Most common tones of passages

[gintriag]

Hi guys,

I have become very active on this forum because I think is amazing. The new topic of the day is "Most common tones of passages". I've been thinking that if I have a list of tones in my mind while reading, it would be more easy to determine the tone of the passages and as a suggestion, you should include this list on the RC Bible.

During the last days, I've gathered the most common tones I've encountered:

- Impression
- Disappproving
- Explanatory
- Concern
- Adulatory
- Pessimistic
- Optimistic
- Skeptical
- Sympathy
- Confident
- Sarcastic
- Critical
- Analytical
- Neutral

If you guys can delve a little bit on this or add other common tones would be awesome.

Thanks,

[Jonathan Evans]

Gintriag,

Great work brainstorming out some common tones you encounter on RC passages. Rather than creating an exhaustive list of possibilities, you should try to organize these concepts into a broader spectrum that will help you to make accurate judgments about the range of attitudes or styles that you encounter in passages.

In a basic sense, you can judge a passage on a metric of how positive or negative the author is disposed toward the subject.

Identify the topic or concept central to the main point of the passage (e.g. deconstructionist school of philosophy, proponents of prison reform, mating habits of wombats). Then ask yourself how the author feels about that topic. Is she more positive or more negative? Perhaps neutral?

Then get slightly more descriptive. Does the author qualify or limit her feelings (e.g. guardedly optimistic, critical of its proponents but hopeful about new developments)? Is the author emphatic about her feelings (less common, but possible, e.g. wholehearted endorsement)? Is the author strictly neutral (also less common)?

Also consider the purpose of the passage. Is the passage more of a dry, academic explication? Is it more polemical? Does the author attempt to convince you of her position?

Combine the range of positive to negative attitudes with the purpose of the text to create a coherent prephrase that captures the author's disposition to the subject of her work. You will likely have more success with a consistent process than with simply an extensive list of possibilities.