The document discusses the differences between tone and mood in writing. It notes that tone refers to an author's attitude or opinion towards a subject, as conveyed through word choice, while mood refers to the feelings or emotions evoked in the reader. The document provides many examples of tones (e.g. angry, hopeful) and explores how tone and mood are established in both literature and film through devices like diction, music, and imagery. It emphasizes analyzing context clues and rhetorical elements to determine an author's intended tone and the overall mood of a piece.

1. TONE AND MOOD
What’s the Dif?

2. LET’S TAKE A LOOK…SHALL WE?!
 Tone and Mood
 Note the difference between tone and mood
 Tone and mood both deal with emotions
centered around a piece of writing
 Though they seem similar, they are actually
quite different

3. LET’S RECAP! TONE
 Tone: How the author thinks about the
subject. It’s the author’s attitude toward
what they have written.
 Ex. If we were to read a description of a first
date that included words and phrases like
“dreaded” and “my buddies forced me to go
on the date”, we could assume that the
individual didn’t really enjoy the date

4. TONE
 Has anyone ever said to you, "Don't use that
tone of voice with me?"
 Your tone can change the meaning of what
you say.
 Tone can turn a statement like, " You're a big
help!" into a genuine compliment or a cruel
sarcastic remark.
 It depends on the context of the story.

5. WHAT ELEMENTS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF TONE?
 Your opinion concerning a given topic/subject
affects the tone of an essay you write.
 Tone is developed by the language you use in
your writing. (DICTION)
 The audience to whom your essay is intended
to appeal affects its tone. For example, your
tone when speaking to children would be very
different from the tone you use when speaking
to your peers.
 Your use of rhetorical devices can greatly
affect the tone you are presenting to a reader.

6. EXAMPLES?
 Angry
 Annoyed
 Anxious
 Cautious
 Confused
 Disappointed
 Discouraged
 Disgusted
 Frustrated
 Hopeful
 Paranoid
 Passionate
 Proud
 Sarcastic

7. MOOD
 Mood: The atmosphere of a piece of
writing. The effect of the writer’s words on
the reader. How the writer’s words make us
feel (emotions)
 **Be Careful** What the poet has chosen to
express in a particular piece of writing, and
how the poet feels may be two quite different
things!

8. MOVIE MAKING EXAMPLE
 A good way to see mood (and, to a degree, tone) in action is
through genre-crossing movie trailers
 In film editing classes throughout the States, a common
assignment is to take an existing film (say, a comedy) and create
a film preview that presents the film as a different genre (for
example, a horror film).
 This is accomplished though editing and splicing scenes, adding
new, anxiety-producing music and sound effects, and adding a
new voice-over introduction
 How do we identify tone and mood in film? What are we looking
for?
 The tone of a film is largely defined by the main character’s
attitude, which is exemplified by the music, dialogue and lighting
that encompasses each scene in which he appears.

9. MOOD & TONE
 Choose a mood that represents how you felt
based on the plot, characters and morals of
the film.
 Some words that often describe mood are
idealistic, romantic, fantastical, gloomy,
realistic, or pessimistic
 Create the following chart in your notebook:
Movie Clip Title Describe the
tone/overall attitude.
How is it conveyed?
Describe the overall
mood. How is it
conveyed?

10. LET’S TRY THIS ONE…
 Mary Poppins (Re-cut)
 Mary Poppins (original 1964)
 Watch the trailer
 The makers of this clip are attempting to take a
classic movie, and re-cut it in a way that represents
an entirely new genre of film
 They use editing, music, dialogue and sound effects
 They are creating a completely different mood
 How have they relayed tone and established mood?

11. JUST WATCH…
 Frozen 1
 Frozen 2
 Frozen 3
 Dumb and Dumber 2
 Dumb and Dumber 1
 Tangled
 Student-made Minions

12. LITERATURE?
 What about in literature?
 How do we go about figuring out tone and
mood?

13. EXAMPLES IN WRITING
 "Oh! No mortal could support the horror of
that countenance. A mummy again endued
with animation could not be so hideous as
that wretch. I had gazed on him while
unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those
muscles and joints were rendered capable of
motion, it became a thing such as even
Dante could not have conceived." -
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

14. WHAT’S THE TONE?
 The words hideous, wretch, and ugly all set a
frightening tone that suggests possible horror
or fear.

15. CATCHER IN THE RYE
 "Goddamn money. It always ends up making
you blue as hell."
 "Catholics are always trying to find out if
you're Catholic."
 "If a girl looks swell when she meets you,
who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody."
 "People never believe you."
 "All morons hate it when you call them a
moron."

16.  One of the most well known characters in all
of literature, Holden Caulfield, has an
undeniable tone in Catcher in the Rye.
 He is sarcastic, tough, and inquisitive.
 He also makes poignant observations
through his rather biting tone.

17. SALINGER
 Holden tends to speak sarcastically;
however, he is making satirical statements
about the nature of life.
 That is exactly what J.D. Salinger's purpose
was.
 He wanted to write a coming of age narrative
about a boy navigating through life alone and
observing and criticizing the world around
him.
 Through the establishment of Holden's tone,
Salinger does just that.

18. ANOTHER QUOTE
 "Life and death appeared to me ideal
bounds, which I should first break through,
and pour a torrent of light into our dark
world." -Frankenstein

19. TONE?
 Victor speaks these words at the very
beginning of the novel, setting an ominous
mood for the rest of the tale.
 Ominous-gloomy, dark, menacing

20. WHEN DECIDING ON TONE, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:
1. What is the passage’s subject, and who is its
audience?
2. What would you say are the most important words in
the passage? What connotations, or associations, do
these words have?
3. What general feeling do the passage’s images
create?
4. Are there any hints that the narrator/speaker/author
does not really mean everything he or she says?
5. Does the narrator/speaker/author make any jokes? If
so, are these jokes lighthearted, bitter, or something
else?
6. If the narrator/speaker/author were speaking aloud,
what tone of voice would he or she be using?

21. FOR EACH EXAMPLE:
 Identify the tone
 What context clues are used to convey the
tone
 Overall mood of the sentence.

22. YOU TRY
 Bouncing into the room, she lit up the vicinity
with a joyous glow on her face as she told
about her fiancé and their wedding plans.
 Tone: cheerful, celebratory, happy, gleeful
 Context: bouncing, lit up, joyous glow on her
face
 Mood: hopeful-about wedding, joyous for this
girl, touched, sentimental

23. TRY AGAIN!
 She huddled in the corner, clutching her
tattered blanket and shaking convulsively, as
she feverishly searched the room for the
unknown dangers that awaited her.
 Tone: desperate, frantic, frightened,
hopeless, tense, threatening
 Context: huddled, clutching, shaking,
dangers
 Mood: haunting, worried, scared, nightmarish

24. ANOTHER ONE!
 Bursting through the door, the flustered
mother screamed uncontrollably at the
innocent teacher who gave her child an F.
 Tone: angry, annoyed, belligerent,
disrespectful
 Context: bursting, screamed, innocent
 Mood: threatening, aggravated, annoyed,
cold, stressed, enraged, uncomfortable,
vengeful

25. ONE MORE!
 Drawing the attention of his classmates as
well as his teacher, the student dared to
experiment with his professor’s intelligence
by interrogating him about the Bible.
 Tone: conceited, cynical, exhilarated, self-
assured
 Context: dared, intelligence, interrogating
 Mood: anxious, irate, intimidated, nervous,
empowered

26. OK-ONE MORE AGAIN!
 He furtively (sneakily) glanced behind him,
for hear of his imagined pursuers, then
hurriedly walked on, jumping at the slightest
sound even of a leaf crackling under his own
foot.
 Tone: fearful, frantic, frightened,
 Context: furtively, imagined, hurriedly,
jumping, crackling
 Mood: scared, suspenseful

27. ONE MORE….LOL
 Gently smiling, the mother tenderly tucked
the covers up around the child’s neck, and
carefully, quietly, left the room making sure to
leave a comforting ray of light shining
through the opened door should the child
wake.
 Tone: affectionate, calm, tranquil
 Context: gently, tenderly, carefully, quietly
 Mood: peaceful, joyous, touched,
sentimental, relaxed, loving

28. LAST ONE! I PROMISE 
 The laughing wind skipped through the
village, teasing trees until they danced with
anger and cajoling the grass into fighting
itself, blade slapping blade, as the silly dog
with golf ball eyes and flopping, slobbery
tongue bounded across the lawn.
 Tone: excited, happy, bemused
 Context: laughing, skipped, teasing, silly
 Mood: cheerful, light-hearted, playful