EXIT
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Reading tone

Foundation

Tone is the writer's attitude to the subject; purpose is what the writer is doing to the reader.

They are different questions and are answered from different evidence. The two question types share a passage and are answered from different evidence — tone from the writer's word choices, purpose from the passage's structure. Confusing them produces an answer that is true about one and asked about the other.

A passage can be critical in tone and informative in purpose.

attitude and intent are independent

A critical passage must be trying to persuade.

tone read as purpose

Where it bites

Where the options for a purpose question are all adjectives, or the options for a tone question are all infinitives. The parts of speech tell you which is being asked.