From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

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Voice, tone, and character: Exercises

Voice, tone, and character: Exercises

From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

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Voice, tone, and character: Exercises

“

- Okay, to understand the concepts of tone and character a bit better, I want to show you an angry letter written by George Bernard Shaw to the editor of a London newspaper a long time ago in 1892. It shows how something that could have been written in a much blander way takes on huge energy and life because of the character and the voice with which it's written. Just look at how evocative this is, also in terms of the colorful detail with which the ideas are stated. Sir, if you do not immediately suppress the person who takes it upon himself to lay down the law almost every day in your columns, on the subject of literary composition, I will give up taking The Chronicle. The man is a pedant, an ignoramus, an idiot, a self-advertising duffer. A little while ago, when somebody pointed out to him a case of the misuse of and which, the creature, utterly missing the point, rushed about denouncing every sentence containing and which until some public-spirited subscriber of yours stopped him…

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