Tone and Voice: Helping
Students Develop Voice Through
Tone
Isaac Thompson
NSTWP Summer Institute
June 9, 2004
What is Voice?
Voice is hearing the exclamation point, even
when it’s not there.
A bond that says, “I want to let you in.”
It’s the passion that makes words dance.
The choreography of the writing.
Voice is the writer reaching out to the reader.
(Spandel 164)
“…if your voice has been silenced for
too long, let the idea of writing begin to
take hold, to gnaw and to push and to
build, until, like a pressure cooker full of
fresh corn, it will start to leak out in
sprays of hissing steam.”
Nancy Slonim Aronie
How are tone and voice related?
Voice is the overall impact.
Tone is the emotion that comes from
word choice.
Tone leads to Voice.
How can we help students distinguish
different voices in writing?
Have students read books, poems,
newspaper articles, and magazine articles
that have distinctive voice.
Read two articles on the same subject, but
with different viewpoints.
Have students compare and contrast the
voices.
Have students use their own writing and look
for the voice.
(Spandel 161-162)
“Writing with voice is writing into which someone has
breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that
exist naturally in the speech of most people when they
are enjoying a conversation…”
Peter Elbow, Writing with Power
What is tone vocabulary?
A group of words that has either a
positive, negative, or neutral
connotation.
Words that express certain emotions.
Anticipation Set:
Divide students into groups of four.
Read aloud a piece that you think has
an interesting tone or distinctive voice.
Ask students to listen for words that
help them figure out the author’s tone.
After reading, ask student’s what words
they located.
List words on the board.
Group Practice:
Pass out articles to groups.
Have one person read the group’s article
aloud.
Ask group to keep a list of words from the
article that helped them determine how the
author feels.
As a class, we will discuss each group’s
article. Each group will present a summary of
their article to the class, as well as the
group’s list.
Independent Practice:
Distribute Tone Vocabulary List.
Have students select one entry from
their writing notebooks.
Have students reread their piece,
looking for tone.
Look at the Tone Vocabulary List. Have
students rewrite their piece using a
different tone.
What happened?
TEKS Connection:
(E) select and use voice and style appropriate to
audience and purpose (6-8);
(F) choose the appropriate form for his/her own
purpose for writing such as journals, letters,
editorials, reviews, poems, memoirs, narratives, and
instructions (7-8);
Works Cited
Aronie, N.S. (1998). Writing From the Heart: Tapping the Power of
Your Inner Voice. New York: Hyperion.
Elbow, P. (1986). Embracing Contraries. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Fletcher, R. (1993). What a Writer Needs. Portsmouth, NH:
Heineman.
Spandel, V. (2001). Creating Writers through 6-Trait Writing
Assessment and instruction. 3rd Ed. New York: Longman.