What does Tone mean in your Writing?

What does Tone mean in your Writing?

by | 25 Sep 2019 | Writing Skills

What is tone?

Tone is an aspect of writing style that refers to the author’s attitude or approach toward the reader and the subject matter or central theme in the literary work. It is expressed through the author’s writing and is a powerful tool that a capable author can wield to great effect.

To be more precise: Tone in fiction is the attitude of the narrator or viewpoint character toward the theme, story events and other characters. In non-fiction, tone is the author’s attitude and approach toward the subject matter and the reader.

Note that literary tone and literary mood are not the same, although they are closely associated. Tone has to do with the way the author approaches the theme or subject matter, whereas mood is how the writing makes the reader feel.

In The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing (originally published in 2000), Thomas Kane describes it as a “web of feelings stretched throughout the essay”. Kane also says: “Tone … is unavoidable. You imply it in the words you select and in how you arrange them.” In brief, tone is the author’s feelings on their subject as represented by the text.

All writing has a sense of tone, and since tone describes an attitude, adjectives are used to describe tone. The tone of the writing may be formal, informal, serious, humorous, sarcastic, cynical, sincere, melancholy, sad, cheerful, playful, angry and so forth — the whole range of human emotions. Writing’s tone is akin to a speaker’s tone: when we speak, we can say one sentence in a number of ways to produce different meanings; so too for writing. The author’s intentions, emotions, and personal ideas about the theme or subject matter reveal themselves in the tone of their writing.

Consider the following example of tone:

The last stanza of The Road Not Taken, a poem by Robert Frost.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Frost tells us about his past with a ‘sigh’, giving the lines an unhappy, melancholy tone. This tone suggests that the speaker in the poem had to make a difficult choice and is reconciled, even at peace, with the decision he made.

How tone operates in fiction

The tone may remain constant throughout the written piece, or it may at times vary in degree of intensity, or it may perhaps shift entirely at some point, but when the written piece is viewed as a whole, the overall tone should be purposeful and consistent.

While tone can change over the course of the story ‒ since the viewpoint character/narrator grows or their perspective changes, or the plot becomes more complicated or dramatic, etc. ‒ every scene should have a recognisable tone that’s generated by the attitude of the viewpoint character, and that could hold fairly steady for much of the story. A scene that has few tone indicators or that has a mixed tone will either fail to engage readers or leave them confused. The story as a whole, however, should still have an overall tone, a particular feel. Works of fiction, though, can have more than one overriding tone ‒ there may be more than one tone that an author takes toward a work at the same time. For example, a novel can be both humorous and dark, or both sentimental and formal.

In fiction, tone within a chapter, section or scene is created or altered by the way the viewpoint character or narrator interacts with the storyline’s complications/conflicts and other characters, and by the way he/she responds to the events surrounding him/her. Tone can be manipulated by changing what the narrator focuses on and through the narrator’s changing reactions to what is going on in the story as well as by the choice of words used for his/her thoughts, action and dialogue. The tone of a scene, for example, can be affected by manipulation of the sensory elements. The viewpoint character’s perception of and reaction to sensory stimuli helps to create the tone.

The function of tone

Tone determines the lens through which the reader views and comprehends the piece of writing. Tone clues readers into the essence and the purpose of what they’re reading. Authors set the tone of their work to match not only the content of their writing but also to suit the purpose they intend for it to serve. The tone stimulates the reader to read the piece in the manner the author had in mind ‒ as a serious, or light-hearted, or cynical, etc. piece of writing.

In this way, authors make use of tone to demonstrate their attitude toward, or views about, their subject matter, often driving a particular point of view or agenda, such as one sees in social, economic or political commentary. Tone is one of the many methods an author uses to communicate their argument. And, if the author creates a tonal shift in their work, he/she must be mindful that they are doing so. Even a tonal shift should support the argumentative purpose.

Plus, tone lends shape and life to a piece of writing because it creates a mood: it suggests how readers should feel while they are reading it. Authors use tone as a useful tool to shape their readers’ experiences. For instance, if an author wants their readers to feel happy, they will use words and imagery with certain positive connotations to create a bright, cheerful tone.

How is tone conveyed?

Tone is conveyed largely through diction (word choice), syntax (sentence structure and word order), point of view and level of formality, though other writing mechanics, such as punctuation and word styling (e.g. bolding, capitalisation), can help convey it as well. The tone of a piece of writing depends on a confluence of different factors, including:

Diction: the words that the author chooses. A word can have an emotional charge or association that creates a secondary meaning (its connotation), in addition to its dictionary definition (its denotation). In fiction, for example, word choices have to match the character and the moment to create a tone that works in each scene.

Figurative language: is there a lot of metaphor, hyperbole or alliteration? Does the language sound lofty and poetic?

Syntax and ‘sentence sounds’: how words are arranged in a sentence to form its ‘shape’ and how the sentence sounds in readers’ minds when they read it. According to Robert Frost:

In writing, we can’t indicate body language, but we can control how sentences are heard. And it is through our arrangement of words into sentences, one after another, that we can approximate some of the intonations in speech that tells our readers not only information about the world but also how we feel about it, who we are in relationship to it, and who we think our readers are in relationship to us and the message we want to deliver.

Imagery: the pictures that an author creates suggest the tone; descriptive language helps us understand what the author thinks. The descriptive details in the setting, such as colours, time of day, weather, season, sounds and symbols, all suggest feelings, set a tone and create a mood.

The mood: how does the language make you feel, as the reader? This can reveal a lot about the tone of the piece.

Characterisation: tone bestows voice to characters and throws light on their personalities and state of mind, helping readers understand them better. In addition, the various elements of characterisation are a way for the author to send messages, create meaning and set the tone. This is done through the characters’ actions, reactions, thoughts, dialogue, appearance or even what other characters say about them.

Plot: what tone is created by the way the author structures the content and arranges the sequence of events that occur? What feelings are created by the conflict, the climax and the denouement?

Theme: consider the author’s approach and orientation ‒ what attitude comes through in the author’s main point and conclusion?

All these elements work together to determine the tone of a piece of writing. After collecting evidence in all these areas, a reader forms an opinion about the overall attitude or feeling that the author is expressing in these subtle ways.

Final Words

As you examine your own writing, decide whether you are using all the tools available to create a unified tone for the work as a whole and for the various chapters, sections and scenes. The tone (and attitude) used in your writing can be detected and identified by an attentive editor, who can help you figure out how your reader might interpret your writing, and how to refine the tone.

11 Tips for Clear and Concise Writing

11 Tips for Clear and Concise Writing

by | 23 Sep 2019 | Grammar, Writing Skills

This article supplements information provided earlier in the blog ‘Eliminate Clutter and Improve your Writing’. The aim is to improve clarity and comprehension by helping you correct wordiness in your sentences and paragraphs. Concise writing delivers greater impact.

1. Eliminate redundant pairs

When the first word in a pair has roughly the same meaning as the second, choose one. Common examples of redundant pairs include the following: full and complete, each and every, end result, hopes and dreams, whole entire, first and foremost, true and accurate, always and forever, basic and fundamental, worried and concerned, anticipate in advance, joined together.

Example: For each and every toner you purchase, you receive a free ream of paper.

Revision: For every toner you purchase, you receive a free ream of paper. 

2. Delete unnecessary qualifiers

Qualifiers are adverbs that show degrees of moderation. We frequently use qualifiers that aren’t actually necessary to express our meaning (such as ‘actually’ in this sentence). They often fail to add meaning, so avoid them. By deleting unnecessary qualifiers (‘filler words’), you can eliminate one or two words per sentence. It may not seem significant, but filler words quickly add up and bloat your prose.

Common qualifiers include the following: actually, like, really, basically, probably, very, definitely, somewhat, kind of, extremely, practically. 

3. Use the shortest form of the word or phrase

Why say ‘close proximity’ if you mean ‘near’? Why say ‘conceptualisation’ if you mean ‘concept’? Using a longer form of the word can also be a trap for the unwary; you could be using the wrong word, or you may be using the word incorrectly (i.e. in the wrong context).

Many popular phrases can be replaced with single words. These phrases are commonly used in more formal writing, but they detract from, rather than add to, meaning. For example: ‘The reason for’, ‘due to the fact that’, ‘in light of the fact that’, ‘given the fact that’, and ‘considering the fact that’ can be replaced with ‘because’, ‘since’, or ‘why’. 

4. Reduce prepositional phrases

Overuse of prepositional phrases (which begin with words like ‘in’, ’for’, ‘at’, ‘on’, ‘through’, ‘over’, ‘beneath’ and ‘between’ ‒  words that indicate relations between nouns, pronouns, and verbs) can obscure the main subject and action of a sentence. Sometimes prepositional phrases aren’t necessary at all, especially when you use them (instead of an apostrophe + s) to denote possession of an object.

You could eliminate prepositional phrases by using active voice, or by substituting an adverb or a genitive (possessive form) in its place. You could also do so by eliminating nominalisations, or by deleting the prepositional phrase altogether and rephrasing the sentence. For example:

Revise ‘The lawyer responded to the testimony with vehemence’ to ‘The lawyer responded vehemently to the testimony’. 

Revise ‘The violin solo was obviously played by a maestro’ to ‘A maestro obviously played the violin solo’.

5. Use the active voice

In an active sentence, the subject (the person or thing doing the action) comes first. In a passive sentence, the order of the words is inverted ‒ the object (the thing that is receiving the action) appears at the start of the sentence, and the subject appears at the end or isn’t included at all. Starting sentences with the subject makes your writing clearer because it’s immediately obvious who or what the sentence is about. This is not to say that every sentence should start with the subject, but it does make for a more powerful sentence.

The passive voice is not a grammatical error, and it can be useful, but writing in the passive voice often leads to using more words than necessary. The passive voice should only be used in situations where there is no causality or agency (the subject isn’t making things happen or making choices). 

6. Change negatives to affirmatives

Write affirmative sentences because they are usually clearer than negative sentences and require less words. With negative sentences, your readers have to comprehend the important words in the sentence and negate them. Sentences with more than one negative are even harder to understand. 

Example: If you do not have a tertiary qualification in a subject, do not call for an interview for the teaching position.

Revision: Applicants with a tertiary qualification in a subject can call to be interviewed for the teaching position.

You will often have to change certain words when you ‘translate’ a negative sentence.

Example: The politician did not consider the region’s history.

Revision: The politician ignored the region’s history. 

7. Replace vague words with specific ones

Vague or abstract words tend to conceal your meaning. On the other hand, specific words convey your meaning exactly, without ambiguity. Simple language is usually clearer; it is more precise and concise than complex language. Identifying ineffective vague description is a matter of deciding whether your writing contains an appropriate level of detail and specificity to convey meaning precisely to your reader.

Example: The clothes we wore were smart, sort of interesting and seemed different to what we see men wearing here.

Revision: He wore a dark tailored suit and a crisp ivory cotton shirt, with a distinctly European flair. 

8. Avoid overusing expletives at the beginning of sentences

Expletives are phrases of the form it + be-verb or there + be-verb, i.e. phrases or sentences that begin with ‘There are’, ‘There is’, ‘It is’, or ‘It was’. The verb ‘to be’ is also part of many of these uninspired sentences. Such expressions can be rhetorically effective for emphasis in some situations, but overuse or unnecessary use of expletive phrases creates wordy, boring sentences. In this type of sentence, the word ‘it’ or ‘there’ acts as filler for the real subject of the sentence, and the verb is passive. The result is a sentence that doesn’t engage the reader since the subject and verb have no real meaning.

Example: There are five edicts that should be observed.

Revision: Five edicts should be observed. 

9. Keep your sentences to 25-30 words

You should keep sentences short for the same reason you keep paragraphs short: they’re easier to read and understand. It’s almost impossible to keep control of a sentence that’s over about 40 words, and it’s difficult to follow for the reader. When sentences are long, most readers will have to read the sentence at least twice to understand the presented ideas, and they may find it tedious. If you tend to write long sentences, breaking them into two or more will make your thinking clearer and your writing more effective; your readers will appreciate it too.  

10. Only explain one idea at a time

A common mistake that authors make is trying to include too much information in their sentences. For clarity, the sentence should only convey one idea at a time. More than that creates complexity and invites confusion. If you try to discuss too many factors together, they are likely to get confused or at least become confusing for the reader. Then you’ll need more (unnecessary) words to explain them. 

11. Don’t repeat yourself

Redundancy and repetition tend to go together, and both interrupt the flow of your prose, causing your reader to become distracted and annoyed. Write something once; don’t write the same idea several times, a different way each time. Don’t ramble either; stick to the topic on hand. Nor should you use more words than necessary to express an idea (viz. pleonasm) or excessively describe something.

Pay close attention to what your words signify and what tasks they accomplish. Start thinking about the words you use in terms of the function(s) they perform in the sentence. 

Final Thoughts

Concise writing helps you and your readers do more with less and stay focused on the topic. You can communicate your ideas more effectively and keep your readers’ attention longer. Sometimes the easiest way to revise a wordy sentence is to ask yourself “What do I really mean here?” and then write a new sentence; this approach can be more efficient than just tinkering with your existing sentence.

If you need help perfecting your writing, please contact Renell at renellj@proofperfect.co.nz
or M: 029 1230 158.