<p>If there's a "the author's tone of the passage is...." or "the author's perspective is" question, how do you answer that?
Hint: need sth as good as Grammatix......</p>
<p>You can tell tone by diction. There are many ways to describe a scene or situation, but if an author uses sad words, than that creates a sad tone, and likewise, happy words create happy tones.</p>
<p>Scholarly tones have mostly neutral, unextreme words, and are said in a matter-of-fact way.</p>
<p>Regretful or nostalgic tones may describe a past experience with bittersweet and reflective words.</p>
<p>Condescending tones may describe a particular subject with phrases such as "for some reason" and other mocking words/phrases.</p>
<p>Just look at the answer choices and see which one seems right. Like most of critical reading, you kind of have to "get a feel" for it.</p>
<p>For author's perspective, it depends on the particular passage but it's kind of related to tone in that the author's point of view would most likely be described with positive words. It also helps to look for a thesis in the intro paragraph, just be careful that you can distinguish between the author describing an opposing or third-party point of view, and the author describing his own point of view. (i.e. There has been a lot of opposition to guns vs. Guns are bad).</p>
<p>Dunno if that helped.</p>
<p>Thanks skatj!</p>
<p>I must caution you against using the "which one SEEMS right" method. The answer must be in the passage. Therefore, don't skim. Read the passage thoroughly and look for the key words that indicate the tone/attitude/opinion. I know that time is limited for CR but usually most people make the mistake of reading too fast, missing these important key words and relying on their first-hand impression. You may find that your impression can change if you have read something thoroughly.</p>
<p>I just did Barron's Section B passage bout the history of wars. The tone was scholarly so I choose neutral as the tone. But the author it seems was "hopeful n optimistic"!</p>
<p>wow skatj those were great answers, i never knew you could do that...haha</p>
<p>so are there other tones where they are specific...can someone post them if they know</p>
<p>this is a great thread :)</p>