Tone and Style
1. “Elements of Fiction: Definition of Style, Tone, and Language.” __Bedford St. Martin’s__. 8 June 2007 < http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/Virtualit/fiction/elements.asp?e=5 >.
This website is focused on providing educational tutorials. When looking at literature, the website defines style as “the language conventions used to construct a story.” Writers can manipulate diction, sentence structure, phrasing and dialogue to achieve the desired style. Some different styles include richly detailed, flowing, sparing, or crisp. Style changes over time so the time period of a text can influence its style. Style and voice combine to create tone. The voice of a text is its communicative effect. What does the narrator sound like? Tone is then “the attitude that a story creates toward its subject matter.” Some examples of tone include earnest and sincere, signaling to the reader that the material is serious, or sarcastic to create humor. Style and tone were important to Transcendentalist writers because they helped convey their ideas across. Thoreau had a somewhat calm and serious tone throughout Walden, signaling his readers to pay attention and consider his ideas. Fuller created a bold style that caught reader’s attention and even shocked them. This website is sponsored by an established educational tutoring company.
3.
“Tone and Style.” The Writing Center @ Del Mar College. 8 June 2007 < http://www.delmar.edu/engl/wrtctr/handouts/ToneStyle.pdf >.
This website appears to be the online version of a university’s writing center. It gives adequate definitions of tone, stating that it is “the expression of the author’s attitude . . . the tone of a story ay communicate the amusement, anger, affection, sorry, or contempt.” Style is equally described: “Style Refers to the individual traits or characteristics of a piece of writing. It’s a writer’s particular way of writing words that readers recognize.” I found the site very helpful in getting a general idea of what tone and style can consist of, at least apart from what I already knew.
3. “tone”. 2004. Buzzin Learning Made Fun. Knowsley City Learning Centres. 16 June 2007. http://www.buzzin.net/english/tone.htm
4. Beard, Carla. "TONE." Tnellen.Com. 16 June 2007 <http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/tone.html>.
The main purpose of this website is to offer definitions of literary terms. The website defines tone as the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or character: serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic, satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective. To analyze texts using the literary term, one should try and find out what the attitude toward the subject is. Understanding this literary term helps better understand the text because one can see that Paine’s attitude is very serious. The website is credible because the author is indicated. The website also has a works cited page to show how the information was compiled.
5. Harris, Robert. “A Glossary of Literary Terms”. virtualsalt.com. January 4, 2002. June 16, 2007. < http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm >
This Website is designed to give definitions for literary terms. Specifically this website gives definitions for ‘tone’ and ‘style’. Tone is defined here as, “the writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic. While both Swift and Pope are satirizing much the same subjects, there is a profound difference in their tone.” Style is defined: “The manner of expression of a particular writer, produced by choice of words, grammatical structures, use of literary devices, and all the possible parts of language use. Some general styles might include scientific, ornate, plain, emotive. Most writers have their own particular styles.” These definitions are helpful because they give a definition to what the reader is experiencing. The author of the webpage has been teaching at the university level for 25 years.
The website is a page created by the Univesity of Maryland University College as a online writing center for its students. Its purpose is to help and guide students in researching and writing various kinds of course assignments. The page is credible because it is a university based website as it is created by university professor and "experts and trained advisors" to help students. The website defines tone and style as the writers expression of his/her attitude. Style is the writer's creative effectiveness in "attitude, language, and mechanics of writing." The page includes a link that provides the definition of tone, which is the "overall expression in writing of a writer’s attitude." By having defined the literary terms, one could apply to the works, poetry, of Walt Whitman and Jones Very. How did both authors achieve effectiveness in portraying to their readers throught tone and style and how did their vision come to light in their writings using tone and style? -D.R.
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