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Thanks so much, @atharvsingh3410 ! We're really excited about the new project, and can't wait to get the rest of the lessons out!

Thanks so much, Jucab! We're delighted to hear that you found the lesson useful, and we hope you'll check out more in our series!

You're very welcome, @AhJodie ! We hope you enjoy the other videos in our series as well!

Ha! We hope that means you enjoyed the lesson!

Ha! If you don’t pass, we’ll give you back the money we charged you for the lesson. But seriously, good luck on that final!

@@SWLF Thank you very much, wish you guys had a video on misplaced modifiers!

@@Br5ady Great suggestion! We'll add it to our list...

Thanks so much, @sohansheikh1027 ! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed the lesson, and we hope you'll check out more in our series!

Ha! Quite a few, judging from the comments. We still can't believe a clip from this video lesson has been circulating as a meme...

We're still pretty floored that elements of this video have found their way to that channel (and more than a few others). Internet memes are very strange phenomena...

Thanks so much for your kind words, @anoakenstaff ! Unfortunately, we don't have any immediate recommendations for guides or books on tone itself, but if we can think of any, we'll pass them along. Does anyone else out there have any recs?

@@SWLF Ah, that's alright, thank you! This might just be a bit of tautology, and I'm sorry, but is there any other way you'd recommend to learn more about tone and how to identify it correctly in prose?

@@anoakenstaff No problem! The best approach (to our mind) is simply to continue to read complex works of fiction or poetry and try to parse out what the tone of a given narrator or character is. We mentioned Kafka in this video, and his works are terrific tests of your tone-spotting abilities, but there are many other works that spring to mind. Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer is a great recent example (the narrator's attitudes towards Vietnam and the United States are incredibly complex--so much so that it is difficult to tell if he loves or hates both countries!).

@@SWLF Ah, thanks so much! I'll try to do that, though I only really started to be interested in tone a few days ago. It's quite tricky!

That's great news, @Isa-hv5np ! You're going to be well prepared for high school literary analyses!

Great question, @tz6011 ! To the best of our knowledge, the same syllables do not have to be stressed but they often are to emphasize the sonic repetition. Thanks for keeping the conversation going!

Thanks so much, @user-gj8tg6bj2j ! We're actually working on a few more right now!

And you've just made a great litote there, Jason! (see our "What is Understatement?" video). Thanks for keeping the conversation going!

@@SWLF These canapEs are absolutely disgusting

Thanks so much, Richard! We agree!

What a lovely response to the lecture, Karen! Thanks so much for adding to the conversation!

Thanks so much, Raj! We're delighted to hear that you are enjoying the videos and are sending love from Corvallis, Oregon!

Thanks so much, Richard! Geeze, you deserve some kind of award for checking out so many of our lessons!

@@SWLF I kid you not…the greatest reward I can receive is to be a better writer. People like yourselves and programs willing to teach college level English classes, for free, will hopefully make my improvement possible. You will always have my gratitude!

Ha! Well, we hope the lesson didn't swallow you, @souljabob217 !

Thanks so much for your kind words, Justine! We're excited to get a few more out soon!

You're very welcome, Richard!

Richard, you have made our day again with this comment. Thanks so much, and good luck with that poem!

Thanks so much Adriana! We agree!

Thanks so much for the suggestion, @spheleleNgubane-wf4de ! And we're delighted to hear that you found the lesson useful!

The meaning of that is "a piece of cake," which is to say, simple. This is an everyday American idiom with conflicting origin stories (some fairly disturbing).

Ha! OK, you've just given us an idea for our next SWLF tshirt! Thanks for all the great comments, Richard.

@@SWLF thank you, for responding to me. It means a lot to me. Like many college students (40 years ago), I didn’t take enough English classes. Thanks to your channel and others, I can recover a little of what I lost. That is why I will always do my best to say, “thank you.” Please keep me apprised on the tshirts. Thank you.

Thanks for the comment and questions, Joshua! As far as the first question goes, yes, we'd also call it a zeugma if the meaning switches between two literal meanings. As far as the second question goes, we'd go ahead and classify anatanaclasis and zeugma as two different rhetorical devices rather than seeing one as a subspecies of the other. They are certainly related to one another and their effects upon a reader are nearly identical, but in our experience, it is better to go with the precise term. Thanks so much for keeping the conversation going!

Thanks so much, Richard! We agree!

Wow, thanks so much, @richardglady3009. We're delighted to hear you found the lesson useful and we hope you'll check out more from the series if you have the time!

Hmm, we're a bit confused. What does this have to do with onomatopoeia?

@SWLF it is a Star Trek The Next Generation episode where the crew encounters a new species who speaks in allegory. Good synopsis at ruclips.net/video/WQ8_F6jYWv4/видео.htmlsi=JCgCSuBhRm6FMDw0 . The computers / universal translators can translate the words, but the words just recall established cultural touchstones common to their species. Captain Picard and a representative of the new species learn to communicate. This episode was from the late 1980s or early 1990s, before "meme culture" was a thing. But it seems to describe meme culture perfectly.

Maybe I commented on the wrong video. Sorry.

Excellent! Were so delighted to hear you found the lesson useful and we hope you'll check out more in our series. Good luck with that exam!

Thanks, @FireGamerMc58 ! We hope you enjoy the other videos in our series as well!

Yes! The use of singular "they" certainly has a fairly long history. Thanks for keeping the conversation going, @SaveDareDevil-Mx !

Ha! [Insert Mad Max Fury Road "That's bait" meme here.]

@@SWLF heh it worked

I just searched up the meme you were talking abt, I've never seen that meme in my life

@@-Sevlgvcr Ha! Our educational channel has clearly served its purpose.

Thanks, @loudangi ! That video is from early on in our series, and we hope we've made improvements since that time.

Great question, @sooryanarayanan4273 ! These kinds of "mass nouns" are instances of nouns that cannot be easily pluralized. Under certain circumstances, however, they can be made countable and therefore plural. For example: "The luck of the Irish and the luck of the draw may be phrases that draw upon the same word, but readers should note that these lucks differ from one another."

Wow, thanks so much, Raj! We hope you enjoy the other videos in our series as well!

Excellent! We're so happy to hear you enjoyed the video, @learninghour-cz7tt . We hope you'll check out more in our series if you get the chance.

You're very welcome, @inupinu9209 ! Good luck with your exams!

Thanks for the love, @user-bk9ot5vf6n !

What a great example! Yes, this is a fantastic illustration of tonal shifts. Thanks so much for sending it our way!