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This is to be a “formal” essay, not a personal one, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t let your personality shine through. You have enthusiasm for your topic; let the reader see it. It’s all right to use a little humor, too. It’s a good idea to give your essay immediacy by using brief quotations from experts. And it’s OK—in fact, it’s a plus—to use figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, and alliteration. You may associate those kinds of things more with papers for English class than with science essays, but in fact they enliven any kind of writing. Look at this paragraph from an essay by the late science writer Lewis Thomas: