How is tone determined in a literary work?

• A. Directly stated by the author
• B. A description of setting
• C. Inferred
• D. The mood of the reader

Answer: (C)

Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject or audience, shown through word choice, imagery, details, and how sentences are built. Because writers rarely label their stance directly, you determine tone by inferring from how the subject is presented—the connotations of diction, the aspects the writer emphasizes, and the overall rhythm of the writing. That inference is why this item’s correct idea is inferred: you read the clues in the text and deduce the author's attitude. The idea that tone is directly stated by the author is unlikely, since tone is usually conveyed through writing choices rather than an explicit tag. Describing setting targets the atmosphere of a scene, not the author's stance. The mood of the reader refers to how the text makes us feel, which is a separate concept from the author's attitude.