Tone
Tone is the expression of the author’s or the speaker’s attitude toward the subject or toward the
audience. More specifically, tone is the method or technique by which the author creates attitude.
Diction, imagery, figurative language, and syntax are used by the author to reveal the attitude of the
author or the speaker. However, the AP exam uses the words “tone” and “attitude” almost
synonymously. So, you need to consider tone and attitude as the same thing—the author’s or speaker’s
feelings about the subject and/or audience.
Review the example: “I did not kill my neighbor’s dog.”
Recognizing tone can be difficult; however, naming the tone is more challenging. But, there is a simple
technique for identifying tones in a passage. As you read, highlight or underline words that seem
important or seem to add to the meaning of the sentence. Amazingly, this simple action often works.
The only problem may be a limited student vocabulary to give specific names to the tone of a passage,
so you may need to expand your “tonecabulary”. Identifying tone is extremely important because
approximately one-third of the AP exam questions refer in some way to tone/attitude.
You know tone—you often use it verbally. The same words may reveal quite different attitudes
depending on their context. For example, take these six simple words: “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Pretend you are studying for a physics test that you must pass! Think of what your verbal tone would be
if you applied this phrase to the following situations:
1. Your mother calls you for the fourth time to take out the garbage. When you answer her with
those six words, your tone might be “exasperated” or “frustrated”.
2. When your kid brother asks you for the fifth time to help him with his homework, your tone
might be “irritated” or perhaps “angry.”
3. Your girl/boyfriend calls you on the phone and asks you to come over because he/she has made
some cookies for you as motivation to study. Your tone might be quite “agreeable,” perhaps
even “enthusiastic.”
As readers, we can’t “hear” the inflection of the speaker’s words, so we must rely on the context of the
passage and other clues of characterization to help us understand. The difficulty, sometimes, is
recognizing the meaning of the tone words in a multiple choice passage or choosing the most
representative, engaging, and creative examples when describing tone in our writing.