Tone

Tone is important because it can affect the interpretation of a word or sentence. If a character stresses a part of a word then the word is interpreted in a completely different way then if not stressed at all. For example, in the sentence "You know how to play basketball?", without any stresses, is just a casual question asking if  you know how to play basketball. However, if a stress is put on the word "you" in the sentence, the sentence conveys that you do not look like you would know how to play basketball. In this sentence, the stress gives off a sarcastic meaning to the sentence. Thus, Tone is very important because it can dramatically shift the interpretation of an entire sentence.