the elements of style and tone by katy gladden

The Elements of Style and Tone by Katy Gladden

• Many people enjoy reading and analyzing selections

of fiction.

• Why is this?

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• Studying the writing style and tone used by an author helps us to interpret the story.


Writing Style• In the class text, A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature by Rebecca J.

Lukens, the author defines the literary element of writing style as:

“…how an author says something as opposed to what he says.” (Page 189).

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Style and Story

• The author mentions that the type of style is selected to best suit the needs of the story.


Writing Style

• In the following presentation, the story, No, David! is discussed to show how the writing style functions to support the story line.

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Story Summary

• No, David! is the story of a mischievous little five year old boy who is constantly pushing behavior limits with his mother.


Story Summary• In the opening page of the book, David is precariously

reaching for the cookie jar on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet while standing on top of a chair. He has a determined look on his face and his mother admonishes, “No, David!” (Page 4).

• The rest of the story is a series of similar challenging incidents until finally David finds his limits and seeks refuge into his mother’s loving arms.


Characteristics of Writing Style

• As an example, Mr. Shannon uses child like vocabulary to accentuate the young age of main character called David.

• In this story, David is approximately five years old.

• The vocabulary is simple, limited in content, and easily understood by a young child.


Writing Style• The words of the story are printed in a

juvenile style font as if to appear written by a young child.

• Limited text is written on each page.


Tone

• Most of the sentences are spoken by the mother in a didactic style (command form) of tone to show how the mother is instructing her son about proper behavior.

• Further, the mother uses a type of condescending tone with her young troublesome child.

• “Go to your room!” (Page 14 ). http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9780590930024&imId=

Tone Through Illustrations

• The tone is further reinforced by the illustrations.

• The author draws David looking mischievous, determined, and with expressive body language.


Tone Through Illustrations

• The illustrations also include vivid colors, simple lines, and humorous facial expressions.

• The text is large and usually portrays a single scene for every one or two pages.


Book Award

• No, David! also received the Caldecott Honor Award in 1999.

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Summary• One can see how the author cleverly uses the style and the

tone of the story to create empathy between the reader and the main character in this story.

• For this reason, this book is very popular with young elementary school aged children everywhere.


Works Cited• Bolle, Sonia. "David Shannon: A Merry Prankster." Publishers Weekly 246.29 (1999):

168. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July 2011.

• Carpenter, Susan. "At 51, David Shannon stays in touch with his inner child - latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - latimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 July 2011. <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-david-shannon-20101209,0,3717243.story>.

• Lukens, Rebecca J. A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon, 2007. Print.

• Shannon, David. No, David! . New York: Blue Sky Press, 1998. Print.

• Smith, Robin. "David Gets in Trouble." Horn Book Magazine 79.1 (2003): 61-62. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July 2011.

the elements of style and tone by katy gladden

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