Welcome to this topic on

Tone and Attitude

Neutral Tone and Definite Opinion
• An author’s information about a topic can have a neutral tone but still have a
distinct opinion on ideas on which one is correct and incorrect.

• Whereas science passages frequently contain the "old idea vs. new idea"
structure.

 In the old idea or theory the author first discusses a prevailing theory that
is a negative attitude.

 In the new theory certain points turn around and describe the new theory
and describes the new theory which is a positive attitude.
 Example
The so-called machine-learning approach . . . Links several powerful software
techniques that make it possible for the robot to learn new tasks rapidly with relatively
small amount of training. The new approach includes a powerful artificial intelligence
technique known as "deep learning," which has previously been used to achieve major
advances in both computer vision and speech recognition. Now the researchers have
found that it can also be used to improve the actions of robots working in the physical
world on tasks that require both machine vision and touch .
Solution:
• The author's tone is relatively restrained, because he neither says that this technology
is extraordinary nor does he say it is important.

• The tone can be characterized as appreciative or approving.

 Inferring Attitude
• The attitude questions require the opposite of the approach -Focus on what the author
is saying rather than how the author is saying it.

• In some questions we have to infer on what the author has discussed in the passage
would be likely to think about a particular idea or group of people.

The Author Always Cares

The tone of passages shall virtually never be indifferent, uninterested, or
resigned.
 Example
Sometime near the end of the Pleistocene, a band of people left northeastern Asia, crossed
the Bering land bridge when the sea level was low, entered Alaska and became the first
3 Americans.Since the 1930s, archaeologists have thought these people were members of the
Clovis culture.First discovered in New Mexico in the 1930s, the Clovis culture is known for its
distinct stone tools, primarily fluted projectile points. For decades, Clovis artifacts were the
6 oldest known in the New World, dating to 13,000 years ago. But in recent years, researchers
have found more and more evidence that people were living in North and South America
before the Clovis.
9 The most recently confirmed evidence comes Washington. During a dig conducted from 1977
to 1979, researchers uncovered a bone projectile point stuck in a mastodon rib. Since then,
the age of the find has been debated, but recently anthropologist Michael Waters and his
12 colleagues announced a new radiocarbon date for the rib: 13,800 years ago, making it 800
years older than the oldest Clovis artifact.
 Example
The "researchers" (line 6) would most likely view advocates of the theory described in lines 2-4
with:

A) admiration because they offer a novel perspective.

B ) skepticism because they do not acknowledge important new evidence .
C) hostility because they threaten to overturn decades of research .
D) suspicion because their methods are unreliable .

Solution:
Option B - because someone who believed that the Clovis were the first people in the North
America would be overlooking the evidence described in the second paragraph(9-13).
Simplifying Answers and Playing Positive/Negative

• Question such as ‘identify how the use of specific words or phrases

contributes to the tone’ can be asked.

• Therefore, the question may appear to be very complicated but

answers can be simplified.
Example
 Example

What main effect do the author's statements about the sharing economy in lines 35-40
have on the tone of the passage?

A) They create an emphatic tone, conveying the strength of the author's convictions.
B) They create a resigned tone, focusing on the inevitability of economic change.
C) They create a celebratory tone, praising regulators for adapting.
D) They create a mournful tone, focusing on the destruction of traditional lifestyles.
Example
 Example

Indicates that the author thinks that the sharing economy is a pretty great thing.
 Example
What main effect do the author's statements about the sharing economy in lines 35-40
have on the tone of the passage?

A) They create an emphatic tone, conveying the strength of the author's convictions.
B) They create a resigned tone, focusing on the inevitability of economic change.
C) They create a celebratory tone, praising regulators for adapting.
D) They create a mournful tone, focusing on the destruction of traditional lifestyles.

Solution:

Option A- Because the word emphatic is more neutral.

Register: Formal vs. Informal

Register means differentiating whether the writing is formal or

informal.
Example
Example
Solution:
• The first passage is a very formal piece of
writing.

• It contains extremely long sentences with

multiple clauses, sophisticated, abstract
vocabulary and Phrasing, and is filled with
metaphorical language.

• The tone is elevated or lofty and can be

characterized as personal because Webster
uses the first person ‘I’ throughout the
passage.
Example
Solution:
• The second passage is Informal piece of writing.

• The sentences are shorter and employ a much more

casual or colloquial level of vocabulary.

• It contains references to popular culture and the

author frequently addresses the reader directly.

• It includes several humorous quotations, including

one at the beginning and a rhetorical question.
Certainty and Uncertainty
Writing that is emphatic, decisive, passionate , resolute or of conviction tends to have some
pronounced characteristics:

• It contains short, blunt declarations (e.g. There is no compelling proof that it's true).

• It contains strong words and phrases such as there is no doubt, certainly, only, and most.

• It lacks qualifying words or phrases such as sometimes, frequently, or might that would
soften its meaning.

• It contains rhetorical questions which indicates a lack of certainty.

 Example
A better understanding of archaea's lifestyle and role in nitrogen cycles not only
would rewrite ecology textbooks. It could also have practical applications, such as
devising natural ways to boost a soil's nitrogen content without needing to use
chemical fertilizers, or designing sewage treatment plants that employ microbes to
remove nitrogenous waste more efficiently, or understanding which microbes
produce global-warming gases such as nitrous oxide .

Solution:
The word ‘could’ indicates that the author is speculating about the potential applications of
knowledge regarding archaea's lifestyle and role in nitrogen cycles - that is, knowledge and
applications that do not currently exist but that might exist in the future.
mining Both Sides of an Argument and Ambivale

Argument ≠ Ambivalence

The author often acknowledge the merits of arguments that they do not ultimately
agree with. however, it does not mean that the author are uncertain about their own
opinions.
Tips:
• First identify and distinguishing between what "they say" vs. "I say.“

• If confused, refer the conclusion because it is where the author is most likely to
reaffirm the main point.
Example
Solution: Example
Note:
‘They say’ • There is no relationship between how much time an author
spends discussing an idea and whether the author agrees
with that idea.

‘I say’.
Humor, Sarcasm, and Irony
• In humor, the passages are not laugh-out-loud type of humor
instead it is based on the wordplay that either involves punning on
alternate meanings of words, or using words to mean exactly the
opposite of what they normally mean.

• Authors often uses humor to express negative attitudes especially

to criticize what ‘they’ say. This type of humor appears as part of
the "I say’ without being direct or heavy handed.
 Example

The ethics of eating red meat have been grilled recently by

critics who question its consequences for environmental health
and animal welfare. But if you want to minimize animal suffering
and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a
vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.
 Example
The ethics of eating red meat have been grilled recently by
critics who question its consequences for environmental health
and animal welfare. But if you want to minimize animal suffering
and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a
vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.

Solution:
• The author puns on the word ‘grilled’ by using it in its second meaning while simultaneously associating it
with its first meaning ("cooking food on a grill"). So, the author uses the word play creating a humorous or
irreverent tone.

• The author mocks the critics and the author’s tone could also be called ironic, facetious, wry, sardonic, or
satirical.
Wistfulness, Nostalgia and Defensiveness

• A passage with wistfulness and nostalgia can be clearly identified

when the author expresses his or her past and regrets.

• The Defensive tone indicates that an author feels that he or she

is being unfairly criticized or accused, and feels the need to
defend or justify a belief or action.
 Example
No image brings a tear to the eye of even the crustiest ink-on-paper
romantic like a yellowing photograph of the city room of a deceased
newspaper. The Journal-American was once New York City’s most widely
read afternoon newspaper-yes, afternoon paper, a once-grand tradition of
American journalism that has gone the way of the Linotype machine, the
gluepot and the spike onto which editors would stick stories they deemed
un worthy of publication .
 Example
No image brings a tear to the eye of even the crustiest ink-on-paper
romantic like a yellowing photograph of the city room of a deceased
newspaper. The Journal-American was once New York City’s most widely
read afternoon newspaper-yes, afternoon paper, a once-grand tradition of
American journalism that has gone the way of the Linotype machine, the
gluepot and the spike onto which editors would stick stories they deemed
un worthy of publication .

The author’s tone is decidedly wistful or nostalgic

 Example
My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for
over eleven years . . . Now I know my being a carer so long isn't necessarily
because they think I'm fantastic at what I do . . .So, I'm not trying to boast.
But then I do know for a fact they've been pleased with my work, and by
and large, I have too. Anyway , I'm not making any big claims for myself. I
know carers, working now, who are just as good and don't get half the
credit. If you're one of them, I can understand how you might get resentful.
But I'm not the first to be allowed to pick and choose, and I doubt if I'll be
the last. And anyway, I've done my share of looking after donors brought
up in every kind of place. By the time I finish, remember, I'll have done
twelve years of this, and it's only for the last six they've let me choose.
 Example
My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for
over eleven years . . . Now I know my being a carer so long isn't necessarily
because they think I'm fantastic at what I do . . .So, I'm not trying to boast.
But then I do know for a fact they've been pleased with my work, and by and
large, I have too. Anyway , I'm not making any big claims for myself. I know
carers, working now, who are just as good and don't get half the credit. If
you're one of them, I can understand how you might get resentful. But I'm not
the first to be allowed to pick and choose, and I doubt if I'll be the last. And
anyway, I've done my share of looking after donors brought up in every kind
of place. By the time I finish, remember, I'll have done twelve years of this,
and it's only for the last six they've let me choose.
 Thinking and Teaching
Passages with reflective or pensive tone.

I think I believe It seems to me

Didactic tone – It is associated with the second person point of view, in

which the narrator addresses the reader or another character directly in
order to instruct them.
Example
Example
A strategy intended to
establish a connection
between the author
and the reader.
Example
Example
Indicates that
Holmes is
instructing Hopkins