Style & Tone — Into the Labyrinth

I

Welcome to the Labyrinth

⏱ 4 min

Each hero approaches the maze differently — with different weapons, ideas, and outfits.

Image asset
to be added

OPTION A

Heracles

Muscles and might

Image asset
to be added

OPTION B

Theseus

A balance of brain and brawn

Image asset
to be added

OPTION C

Odysseus

Clever and cunning

Writers also have different styles. They use different tools, make different word choices, and convey different ideas and feelings. We see these styles most clearly when writers describe the same thing.

II

Two Voices, One Labyrinth

⏱ 8 min

Both quotations below describe the same Labyrinth — but with different tools, word choices, ideas, and feelings.

Voice A The Labyrinth was dark. It was cold. It was hopeless.

Voice B The Labyrinth swallowed all light, and breathed out icily; hope came here to die.

👁 Tutor walkthrough — click each observation to reveal it (and watch the cards highlight)

Voice A uses short, blunt sentences — they land like the footsteps of a lost person stamping through the dark.

Voice A uses simple, direct word choices — dark, cold — to hit the reader with a sense of doom.

Voice B uses one long sentence — a long sigh of dread that draws the reader downward.

Voice B makes the Labyrinth feel alive and monstrous — it swallowed light and breathed out cold — creating a sense of active threat.

Which voice creates the feeling of a lost person stamping through the dark?

Voice A — short, direct word choices Voice B — one long sigh of dread

Everyone has their own unique style. The word style comes from the Latin stylus — a pen, or a signature. A signature often suggests a lot about a person.

Match each signature to the personality it suggests.

— Donald Trump

Click to assign a feeling

— Guy Fawkes

Click to assign a feeling

— Walt Disney

Click to assign a feeling

Strong & aggressive Broken & hurt Silly & playful

Style

A writer's own way of writing — the tools, word choices, and ideas that make their voice their own. A signature on the page.

⚔ I will need your signature now…

On this day, —, I the undersigned agree to enter the Labyrinth.

I understand that the Minotaur is very hungry, and that I will likely be a tasty snack for him.
I accept that I will likely never leave — but if I do not go, someone else must go in my place.

Sign here: click a style below

✒ Choose your favourite signature style — this is your style as a writer.

Hero

Bold & Determined

Hero

Elegant & Flowing

Hero

Cracked & Worn

Hero

Wild & Playful

III

Three Dark Doorways

⏱ 3 min

You stand at a junction. Three dark doorways stretch before you. Choose your path — each one rewards a different style of hero.

👣

DOOR A

A stamping can be distantly heard behind this door…

🗝

DOOR B

The door has a complex lock, but you might be able to work it out…

🌑

DOOR C

This door seems to lead into a deeper and darker part of the maze…

IV

Three Writers, Three Styles

⏱ 10 min

Read three real writers describing the Labyrinth. Each has a different style. Drag each descriptor into the writer it best fits — beware: any mistake costs a life.

Guerber

He boldly penetrated into the intricate ways of the labyrinth, where many whitening bones plainly revealed the fate of all who had preceded him.

Baldwin

For hours they stood there, hearing no sound, and seeing nothing but the smooth, high walls on either side of the passage and the calm blue sky so high above them.

Hawthorne

How this labyrinth was built is more than I can tell you… Still he went on, now creeping through a low arch, now ascending a flight of steps, now in one crooked passage, and now in another, with here a door opening before him, and there one hanging behind, until it really seemed as if the walls spun round, and whirled him round along with them.

📜 Descriptors — drag a tile (or tap a tile then a scroll)

Highlights a feeling of confidence

Repeats words to create confusion

Uses very detailed description

Talks to the reader

Has a lack of movement

Compares peace and danger

Has a more direct description of danger

V

A Tone of Voice

⏱ 7 min

We have seen that styles show different feelings. The feeling a piece of writing creates has its own name.

Tone

The feeling a piece of writing creates — how the writer or narrator feels about what they are describing. Just as someone's tone of voice tells us how they feel, the tone of a piece of writing does the same.

A piece inspired by the Labyrinth

🎼 Erik Satie — Gnossienne (excerpt)

What feeling does this music suggest to you?

VI

The Heroes' Voices

⏱ 8 min

Click each hero to hear how they call out to the Minotaur. Their styles — and their tones — are very different.

🪶

Odysseus

"Minotaur? I'd be most grateful if you showed yourself, and we can communicate…"

⚔

Theseus

"Minotaur… Face me, villain, and let us end the misery of this place once and for all."

🔥

Heracles

"Minotaur! Show yourself or else I'll pull these walls down and end this dull delay!"

VII

Three More Doorways

⏱ 3 min

The corridor opens to another fork. Three doorways — and again, each rewards a different style of hero.

📜

DOOR A

Your memory tells you this door is one you have not met before.

🩸

DOOR B

Blood trickles from beneath this door…

🆘

DOOR C

A cry for help comes echoing from this door!

VIII

Two Views of the Monster

⏱ 9 min

Two writers describe the Minotaur — using very different styles. Read carefully; you will need their words to defeat him.

Hawthorne

Sure enough, what an ugly monster it was! Only his horned head belonged to a bull; and yet, somehow or other, he looked like a bull all over, waddling on his hind legs; or, if you happened to view him in another way, he seemed wholly a man, and all the more monstrous for being so. And there he was, the wretched thing, with no society, no companion, no kind of a mate, living only to do mischief, and incapable of knowing what affection means. Was Theseus afraid? By no means, my dear auditors. What! a hero like Theseus afraid!

Baldwin

Soon the Minotaur came into view, rushing down the passage towards Theseus, and roaring most terribly. He was twice as tall as a man, and his head was like that of a bull with huge sharp horns and fiery eyes and a mouth as large as a lion's; but the young men could not see the lower part of his body for the cloud of dust which he raised in running.

1. How does the first description use punctuation differently to the second?

2. What tone is created by this punctuation in the first?

Dramatic and theatrical — almost performed aloud Calm and reassuring Detached and bored Formal and academic

3. What word (or related forms of it) is repeated in the first description?

4. Name two adjectives or adjective phrases the second writer uses to add descriptive detail.

The style of the first focuses on what the monster is as a character — lonely, wretched, incapable of affection. The style of the second focuses on what the monster looks like — height, horns, fiery eyes, dust.

Pro tip: for now, look at word choices and punctuation to get a feel for tone and style. Later, we will consider many more tools that writers use in their own way.

IX

The Minotaur's Charge

⏱ 6 min

1. What do we mean by style in English?

The handwriting a writer uses on paper The writer's own way of writing — their tools, word choices, and signature on the page A list of grammar rules that must be followed The genre of a book — novel, poem, or play

2. What is tone? Answer in your own words.

3. Which sentence has the most poetic style?

The maze was very long and very dark. The maze went on for a very long way, and it was hard to see in it. The maze unfurled like a coiled serpent, breathing shadow into every corner. The maze had many corridors, and the light was bad.

4. Which sentence has the most fearless tone?

"Oh dear — I do hope the Minotaur is not angry with us today…" "I think, perhaps, that we ought to consider going home." "Come then, beast — I have walked your halls and I do not flinch." "It would probably be wise to find another path, all things considered."

X

The End of the Maze

⏱ 2 min

✦ You have bested the Minotaur — in style! ✦

Congratulations, hero. A truly heroic effort. You have walked the Labyrinth and emerged with a new understanding of how writers, like heroes, find their own way.

—Wisdom

—Lives Left

—Score

What you carry out of the maze

Style is a writer's own way of writing — their tools, word choices, and ideas, like a signature on the page.
Tone is the feeling a piece of writing creates — how the writer or narrator feels.
Different punctuation creates different tones — questions, ellipses, and exclamations all suggest different emotions.
Different word choices and sentence shapes create different styles, even when the subject is the same.

⚰ The Minotaur has bloodied you

You are bruised, but not broken. Learning from mistakes is the most important thing a hero can do.

You return to the maze, with a steady heart. The walls hum gently. Two of your lives are restored.