Be lively and unpredictable. How much fun is it listening to someone drone on and on using words that only he understands with a monotonous tone and rhythm? It's about as much fun as reading an essay that drones on and on that uses words only the writer understands and has a monotonous tone and rhythm. Having a good personality and strong voice in writing requires using

natural language, sensory details, action verbs, sentence variety, parallel structure, and varying sentence lengths.

Use figurative language. Remember all those lessons your teachers taught you about figurative language? You wondered what purpose they served. Using figurative language (metaphors, similes, analogies, personification) adds variety and personality to your writing. It allows you to explain the ordinary extraordinarily and the complex simply. Unlikely comparisons express originality and create reader interest. Avoid cliches.

Use humor appropriately. Humor appeals to the reader's intelligence, alleviates boredom, and reveals your human side. Note the difference between intelligent humor and insulting the reader's intelligence with long narrative jokes ending in a punch line. Intelligent humor consists of being playful, using puns, wit, irony, meiosis, and hyperbole.

Be sincere. Without genuineness your writing is superficial. Being sincere requires substance over style, taking a stand, and revealing your true self and your true thoughts. Connect with your reader. When revising, avoid the following symptoms of insincerity: overuse of the passive voice, the excessive use of verbs as nouns (recommendation, communication, etc), and unnecessary complex sentences.
from: Brighthub Education

| The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting“I like surprises. But the one Grandma and I are planning for Dad’s birthday is the best surprise of all.” | The Statement Lead

| My Father’s Hands by Joanne Ryder“My father’s hands are big and strong, scooping up earth and lifting a sack of seeds. Thin cracks run down my father’s fingers. Dirt fills every line and edges each nail black.” | The Physical Description Lead

| Dad and Me in the Morning by Patricia Lakin“My alarm clock flashed. I shut it off and quickly sat up!” | The Right-Into-The-Action Lead

| The Janitor’s Boy by Andrew Clements“Jack Rankin had a particularly sensitive nose. As he walked into school in the morning, sometimes he would pause and pull in a snoot-load of air from the flow rushing out the door.” | The One-Odd-Trait Character Description Lead

| No Talking by Andrew Clements“Dave Packer was in the middle of his fourth hour of not talking.” | The Huh? Now I’m Curious! Lead