expressive writing style

noun phrase

  1. A way of writing that openly shows the writer's feelings, personality, and personal voice, often through vivid wording, imagery, and emotional honesty rather than neutral reporting.

    B2

    countable

    • "Her expressive writing style makes even a simple story about her grandmother feel warm and personal."B1
    • "The author's expressive writing style brings the landscape to life."B2
    • "Where academic prose hides the author, an expressive writing style deliberately foregrounds emotion, rhythm, and figurative language, sometimes at the expense of concision."C1

  2. Used especially in language teaching and psychology: writing in which learners or diarists focus on expressing thoughts and feelings freely, rather than on correctness or form.

    C1

    uncountable in this usetechnical

    • "In class we do ten minutes of expressive writing style practice every Monday, and nobody corrects our grammar."B1
    • "Researchers found that a free, expressive writing style helped students feel less anxious before exams."B2
    • "Expressive writing style tasks are valued in therapeutic settings precisely because they remove the pressure of an imagined reader."C1

Common mistakes

  • She writes in a very expressively style.→She writes in a very expressive style.

    Use the adjective "expressive" before a noun; "expressively" is an adverb and describes how someone writes, not the style itself.

  • expression writing style→expressive writing style

    The adjective is "expressive", not the noun "expression".

Collocations

expressive languagecreative writingpersonal narrativefigurative languagewriter's voicestream of consciousness

Word family

expressexpressiveexpressivelyexpressivenessexpression