In fiction and narrative essays, tone is the writer’s (or narrator’s) expression of attitude towards a subject and audience. A writer develops tone by words selection, sentence arrangement, and intentional use of details and images. Tone is the emotion growing out of the text used to develop mood (the emotion the author wants the reader to feel), and the stamp of a writer’s (or narrator’s) personality.
Describing Tone
Tone can be identified using words that describe emotions or mental states. For example, words describing a positive tone might be “joyful,” “enthusiastic” or “hopeful.” Words such as “somber,” “bitter” and “scornful” might describe a negative tone. Tone may also be neutral in documents like research papers, in which the purpose is to be “informative” and “questioning” more than present your own feelings.
