What is “tone”?

Tone expresses emotion through word choice and sentence structure. An essay’s tone suggests the writer’s emotional involvement in the essay’s subject by projecting anger, enthusiasm, disinterest, outrage, and so on. Tone helps to develop and maintain your assertion throughout your essay and is integral in the writing process. Consider the following examples:

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly delivered a verdict that favored Microsoft’s position in the Justice Department’s anti-trust case.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s verdict amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist for the monopolist Microsoft.

The former example maintains an objective, dispassionate view of a judge’s verdict by presenting only the information in a neutral way. The second example shows displeasure with the verdict by offering an opinion and choosing the word “monopolist” to underscore the writer’s feelings toward the verdict and Microsoft.

Words have both denotative and connotative meanings. The denotative meaning is a neutral dictionary definition while the connotative meaning carries contextual weight and delivers additional emotional associations. Denotatively, “monopolist” is a critique of Microsoft that delivers the writer’s negative position toward the company and the judge’s verdict.

Tone delivers the writer’s attitude about the subject to the reader. Think of tone carefully: what your words suggest to your audience about your attitude is as important as what they mean.

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