Shades of Emotions: What Role the Tone Plays in Academic and Scientific Writing

When it comes to essay writing for college or university, professors usually expect students to be serious and formal. Yet, not every essay assignment demands dryness of presentation and coldness in assessing the objects. Sure, brevity and clarity should always be there together. Still, is it obligatory for a student to restrain their attitude? 

Tones in essay writing and Facts Delivery: How It Works Together  

No matter what type of essay you have to write, you will bring in your original perspective. The choice of facts itself demonstrates your attitude to a topic. It can have a steady balance, or you might elucidate one of the components more than the others. In any case, the tones for a research paper here shows feelings, sometimes deep and unobvious, and sometimes superficial. 

Pros, in this case, are that the professor can see your investment in a topic. They can notice your interest, dedication to small research, and the flame of desire to expose the problem. Furthermore, your tone is an indicator of your psychological investment. And, to be honest, emotions are always there, no matter if we want that. And lack of emotions is nothing but lack of interest in a topic. So, yes, your tone in essay writing is significant. However, there is also a shady side.

Sometimes emotions overtake us and we stop thinking clearly. In an emotional outburst, the student can go into a generalization that’s too far from objective reality. To avoid fact distortion in essay writing, a student can use an old (but gold) method which is separating facts from comments.

Phrases to Mark Your Opinion With When You Separate Facts and Feelings

To secure the balance, you can use objective facts but then add your emotionally charged thoughts. Of course, you have to mark it all somehow. Thus, here are some phrases you can use and juxtapose: 

• I think…
• In my opinion/judgement/estimation…
• I envisage…
• I presume…
• I anticipate…
• I reckon/believe/imagine…
• My concept of this is…
• My picture of it is/looks like…
• From where I stand/see…
• I fancy the idea of…
• My experience gives another perspective which is…

Of course, no obligations to use those particular phrases. You can come up with something original too! The most significant thing is to make it clear where the fact is and where your opinion comes to the stage. 

Tones You Can Try in Essay Writing and Also See in the Scientific World 

Depending on your vision of the positioned problem, you can use next types of tones in writing essay:

Bright optimism and encouragement

Some problems require a solution. If there is a way to solve it, there must be hope. You can express it with optimism. Understandably, that doesn’t mean a joyful tone when describing something serious and even depressing. But a glimpse of optimism won’t hurt. 

One of the best examples of optimistic scientific writing is the works of Alvin Toffler. Despite depicting obscurantism of past centuries and painful things as a shock from the speed of information flow… This scientist still says that humanity has the full potential of embracing the new rules of the post-industrial world. 

Unpleasant excitement and worries 

You don’t have to love the phenomena you are writing a paper about. For instance, Nancy Katherine Hayles! She was far from happy while describing the transformations of post-human existence. From her tone, you can see that she fears what is going on with humanity. So, if a topic makes you concerned about the progress of some phenomena, you can talk about that. Scientists do it, and you have the right to do that too. 

Assertiveness and formality

Don’t hide the confidence when you know the topic well even if you see it from an unusual perspective. For instance, take a look at works of structuralists like Ferdinand de Saussure and Paul-Michel Foucault. They were quite assertive in their attempts to make humanities look like exact sciences.

Disillusionment and frustration 

Some things might disappoint you, and that’s fine. There are no restrictions on feelings when you see that today’s tendencies might hurt humanity. For instance, like Jean Baudrillard. Try reading the work “Simulacra and Simulation”. He was somewhat downhearted while talking about how unreal things pretend to be real, deceiving us all.

Other emotions 

Whatever you feel, it’s alright. Moreover, it shows your understanding of the matter. Still, don’t forget that your emotions and tone  in an essay should not replace reality. 

The Final Answer 

If you have gathered a tone in writing an informative essay, you can always brighten your essay up with semitones of feelings. It will only show that you understand the topic you have to work with. More formally, it will demonstrate how your discourse merged with the discourse of experts and scientists. 

You can try different tones and phrases. You can express your thoughts, and you have the right to that. Yet, don’t say that your emotional idea is a fact. Try to settle the balance, and it will work out at its finest!