Voice and Tone in writing

Voice and Tone in writing Tone

Definition: A writer's attitude toward subject, audience , and self. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction , point of view , syntax , and level of formality. Etymology: From the Latin, "string, a stretching"

Examples and Observations: <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"If <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">persona <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is the complex personality implicit in the writing, tone is a web of feelings stretched throughout an <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">essay <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, feelings from which our sense of the persona emerges. Tone has three main strands: the writer's attitude toward subject, reader, and self.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Tone and Persona

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Each of these determinants of tone is important, and each has many variations. Writers may be angry about a subject or amused by it or discuss it dispassionately. They may treat readers as intellectual inferiors to be lectured (usually a poor tactic) or as friends with whom they are talking. Themselves they may regard very seriously or with an <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">ironic <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> or an amused detachment (to suggest only three of numerous possibilities). Given all these variables, the possibilities of tone are almost endless.  <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Tone, like persona, is unavoidable. You imply it in the words you select and in how you arrange them."  <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Thomas S. Kane, The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford Univ. Press, 1988)

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"The main factor in tone is <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">diction <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, the words that the writer chooses. For one kind of writing, an author may choose one type of <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">vocabulary <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, perhaps <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">slang <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, and for another the same writer may choose an entirely different set of words. . . .  <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Even such small matters as <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">contractions <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> make a difference in tone, the contracted verbs being less formal: <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It is <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> strange that the professor had not assigned any papers for three weeks.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Tone and Diction

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It's strange that the professor hadn't assigned any papers for three weeks."  <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(W. Ross Winterowd, The Contemporary Writer: A Practical Rhetoric, 2nd ed. Harcourt, 1981)

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Sentence Sounds <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Robert Frost believed sentence tones (which he called 'sound of sense') are 'already there--living in the cave of the mouth.' He considered them 'real cave things: they were before words were' (Thompson 191). To write a 'vital sentence,' he believed, 'we must write with the ear on the speaking voice' (Thompson 159). 'The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. Eye readers miss the best part. The sentence sound often says more than the words' (Thompson 113). According to Frost:  <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Only when we are making sentences so shaped [by spoken sentence tones] are we truly writing. A sentence must convey a meaning by tone of voice and it must be the particular meaning the writer intended. The reader must have no choice in the matter. The tone of voice and its meaning must be in black and white on the page. (Thompson 204) <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"In writing, we can't indicate <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">body language <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, but we can control how sentences are heard. And it is through our arrangement of words into sentences, one after another, that we can approximate some of the <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">intonation <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> in speech that tells our readers not only information about the world but also how we feel about it, who we are in relationship to it, and who we think our readers are in relationship to us and the message we want to deliver."

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Dona Hickey, Developing a Written Voice. Mayfield, 1993) (Samuel Butler)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply." (Truman Capote)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"We are not won by <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">arguments <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> that we can analyze but by the tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself."

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">AN INTRODUCTION TO VOICE <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Voice is similar to tone in that it has to do with the audience's perception of your writing. Voice is that peculiar — sometimes very peculiar — quality that allows the audience to read a sentence and know that you wrote it. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In many writing classes, teachers emphasize the importance of "finding your own voice." But you can't simply find a voice; you have to develop one. Peculiarity is the hazard of this development. The more distinctive your writing becomes, the farther from the norms of writing it is likely to be. Yet those norms exist for a reason: if you deviate from them, you risk losing clarity, the real prize of good writers. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I don't want to discourage you from acquiring a distinctive voice. After all, deviations from the norm keep writing interesting — as long as they don't get in the way of the message. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If you are serious about exploring your voice, I have two recommendations. First, read more. Read voraciously, if possible. Reading expands your vocabulary and lets you experience the voices of others. Second, step back from your writing now and again. Ask yourself: Do any of your writing habits interfere with the clarity of your arguments? If so, train yourself to notice any troublesome habits so that you can avoid them. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Voice is a highly personal quality and has no grand set of rules associated with it. Just remember not to sacrifice clarity. Voice is your tool, not your master. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">The Difference between Tone and Voice <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Voice and tone reflect your attitude about your subject and your readers. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Voice <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is who the readers hear talking in your paper, and <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">tone <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is the way in which you are doing the writing. Voice can be institutional or academic—that is, objective and formal. Or voice can be personal—in fact, your distinct voice. You will need to decide whether you want your tone to be informative or affective. Do you want to inform your readers or to persuade them in some way? Your style and attitude toward your subject combine to create your voice and tone. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Your goal in college writing is to understand the material of your discipline and be able to discuss it effectively in writing. Your teachers want facts as well as opinions, and they want to be able to assess, through your writing, how well you synthesize your thinking and learning in the course. Your goal in most academic writing is to convey facts about a subject, integrate opinions based on facts, and synthesize what you have learned as you go along. You will discover, however, that some academic writing is persuasive and that your teachers will expect you to know the language of persuasion as well. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Anything you write should still have your voice: something that makes your writing sound uniquely like you. A personal conversation with a friend differs from a speech given to a large group of strangers. Just as you speak to different people in different ways yet remain yourself, so the tone of your writing can vary with the situation while the voice -- the essential, individual thoughts and expression -- is still your own. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Example: -Miles Davis -Artur Schnabel (1882–1951), German-born U.S. pianist. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">These two musicians expressed the same thought in their own unique voices. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Reference <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">http:/ Grammar.about.com
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Don’t play what’s there; play what’s not there.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides.”