Glossary
tone
Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject, carried by word choice and sentence shape rather than stated outright.
Tone is the attitude a writer takes toward the subject — sympathetic, critical, neutral, alarmed, wry — and it is never stated directly. It is carried by word choice: the same fact can be reported as a rise in cases or a worrying climb in cases, and the second tells you how the writer feels. Sentence length and punctuation carry it too, since short clipped sentences read as urgent or cold and long ones as reflective. Tone is not the same as purpose. A passage can exist to inform and still be impatient in tone; purpose is why it was written, tone is how it sounds while doing it. To answer a tone question, look for the loaded words rather than the factual ones, and choose the option that matches the whole passage rather than one heated sentence.
Taught in
Related terms
- author purpose — Author purpose is the reason a passage was written — to inform, to explain, to persuade, to entertain or to describe.
- word choice — Word choice is the writer's selection of words, which carries tone and shades meaning beyond a word's plain dictionary sense.
- fact and opinion — A fact can be checked and shown true or false; an opinion is a judgment, preference or prediction that a reader could reasonably dispute.
- euphemism — A euphemism is a mild or indirect word used in place of one that is harsh or unwelcome, such as "passed away" for "died".
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)