Ascertaining Author Tone via Ordering?

[trentkannegieter]

The Reading Comprehension Bible talks a lot about seeking out giveaway words to determine an author’s tone/attitude towards the piece. However, I was wondering whether LSAT analysis takes into effect what the author’s selective ordering of evidence reveals about his or her position? For example, if an author decides to end a piece with a strong piece of evidence for plan X, even if the language used is entirely “neutral,” this might be seen as an author’s implicit support for Plan X. Does this same consideration apply in the LSAT world?

[Adam Tyson]

It could, trentkannegieter! You might have a tone answer along the lines of "tacit approval" or "implicit acceptance", etc. The manner in which evidence is presented, whether by ordering (ending on something that is clearly a strong positive or negative) or by sheer volume (such as several paragraphs describing problems, with only one small paragraph devoted to possible solutions), can impact our analysis of the tone.

Got any examples you want to go over? Those passages where the tone is less obvious, but still present, are, in my experience, kind of fun! Like solving a puzzle or a murder mystery.