Question

There's this exerpt called the "Winter Night" by Kay Boyle and I'm suppose to write a paragraph describing a tone. I don't know how to start since we can't use the quote on the very first sentence.

Answer 1

Have you determined what the tone is already? I would start out by brainstorming words that you think describe the tone. Highlight, circle, or otherwise annotate those words in your excerpt. What stands out? If there is one really interesting word, focus on it. Look up the definition. You won't have a good paragraph until you determine the main idea, which is what you think the tone is.

Once you determine tone, you can use a few strategies to form your paragraph. I like going through the 5 Ws--who, what, where, when, why. In this circumstance, "why" will be very helpful. Why do you think the story was written? Why did the writer chose those words on your list of tone words? These are just a few examples of many questions.

Then you can start out your paragraph with an answer to one of your questions. For example "The author's tone in this piece was (insert your opinion here) because she wanted to (insert answer to one of the questions you asked yourself here)." It's to the point and brings up your main idea. Once you're more comfortable writing paragraphs in general, you be able to try other more advanced strategies.