LA - Mood and Tone Lesson

 

Mood and Tone

On the SAT, students have to see the whole picture as well as the smaller details. Another common SAT reading question is the one that deals with the tone, attitude, or mood. It is a big picture question. You have to consider the entire passage when answering these types of questions. They are not focused on one small detail.

The tone is the attitude of the writer toward a particular subject or character. The mood is the overall feeling of a piece of writing. Is the passage happy, sad, serious, confident, ominous, etc.? The answer to this question will help you determine the mood of a passage.

People have different attitudes towards different subjects. The way to establish mood and tone is through writing. Words not only carry a literal meaning but a connotative or emotional meaning. It is important to pay attention to words in order to determine mood and tone. It can also be helpful to know what kind of reading passage you have in front of you. The type of writing will lend clues to the tone and mood of a passage.

When you read a passage on the SAT, you should be annotating or reading actively. It is a good idea to underline words that convey the tone, mood, or attitude of the piece. This strategy will help you to eliminate answer choices later on if you already know the general tone of the passage.

Let's look at an example:

The soft pretzel, a lightly tanned delight, is quite distinct from its younger cousin, the hard and darker pretzel. Pretzel historians will tell you that this soft product originated in northern Italy about 600 A.D. A monk used the leftover strips of dough after baking bread by crossing the ends in familiar loops which represented children's arms folded in prayer. It was given to children who had learned their prayers as a little reward, or in Latin, "pretiola." The idea then caught on over the Alps in Austria where the word became corrupted to "brezel," "bretzel," and finally pretzel.

Can you determine the tone of the passage? Is the author trying to be serious? Is there any comic relief? Is the passage strictly informational?

The author uses the term pretzel historian to:

A. cast doubt on the information in the paragraph

B. designate the specific branch of historical research.

C. be sarcastic

D. disclaim responsibility for the information in the passage.

E. introduces a humorous note.

The correct answer is E. Is that what you chose? Why is the phrase pretzel historian humorous? Why is the answer not B? It would seem that using the term "pretzel historian" brings credibility to the passage making B the best choice.

This is where you must look at your context clues. Yes, this passage contains historical information. However, the author refers to the soft pretzel as the "younger cousin" " of the hard pretzel. Immediately, the reader should know that the mood of the passage is more light-hearted, rather than overly serious. Furthermore, is there really any such thing as a pretzel historian? If that is the case, are there potato chip historians and pizza historians?  Probably not. Utilizing this particular term lets us know that the author is trying to inject a humorous note into the passage.

You must look at the entire passage to determine mood and tone. Notice the details in the passage, which will help you come to that conclusion. Mood and tone questions are challenging, but you answer them correctly if you are looking for context clues to help you.

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