Speaker 1: Writers maintain a consistent tone. Let's practice making sure that every sentence in our text shows the same attitude towards our subject. Make sure you have your LearnZillian practice sheet in front of you, because you'll need it throughout this lesson. Let's review. A tone is a writer's attitude towards his or her subject. Tone can be positive, neutral, or negative. A positive tone means that an author has an overall good feeling about his or her subject. A neutral tone means the author feels neither good nor bad towards his or her subject. And a negative tone means that the author has an overall bad feeling towards his or her subject. Let's look at some examples. Let's say a student was asked to write a paragraph about poison dart frogs. If she has a positive attitude towards poison dart frogs, her topic sentence might sound like this. Poison dart frogs are fascinating, brightly colored animals with many incredible features. Words like fascinating, brightly colored, and incredible all have positive connotations, so this sentence has an overall positive tone. You can tell that the author has a good feeling about the topic. A neutral topic sentence might sound like this. Poison dart frogs are colorful and have many uncommon features. This has a neutral tone because we don't know whether the author has an overall good or bad feeling towards poison dart frogs. The words colorful and uncommon are neither positive nor negative, and they don't tell us much about the author's attitude towards her subject. Finally, a negative topic sentence. Poison dart frogs are weird animals with unnatural, creepy coloring. The words weird, unnatural, and creepy all have negative connotations. And they tell us that the author isn't crazy about poison dart frogs. When deciding which tone you want to use in your writing, consider your purpose. If you are writing to inform or explain, your writing should maintain a neutral tone because you are simply giving facts. You're not trying to persuade your audience of anything or give opinions. If you're writing to persuade, however, then you probably want to use a positive or negative tone because you are giving an opinion, and you want your audience to share that opinion. Let's do a quick practice. Read the sentences on the left, and then draw a line from each sentence to the tone that best describes it. Pause the video while you work, and press play to continue. Are you ready to check your answers? You should have found that sentence 1 has a neutral tone. The words it uses are not really positive or negative. It doesn't give an opinion, just states a fact about summer. The tone in sentence 2 is negative, because the words sweating disgustingly imply that I don't really think summer is all that great. And sentence 3 has a positive tone. My reader would guess that I think pretty highly about summer, since I've listed the fun activities I like to do then. Here's a draft of an informational paragraph about the history of Earth Day. The tone of this text should be neutral, because my purpose is simply to inform. Take a moment to read the paragraph. Press pause to read, and press play when you're finished. You probably noticed that some sentences in my text have a positive or negative tone. So let's talk about how to fix this problem. When you're revising your writing for tone, there are three simple steps you can take to make sure that you've used the same tone throughout your writing. First, you should ask yourself, what is my attitude towards my subject? In other words, do I want to use a positive, negative, or neutral tone? Once you know what tone you're going for, you should re-read each sentence and ask yourself, Do the words I use convey this attitude to my reader? Finally, you should revise or take out sentences that have a different tone than the one you want, so that each sentence has the same tone. So let's start with step 1. What is my attitude toward my subjects? Is it positive, neutral, or negative? Well, since my purpose for writing is to inform my reader about the history of Earth Day, I should try to maintain a neutral tone. If I were writing a persuasive piece, I would probably choose a positive or negative tone, depending on what I'm trying to persuade my audience of. Okay, on to step 2. I should re-read each sentence and ask myself, Do the words I use convey this neutral attitude to my reader? Let's look at the first three sentences. See if you can pick out the sentence that does not have a neutral tone. Pause the video and underline the sentence that doesn't have a neutral tone. Press play when you're ready to continue. You should have underlined the third sentence. Nelson was a really cool guy. This sentence has a positive tone. It offers my opinion about Nelson, not a fact. And the fact that I said he was cool tells my reader that I have a positive attitude toward him. The first two sentences have a neutral tone because the words I've used aren't mostly positive or negative. They simply give information about Nelson. So now that I've identified the problem, let's fix it. Remember, to fix it, I should either revise or take out sentences that have a different tone than the one I want. This last sentence doesn't give any crucial information to my reader, so I think I'll just take it out. Now let's look at my next two sentences. As I read, see if you can tell which one does not have a neutral tone. He knew that issues like deforestation and pollution were threatening trees and wildlife across the globe. Yet he was frustrated by people working in government who didn't act to make things better. Even though he was worried about government inaction, it took him way too many years to do anything about it. Okay, my first sentence seems okay. I'm continuing to give information about my topic, and I haven't said anything that would make my reader think I have a good or bad feeling about Nelson. However, I notice a problem here in the second sentence. It looks like I've accidentally given my own opinion here, that I think he should have worked faster. This sentence has a negative tone. I'm going to revise it so that it has a neutral tone. Which of these revised sentences has a neutral tone? Pause the video and put a check mark next to the sentence that maintains the neutral tone I've used in the rest of the paragraph. Press play when you're ready to move on. You should have found that sentence A has a neutral tone. It just gives the facts. In sentence B, the words luckily and heroic imply that I have a positive attitude about Nelson. Alright, we're almost finished. Let's look at the last three sentences. Again, as I read them aloud, see if you can pick out the sentence that has a positive or negative tone. After meeting with the President and speaking to audiences around the country, he had the idea to set aside a day each spring for people to recognize how important it is to keep our planet healthy. On April 22, 1971, his dream became reality when Earth Day was officially recognized as a holiday around the world. We should educate people about how to treat the environment, and Earth Day is a great way to do that. What do you think? If you said that it was my third sentence that doesn't have a neutral tone, you're correct. The first two sentences in this section have a neutral tone, because they're simply stating facts about Earth Day's start and Nelson's work. But this last sentence has a positive tone. Remember, I'm not trying to persuade my audience of anything. This last sentence, however, seems more like I am trying to persuade them that people should be educated about the environment. Also, I've used the word great to talk about Earth Day, which implies that I think it's a good thing. Now, that may be true, but remember, I need to keep my tone neutral throughout the entire paragraph, even the conclusion. So let's do the same type of practice we did on the last slide. Which of these two sentences would be best to replace my conclusion sentence? In other words, which of these sentences has a neutral tone? Pause the video and put a checkmark next to the revised sentence that has a neutral tone. Then press play. You should have selected sentence B, because it concludes the paragraph without giving an opinion. Sentence A does give an opinion, so it has a positive tone. And now we're finished. Take a moment to read our revised drafts. Notice how we've maintained a neutral tone throughout the entire paragraph. Pause the video while you read, and press play to continue. Now it's your turn. Read this draft and revise it using what you've learned in this lesson. Pause the video while you work, and press play to continue. Now edit your own writing. Make sure that each sentence in your text conveys the same attitude towards your subjects. Now you know that writers maintain a consistent tone throughout a written piece. This will make your writing much clearer.