Reading: Recognizing Author's Tone, Purpose & Attitude (Basic): B1 Lesson 2: Recognizing Obvious Tone
CEFR Level: B1 (Intermediate)
Target Reading Sub-skill: Recognizing Author's Tone, Purpose & Attitude (Basic)
Specific Focus: Recognizing Obvious Tone (e.g., happy, sad, funny, angry, serious, excited)
What You Will Learn
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Understand what "author's tone" means (the writer's feeling or attitude).
- Identify common tones such as happy, sad, funny, angry, serious, or excited in a text.
- Recognize how word choice and punctuation can show the author's tone.
Hello Cambodian Learners!
When people speak, their voice can show if they are happy, sad, angry, or joking. Writers do something similar with their words! The feeling or attitude a writer shows in their text is called the tone. Understanding the tone helps you understand the message more completely. For example, a story about a fun day at the Tonlé Sap lake will have a happy tone, while a news report about a problem might have a serious tone.
What is Author's Tone?
The tone of a text is the author's attitude or feeling towards the subject they are writing about or towards the reader. Authors show their tone through:
- Word Choice: Using words with positive or negative feelings (e.g., "wonderful" vs. "terrible").
- Sentence Structure: Short, exclamatory sentences might show excitement. Long, complex sentences might show seriousness.
- Punctuation: Exclamation marks (!) can show excitement or anger.
Let's look at some examples. Click the text samples to hear them.
Example Tones:
Practice Time!
Activity 1: What's the Tone?
Read each short text. Then choose the word that best describes the author's tone.
Quick Quiz!
Great Job!
You're learning to recognize the author's tone! This helps you understand the deeper meaning and feeling behind the words on the page.