Nine Types of Tone in Writing

Your instructor speaks about different tones in writing but you still cannot understand what it really is? In everyday life, you may have noticed that the intonation of the voice changes the meaning of the entire utterance. It inevitably influences the listener. The same can be said about the “intonation” in the written message. It affects the reader and the way the message is perceived. Thus, depending on your attitude towards the subject under consideration, you can choose different word combinations and adjectives. This will shape your writing tone. This way you will reveal your own perspective and attitude towards the facts presented in your writing.

One should remember that the choice of the words can also reflect the attitude of the author toward the readers. How to avoid mistakes choosing the tone? Ask yourself, what is the purpose of your document? Consider those people who will read it: who are they? What kind of influence do you want to make on your audience? Answering these questions you will be able to establish the right tone. It will also help you to write at an appropriate level of difficulty. This is important if you want to make sure your message will be understood.

In this article, our writing services professionals will help you to learn about different tones in writing. You may even decide to develop your own one.

Popular Nine Types of Tone in Writing

In case you are to compose a long paper, you might like to use more than one type of tone in writing. The reason for doing so is simple: your feelings and attitudes change as you focus on different aspects of a certain issue or move from describing one situation to another.

Any attitude, emotion, or perspective can be considered a basis for a particular writing tone. If a writer is willing to come up with an adjective, it can be considered a tone. In other words, if you perceive the tone as something specific, you will be willing to use an infinite number of them.

Of course it seems too complex to start creating your own types of tone. That is why writing tones have been divided into nine main types. Below you will find a short description of each type.

1. Joyful tone. When you choose it, you need to focus on good emotions. When you drink or eat something that you enjoy, you feel happy. When you are overwhelmed with love, you feel happy. Writers apply this writing tone in order to describe the feeling of happiness and joy, and to convey positive experiences of their characters to their readers.
2. Serious tone. Writers create a certain level of suspense in their readers when they use this tone. It helps to increase the audiences’ focus and make people perceive the text with all seriousness.
3. Humorous tone. This tone does more than just making readers laugh. Sometimes, humorous tone is used to make people contemplate about complex subjects in a safe way. Usually writers draw their readers into a particular story with the aim of engaging them with facts or points of view that seem to be important for them.
4. Sad writing tone. People feel sad sometimes. This feeling is inevitable for us. Most often, such moments help to define who you are. This tone in writing helps readers to remain engaged with the story because of the felling of sympathy.
5. Formal tone. It is used in academic writing in most cases. Structural language as well as facts are used in this case. Usually personal opinion is not required in formal writing.
6. Informal tone. The main objective of this tone is to remain informal. This tone can be conversational.
7. Optimistic tone. Despite of all bad things that occur on a daily basis some people tend to stay positive. The above statement can be an example of positive writing tone.
8. Pessimistic tone. All bad things that people experience in their life do not make them think that something will change for the better. This statement is a good example of the discussed tone in writing.
9. Horror tone. It is threatening in its very nature. It addresses all people’s fears and makes them face their scariest thoughts.

Now you know everything about nine writing tones. However, it does not mean that you need to use only them. You are free to create your own tones and develop them. You will describe different characters and situations thus it is literally impossible to use a joyful and optimistic tone only. Remain flexible and feel free to develop different tones in writing.

As for the types of tones in essays, they depend entirely on the instructions for a particular assignment. In case the task involves the presentation of some personal info and facts from one’s life, an informal, loose and relaxed tone may be appropriate. You can use humor and start your paper with a joke or a funny story. You can use sad intonations if you are to compose an essay about a difficult period in your life. Unexpectedly, optimistic notes can be present even in this type of paper as you might want to write something positive in your conclusion. This may be some kind of lesson learned, along with a hope that you will never make this mistake in the future. But most of the time you will compose essays that have a formal writing tone. The reason is simple – students are often asked to research some topic and present facts. Personal opinion and attitude are inappropriate in such assignments.

You should also remember that the book, the narrative or a short story should have its general tone. If you overuse different tones in one writing, the reader may get confused and he/she will simply fail to understand what you want to explain. So, be careful with adjectives and word combinations.

That is why it is crucial to get acquainted with writing tones before you decide to start writing your story or novel. Choosing the right style and tone of writing will make it easier for you to communicate with your potential reader. You will convey everything you want with ease and the reader will feel the connection with the characters.

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