Start here · the first lesson of Tone and attitude
Tone and attitude
Reading Comprehension · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT
Sign in to watch · 5 min video
The idea
Tone questions ask how the author feels about the subject ("The author's attitude towards X is best described as") or why a sentence is there ("In the last sentence, the writer is", "What is the writer's intention in pointing this out?"). IPMAT RC passages are usually analytical or argumentative, so the right answer is typically measured: sceptical, cautiously supportive, critical, concerned, balanced.
Textbook vs exam method
Textbook method
Identify the emotion the author shows towards the subject, then choose the matching tone word. A list of common tone words: critical, laudatory, cynical, satirical, sarcastic, didactic, nostalgic, objective, ambivalent.
Exam method
- Collect the evidence words. adjectives and verbs carrying the author's judgement ("weaker than it looks", "sound medicine but ruinous commerce", "None of these problems is a reason to dismiss the idea").
- Direction. positive, negative, neutral, or mixed (supports with reservations).
- Strength. mild or strong. Exam authors rarely shout, so eliminate the extreme words.
- Author or subject?. "Negative" may describe the news, while the author's intention is to criticise or to warn.
- Intent-of-sentence. ask what job the sentence does here (opens with irony, rallies the reader, concedes a point, illustrates a claim).