this level, avoid vague labels like 'happy' or 'serious. ' Use precise words: wry, indignant, elegiac, reverent, sardonic, earnest, conciliatory, urgent, detached. Tone often shifts within a text, and the shift is usually purposeful. Consider an original essay about a closing neighborhood bakery. It opens nostalgically, with warm images of morning bread. Then the tone turns indignant: 'And now, a developer has decided this corner is worth more as a parking garage.

' It ends with a conciliatory, practical tone, proposing that the city help the bakery relocate. The shifts move readers from affection, to anger, to action. When analyzing tone, quote specific words that create it, name the tone precisely, and explain what a shift accomplishes. Ask where the shift happens and why at that moment; tone shifts often mark the turn from description to argument.

• 1Tone is the writer's attitude, created through diction and detail.
• 2Use precise tone words, not vague ones.
• 3Tone shifts are usually purposeful.