Communicating effectively with your audience includes using an appropriate tone. But what is tone? Tone can reveal your attitude toward the topic and toward the audience. However, you can't change the volume in your writing, and you can't slow down or speed up your words, so how do you adjust your tone on the page? The answer is to carefully select the words, the length of sentences, and the variety of sentences you use. In most academic, business, and professional writing, you will use a reasonable, sincere, and unemotional tone. You should keep your tone consistent throughout your piece of writing. Directions: Read each version of the passage, and answer the questions that follow. Version 1 If you like sci-fi, I bet you'd love steampunk. It's the best of the best! How could you resist stories that take place way back in the past, but have made-up, steam-powered things, such as subs and blimps. So, the past in these stories is different from the real past. This is why people are crazy about steampunk fiction. It's fun to pretend the past was different, and it's so cool to read about all the wacky, steam-powered machines and thingamajigs. Which of the following is the best choice for the final sentence of version 1? (Hint: The answer should match the tone of the rest of the passage.) As steampunk crosses over to the mainstream, films, television shows, and video games utilizing the genre are likely to emerge. What an awesome treat it'll be when steampunk flicks, TV shows, and video games come out. Which words best describe the tone of version 1? Casual and enthusiastic Serious and academic Version 2 For some reason, steampunk, which is an uninspired subgenre of fiction, is gaining traction. However, steampunk does nothing more than substitute spacecraft, lasers, and artificial intelligence with clunky, bizarre machines that run on steam. Once science fiction dilettantes figure out that steampunk is neither innovative nor intelligent, they are likely to drift on to the next popular dabble in science fiction. Which of the following is the best choice for the final sentence of version 2? (Hint: The answer should match the tone of the rest of the passage.) If that occurs, at least steampunk will dwindle into obscurity and, finally, extinguish, like other forgotten fad subgenres. What an awesome treat it'll be when steampunk flicks, TV shows, and video games come out. Which words best describe the tone of version 2? Pompous and annoyed Humorous and academic Version 3 Steampunk is a literary genre that has been gaining some popularity in recent years. Steampunk stories are usually set in the past- often in Victorian England-in a world in which steam-powered technology is ubiquitous. Unlike the sleek microchip and silicon technology of today, steampunk technology is cumbersome and unwieldy, with lots of visible moving parts and hissing jets of steam. Audiences enjoy the alternate-history settings and extravagant clockwork devices that are central to steampunk tales. Which of the following is the best choice for the final sentence of version 3? (Hint: The answer should match the tone of the rest of the passage.) As steampunk crosses over to the mainstream, films, television shows, and video games utilizing the genre are likely to emerge. What an awesome treat it'll be when steampunk flicks, TV shows, and video games come out. Which words best describe the tone of version 3? Authentic and objective Sarcastic and exaggerated