Students must understand that tone is the emotion in writing. Tone comes out of the writer's attitude toward the topic. Different tones appeal to different audiences. For example, business executives might favor the formal tone more than nine-year-olds. In addition, a tone suitable for one topic might not suit another. An obituary normally shouldn't have a lighthearted tone and a greeting card shouldn't sound like a research paper.
Teachers can emphasize how words have different tone. To encourage critical thinking, teachers can give students a specific tone and ask them to propose words that match it. For example, "consume" has a more academic sound than "eat." Teachers can also list multiple words that have the same meaning to emphasize how students can elicit varying emotions when describing something. For example, the teacher can mention that someone with too much to drink could be "inebriated," "intoxicated," "drunk" or "plastered." The word "drunk" may work better when describing a friend's behavior, while intoxicated might work better for a police report.
Teachers should emphasize that students must think of their audience when constructing their style and tone. The audience has a set of expectations, so when writers construct sentences in a tone and style familiar them, they'll feel the writer understands them.
Teachers should explain that writing style can influence clarity. For example "the student of the writing put in the word 'of' for clarity purposes." Readers might need to read this sentence multiple times to understand it. Writing "the student put 'of' in the sentence for clarity" makes more sense. When students understand that style makes their writing clear, they'll have a reason to improve it.
Students can improve clarity by having their sentences contain actors and actions. The sentence subject must point to the actor and the verb must point to the action. Teachers can help students understand actions and actors in sentences and have them rewrite unclear sentences by applying these principles.