An optional extra lecture on tone, with bonus point opps and essay prep.

1. Tone. ENGL 151L 1
Tone With Bonus
Point Offers (BPO’s)

2. Tone is the writer’s (or photographer’s)
attitude toward the topic
This colorful photo gives the feeling that writing is meditative,
peaceful, recreational, restful. Even easy. A vacation activity: Let
me jot down these thoughts while I have a moment.
This stark image, on the other hand, implies that writing is
intense, gritty, personal, arduous. Pretty hard but maybe
necessary: I have to stop and write this down right now!
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3. Aren’t some scary movies scary right from the start? The
design of the title for Conjuring 2 – background, color,
size and font – set an ominous tone.
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4. The film Deadpool’s spoofy, irreverent attitude toward super
heroes shows in the main character’s body language.
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5. And the tone created by this
interesting image implies a
complex, serious movie about
identity. Notice too the design
choices in the title.
If you haven’t seen this award-
winner yet, what do the design
choices here lead you to expect?
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6. Many choices, starting with the title
and its design, create the mood of a
movie.
TONE TONE TONE
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7. Music and Tone
Music affects tone. Isn’t the sound track essential
to so many epic films? What are your favorite
examples? Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Black
Panther, Fury Road? And going farther back Star
Wars, Rocky, Jaws, The Godfather. We hear a few
notes and feel it again – the power and mood of
the movie.
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8. Spoken
Words and
Tone
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In conversation and performed pieces such as slam
poetry, comedy, and plays, speakers put spin on
their words. They change meaning by emphasizing
certain words in certain ways.
Oh no, you didn’t (just drop and break my phone)
Oh no you didn’t (ruin my birthday party,
somebody else did)
Oh no you didn’t (get me this new phone for my
birthday!!)

9. Tone
breaks
through
language
barriers.
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We can hear tone even in a language we don’t know. I
was in Turkey once being hosted by the aunt of a
Turkish friend, Husneye. I didn’t know much Turkish
yet and Husneye spoke little English. My first day I got
lost in the outdoor market. When we found each
other, Husneye let out a stream of words, tone going
from anxious to ticked off to relieved. I felt pretty sure
she said something like – Where the heck were you?!
Don’t wander off like that again! If I lose you Fatma
will kill me. Well, anyway I found you, let’s go eat.
I responded with a stream of English that she seemed
to understand exactly. We laughed, and in laughter we
were each multilingual.
Do you have a story like this? Email it in for up to 20
Bonus Points. Remind me in the email that what
you’re sending is from a prompt in this tone lecture.
Tone. ENGL 151L

10. But pity the poor writer! They don’t have
design choices, music or even spoken
language with which to create tone.
All they have is the written word
True, a book’s cover can set a tone but you know what they say about covers!
Any anway the writer usually doesn’t create the cover.
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11. So how do we
get tone into
written words?
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1. Figurative language –
Comparisons known as similes and
metaphors.
2. Style choices, especially around
the words chosen, their order, and
the structure of sentences.
3. Descriptions of Settings – the
place and the feel of the time – also
create tone. We’ll cover Setting in a
later week.

12. 1) Figurative language adds a ton to Tone
Figurative language Comment
From the poem “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars”
“I never saw stars. The sky in Brooklyn was a tide of smoke
rolling over us / from the factory across the avenue.”
Smoke in the sky is compared to tides in the sea.
The smoke rolls over people the way water rolls
over sand. Plus the verb “roll” may also make us
think of a steam roller.
The narrative essay “Am I Blue?”
“But then, in our second year at the house,
something happened in Blue’s life. One morning,
looking out the window at the fog that lay like a
ribbon over the meadow, I saw another horse, a
brown one, at the other end of Blue’s field.
Fog “like a ribbon over the meadow” is a
pleasant comparison. Almost as if Blue has
received a gift and opened the package. It’s also
the first simile in the whole essay. As if Walker,
also a poet and no stranger to figurative
language, has saved her poetic powers for this
happy moment.
From The Night Before Christmas
His eyes, how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
I bring in this well know narrative poem as a
contrast to the tone of Neil Gaimon’s St. Nick. A
“nose like a cherry” is cute, playful nose right?
No cute comparisons in Gaiman’s short piece,
only that he’s “older than sin, and his beard
could grow no whiter.”
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13. No Metaphors
Needed!
Looking for an example of a metaphor in “Rat Ode” I
re-read the text of the poem and found no metaphors.
It’s all literal, vivid images. But so much tone! Acevedo
uses body language, volume modulations, and the spin
she puts on words to paint (a metaphor) a wide range
of tones. I wonder if we find many metaphors in her
written work, like her children’s stories. BPO: Take a
look and report back, with 2-3 examples.
Tone. ENGL 151L
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14. 2) Tone is shaped by Style Choices: diction,
syntax and sentence structure
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 The choice of words - Diction
• Casual to formal (or colloquial vs “standard” English)
• Concrete to abstract
• Usual to unusual (or conversational vs poetic)
 The order of the words - Syntax
• Expected to surprising
• Usual to unusual
 The types of sentences – Sentence Structure
• Short to long
• Simple, compound, complex
• Mainly the same to great variety
*Style is covered in more detail in a later lecture. Use it & this lecture if you focus
on style in an essay.
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15. Diction (word choices) creating tone in
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Word Choice Comment
From “Of the Threads that Connect the Stars”
Did you ever see stars? asked my father
with a cackle.
What tone does cackle have compared to
laugh, chuckle, guffaw and other
synonyms for laugh?
…He was not speaking of the heavens,
but the white flash in his head when a fist burst
between his eyes.
Flash & burst are short fast words with
pop. They’re also metaphors: they say a
fist hitting you hard is like an explosion,
like a flash of fireworks “bursting in air.”
From “The Three Questions” “[H]e had it
proclaimed throughout his kingdom…”
For Proclaimed we might say announced
or just said. But the word fits the fairytale
style and creates a formal, serious tone.
From Wilson Portorreal’s Moth story. “All right, so as
a kid I always wanted a dog.”
Kid could have been child or youth. It
creates a casual tone that fits a live, funny
story.

16. Neil Gaiman’s Distinct Diction Choices
The dwarfish natives [instead of little elves!] of
the Arctic caverns [instead of North Pole] did
not speak his language, but conversed in their
own, twittering tongue, conducted
incomprehensible rituals [!!], when they were
not actually working in the factories [making
toys for the tots?].
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17. Style in the ending of
“Of the Threads that Connect the Stars.”
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“My father saw stars. My son sees stars. The earth rolls beneath
our feet. We lurch ahead, and one day we have walked this far.”
This is the last 2 lines and also the last stanza. Espada repeats words and word order, “My
father…” “My son....” He also uses 3 short sentences in a row to create a serious tone.
Almost processional. But here the tone is uplifting. We see that verb roll again. First it was
the tide of smoke rolling over people. Now it is the earth that “rolls beneath [their] feet.”
As it should be. Time passes. Generations heal and “one day we have walked this far.”
Later we’ll study how beat and meter create tone. It’s a whole science – ask MF Doom,
but for now just note that double beat of “this far.” Ta-dum. This beat in poetry is called a
spondee – two stressed syllables. It makes a resounding ending.
Imagine it this way: “We lurch ahead, and one day we have walked quite a long distance.”
Hmm. Not so strong. I also like how “this” can refer to the poet, the son of the father
whose only stars were concussions, writing this tender, hopeful poem.
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18. Style choices creating tone
in “Rat Ode”
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Diction choices: “You birthed a legion,” “You reigned that summer,” “You raise
yourself.” Verbs are key to creating the tone.
Syntax: Acevedo’s diction (word order) is expected and usual. Conversation. Like
she is telling a story, but the other style choices and all the tone her spoken voice
adds make this more poem than story.
Sentence Structure:
Because you are not the admired nightingale.
Because you are not the noble doe.
Because you are not the blackbird.
The first 3 sentences begin with the same set of words, and then the next two
stanzas also start with “Because.” This creates great momentum and intensity.
Try it in an argument lol.
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19. Irony: A common Tone in Literature and Life
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Irony is all around us. It’s
when the words say the
opposite of the meaning,
usually on purpose but . . .

20. … sometimes accidentally
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21. Irony is saying the opposite
of what is meant
Four main types of irony
1. Understatement
2. Sarcasm
3. Hyperbole
4. Dramatic
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This photo of Americans waiting
on a food line during The Great
Depression of the 1930’s makes
an ironic statement. Visually it
says “Highest? Really?”

22. 1. Understatement
“Tis but a scratch” says Monty Python’s ridiculously
tough black knight. Click to view the scene.
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23. 2. Sarcasm – saying
the opposite of what’s meat
Have a nice da-ay
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24. 3. Hyperbole – Exaggerating to create
emphasis (used often in advertising)
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Wow your sofa is totally covered with cat hair!

25. Watch Irony reverse a crowd: Marc Anthony's oration
from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar“ with Marlon Brando
When that the poor have cried, Caesar wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented [Caesar] a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honorable man. [or IS he?]
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
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26. And Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something a character doesn’t,
creating tension and, in comedy, humor. Examples past students sent:
• From Disney: Snow White doesn't know the old woman is the queen in
disguise or that the apple is poisoned. Little Mermaid’s Ariel doesn't know
Ursula is only using her to get to Triton. Eric doesn't know Ariel is a mermaid.
• In X-Men: First Class (the one with Fassbender & McAvoy) most of the
audience knows Charles & Erik end up lifelong enemies.
• Star Wars prequels: The audience knows Anakin will become Darth Vader.
• Flash: The audience knows Flash’s mentor Dr. Harrison Wells is not really
confined to that wheelchair and comes from the future.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, Selina / Catwoman leads Batman into Bane's trap,
only to discover too late that Batman is actually the millionaire Bruce Wayne,
which we haha knew all along. Ironic and dramatic.
If you think of a good new example, send it along for 10 Bonus Points – kgordon@Northampton.edu
Tone. ENGL 151L 26

27. Recent Example of Dramatic Irony
Here’s an example of dramatic irony you may have seen -- “Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self.” Think
how this would be if the future self just told the past self about all that was going to happen with the
pandemic. Instead, she sets up a premise – Can’t tell you because of the, um, butterfly effect. And we’re off.
The past self has no idea, and we know all too much. It sort of puts us IN the piece. We experience it in an
interesting, more dramatic way. We don’t just watch/listen/read a great creative work, anymore than we
just look at and smell a well-made meal. We experience it. Tone is one key way writers bring us in. Here is
the link if the video does not launch.
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28. Questions to help with
a React and Response essay
once you’ve chosen a piece*
• How much is my response to the piece related to its tone?
• What 3 words describe the tone of this piece?
• Does the tone change? Where, how?
• What passage can I point to to show the tone and tone shifts?
• What example of tone-shaping figurative language can I quote?
• Are there any unusual words? What specific words add to the tone? (Discussion of
one word or phrase could be a whole paragraph in your essay. Look especially at
verbs.)
• Which passage really shows off the author’s style choices and how they add to the
tone?
• Does this lecture change my understanding of a piece? How?
• Is there any irony in the piece? What type(s)?
• Do I hear the tone more if I read a passage out loud? What if I try to read it with 2
very different tones? Do I feel the tone more when I read it out loud? Why?
*Any piece assigned (or optional extra) in weeks 1-4 will work.
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29. Bonus Point Offer
up to 25 points
Use what you learned in this lecture to discuss
tone and/or style in a writer you know well and
like. Could be what you like is the plot, the
characters, or the setting. But maybe it has
something to do with the writer’s skill with tone
and style. Look especially at figurative language
(slides 12-13) and diction choices (slides 15-16).
Give examples and a sample paragraph so I can
see what you mean. Email in any time. Extra pts
if this week.
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