Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

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H O W T H E Y S AY I T, PA R T T W O : T O N E
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Listen carefully to people today and notice how much you depend on tone to determine exactly what
people mean when they speak to you. Notice also how you use tone to convey meaning when you speak
to other people.
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Go back to the practice exercise where you identified the tone of those five passages. Try changing the
tone of some of those passages.
Skill Building until Next Time

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Y
ou’ve learned a lot this week about language and how much it affects meaning. Before you add this
knowledge to the knowledge you already have about structure and the basics of reading compre-
hension, take a minute for a brief review of the last four lessons. It’s always a good idea to stop and
review material you’ve learned before you go on to new material.

R e v i e w : L a n g u a g e a n d S t y l e
Point of view is the perspective from which the writer speaks. Sometimes, writers use the first-person point of view
(I, me, my, we, our, us) to express their personal feelings and experiences directly to the reader. This point of view
creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and the writer because it expresses an extremely subjective per-
spective. When writers use the second-person point of view, they address the reader directly by using the pronoun
you. This point of view is often used to give directions and to make the reader feel directly involved in the action
described by the writer. The third-person point of view is the objective perspective of a “third person,” someone
who is not directly involved in the action or ideas expressed in the passage. This point of view establishes a dis-
L E S S O N
Word Power:
Putting It All
Together