This week in class we discussed the importance of tone in a text.  Tone is an author's feelings toward his or her material and audience.  Tone is found in all pieces, including poems, novels, and movies, and greatly affects a literary work's meaning.  For example, William Wordsworth's poem, "The World is too Much with Us," contains a tone that is both scornful, as he castigates society for being so preoccupied with material wealth that we overlook what truly matters, such as the beauty of nature, and sarcastic, as he goes on to explain that he'd "rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn."  By this he means that he would much prefer to be raised in a time characterized by old-fashioned values because then he would at least have the chance to appreciate nature. On Friday, we discovered the true impact that tone has on a literary piece when we acted out the well-known story, Little Red Riding Hood.  Each person was given an adjective to use to act out their part.  This activity showed how a different tone can completely change the meaning of a story.  Tone is extremely significant to our writing, so it is crucial that we continue to develop our voice as we write our college application essays.

~Kellie