The phrase "poor tone" is correct and usable in written English.
It is generally used to describe the attitude or demeanor of a person speaking or writing. For example, "The manager's poor tone during the meeting made many of the employees feel uncomfortable."
The audit, released yesterday by the comptroller, H. Carl McCall, concluded that district officials set a poor "tone at the top".
As Girardi assessed Chamberlain's performance, he mentioned how throwing a 3-2 slider to the leadoff hitter, Marco Scutaro, had set a poor tone.
He said he felt he had no choice but to persevere throughout the legislative battle, despite what he described as "the exceedingly poor tone shown by leadership in demonizing a whole industry".
Wind instruments include the whizzing or hissing sounds of air breaking against the edges of the mouthpiece, while bowed instruments produce audible rubbing noises that contribute, when the instrument is poor or the player unskilful, to what is perceived as a poor tone.
One child with six cycles of in utero chemotherapy exposure was born with poor tone, which resolved soon after birth (not shown in Table 4).
Infants with metabolic encephalopathies, sepsis, genetic abnormalities, or neuronal migration disorders can all present with low Apgar scores and poor tone in the first days of life [ 48, 49].
Often manufacturers cover poor quality leather with flesh-tone vinyl or "cushion" inserts.
"Babies with Down's syndrome quite often have poor muscle tone and find it hard to feed.
Compounding the problem of calorie control, the syndrome also results in poor muscle tone, a high percentage of body fat and lack of energy.
Because you don't have to have saggy arms, or poor skin tone in your 50s, or not have cute hips.
At first, infants who have it feed poorly and fail to gain much weight because their poor muscle tone diminishes their ability to suck.
