Evaluating Style Page 572

1. Evaluating StylePage 572 CCRS -- W.9-10.4, W.9-10.10, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.5, RL.9-10.9, SL.9-10.1, L.9-10.1, L.9-10.2, L.9-10.3, L.9-10.6 Literary Skills – Understand elements of style, including diction, figurative language, tone, and mood.

2. What Is Style? Style is a writer’s distinctive way of using language. Style can take many forms. Formal/Informal Comical/Serious Plain/Ornate

3. Diction Diction, or word choice, is one of the main elements of style.

4. Figures of Speech Whether a writer prefers to use figurative or literallanguage also affects style.

5. Sentence Patterns Sentence patterns—the ways writers construct sentences—also help create style.

6. Review Compare the style of these two excerpts. Which is more formal?

7. Tone Tone is a writer’s attitude toward a subject, a character, or the audience. Writers convey tone through their choice of words. OR tumbled joyfully rolled around noisily OR majestic sweep of dunes empty waste of sand

8. Tone Plot, Theme, and Tone The plot and theme, or central idea, of a story also may reveal tone. Plot Theme Adversity can be overcome. A man rebuilds his life after a terrible accident. Tone admiring, optimistic

9. Tone You might find the following words helpful in describing tone:

10. Mood Mood is the feeling a story evokes. Writers create mood through • figures of speech • diction tender blooms in soft light rolling hills draped by a shroud of fog stalks etched starkly against an orange sky

11. Mood You might find the following words helpful in describing mood:

12. Imagery – words or phrases that appeal to one or more of our senses – is often used to create mood. Imagery

13. Mood Quick Check What is the mood of the passage? What words and images help create the mood? I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed. . . . high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances: and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it, every passing moment, with new marvels of coloring. from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

14. Mood Quick Check What is the mood of the passage? What words and images help create the mood? I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed. . . . high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances: and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it, every passing moment, with new marvels of coloring. from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain Peaceful, awe-inspiring, majestic

15. Practice Choose one of these topics: tests, friends, school lunches. Then, write about it twice. Write one paragraph in the formal style you would use in a research paper. Write the other in the informal style you would use when talking with friends. Label your paragraphs. (Min. ½ page for each paragraph) P. 574 Quickwrite Read the story on pages 575-578. P. 579 Questions 1-5