How does the SOL approach "tone" in literary texts?

• A. By listing the plot events.
• B. By asking about the author's attitude toward subjects or characters and how it affects the reader.
• C. By counting syllables in words.
• D. By analyzing sentence length only.

Answer: (B)

Tone is the author’s attitude toward the subjects or characters in a text, and how that attitude shapes how the reader experiences it. In SOL-style questions, you identify tone by looking at word choice, descriptions, imagery, and how events are portrayed. The best answer is the one that points to the author’s stance and explains how that stance affects you as a reader—whether it makes you feel hopeful, skeptical, amused, sympathetic, or critical, and why you arrive at that feeling.

For example, choosing language that sounds approving or enthusiastic about a subject signals a positive tone and guides you to interpret the subject in a favorable way. That’s what links the attitude to the reader’s response.

Other options miss this focus: listing plot events summarizes what happens rather than what the author thinks about it; counting syllables relates to sound and meter, not tone; analyzing sentence length alone looks at style or pace, not the author’s attitude or its effect on you.