Tone, or an author’s attitude toward his or her subject, is an important element of communication. Scientific texts are expected to be objective, while memoirs, opinion pieces, persuasive essays and the like may employ a wide range of tones, from deeply emotional to reflective to dispassionate.
Excelling on the SAT’s evidence-based reading and writing portion, as well as on the essay, requires that test-takers recognize the ways in which tone can affect a passage.
— Is vocabulary important for interpreting tone? The redesigned SAT will emphasize vocabulary to a lesser degree than the prior exam. However, vocabulary mastery is still crucial to interpreting tone.
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Consider these two sentences: “Building a museum here is a mistake” and “Building a museum here is a travesty.”
Both sentences indicate that the speaker believes the museum’s location is a poor choice. But “mistake” has little emotional impact. It could reference a location too far from public transportation or a location too close to a competing attraction.
“Travesty,” on the other hand, indicates that the museum’s placement is so awful that it seems like a mockery. Cutting down a grove of ancient trees to build a nature museum would be a travesty.
In a multiple-choice portion that includes these sentences, you might be asked to identify a phrase that indicates disdain for the location. The sentence that includes “travesty” would be an excellent candidate because both words refer to strong, negative emotion.
Alternatively, you might be asked to modify the wording of a sentence to better reflect the tone of the overall passage. If the rest of the passage dryly cites facts, the sentence with “mistake” would be a better fit than the one with “travesty.”
On the SAT essay section, identify charged words like “travesty” to explain the use of emotion in supporting a persuasive argument. What are the words, their connotations and the context in which they are used? What emotions is the author attempting to evoke in the reader?
Consider this sentence from an official sample SAT essay prompt: “Ecological light pollution is like the bulldozer of the night, wrecking habitat and disrupting ecosystems … .” You could “demolish” a structure to create room for a new building or park, but there is no upside to “wrecking” something.
With this word choice, the author is not just clarifying his position but also trying to harness the reader ‘s expected revulsion for senseless destruction — his tone is one of disgust.
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— Can a passage lack tone? Consider this official sample SAT essay prompt in which the author Dana Gioia discusses the importance of literature to an engaged and informed citizenry. Can you locate any words with strong emotional connotations?
There are very few. If tone involves emotion, is this passage toneless? In short, no.
Rather than an appeal to feelings, the author is focusing on reason. Note, for instance, the dispassionate language Gioia uses to discuss deeply important topics like the nature of citizenship and the importance of creativity in business leadership.
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If this passage appeared in the multiple-choice section of the reading portion, you might be expected to note that the tone is objective, meaning that the author is laying out cause and effect while citing evidence to support his statements.
Sometimes, lack of explicit emotion can also indicate a tone of indifference — the author simply does not care about the events being discussed. The key indicator for indifference is that events are examined, but the author seems to take no particular position toward them.
In this essay prompt, Gioia is clear about the negative consequences of a citizenry that is not engaged in politics and a workforce lacking creativity. He is not indifferent.
— Is tone always obvious? The most difficult passages to analyze are those that lack both strong language and fact-based objectivity. This sentence from Chapter 11 of ” All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is a perfect example: “Trenches, hospitals, the common grave — there are no other possibilities.”
The context is an account of the horrors of trench warfare during World War I. Instead of using words like “agony,” “atrocity” and “fear,” Remarque gives a plain list.
In this case, the emotions are implicit and more powerful for being unspoken. They are too strong to name. While the tone is not necessarily surface-level, it still exists.
As you approach the redesigned SAT, remember to look for strong words that can indicate tone. When they are absent, look for the reason. Focus on how the authors are using tone to communicate and you’re likely to get the right takeaways from the passage.
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Learn to Identify Tone for SAT Reading, Writing Success originally appeared on usnews.com
