Tone
Tone is the reflection of an author's attitude toward his or her subject.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, and you were able to tell if that person was
angry, sad, or happy? Usually, the person talking to you will give hints about how he or she is
feeling with gestures like a frown, a smile, or a nervous twitch.
Authors give the same hints when they write. An author's tone gives the reader an idea about
how the author feels about a certain subject. They aren't hints that can be seen like the hints in a
conversation; however, things like word choice and attitude can be recognized in writing. For
example, pay close attention to the author's tone in the passage below.
I love to swim, and I miss the community swimming pool very much. Last week, when I
heard that the city closed the pool, I felt depressed. There are not that many safe activities that
we kids can do during the summer. Swimming at the pool was something fun that my friends and
I could all do and feel safe. Now all our fun times are only memories. Please reopen the
community swimming pool as soon as possible so that we can stop moping around. Let me and
my friends know what we can do to help raise money that the city needs for the pool.
In this passage, the author does not like that the city closed the community swimming pool.
Think about how the author uses language to show how sad he or she is about the pool being
closed:



In the first sentence, the author says that he or she misses the pool and that he or she "felt
depressed." These are ways of expressing that the author feels sad.
When the author states that his or her "fun times" at the pool are "only memories," this
shows that the author is sentimental and sad.
In the next sentence, the author says that the pool should be reopened so that his or her
friends "can stop moping around." This adds to the author's sad tone by painting a
gloomy picture.
Sensory Language
A good piece of fiction should let you see, hear, smell, taste, and, most importantly, feel what's
going on in the story. Authors do this by choosing specific words that paint a picture of what
they want to portray.
For example, an author could simply say . . .
Jacob is athletic.
But if the author really wanted to provide more detail about exactly how athletic Jacob is,
he or she would say . . .
Jacob is a muscular boy who plays sweaty outdoor sports, and he has won athletic awards in
football, baseball, and soccer.
The difference between the first example and the second is that the first one tells you simply that
Jacob is athletic. The second example provides more information about the sports that Jacob
plays. In the second example, the author lists the sports in which Jacob has won awards. When
reading that Jacob is "muscular" and "plays sweaty outdoor sports," the reader can see and smell
Jacob being athletic.