Compare passages for tone
key notes:
Tone is the attitude that is expressed in a text. A writer’s tone can communicate a range of feelings, such as excitement, humour, doubt or respect.
Tone is revealed through the language that a writer uses in a text. For example, is the information presented through direct statements or through figurative language? Is the topic described through positive words and phrases or through negative ones? These types of text features can help express different tones.
- I shivered as I watched the bitter wind whip through the grey, sickly trees outside.
- Words like ‘bitter’, ‘grey’ and ‘sickly’ create a mournful, depressed tone.
- With a triumphant fist in the air, the runner dashed across the finish line to victory.
- Words like ‘triumphant’, ‘dashed’ and ‘victory’ create an upbeat, energetic tone.
Learn with an example
✈️ Select the passage that has a more sympathetic tone.
I think he might have gotten away altogether if he had not, unfortunately, run into a net and gotten caught by the large buttons on his jacket. Peter’s sobs were thankfully overheard by some friendly sparrows, who helped him wriggle out just in time, leaving his jacket behind him.
The Saw-Horse dashed away so suddenly that Tip had to gasp for breath and hold on firmly. Several girls were knocked over by the Sawhorse’s mad rush. Others ran screaming out of the way, and only one or two jabbed their knitting needles frantically at the escaping prisoners.
Adapted from Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz
- The first passage is more sympathetic in tone. It uses words and phrases like might have gotten away, unfortunately, friendly sparrows and just in time to show a compassionate attitude. The other passage uses phrases like dashed away, gasp for breath and mad rush, and words like screaming and frantically to convey a jittery, anxious tone.
✈️ Select the passage that has a more praising tone.
Charlotte and Noah burst into a hearty laugh; after that, they both looked scornfully at poor Oliver Twist. He sat shivering on the box in the coldest corner of the room and ate the stale pieces of bread which had been kept specially for him.
Their children had more modern minds and good manners. Their faces were rather pretty, their spirits extremely good, their manner unembarrassed and pleasant. They were well-loved at home, and favorites everywhere they went. Anne always thought of them as some of the happiest creatures she knew.
Adapted from Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist and Jane Austen, Persuasion
- The second passage is more praising in tone. It describes the characters as having good manners and being favourites everywhere they went to suggest an admiring tone. The other passage describes the characters’ cruel laughter and uses phrases like shivering, coldest corner and stale pieces of bread to create a sympathetic tone towards the character Oliver.
✈️ Select the passage that has a more hopeless tone.
For two years she had worked earnestly and faithfully, making many mistakes and learning from them. She had been rewarded. She had taught her students something, but she felt that they had taught her much more—lessons of tenderness, self-control, and innocent wisdom.
This was what would happen: when she was older, she would be expected to labour in the schoolroom as she laboured now in various parts of the house. That was all there seemed to be to look forward to.
Adapted from Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea and Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
- The second passage is more hopeless in tone. It uses words and phrases like expected to, labor and that was all there seemed to be to look forward to suggest a tone of despair. The other passage uses words like earnestly, faithfully, and rewarded to convey a positive and satisfied tone.
Let’s practice!
Select the passage that has a more sympathetic tone.
I think he might have gotten away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a net and gotten caught by the large buttons on his jacket. Peter’s sobs were thankfully overheard by some friendly sparrows, who helped him wriggle out just in time, leaving his jacket behind him.
The Saw-Horse dashed away so suddenly that Tip had to gasp for breath and hold on firmly. Several girls were knocked over by the Saw-Horse’s mad rush. Others ran screaming out of the way, and only one or two jabbed their knitting-needles frantically at the escaping prisoners.
Adapted from Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz