Author's Craft, Style, and Tone
What This Domain Tests
These questions ask how a writer achieves effects: through diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and tone. You are often asked why the author made a particular choice.
Concepts to Master
- Diction. Word choice and connotation - the associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning.
- Syntax. Sentence length and structure. Short sentences quicken pace or create tension; long, complex sentences slow the reader and build reflection.
- Imagery. Sensory language that creates pictures and mood.
- Tone and mood. Tone is the writer's attitude; mood is the feeling created in the reader.
- Structure and pacing. Order of events, flashback, foreshadowing, and repetition.
Traps to Watch
- Confusing tone with mood. Tone belongs to the writer; mood belongs to the reader's experience.
- Choosing a tone word that is too strong. Furious is rarely right where frustrated fits.
- Ignoring connotation. Slender and scrawny denote similar shapes but carry different attitudes.
- Assuming a device is always positive. Repetition may emphasize or may suggest entrapment.
Worked Example
A passage describes a room as "cramped, dim, and thick with the smell of old paper." Question: "What is the tone?" The connotation of cramped and thick is oppressive, so the answer is something like confining or uneasy - not cheerful and not horrified. Rule of thumb: underline the three or four most charged words, then choose the tone word that matches all of them.
Strategy
Ask "why did the author choose this word or this sentence length here?" Effect questions almost always reward an answer linking a technique to a purpose.