For a long time, psychologists have known that the way that individuals talk and write provides an accurate insight into their mental and emotional worlds. This has been confirmed by modern research via lots of movie review essay in particular that has shown that there is a direct correlation between the words people use and their health.
I wrote an article here, analyzing the writing of some of the Social Media greats. The article you are reading now looks further at some of the issues involved and announces a service for all writers.
Content and Process
The research has also thrown up something interesting: traditionally, attention was placed on “content” words, the adjectives, adverbs, nouns and regular verbs. It appears that the little “process” words, the articles, conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns are just as significant, perhaps because they are responsible for how something is expressed. Content words tell us what a person is saying.
You often hear people say, “It’s not what you say but how you say it that matters,” and this is reflected in the research. How something is expressed can give a strong indication of someone’s emotional and mental state. And because our reaction to the “how” is influenced by our cultural background, our own emotional and mental state and our own use of these words, use and interpretation of the process words requires speaking or writing skills and a degree of sensitivity.
