Better Ways To Describe Emotion in Your English Composition

Describing emotions is a key part of any primary school English composition. A composition that showcases the characters’ emotions well has the ability to make the reader feel invested, and understand the characters better.

However, how many ways can you actually say ‘She was happy’? While most primary school students are familiar with basic emotions words like ‘happy’, ‘mad’, ‘sad’, it is not enough. It takes practice to master the ‘show, not tell’ approach and add variety to one’s writing.

In this article, we take a leaf out of the Primary School English Tuition notes prepared by our own Future Academy tutor, and share some tips on how to write better descriptions for emotions in the primary school composition.

Techniques for describing emotions

1. Use similes and metaphors

Simile: Comparing two things using the words ‘as’ or ‘like’

Example: She was as red as a beetroot. / She turned red, like a beetroot.

Metaphor: Describing something by referring to it as another thing which shares some similarities.

Example: He was boiling with anger. (Explanation: A living human can’t possibly be literally boiling! But ‘boiling’ shows the uneasy, turbulent feeling that is associated with anger.)

When you use figures of speech like similes and metaphors, they make your writing more colourful and varied. These devices are fantastic for describing emotions, because they make the abstract concept of emotion feel more tangible. Use them well to make your writing more relatable and lively!

2. Describe the physical effect of the emotion

This is the easiest way to show, rather than tell, when it comes to describing emotions! Rather than going straight for the emotion word, think of how that emotional feeling causes your body to feel. For example:

• When anxious: Sweaty palms, shaky hands, unsteady voice
• When angry: Clenched jaw, flushed face, racing heartbeat
• When relieved: Sighing, body feels lighter, muscles relax

By describing the physical feeling, your reader can imagine the emotion and its intensity in a more vivid way. Of course, you can also combine physical descriptions with similes or metaphors, like in the given example!

3. Vary the sentence structure

This tip can be applied to improve your writing overall, not just for emotions. Varied sentence structures just sound more enjoyable to read, and masterful use of it can create rhythm, flow, and cadence in your story.

Think about short sentences. Then consider how long sentences add momentum and build-up, snowballing and propelling action forward. Challenge yourself to write the same scene in different ways. You’ll be fascinated by how different it can sound, just by using different sentence structures!

How to improve your writing

While the tips above are some good techniques for describing emotions, how do you start putting them into your English composition? Here’s how you can build up your vocabulary and phrases bank and improve your writing chops in the long-run.

1. Learn from good example sentences

Take every text as a learning opportunity! When you come across excellent descriptions, write them down and remember them. Who knows, they could be useful for your next composition!

In some of our English tutors’ classes, we have dictation quizzes to help students learn some of these model essay sentences.

2. Stretch your writing muscles often

It’s easy to forget when you don’t use something enough. The same goes for writing techniques and good phrases! We find that students often don’t get enough writing practise in school, because there are so many other things planned in the curriculum.

But if writing is a weak area or you want to hone your writing skills properly, you need to put in the effort to practise it often. It doesn’t have to be a full composition every time. It could be a short paragraph with a different focus each time.

Example:

1. Write a paragraph describing ‘happiness’ without using the word ‘happy’. (Or any other emotion)
2. Write 10 different sentences describing ‘sadness’, paying attention to your sentence variety.
3. Write 10 similes or metaphors to describe ‘anger’.

Here’s another example activity from our tutor:

Conclusion

Getting better at writing emotions is a skill any good writer should have. Emotions are so central to the characters and making them feel realistic and human.

Besides writing about emotions, if your child has difficulty with any other areas of writing compositions or English in general, we can help! Our Primary School English Tutors are highly experienced in conducting interactive and engaging classes for primary school students, breaking down the English subject into easy-to-understand and actionable steps for improvement.

Contact us today to schedule your class and be on your way to better English grades!

• Pure vs Combined Science

Here’s where it gets a little complicated. Depending on your child’s sec 2 subject streaming choices, they may take:

• Triple Science (Pure Physics, Pure Chemistry, Pure Biology)
• Double Science (Any 2 pure sciences)
• Combined Science (Any 2 sciences, but each with half weightage)

Generally, students who are strong at the sciences will take Triple Science, while students who wish to take more humanities subjects will take Double or Combined Science. In most Integrated Programme schools or Express classes, students won’t take combined science unless they are really struggling with the science subjects.

• More in-depth

It goes without saying that upper sec science is a step up in difficulty from lower sec science. But what differences exactly can we expect?

Biology

The biology topics in lower sec give a macro view of what happens in living systems in the world. For example, students will learn about the ecosystem, the digestive and circulatory system in humans, and photosynthesis and respiration in plants.

Then, students are led to explore these systems at the cellular and molecular level when they go to upper sec. They will learn more about the chemical reactions involved and expand their knowledge of biological processes in plants and humans.

Chemistry

Chemistry in lower sec offers a foundational overview of what chemistry is: chemical bonding, classification of matter, how to form chemical formula and equations, and so on.

Things get real in upper sec, during which they will dive further into different types of reactions like electrolysis, acids and bases, and organic chemistry. One of the biggest struggles we see with our Sec 4 Chemistry Tuition students is trouble with calculations in topics like mole concept and thermochemistry.

Physics

The lower sec syllabus for physics introduces key scientific skills like measurements, as well as some topics that will also be covered in sec 3 and 4 – but on a simpler level.

For example, in lower sec, students get to learn about light waves. In Sec 3 and 4, they will continue to learn about how light behaves in different mediums like water, air, and solids, and apply them to more varied situations.

Preparing for upper sec science

Reading all these, you are probably thinking right now: if upper sec science is going to be such a huge jump for my kid, how can they prepare themselves for it?

Well, knowing and bracing yourself for such a change is one step. Then, you can encourage your teen to do pre-reading of the topics before school starts, or even just find out more about the topics through some fun science videos or books.

Or, an easier way might be to enrol them in Future Academy’s headstart classes, happening this year end! We prepare students before the school year starts, so they can have an easier time later on.

And not to worry if you’ve missed out on the headstart classes or wish to take it easy this holidays. Anytime you wish to begin with O Level tuition or IP Physics tuition, drop us a call, email, or Whatsapp and schedule your class in one of our small group tuition classes, taught by an expert and experienced tutor. See you in class!