tone+in+writing

=http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/tone.htm=

=Tone: A Matter of Attitude=

Your behavior while attending church is different from your behavior while hanging out in the back yard with friends, or at least we hope it is. And part of that difference is the difference in language, a difference not just in the words we use but in what we call //tone//. We also recall being told, when we were very young, not to "use that tone of voice with me, Mister (or Missy, as the case may be)!" Just as the pitch and volume of one's voice carry a difference in tone from street to church, the choice of words and the way we put our sentences together convey a sense of tone in our writing. The tone, in turn, conveys our attitude toward our audience and our subject matter. Are we being frivolous or serious, casual or formal, sweet or stuffy? The choice of a single word can change the tone of a paragraph, even an entire essay. In the first sentence of this paragraph, for example, the phrasal verb "hanging out" is considerably more casual than others we might have chosen: gathering, congregating, assembling.

Audience
One difficulty in writing for a course is that it's hard to think of the reader of our essays as an //audience//. Our instructor might, in fact, be our sole reader, somebody who will pack a pile of papers into a briefcase or backpack and take them home to read on the kitchen table, correcting pen in hand. (Or nowadays, he or she may read them online or take home a stack of floppy discs and read the papers on a computer monitor.) In fact, that person //has to// read those essays, whether they're good or bad; he or she is even paid to do so. This is a very limited audience, indeed, and if we aim our essay at that one individual, we have severely limited its appeal. We would be much better off if we could conceive of our essays as being aimed toward a community of readers, the readership, say, of a small-town or neighborhood newspaper. These readers are interested in what we have to say — curious, in fact — but they're easily distracted; they expect — demand, even — something that is fresh, honest, imaginative, energetic, without being too zany or offbeat. We don't know exactly who is going to pick up this newspaper, so we need to be on our best behavior; our tone must aim toward being friendly and helpful without being overly casual (and never slangy); if we can maintain this tone of slight formality without being stuffy, we've hit it just right.


 * ** informal  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  formal  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** light, humorous, comic  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  serious, grave, decorous  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** personal, subjective  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  objective, impersonal  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** casual, offhanded  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  impassioned  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** "loose," rambunctious  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  reasoned, reasonable  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** zany, experimental  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  controlled, reserved  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * ** plainspoken, simple  ** || [[image:http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/writing/sep.gif align="absMiddle"]] || **  ornate, elaborate  **[[image:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gif/cleardot.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||