HANDOUT TO STUDY
Tone, Diction, and Syntax
TONE: the writer or speaker’s attitude toward the subject,
audience, or events of the text. Word choice (diction), details,
imagery, and sentence structure (syntax) all contribute to
the understanding of tone. So…tone is the result of other
literary choices made by the author. Keep in mind that all
texts have tone. You can’t just say, “The paragraph has
tone.” You have to specify or qualify the tone. “The author’s
angry tone in the third paragraph shows that she has not
forgiven her brother.”
Tone vocabulary:
angry sad sentimental sharp cold
fanciful upset urgent complimentary silly
joking giddy bored poignant sympathetic
proud seductive happy dramatic didactic
understanding pitiful mocking horrified somber
restrained provocative humorous dreamy condescending
sweet irreverent weary afraid apologetic
benevolent vexed shocked childish objective
detached zealous candid sarcastic contemptuous
nostalgic confused hollow mournful ecstatic
Activities:
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for the following words. Be ready to discuss
the attitude or tone implied by each synonym.
laugh old
fat self-confident
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house king
In five minutes, list as many synonyms as you know for the following:
Funny Sad
Happy Angry
DICTION: The connotation or associations of word choice.
Just as with tone, all works have diction. Again, you must
specify or qualify the diction. Instead of “The author’s
diction was interesting, “ say, “Salinger’s slang-filled, often
profane diction in The Catcher in the Rye captures the voice of
its teenage narrator.”
Diction or language vocabulary:
jargon euphemistic poetic vulgar moralistic
pedantic scholarly pretentious slang insipid
sensuous idiomatic informal colloquial formal
precise cultured esoteric picturesque learned
symbolic homespun simple plain connotative
trite obscure emotional literal provincial
obtuse detached bombastic concrete figurative
Examples:
When I told Dad I screwed up on the exam, he blew his top. (Colloquial,
figurative)
I had him on the ropes in the fourth and if one of my short rights had connected,
he’d have gone down for the count. (Jargon)
Activity:
Describe the diction of each of the following sentences:
1. We regret to inform you of the forthcoming foreclosure of your mortgage.
Our previous attempts at communication were heretofore
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unacknowledged.
2. Come back soon, y’all!
3. Beyond the verdant valleys and craggy peaks, a small house was nestled
in a wood along a winding blue river.
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SYNTAX: Sentence structure, including sentence length and
pattern. As with diction and tone, you need to qualify or
specify the syntax. Don’t just say, “The author uses syntax to
show his views of nature.” Better: “The author uses long,
compound-complex sentences to show his overwhelming
love of nature, specifically the forest where he goes nutting.”
Sentence length: short, medium, long, choppy, flowing, fragmented.
Some types of sentence patterns:
a. Declarative: statement The queen is sick.
Imperative: command Stand up.
Interrogative: question Is the queen sick?
Exclamatory: exclamation The queen is dead!
b. Rhetorical question: expects no answer; used to draw attention to an idea.
Sometimes expresses humor or sarcasm.
Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue?
Did you have trouble finding the classroom this morning?
“Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him? / Was it perversity, that I longed to talk
to him?” (D.H. Lawrence, “Snake.”)
c. Simple: one subject and one verb
The queen is sick.
Compound: two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction
(FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) or semicolon.
The queen is sick; her husband remains healthy.
The queen is sick, but her husband remains healthy.
Complex: an independent clause and one or more subordinate or dependent
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clauses.
You said that the queen is sick.
Compound-complex: two or more independent clauses and one or more
subordinate clauses.
You said that the queen is sick; I heard that she’s getting better.
You said that the queen is sick, but I heard that she’s getting better.
More on dependent/subordinate and independent clauses:
Independent Clause
An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete
thought. An independent clause is a sentence.
Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz.
Dependent Clause
A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete
thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent
marker word.
When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz . . . (What happened when he studied? The
thought is incomplete.)
Dependent Marker Word
A dependent marker word is a word added to the beginning of an independent clause that makes it into a
dependent clause.
When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, it was very noisy.
Some common dependent markers are: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, in
order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever, whether, and while.
Source: Purdue Online Writing Lab. "Purdue OWL: Independent and Dependent Clauses." Welcome to the
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). Web. 09 Feb. 2011.
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/598/1/>.
d. Loose: sentence with independent clause first, followed by dependent or
subordinate clauses. It makes sense if brought to a close before the actual
ending
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The queen is sick with a mild stomachache brought on by eating raw oysters.
Periodic: Dependent or subordinate clauses first, followed by independent
clauses. This type makes complete sense only when end of sentence is
reached, and typically the end of the sentence is dramatic.
After eating raw oysters, the queen became ill.
More on loose and periodic sentences:
"Although loose sentences are less dramatic than periodic sentences, they too can be crafted into
rhythmically pleasing structures. John F. Kennedy, for example, began his 1961 inaugural address with a
loose sentence: 'We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end
as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.'"
(Stephen Wilbers, Keys to Great Writing. Writer's Digest Books, 2000)
"A loose sentence makes its major point at the beginning and then adds subordinate phrases and clauses
that develop or modify the point. A loose sentence could end at one or more points before it actually does,
as the periods in brackets illustrate in the following example:
It went up[.], a great ball of fire about a mile in diameter[.], an elemental force freed from
its bonds[.] after being chained for billions of years.
A periodic sentence delays its main idea until the end by presenting modifiers or subordinate ideas first,
thus holding the readers' interest until the end."
(Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu, The Business Writer's Companion. Macmillan,
2007)
Source: Nordquist, Richard. "Loose Sentence - Definition and Examples of Loose Sentences." Grammar and
Composition - Homepage of About Grammar and Composition. Web. 09 Feb. 2011.
<http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/loosenterm.htm>.
e. Natural order: subject precedes predicate.
Oranges grow in California.
Inverted order, inversion, or Yodaspeak: predicate precedes subject.
In California grow oranges.
Confident am I that you will make the right choice, Anakin.
f. Juxtaposition: normally unassociated ideas, words, and phrases placed next
to each other for significant effect, often surprising or witty.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough (Ezra Pound, “In the Station of the Metro)
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g. Balanced: The phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their
likeness in structure, meaning, and/or length. Usually longer.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (The Beatitudes)
h. Parallelism: similar elements are expressed in similar form, often in a list.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue
of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. (Winston Churchill)
i. Repetition: Repeating words or phrases to enhance rhythm and create
emphasis.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth. (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address)
(Syntax portion adapted in part from an anonymous teacher’s adaptation from A
Guide for English Vertical Teams, The College Board.)
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DIDLS: THE TONE ACRONYM
The connotation or associations of word choice.
DICTION Different words for the same thing often suggest
different attitudes toward that thing: consider happy
vs. content vs. ecstatic.
Vivid appeals to reader’s understanding through
+IMAGERY the five senses. The images chosen suggest the
speaker’s attitude. In our classroom, I could choose to
focus on the peculiar odor of teenagers or the
colorful, inspiring posters that fill the walls.
Facts that are included or omitted. If a narrator
+DETAILS witnesses a horrible sight and withholds the gory
details, his attitude would be different than a narrator
who focuses mostly on the gory details. Compare
CNN vs. The Daily Show vs. People magazine
The overall use of language such as formal,
+LANGUAGE colloquial, clinical, or jargon. An ambassador
speaks differently from Holden Caulfield who talks
differently from a doctor who talks differently from a
cop. The type of overall language used tells us
something about the speaker’s attitude.
The sentence order, length, and structure. Long,
+SYNTAX flowing sentences give a different feeling than short,
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choppy ones. If the narrator writes in fragments or
awkward sentences, we might think he is
uneducated. Long flowing sentences might suggest
sophistication or the conventions of a particular time.
These elements combine to create TONE.
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SONNET
Before William Shakespeare’s day, the word sonnet could be applied to any
short lyric poem. In Renaissance Italy and then in Elizabethan England,
the sonnet became a fixed poetic form, consisting of 14 lines,
usually iambic pentameter in English.
Different types of sonnets evolved in the different languages of the poets
writing them, with variations in rhyme scheme and metrical pattern. But
all sonnets have a two-part thematic structure, containing a problem and
solution, question and answer, or proposition and reinterpretation within
their 14 lines and a volta, or turn, between the two parts.
Sonnets share these characteristics:
Fourteen lines: All sonnets have 14 lines, which can be broken
down into four sections called quatrains.
A strict rhyme scheme: The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean
sonnet, for example, is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four
distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).
Written in iambic pentameter: Sonnets are written in iambic
pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of
alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.
A sonnet can be broken into four sections called quatrains. The first three
quatrains contain four lines each and use an alternating rhyme scheme.
The final quatrain consists of just two lines, which both rhyme. Each
quatrain should progress the poem as follows:
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1. First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the
sonnet.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: ABAB
2. Second quatrain: This should develop the sonnet’s
theme.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: CDCD
3. Third quatrain: This should round off the sonnet’s
theme.Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: EFEF
4. Fourth quatrain: This should act as a conclusion to the
sonnet.Number of lines: two; rhyme scheme: GG
Sonnet Form
5. The original form of the sonnet was the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet,
in which 14 lines are arranged in an octet (eight lines)
rhyming ABBA ABBA and a sestet (six lines) rhyming either
CDECDE or CDCDCD.
6. The English or Shakespearean sonnet came later, and, as noted, is
made of three quatrains rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF and a closing
rhymed heroic couplet, GG. The Spenserian sonnet is a variation
developed by Edmund Spenser in which the quatrains are linked by
their rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
7. Since its introduction into English in the 16th century, the 14-line
sonnet form has remained relatively stable, proving itself a flexible
container for all kinds of poetry, long enough that its images and
symbols can carry detail rather than becoming cryptic or abstract,
and short enough to require a distillation of poetic thought.
8. For more extended poetic treatment of a single theme, some poets
have written sonnet cycles, a series of sonnets on related issues often
addressed to a single person. Another form is the sonnet crown, a
sonnet series linked by repeating the last line of one sonnet in the
first line of the next until the circle is closed by using the first line of
the first sonnet as the last line of the last sonnet.
9. The Shakespearean Sonnet
10.The most well-known and important sonnets in the English language
were written by Shakespeare. These sonnets cover such themes as
love, jealousy, beauty, infidelity, the passage of time, and death. The
first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man while the last 28 are
addressed to a woman.
11. The sonnets are constructed with three quatrains (four-line stanzas)
and one couplet (two lines) in the meter of iambic pentameter (like
his plays). By the third couplet, the sonnets usually take a turn, and
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the poet comes to some kind of epiphany or teaches the reader a
lesson of some sort. Of the 154 sonnets Shakespeare wrote, a few
stand out.
12.
A Summer's Day
13. Sonnet 18 is probably the most well known of all of Shakespeare's
sonnets:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, C
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; D
But thy eternal summer shall not fade E
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; F
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; F
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, G
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." G
IAMB
IS A PAIR OF SYLLABLES, WHERE THE FIRST IS UNSTRESSED, AND
THEN THE SECOND IS STRESSED.
EX:
AWAKE = a – WAKE
UNSEEN = un - SEEN
BENEATH = be - NEATH
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
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To understand the iambic pentameter literary definition, we have
to first understand its individual parts.
Iamb: An iamb is a metrical unit that combines an unstressed
syllable, and a stressed (emphasized) syllable.
Iamb examples: a-BOVE, at-TEMPT, in-LOVE.
Penta: Greek word for “five.”
Meter: Rhythm structure that’s used to keep a pace.
Pentameter: A rhythm structure that’s used to keep a pace of five.
Now let’s combine it all together for our iambic pentameter
definition:
Iambic pentameter is a rhythm structure, used most commonly
in poetry, that combines unstressed syllables and stressed
syllables in groups of five. Pentameter is the most famous meter
for iambic poetry, but it’s not the only one — there’s dimeter,
trimeter, tetrameter, etc. William Shakespeare loved using this
iambic meter in his plays and poetry for the flow it created.
Iambic Pentameter Definition Characteristics
Unstressed and stressed syllables
Each line contains five pairs, ten total syllables
Can create a seamless verbal flow
U – UNSTRESSED
/ - STRESSED
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