Voicing Irony and Sarcasm

Recognize when a text means the opposite of its literal words and adjust tone accordingly.

Verbal irony occurs when a speaker says one thing but means something different, often the opposite. On the page, irony has no tone of voice, so readers must infer it from context. Consider: after a character spends three hours stuck at a train station, she says, 'Well, that was a relaxing afternoon. ' The literal words are positive, but the context makes the meaning negative. Read flatly, the line sounds sincere and the joke disappears. Read with a slight drawl, a dry falling pitch, or extra stress on 'relaxing,' it signals the gap between words and meaning.

The skill is restraint: heavy sarcasm can sound cartoonish and can make a subtle narrator seem cruel. In essays, irony is often understated, so a lightly dry tone is usually more accurate than exaggeration. Always check context before deciding a line is ironic; reading a sincere line ironically misrepresents the author just as badly as missing real irony.

• 1Verbal irony: words say one thing, meaning another.
• 2Context, not the words alone, reveals irony.
• 3Signal irony with restraint, not exaggeration.