The first few opening paragraphs of Joan Didion’s essay “Los Angeles Notebook” there are two tones present as well as a tone shift in which Didion clearly displays. One tone fairly obvious in the essay can be known as the word Ominous. The author uses diction words such as eerie and isolated to describe the location of the wind, more specifically in the first sentence the author says,”There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension” (Didion) which purely depicts the ominous tone. Formal would be the second tone in the later beginning of Didion’s essay. Specific syntax,notably the usage of semicolons and commons, add facts or details retaining to the topic can support the formal tone;