Tone & Mood
Tone, Mood & Register In An Essay
Mood is the emotional-intellectual attitude of the author toward the subject. In another words, it is the emotional effect that the text creates for the reader or audience.
In general, the tone of an essay may be described as serious, ironic, formal, informal, angry, funny or any other adjective that appropriately defines the implied attitude of the writer or the speaker.
Diction
|
Tone
|
Mood
|
Used by the writer
|
Created by the writer
|
Resulted in the mind of the reader or
audience |
The writer’s choice of words is called diction The use, the arrangement and the meaning of these words
creates the essay’s tone. |
A mother’s tone with her son might be stern, angry or disapproving if he comes home with a bad report card, and jovial, ecstatic or nonchalant if he comes home with a
great report card. |
The different tones that the mother uses with her son will evoke different feelings in the son, thus creating different moods in the home at the time of the conversation.
The tone in an essay serves the same function. It evokes certain feelings in the reader,establishing the atmosphere or mood of the essay. |
Effect of Diction on Tone
Literary Device |
Effect |
Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration |
An essay that employs a lot of hyperbole may have a tone of sarcasm,
|
Litotes: deliberate understatement |
An essay that uses a lot of understatements may have a mocking tone.
“He isn’t the cleanest person I know” could be used as a means of
indicating that someone is a messy person. |
Positive tone words
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Neutral tone words
|
Negative tone words
|
admiring, adoring, affectionate, appreciative, approving, bemused, benevolent, blithe, calm, casual, celebratory,cheerful, comforting, comic,compassionate,complementary, conciliatory, confident, contented, delightful, earnest, ebullient encouraging, delightful, happy……
|
commanding, direct, impractical, indirect, meditative, objective, questioning, speculative, unambiguous, unconcerned,
understated, ……. |
hostile, impatient, indifferent, derisive, evasive, fearful, bossy, frightened, haughty, hopeless, apprehensive, belligerent, angry, annoyed, conceited, despairing, ……..
|
Positive mood words
|
Negative mood words
|
amused, grateful, determined, confident, cheerful, bouncy, amused, bouncy, enthralled, harmonious, hopeful, joyous, empoered, energetic, dreamy, content, calm, dignified, flirty, grateful, awed, enlightened, enthralled, ecstatic, giddy, contemplative, relaxed, thankful, warm ………
|
aggravated, annoyed, irritated, confused, disappointed, enraged, sick, terrifying, foreboding, crushed, exhausted, grumpy, restless, rejected, tense, violent, worried…………………
|
A term used in stylistics to refer to a variety of language used in specified kinds of social situation: thus a formal register differs from an informal one, usually in vocabulary, pronunciation, and (if written) punctuation.
[From a weather forecast register: depression is a specialized word meaning a system of weather that brings rain.] There is a depression moving in from the Atlantic and we can expect high winds and local storms over the next few days in the north of the country.
http://classroom.synonym.com/identify-tone-essay-1989.html.