1. Analyzing Documents through thoughtful annotations
SOAPS Tone METHOD

2. SOAPS Tone Speaker Annotation for…. Stems for Annotation
Who is the speaker who produced this piece? Give all the details from the notes/textbook that you can provide.
What is the person’s name?
What is the available biographic information?
What information can you infer about the speaker?
Is the speaker biased (does he favor one side’s POV over another)?
What class does he/she belong to?
The speaker is a (an) ____________ because ____________.
An assumption I can make about the speaker is ________ because ________.
The speaker is biased about ________ because _______.

3. SOAPS Tone Occasion Annotation for…. Stems for Annotation
What event has happened to inspire the speaker to write this text?
What is the time and place of the text?
When and where was the primary source created? Secondary document?
What is the historical context surrounding the creation of the document?
How might this affect the meaning of the source?
What event led to its publication or development?
The occasion of the article is _________.
The time that the passage was written was _____________ because _____________.
This passage was written in response to _____________ because ______________

4. SOAPS Tone Audience Annotation for…. Stems for Annotation
Who is the intended audience? For whom was the source created or performed?
Is it directed towards one person? A group of people?
How might this affect the reliability of the source?
Are there any assumptions that can be made about the audience: mixed racial group, gender group, social class, political party?
Are there certain words/phrases used that highlight a specific audience?
The article is directed towards______.
The author uses certain words like ____ and _____.
The audience might be _____ because _________.

5. Purpose SOAPS Tone Annotation for…. Stems for Annotation
If this is argumentative, what is the claim the author is making?
What is the reason behind this text?
What is the message of the text?
Why was this source produced at the time it was produced?
Why was it written (or drawn or made)?
What motivated the author?
What did he or she seek to accomplish?
Step 1:
The claim is ___________.
The purpose of the text is to INFORM the audience about ______.
The purpose of the text is to PERSUADE the audience to believe _______.
The purpose of the text is to entertain the audience by _______.
Step 2:
The author does this by _______.

6. Subject SOAPS Tone Annotation for…. Stems for Annotation
What is the general topic?
What is the content of the passage? Give a summary of what it talks about?
What ideas are contained in the passage?
What connections can be made between the passage and classroom notes/textbook?
The subject of the text is ________.
I know this because ________.
This passage connects to _________.
This passage remind me of ___________.
This relates to ____________.

7. Tone (optional depending on passage)
SOAPS Tone
Annotation for….
Stems for Annotation
Tone (optional depending on passage)
What is the author’s tone?
How is the author perceived by the audience? How does the sound?
The author’s tone is (insert tone word/adjective) because _________.