Today you will be working on TONE. Tone refers to the voice or attitude of the writer. When determining tone, look not at what is stated, but how it is stated. To identify the tone of a piece, think about how the piece made you feel as a reader and what impressions are generated about the author. The author’s choice of language, the persuasive techniques they use, and their arguments will all influence the piece’s overall tone. An writer’s tone may be constant or, in a longer piece, it may change several times.
Begin by watching the following brief explanation of ‘tone’ as it applies to VCE language analysis. You will need headphones:
Work for today:
You will need to read pages 114 to 120 of Using Language to Persuade very carefully and complete the following six questions:
- Question 5.6: this can be completed in pairs, but record your answers individually
- Questions 5.7 a, b: you can write your answers in your exercise book if there doesn’t look like there’s enough room for you to write neatly. Each answer one only needs to be 3 or 4 sentences in length.
- Question 5.8: this one can be completed in either your textbook or exercise book
- Question 5.9: copy out the word and definition in your exercise book. You can draw lines as a draft, but this will become too messy.
- Question 5.10: this one can be completed in either your textbook or exercise book
- Question 5.11 a, b: this one can be completed in either your textbook or exercise book
These six questions need to be completed by next class.
What should be done by now:
Remember that you also need to have the following tasks from last week completed by next class:
- Persuasive Technique Slides: these need to be emailed to me BEFORE next class. Details can be found in previous posts, including technique allocations.
- Homelessness Article Questions: ALL of these questions need to be completed and in your exercise books. You can access them here.
- Wayne LaPierre NRA Speech Table: and example of EVERY technique needs to be recorded. This can be found in the previous post.
If you finish early:
- Complete the NRA Cartoon Questions that are at the end of the previous blog post. Look at the cartoon carefully and work through each question, answering in full sentences.
Homework for next class:
- Complete any unfinished tasks, including the questions from today.
- Be prepared for a test on persuasive techniques next class. You will need to be able to identify the techniques AND spell each technique correctly.
