How to Write with More Emotion in an Essay
by Michelle P.
Have you ever finished a draft of an essay, after hours and hours of thinking, then sat back and looked at it? Did you ever think that the story of the essay was there, but somehow read as stiff and a little boring?
One big issue that comes up for students writing a personal essay, whether for college applications or a summer program, can be understanding how to write with emotion.
We have a great previous post on how students can write their essays in a way to show emotional intelligence and self-reflection. Besides the important self-reflection that should be explored in a personal essay, what are other additional tips and techniques an Essay Narwhal can use to include more emotion?
As a first tip: share your opinions.
This is one easy way to include more emotions. No matter how typical or normal a student you think you may be, everyone has an opinion on something (and sometimes even enjoys arguing about it).
From sports teams to PC models to the best Taylor Swift album of all time, everyone has an opinion about something. See if you have a place where you can mention any of your likes/dislikes, what you would be willing to get into an argument over, or what specific area of your subject you are passionate about.
One example may be a student interested in game development writing about their preferences for single-player RPG games compared to open-world sandbox games.
Show humor
If you are looking for more detail on how to show humor, you may wish to read our other post, ‘5 Great Examples of Using Humor in Writing’ here. Adding a touch of humor to your writing is a good method to show your feelings towards something and appeal to a reader.
As an example:
“Blearily, I squinted at the readouts of data from the samples I had fetched from the centrifuge. I had a long way to go to reach my dreams of becoming a mad scientist.”
The casual mention of wanting to be a ‘mad scientist’ is a more lighthearted way to indicate a student’s interest in science, without sounding too expected.
Describe inner thoughts or positive/negative emotions
Writing emotions for a specific moment or scene in a personal story can be difficult.
Some thoughts you can consider would be:
- What descriptions of body language can you use instead of just stating the emotion?
- Was there any memorable dialogue you can mention from an experience?
- What was I thinking/hoping/or feeling nervous about at the time of the experience?
A student who writes about an experience where they argued with a friend could mention feeling like ‘I wanted to puff up and bellow at them like a righteous bullfrog.” Another student who wants to show their sense of accomplishment from fixing a bug in a robot might write something like “I rolled my tired shoulders and sent five smiley emojis to our group project chat.”
No matter the topic or story in your personal essay, there are a myriad of techniques an Essay Narwhal can use to write in a more emotional and exciting way.