English Language Arts
Grade 7
15 min
Compare passages for tone
Compare passages for tone
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1
Introduction & Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Define 'tone' in the context of literary analysis.
Identify key words, phrases, and literary devices that reveal an author's tone.
Analyze the author's purpose and explain its connection to the chosen tone.
Compare and contrast the tones of two different passages on a similar topic.
Explain how different tones impact a reader's understanding and emotional response.
Support their tone analysis with specific textual evidence from passages.
Ever read two different articles about the same event and felt completely different after each one? 🤔 That's often because of the author's tone!
In this lesson, you'll learn how to identify and compare the tone in different passages. Understanding tone helps you grasp the author&#...
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Key Concepts & Vocabulary
TermDefinitionExample
ToneThe author's attitude toward the subject, characters, or audience of their writing. It's how the author 'sounds' to the reader.A passage describing a severe storm with words like 'furious,' 'raging,' and 'destructive' has an intense, negative tone.
Author's PurposeThe main reason an author writes a particular text. Common purposes include to inform, persuade, entertain, or express feelings.An author writing a humorous story about a pet's antics likely has the purpose to entertain, which often leads to a lighthearted or comical tone.
DictionThe author's specific choice of words. Diction is a primary way authors convey tone.Using 'ancient' instead of 'old' can create a more formal...
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Key Rules & Conventions
Analyze Diction and Imagery First
Tone is primarily conveyed through the author's specific word choices (diction) and sensory details (imagery).
When trying to identify tone, pay close attention to adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and descriptive phrases. Do they evoke positive, negative, or neutral feelings? Are they strong or subtle? These words are your strongest clues.
Connect Tone to Author's Purpose
An author's purpose (to inform, persuade, entertain, express) often dictates the tone they will use.
Consider *why* the author is writing. If the purpose is to persuade, the tone might be urgent, passionate, or even critical. If the purpose is to inform, the tone might be objective, formal, or neutral. Understanding the purpose helps confirm your tone analysis....
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Challenging
Read the two passages about a city.
Passage A: I remember the long, lazy afternoons spent by the river, the warm bricks of the old library, and the familiar, friendly faces that greeted you on every corner, a gentle rhythm to a life well-lived.
Passage B: The sirens never stop. Traffic chokes the streets. Anonymous crowds rush past, faces grim. This city demands everything. It gives back nothing.
Which statement provides the most complete synthesis of how diction, syntax, and purpose create the contrasting tones?
A.Author A uses positive diction and long, flowing syntax to create a nostalgic tone, expressing a love for the city's past. Author B uses negative diction and short, abrupt syntax to create a harsh, critical tone, expressing frustration with the city's present.
B.Both authors use the same syntax to inform the reader about the city, but their diction creates different tones of happiness and sadness.
C.Author A's purpose is to persuade people to move to the city using a joyful tone. Author B's purpose is to entertain with a frightening tone created by complex sentences.
D.The tones are different because Author A is writing fiction and Author B is writing non-fiction, which affects their purpose and word choice.
Challenging
Passage A has a formal, objective tone, presenting facts about climate change with scientific terminology. Passage B has an urgent, passionate tone, using emotional appeals and strong verbs to describe the dangers of climate change. If the author of Passage A wanted to make their tone more like Passage B's to persuade readers to act, which change would be MOST effective?
A.Adding more statistics and data charts to the passage.
B.Making the sentences much longer and more complex.
C.Replacing neutral terms like 'temperature increase' with words that have stronger connotations, like 'scorching heatwave.'
D.Removing all figurative language from the passage.
Challenging
A student writes: 'Passage A has a hopeful tone, so its purpose is to entertain. Passage B has a cynical tone, so its purpose is to inform.' What is the fundamental error in the student's reasoning, based on the tutorial?
A.The student has confused the definitions of 'hopeful' and 'cynical.'
B.The student has made a weak or illogical connection between the identified tone and the author's purpose.
C.The student has failed to use specific textual evidence to support their claims about the tone.
D.The student has confused tone with mood.
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