Concrete elements such as subject matter, plot, theme, and point of view all help shape a novel or short story. A slightly more ineffable, yet equally important, characteristic of good writing is tone, which can refer to the mood of the author’s language or how the prose makes readers feel.
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What Does Tone Mean in Writing?
Tone typically refers to either the mood implied by an author’s language and word choice, or to the way that the text can make a reader feel. The tone of a piece can run the gamut of emotions. It can also span a wide array of textual styles, from terse to prosaic. Tone is what helps terrify the reader in Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and it helps convey the perspective of an old man in “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost. Furthermore, certain attributes of your writing—including voice, inflection, cadence, mood, and style—are related to tone.
2 Examples of Tone in Literature
To truly understand types of tone, you must experience them on the page. The way an author uses sentence structure, choice of words, and literary devices such as figurative language can all convey the tone of a piece of writing. What follows are contrasting tone examples.
1. Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities
Consider this excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities:
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.
The overall tone in Dickens’ writing style signifies a serious, ornate piece of literature. Dickens favors a level of formality and eschews casual everyday language; this results in a text that has a grand, formal tone befitting its cosmopolitan setting.
2. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
Contrast the prior Dickens passage with this one from Moby Dick:
What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain’t a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about—however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way— either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder- blades, and be content.
Like Dickens, Melville uses rich, evocative language—yet there is something less formal and regal about this text. The first person narration contributes to this, as does the conversational style. Moby Dick has a hardscrabble tone befitting its setting: a whaling boat.
15 Types of Tone You Can Use in Your Writing
Honing your prose style depends on what effect you wish to achieve. What tone do you want to set? What feelings or mood do you want to evoke? What kind of language will best deliver the story you want to tell? Many words can be used to describe an author’s tone. If you’re writing a novel, short story, or poem, you might consider your tone to be one or more of the following:
- 1. Cheerful
- 2. Dry
- 3. Assertive
- 4. Puckish
- 5. Lighthearted
- 6. Facetious
- 7. Regretful
- 8. Humorous
- 9. Pessimistic
- 10. Nostalgic
- 11. Joyful
- 12. Sarcastic
- 13. Persuasive
- 14. Uneasy
- 15. Inspirational
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