The Author's Attitude

What are we learning today?

You will learn how to find the author's feeling about a person or thing in a short text.

Explanation

• An attitude can be positive, negative or neutral.
• Look at adjectives, verbs of feeling and phrases of opinion.
• Words like hero, important and famous show a positive attitude.
• Words like awful and boring show a negative attitude.
• A fact is not an opinion. Do not mix the author's feeling with your own.

Examples

1. "I admire him because he worked hard." The author admires him.
2. "He was a very clever general and a very wise man." The author shows respect.
3. "The film was boring and too long." The attitude is negative.

Remember!

• Underline the adjectives and verbs of feeling.
• Ask: is the author for or against?
• "He was born in 1693" is a fact, not an opinion.

Check yourself

1. Which words show a positive attitude: "hero, famous" or "awful, boring"?
2. What does "I admire him" show?
3. What do you look for to find the author's attitude?